Why We Ought To Praise God

King James Version (Psalm 103)

King James Version Psalm 103

1  Bless the LORD, O my soul:

And all that is within me, bless his holy name.

2  Bless the LORD, O my soul,

And forget not all his benefits:

3  Who dforgiveth all thine iniquities;

Who ehealeth all thy diseases;

4  Who redeemeth thy life from destruction;

Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

5  Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things;

So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

David Livingstone may be a missionary who was most popular as apostle Paul of record in history. He was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, and pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, In 1866 he made his journey into the jungles of Africa; as a matter of fact there is where he took the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ ; and at that moment he had went into the Woods as if as though he had gotten lost & nobody could find him, they didn’t know where he was. In 1871 he came into view. He looked so poor and frail. Someone who saw him said if you just will ‘HOLD ON”!! I’ll make sure that you get help and support. So a year had passed.......in 1872 help and support would come to Livingstone and upon receiving it he simply BLURTED OUT THESE WORDS!! “BLESS THE LORD, O my soul, And all that’s within me, bless his holy name.

There is another name which may not mean anything to us.... Robert Sanders who served in the British civil war. He was a Christian. He would be in prison and everything would be taken from him. He had learn to memorize scripture and every morning he would try to recite a PSALM; and of all the psalms he would continue to recite, the one that would always Claim his attention was psalm 103. In his prison cell he would say.....Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. This psalm has claimed attention of many and for many. It’s words are in the Old Testament, and it’s music, is in the New Testament. What the sermon on the mount was the preaching of Jesus, this psalm seems to be for the Hebrew pilgrims mainly David and others that would pray and recite it. ‘I will bless the Lord at all times, and his praises would continually be in his mouth. This is what he really meant when he says “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. What caused him to say what he said and why did he say what he said. That’s what I really want to focus in for the next 5 or 6 minutes. It’s just simply to say a WORD OF... WHY WE OUGHT TO PRAISE GOD. When we open the book it’s right their in your face. BLESS THE LORD. It’s not an option, it’s a COMMAND; PRAISE THE LORD; Some of us have to be forced or PRIMED to Praise the Lord. It’s almost like when you have a gas tool that you use in the yard, before you pull the T-handled cord, it must be Primed in order for it to run. Praising , Yes it should be something that you do, but it’s not our Natural Instinct to Praise God. Our natural instinct is to do what PSALM 102 talks about.......to complain, curse, and be angry. So you have to train your mind, your heart, and your soul to say to yourself what our psalmist DAVID is really doing. He’s talking to himself. It’s that you have to say to yourself........Bless the Lord. In fact this is something that we should do everyday for the rest of our life. Under every circumstance, say to yourself I WILL BLESS THE LORD. Notice now when he says I will bless the Lord, O my soul; He says ...It’s Personal. Of all of my innermost being. I will praise his holy name. He says to himself I will Praise God, I will come to New St. James, for those for you whose viewing us online; I will tune in to New St. James. You won’t need (Pastor Warren) to tell me how to Praise the Lord. In fact I’m going to join in with him because as he praise God, I’m going to praise God along with him. When I consider ALL WHAT GOD HAS DONE FOR ME, MY SOUL SAYS HALLELUJAH.....

Ok I’m really through with the sermon now. I’m just going to encourage you along the way, but very seriously we are always waiting on somebody to stir us up, and somebody to motivate us. Right here the psalmist says” Bless the Lord, O my soul and all that’s within me!!!! That’s all of the substance, the intellect; Everything that’s in me; this is the totality of my being, this is my ego saying to my consciousness that you have reason to Thank God, To Praise God, In fact if you don’t think that you have reason TO PRAISE GOD you may have forgotten the BENEFITS!!! Is there any body here or on social media know that there are BENEFITS TO PRAISING GOD!!!

Benefits is the noun that corresponds to the fervent phrase in Psalm 13:6, ‘he has dealt bountifully with me’. The fact that to forget such things may have a deeper and subtler cause than absent-mindedness is brought out in the Chronicler’s comment on Hezekiah, who ‘did not make return according to the benefit done to him, for his heart was proud’ (2 Chr. 32:25). A similar point is made in Deuteronomy 8:12–14.

But when you remember what God has done for you, you don’t need anybody to stir you up & motivate you. You just start THINKING about what God has done for YOU, in fact lets just take a moment, now this is not Play time, this is Serious Time. I would like for you to just take a moment to just start THINKING OF SOME THINGS THAT YOU CONSCIOUSLY KNOW THAT GOD HAS DONE, & THAT IF GOD DID NOT DO IT, IT WOULD NOT HAVE GOTTEN DONE. AND THEN I WANT YOU TO BLESS HIS NAME!!! Don’t worry about the person that’s sitting next to you or around you while you’re in New St. James or on Social Media just Bless His Name.

So we don’t want to forget His BENEFITS. That’s one of the things that people are concerned about now; They are worried about amnesia & Alzheimer, and dementia. The ability to recall their own autobiography. Some people are taking a certain kind of pill or vitamin to help their memory. Sometimes you have to take a pen and a sheet of paper and just write yourself some notes. Some of who does everything on your phone just pull a BLANK DOCUMENT AND LET THE SUBJECT BE “THE BENEFITS GOD HAS DONE FOR YOU”. This will keep you from having CHEAP PRAISE. Cheap praise is praise where you only get Happy when you’ve got stuff. For an example some people are not happy because they did not get the job they wanted, the car they wanted, the house, or the clothes, or the jewelry. All these things that I’ve just mentioned and more.......can be burned, repossessed, stolen. You need some benefits that you can’t buy over the counter; you need some things that only God can give to you. So let me give you some benefits that God has given to you. So that every time when you come to a new St. James , Or at home or in your car and people will ask you why are you so happy., and why do you get excited about this God of yours. Think about the benefits!! They are a little different but they are benefits… let me give you about six of them and I’m a just stop right there. Some benefits that God gives to you in verse (2) you notice that he repeats himself bless the Lord O my soul; ….forgetting the benefits so what are they? he gives a list and pictures of the benefits that you are to remember all of the time. One benefit is that he takes you to the Court Room, and in the court room ,he says that he forgives your sins. In the court room you know that you are guilty ,you know that you deserve life without getting parole; that you know that you even deserve the electric chair. Yet now God has given you a benefit the Primary Benefit. In the Court room he forgives you of all of your sins. Some of your translations says iniquities. That is something that is bent or crooked inside of you. God has straightened it out. Or there is something bent or crooked inside of you but God does not hold it against you. Better than that the Catholic theologian Honze Koom said that God can write straight on a crooked line. I like that that God can write straight on a cricket line because you don’t know all the reasons, you can’t even explain all of the reasons that God has been good to you God is just good!! Forget not his benefits he has forgiven you of your sins. Do you know what forgiveness is? I am glad that you asked….. God has given you a blank sheet of paper; isn’t that something God has not given you a chapter or a book of errors that need a to be edited or corrected, of your past. He has dismissed that. He has given you a blank sheet of paper so you can write a new chapterTo your life; not only he has forgiven it but he has forgotten it!! To be honest with you they are some of us who can’t shout praise God because we haven’t let go of the past so we can move forward. Because we keep going back digging up garbage that God has already thrown away. Leave it alone , leave it there. Write a new chapter of your life!! Benefit number one you have been forgiven now that’s enough to run around the block about. Can I get a amen!! Benefit number two he heals you have your diseases!! He moves from the court room to the hospital Room. Everyone of us need to come to the hospital; The hospital is well sick folk come, The hospital is where people are broke and bent, and hurt and bruised. That’s where they come. Stop looking for healthy people to come to church: that’s when church gets real boring its will you want everybody to come self righteousness like you. No the hospital is for sick people , broke people distorted people. at the hospital God is able to heal them Of their diseases!! Wait now sometimes he heals immediately. This is David praying, do you remember in second Samuel and 12: he is talking to Nathan , And that God forgives his sins immediately. But then there are times like in Romans eight & 23 where God heals but it’s in a process. Ultimately God will deliver All of us. So you need something to shout about!! Shout about that you have a hospital to come to. And it’s a place filled with sick folks in fact look opposite of where you are …… if no one’s sitting next to , LOOK IN A MIRROR!!! Court Room, Hospital Room…… now then down at the slave quarters: and access who redeems the life from destruction. This is a picture of what God does for us; those who been a slave for the devil for so long , right here God gives us a way OUT. We have a God in Jesus Christ. On the cross got down into the pit with us, and lifted us out of that pit, and paid the ransom price, so that we could be here today. Jesus paid it all, and All of Him I owe; Sin has left a Crimson stain, I Thank God that He Washed it whiter than snow. By the way Im watching you , you waiting on something to shout about. If you can’t shout over redemption , it’s probably because you ain’t no Christian. It don’t get no better than your sins have been forgiven.Jesus paid the price so that you may have access to God the Father. I’m through with the sermon now; OK let me give you one more let’s go to the throne room!! Now he will put crowns on your head ; Of love and compassion. The happiest days you ever spent are those in which you worshipped God most. But then they were not merely happy because they were self-denying and adoring, but because they were practical. They took off their crowns and laid them before the throne. (C. H. Spurgeon.) And our joy on earth must lie in practically carrying out our principles. Cast your ability to do and to suffer, as well as the crown of your labour and patience, at the foot of your God; serve Him with all your heart and wisdom and strength, and thus, your self-denial and adoration being mixed therewith, you shall realise on earth as much as possible a foretaste of what the joy of heaven may be. Now let’s come to the Banquet Room . Let’s look at verse 5 . Who satisfieth thy desires with all good things…. In other words God gives you everything that you need, and everything that you don’t need.Let me say it one more time God gives you everything that you need and stuff that you didn’t ask for. He’s a God of Abundance . Let me say it like this…. God has given you Surplus., every time he has given you something. Ephesians 3:20 “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,”

Proverbs 3:9-10

Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

Amen ......There are benefits!!!

The reason that God does it is because he is abundant with love. sometimes you don’t have to ask God for certain things because he already knows what you need. Because of that on your own without any coercion from anybody jus say I WILL BLESS THE LORD!! Ooooo MY SOUL!! I’m done now! That’s all that I have!!! But he had one more stop! and that’s at the Eagles Nest. Do you see what he says? When you bless me, i’ll take you some places. And when you forget what you should be shouting about; just remember the court room , I have blotted out your transgressions; Remember the hospital, I have forgiven you of all of your sicknesses; Stop on by the throne room, I’ve put a crown on your head. Stop by the banquet room, remember I’ve given you aboundance. He said remember all of that .I wanna take you somewhere else . Go by the eagles nest. David says that God will renew you like an eagle. they must’ve seen these old eagles bouncing around , not able to soar like they use to

Isaiah 40:31