Praise Him! Praise Him!
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I want to begin with a questions, are you thankful? If so what are you thankful for?
How many people are thankful they had a car to drive to church this morning? I know I would not want to walk the 7 miles or so to church this morning. If I didn’t have a car I would be attending the Clover Creek Church of the Brethren it’s about a half mile from my house. I am thankful for my computer and preaching software. I am thankful for my coffee pot and my hot shower.
In our thankfulness this morning, how many of us praised God for these blessings? If we should praise him for these temporal things, how much more for our spiritual blessings!
As we open our Bibles to Psalm 103 this morning, I pray that God will open our eyes to his greatness and give us a heart of praise.
I want to discuss several reasons this morning, why you should praise God.
First, you should praise God for what he has done. If you will look at verse 2, “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—.” You should praise him for what he has done for you!
Before we look at the benefits, let us first look at what it means to praise. According to the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery,
“A helpful signpost to understanding the praise psalm is knowing that the English word praise originally meant “to set a price on” or “to appraise.”
From this came the idea that to praise means to commend the worth of someone or something. The psalms of praise celebrate and revere the worthiness of God.”
So what has God done that deserves praise?
First, all good things in our life are from God. Let’s look at verse 5, “who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.” God has provided you with everything in your life that we count as a blessing. Recall from this morning, did you wake up in a house? Who provided that? God. Did it have hot water? Who provided that? God. God provided the builders of your home with the skill to build it and he is the one who provided the wood to build it. He gave you the ability and skill to earn the money to pay for it. This verse also states that he renews your strength like the eagle’s strength. He gave you the strength to get out of bed this morning. You opened our eyes this morning thanks to God’s grace and mercy. Praise The Lord?
That brings us to the second benefit, God protects us from death every day. Look at verse 4, “who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.” The pit is a metaphor or a symbol for the grave or death. We can thank God for everyday. Everyday he protects us from death as we travel in cars and planes. He got us all here this morning safely. Praise The Lord? Another way he protects us from death is divine healing. All healing is from God whether it is a miracle or medicine. Who gave the doctors their wisdom and ability? God! Who gave scientists the ability to make medications? God!
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come?
2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.
Everyday is a gift from God, so let us praise Him for that! Amen?
That brings us to our final benefit, God provides us with salvation.
Also look at verse 3
3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,
And verses 11 and 12,
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
Recall from Romans 3:23 all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, so we all have iniquities that need forgiven.
What is the penalty of those sins? According to Romans 6:23, the wages of sin is death!
That is why Jesus, the very Son of God, had to come. He lived the perfect life with out sin. Therefore, He could take your place on the cross where you deserved to die for your sins. The righteous for the unrighteous, the just for the unjust, that is the only way for God’s holy, righteous, wrath to be satisfied.
On the third day Jesus was raised from the dead to defeat death, which provides our eternal healing from all our iniquities. Praise the Lord!
I hope this story never gets old. I hope you never get tired of hearing it! And I hope it leads you to say thank you Jesus!
You should praise The Lord for who He is! Look with me at verse 1,
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
So what is in a name? What does it mean praise His Holy Name?
Holy means set apart right? That means there is no other name that even comes close to God’s name amen? What is in a name?
Our name is our reputation. It is who we are. We should praise the Lord for who he is, for His divine attributes.
Look with me at verse 8,
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
First, God is compassionate. Verse 13,” As a father has
compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.”
According to Merriam-Webster online dictionary, “compassion is a feeling of
wanting to help someone who is sick, hungry, or in trouble. Think about that for a
minute. If you have children you know exactly what David is saying in verse 13,” As
a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who
fear him.” As a parent, when you see you child in pain, hungry, sick, or injured, you
want nothing more than to relieve that suffering. I remember when my son
Matthias was born, several test kept coming back abnormal. In the first week of his life we had to take him to the hospital three or four times for blood work. We had to go for a sonogram and an ekg. As he laid there crying, I wanted nothing more than to relieve his pain and suffering, but I did not stop them why? I did not stop the nurses because it was for his long- term benefit. The doctors had to find out why the tests were coming back abnormal. Our Father in heaven has way more compassion on us then that. So as you go through suffering remember that your God loves you and has compassion on you like a father on his children. He is far more concerned about your eternal suffering than on your earthly suffering. Which leads to our second attribute, back to verse 8,
8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
God is gracious. So what is grace? According to Merriam-Webster, “grace is unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification.”
God will punish the wicked, but because He is gracious, He sent His Son. Remember, grace is unmerited, that is unearned, favor. You do not earn you salvation. Salvation is a free gift of God based on His gracious character. Look at verse 10,
10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
Remember from Romans 6:23? What does our sins deserve? Death, but because in His nature he is gracious, He sent His son to die for us.
The third attribute of God that we should praise from verse 8, He is slow to anger. That is so opposite of how I am in the flesh. As humans, we allow stress and pressure build till we explode sometimes. We react in anger or respond unkindly in our anger. Or maybe your a stuffer. You get mad and storm around refusing to talk to others. You that is sin too right? Or maybe your like me. I am a leaker, I get made and let this little barbed hurtful, snide comments leak out and hurt others. These are all ways we allow our anger to hurt others. But God is slow to anger.
A good example is with king David. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and killed her husband Uriah, according to the law both of these were punishable by death, but God did not repay David according to his sins, God was slow to anger and gave David an opportunity to repent. He sent the prophet Nathan to speak the truth to David, which lead to repentance.
Finally, God is abounding in love according to verse 8. I like how the ESV translates it, “abounding in steadfast love.”
I love that word steadfast! Steadfast means, “firmly fixed in place: IMMOVABLE.” That is awesome! God’s love for you is immovable. This also brings to mind Romans 8:38-39,
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
When you look around in our world, we see so much brokenness. People pledge their love in
marriage and them walk out on their spouse and children. People who are supposed to love us betray us and abuse us.
Not our God, his love is steadfast! Praise God for his steadfast love! You should praise God because he is the King. Let us look at verse 19,
19 The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.
God is our king! The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery describes king this way, “ There is scarcely a grander or more widespread image used in the Bible than king.
Impressive in physical appearance, honored and respected by his people, the king was the dispenser of protection, justice, and mercy and a symbol of power and authority.” God, as our king, is sovereign over all! Recall the end of verse 19, “he rules over all!” A major enemy you may be facing in your life right now, or will be some day, is worry. You maybe worried about the math test coming up this week. Or maybe you’re worried about a doctor’s appointment this week or the test results. Maybe your worried because your checkbook and your heating fuel tank are both empty at the same time. Maybe you are worried about the next presidential election or maybe your worried about the nuclear capabilities of Russia and will they use it? No matter what you are worried about, you can find rest and peace knowing that everything is under the rule and reign of Jesus Christ. Listen to Matthew 6:31-34 ,
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Remember that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God on his throne. Jesus is our
coming king. Let us look at Revelation 19:11-16
11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.
13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.
14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.
15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
This is the hope we look forward to amen? In the end we know who wins right?
The final reason you should praise God is because the rest of his creation praises him. Look at verses 20 – 22,
20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word!
21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will!
22 Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul!
The angels, heavenly hosts, and all his works praise him, therefore shouldn’t you? How does all his works praise him? Psalm 148:3-6,
3 Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars!
4 Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens!
5 Let them praise the name of the Lord! For he commanded and they were created.
6 And he established them forever and ever; he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away.
How do they praise? They obey his voice. Do you remember the speech growing up about peer pressure? Did your mom ever say to you,” now if Billy jumped off a cliff would you?” Praising God is the exception to the rule! Everything else in creation praises God, why won’t you?
We read in Isaiah 6:1-3
1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
The angels and other heavenly hosts sing God’s praises shouldn’t we? Praise the Lord for he is worthy of praise from all his creation.
In closing, I want to challenge you to praise God. You can praise him for what he has done for you or you can praise him because of who he is, praise his Holy Name!
Or you can praise him because he is the King of the Universe! Or you can praise him because all of creation praises him.
I want to praise God first and foremost, for Jesus and the salvation that he provided through his death and resurrection. I want to thank him for my wife and my 5 beautiful children. I also want to praise him for my job and the material blessings he has provided. I want to praise him for being compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. I want to praise him for being the King of the universe. Finally, I want to praise Him along with the rest of creation.
If you are an over achiever and love doing extra credit, I want to challenge you to write your praises down in a journal everyday. Let us pray,
“ Dear Heavenly Father,
we thank you for your word. We especially thank you this morning for Psalm 103 and the reminder to us to praise you for what you have done in our lives, for who you are, because you are our King, and because all of your creation praises your Holy Name. For your Son’s honor and glory we pray. Amen!”