Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSpYz-Y6gq4
Prayer: Oh Lord your love is too big for us to really grasph. Our needs are so great and sometimes the cares of life invite us to “forget what we know”. Help each of us to set the things on our hearts at your feet and simply “be” with your during this time.
We ask in Jesus name amen.
Opening: Most of us know that our beloved Shadowlou is very ill and fighting for her life. We also know that if she loses this earthly battle her true life in heaven with Jesus will begin.
When someone we love dies, when someone we care about decides to no longer be part of our life, when something we need breaks or is stolen and we have no resources to replace it,
when our own health fails, our memory fails, or whenever any of the trials of life beset us what are we to do?
We know the answer I bet we do. But then how on earth do we do that? Can we really praise God when our hearts are breaking? When we are in desperate need of various sorts?
Then we wonder WHY are to do that?
Let’s discover in the Word what God has taught us about praise during hard seasons.
We will begin by remembering the song we just heard.
I love the song we listened to. It is an old hymn. Many of our churches no longer sing the old hymns but there is great truth and heart drawing beauty in them. The words draw our hearts to God and express Biblical truth. I love the modern worship music too but my heart enjoys a blend of both. Maybe yours does too.
The words to that hymn gave me the idea for our study tonight. Let’s read the lyrics together:
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty,
the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy
health and salvation!
All ye who hear,
Now to His temple draw near;
Sing now in glad adoration!
Praise to the Lord, who o’er all
things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings
yes so gently sustaineth.
Hast thou not seen
How thy longings all have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?
Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper
thy work and defend thee,
Surely His goodness and mercy
shall daily attend thee
Ponder anew
What the Almighty can do,
If with His love doth befriend thee.
Praise to the Lord! Oh, let all that
is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come
now with praises before Him!
Let the Amen
Sound from His people again;
Gladly for aye we adore Him.
Next we are going to contemplate the words of the hymn then we are going to look at scripture that documents the validity of it.
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty,
the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy
health and salvation!
All ye who hear,
Now to His temple draw near;
Sing now in glad adoration!
We know we are commanded to Praise the LORD. It is HOW we enter into His Presence and who here tonight wants a life devoid of His Presence?
I sure don’t I want to live my life FULL of awareness of God With Me, Emmanuel.
Psalm 100:4 is the reference and invitation. ESV Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!
NLT Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name.
Into His courts means the inner place where the King (of Kings) literally dwells. In the natural imagine a royal king and his palace. We enter the gates when the guards allow us entry. Then way further inside the palace is the place where the king sits on his throne.
In Christ, we enter the gates of the Holy place of communion with him. Then to meet with Jesus in an even deeper way we begin to praise.
God surely is our health/Healer and our Salvation. We know this. Another time this is alluded to is 1 Thessalonians 5:18 which says, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
And in Philippians 4:6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
NLT Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
Isn’t that a grand way to say it in the NLT? Don’t worry about anything. Pray about EVERYthing. Tell God what you need. And THANK Him for ALL He has done. I don’t really like the “tell God” way of saying it as much as “let your requests be made known to God” because one sounds more respectful to me.
We all have things that could lead us into “worry” and “fretting” I bet. Instead of being trapped there, we are instructed to simply talk to God. Tell him what we need. (Remember mainly our needs are food, shelter, water, love and a place to belong. All the other stuff is wants.) Thank him for what he already given us. Praise him for Who He is and I am pretty sure our focus will change.
Verse 2 said: Praise to the Lord, who o’er all
things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings
yes so gently sustaineth.
Hast thou not seen
How thy longings all have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?
Don’t you LOVE the picture of being sheltered under His wings? How about the thought that we are sustained by/in His love for us?
Psalm 91 is a GREAT Psalm to meditate on. It begins like this:
1He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
2I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
3For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
4He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
5You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
6nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
We can’t dwell where we have never been. Remember how we enter his gates and his inner courts?
You got it, thanksgiving and praise.
Don’t these verses from Psalm 91 give credence to the second stanza of that old hymn? I wonder if the writer (a German man way back in the 1600s) was thinking of both his need and the Lord’s provision as found in Scripture?
All of Psalm 91 is awesome but the very last portion is one of those if/then promises.
14“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
I will protect him, because he knows my name.
15When he calls to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
16With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”
Do you see it? Our job is to HOLD FAST to God in LOVE. And God’s job is to protect, deliver, answer, be with, rescue and honor us and also show us our/his Salvation.
The next stanza pretty much reminds us of the same truths.
Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper
thy work and defend thee,
Surely His goodness and mercy
shall daily attend thee
Ponder anew
What the Almighty can do,
If with His love doth befriend thee.
Is God your friend? Are you His friend? Do you remember that modern song, “I Am A Friend of God”? The first time I heard it, I was like…hmmm I can’t sing that. But then I checked it out. Jesus said we ARE his friends.
He was speaking to his disciples but when we are born again we become his disciples too. John 15:15 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
So yes, you and I ARE a friend of God Himself. Wow! Right?
And it also says in that verse, “Surely His goodness and mercy shall daily attend thee”. Do you recognize the source of that? Psalm 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life, and… what?
I will dwell IN the HOUSE of the LORD forever.
Some people believe that the reference to “goodness and mercy” refers to guardian angels. Personally I am not at all sure of that but God does protect us and guide and show us goodness and mercy, in the land of the living too not just at death.
Actually Psalm 23 affirms the lyrics of this entire song as well.
The last stanza is kind of like us responding back to the wonder of all God does for us.
Praise to the Lord! Oh, let all that
is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come
now with praises before Him!
Let the Amen
Sound from His people again;
Gladly for aye we adore Him.
It is a call to join our hearts with His. To reach to Him with our thanksgiving and praise. To pause and simply “be” with and REST in the Wonder of Who He Is.
Zephaniah 3:17 says: The Lord your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
Let’s pray: Oh God the wonder of you singing over each of us is more than our hearts can really comprehend. Help us Lord, in the good times and the hard times to pause and simply “be” with you. Help us to listen for your love. To sing our love songs back to you. We bless you and thank you Lord Jesus for loving us and taking care of us from the day we were conceived until the day we enter into glory. In Jesus name amen