1. Because of Who He is. Psalm 149:1
- a. He is Lord, the ultimate authority.
b. He is the highest power.
c. He is the King of all kings, He is the Lord of all lords.
d. Genesis 1:1 He was before all things, so He is greater than all things. Psalm 48:1, 96:4
- a. Our desire should be to praise and glorify God.
b. To worship God's Son.
c. All God's people desire to praise God.
- a. Not a suggestion, but a command.
b. God commands, the Holy Spirit urges. Do we respond?
c. Remember, it is a command.
- a. One who saves, heals, delivers, forgives and gives good things.
- a. When we cry out in despair, He has compassion.
b. He sends His Word to heal
c. Our duty then is to praise Him and offer for ourselves the 'sacrifice of praise to God'.
- a. l Chronicles 29:10-13
b. David's praise and thanksgiving before he died.
1. Of God's greatness, God's majesty.
2. The sovereignty of God.
- a. Read all of Psalm 92.
b. Psalm 147:1 "pleasant and fitting to praise Him"
- a. Samuel 22:4 [2-4) David's song of thanksgiving for God's powerful deliverance.
b. Because God was his Shield, his Rock, his Fortress and Deliverer.
c. Psalm 18:3 - is to resist the enemy.
- a. 1 Chronicles 16:8-10
- a. Comely = means proper, right, fitting, appropriate, becoming, suitable.
b. Let it not be said here, "that praise is unseemly and improper
c. Some may think it is undignified.
d. Some still want to be dignified, the proper Christian attitude.
e. The Bible projects an opposite view on praise.
f. The 'garment of praise' is very appropriate.
g. Rejoicing in God and praising the Lord is suitable and proper for the child of God.
h. Much better to praise God than to please men.
- a. "God dwells in the praises of His people."
b. If our heart is filled with praise, it is also filled with God, for He inhabits our praise.
c. Our church, our home, is filled with praise, then our house, church is filled with God's presence.
d. We can surround ourselves with God's presence by cultivating the attitude of praise.
e. This way we become more aware of HIS presence than the problems, difficulties and adverse circumstances around us.
- a. The man who praises God has the Lord for his strength.
b. He knows the 'joy of the Lord' through praise.
c. "The joy of the Lord is his strength". Nehemiah 8:10
- a. "The praising soul delights himself in the Lord, and God gives him the desires if his heart."
b. "Be delighted with the Lord, then He will give you all your heart's desires.
c. NOTE = People say, "If God would do this or that, I would praise Him.
1. The divine order is reverse to that, praise Him first!
d. We praise Him, and delight in Him. and then He gives us the desires of our heart.
e. God puts 'Holy Desires' in the praising heart.
1. That way we have the 'right desires'.
2. Then in our praise we have the "desires of our heart."
- a. Jehoshaphat led God's people to victory through praise.
b. He set Praisers in front of the army.
1. Think of going into battle with the choir out front.
c. Victory was won.
d. Why? Because: "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, They are strong to the pulling down of strongholds. 2 Corinthians 10:4
