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Praise

Psalm 117: 1 O praise the LORD, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people. 2 For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD. [1]

I.   Publicly

     A. Regions

     B. Races

II. Providentially

     A. Strength

     B. Stability

III. Personally

     A. Sacramentally

     B. Secretly

 

 


 

Introduction:  Today we are remembering Old Fashioned Day here at Merry Oaks Baptist Church.  It is a day of remembering the past and that is a good thing.  This Thursday in our country we will celebrate and commemorate a day that was set aside by many forefathers throughout the history of the United States of America.  This is what Wikipedia has to say about Thanksgiving.

“Thanksgiving is a federal holiday in the United States, celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.[1] It originated as a harvest festival. Thanksgiving has been celebrated nationally on and off since 1789, with a proclamation by George Washington after a request by Congress.[2] Thomas Jefferson chose not to observe the holiday, and its celebration was intermittent until the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, when Thanksgiving became a federal holiday in 1863, during the American Civil War. Lincoln proclaimed a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens," to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November.[3] [4] Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the date was changed between 1939 and 1941 amid significant controversy. From 1942 onwards, Thanksgiving has been proclaimed by Congress as being on the fourth Thursday in November.[5] Thanksgiving is regarded as being the beginning of the fall–winter holiday season, along with Christmas and the New Year, in American culture.”

I’ll add my two cents worth in my amazement to learn that four different presidents argued about the day and the way that we as a nation choose to praise God on a special day.  It seems that if we should all be in agreement about anything, it should certainly be about how we choose to give thanks to God, but even today that seems to be the thing that we are most divided about.  I was even more amazed to learn that it was congress that had to finally intervene and end the discussion as they were the ones able to come together and decide something.

 

Scripture:  Today our focus is on the shortest chapter in the Bible and the center chapter of the Bible in this King James Version.  There is much in these two short verses.  The scripture is Psalm 117.  When you have found it please rise to your feet for the reading of God’s written word.

Prayer: Please be seated

Message:  Praise the LORD.  In the KJV all four letters of the word LORD are capitalized.  Three times in this short psalm the word LORD is proclaimed and every time it is four capital letters.  As we have discussed many times, the number three is significant in Hebrew.  Triune God or Trinity is Who we know to be our LORD.  God is not one person but three.  He is too big to be contained in a single person yet He is the One and Only God.

The next thing to notice is that the public should be together in their praise of God.  It says that the entire world regardless of nations should praise the LORD.  Each region of the geographic world that is divided by seas or other types of borders should come together as if there were no divisions.  The entire world should be united in thanking God. 

Also all people groups, all races, we should come together to give praise to God.  There should not be some who worship one made up idea of whom their god is while others fight them and even kill infidels insisting that their god is better than your god.  There is only one God.  He has a Son.  His Son is Jesus.  Jesus was in heaven in His divine form before He came here for a short while in His human form and now He is back in His divine form beside His Heavenly Father.  All three Persons of the Godhead were in perfect accord to decide that The Holy Spirit would be here with us and enable us to do the perfect will of God until Jesus returns to take us home.  That is the one and only God.  We did not dream Him up.  He thought and we are.

All divided nations and all divided people groups will one day bow down and worship but for many it will be too late.  The author of this Psalm told us the one and only thing that can and will unite us.  PRAISE GOD!

Praise the LORD for what then?  As we think of the LORD, usually we think of His strength.  Elijah had seen God defeat the prophets of Baal and then he saw God restore the rain after a long drought.  Elijah had prophesied that both events would happen.  You would think Elijah would have enough proof of God’s strength that he would never question Him again.

Jezebel threatened Elijah and he lost faith.  God sent him to a place where he would find food and then Elijah put himself in solitary confinement.  In that cave, Elijah wanted God to show up and God did show up.  When God showed up, this is what happened:

1 Kings 19: “11 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: 12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. 13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? [2]

We hear about the greatness of God and we understand strength to be that mighty thing that can crush you.  This Psalm says something that Elijah finally learned there in that cave.  God’s merciful kindness is great toward us.  It is in God’s mercy; that is where we truly find God’s strength.  We men don’t like that so much do we?  If we are honest with each other, do we find strength in merciful kindness?

If somebody messes with me or mine they’re gonna get what I give and they won’t like it.  And they won’t call it mercy. That’s really what Jonah wanted.  He didn’t want to go to Nineveh to show God’s merciful kindness.  He wanted God to kill them all.  Thanksgiving?  What do you want God to find you praising Him for this week?  On this Old Fashioned Day as we remember, remember what we should truly praise God for; his greatest provision of mercy.

That’s the first part of our praise but the Psalmist didn’t stop there; we must praise the LORD for His truth that He alone provides.  That truth is the only truth and therefore it will always be the truth.  The truth of the LORD endureth for ever.

We live in a time when what we remember as God’s truth is being threatened especially by some who preach.  What are they preaching?  The Truth of The LORD endureth forever.  This book has lived through the ages and it is still the Living Word of God.  It will never change because the truth cannot become a lie.  It is the only stability that we can stand on as all other ground is sinking sand.  Let us praise God for His truth that endureth forever.

So in this small Psalm, we have found that we should be brave in our public profession of praise for THE LORD.  We should let everyone know that THE LORD is great because His mercy is great.  Though some will certainly know His wrath, His strength is not shown in His wrath as much as in His kindness toward us.  Otherwise there would be no us.  We should not be silent in praising God for His never changing truth.  The Bible should not be something that we allow others to take away from our children.  God did not give it to us because He is an overbearing god that is unapproachable.  God continues to give us His truth because of His merciful, loving kindness toward us and that truth lives on and will never be unstable.

Pay close attention to the last little sentence.  Praise ye the LORD.  You praise Him.  Personally! In everything you do and say and in every act acknowledge your praise for THE LORD.  Praise ye the LORD!  We do that when we come for baptism following Jesus as He was immersed in the river by his distant cousin who prepared the way for Him.  We do it when we come together and observe the LORD’s supper which we call communion.  In that we remember the evening as Jesus was preparing to take our sin on that cruel cross.  The disciples came together with their LORD and sacramentally took that which represented His blood, His flesh.  They took that into themselves and today we sacramentally observe that very personal thing even as we are together as His bride the church. 

Let’s not forget another sacramental act that He established for us.  When He directs our path so that we find the one spouse to spend a lifetime with, we declare our vows to God and each other that only death will separate us.  Marriage is another sacramental act of praise to Him and it shows Christ uniting Himself with His bride, His church forever. 

When we come to this altar and fall on our knees at the end of a service to rededicate our lives to praising Him, though there may be others watching, there is nothing more personal than being on your knees in penitent prayer before the LORD whom you praise.

So we worship, we praise God personally by the actions we accomplish but we also praise God in those moments when nobody else is around.  Only you with the LORD!  There alone in secret with the One who created you.  There alone with the One who gave His Son so that you now have the only way to save the relationship that you had lost with Him.  There alone with the One who sustains you through whatever you might come across.  Wherever you are you are there with THE LORD.

Prayer:

Invitation: We are about to leave here and go out to that place called the community building or fellowship hall.  Before we go to feed these bodies I invite you to take these last few minutes to truly give thanks, give praise to the LORD.

Are you hungry?  I am!  I’m hungry for the nourishment that enriches the soul.  I am hungry to sup at the LORD’s Table.  I appreciate the hard work and preparation that everyone has accomplished for the meal we are about to receive.  We have time to eat all that food that has been prepared and we are about to give thanks for that.  We’ll stay and enjoy talking about the old days as long as we want to, but if you feel the need to fall on your knees and give Him a small portion of the thanks He deserves, don’t let this moment pass.

Consider as we sing…



[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version. (1995). (electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version., Ps 117:1–2). Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[2] ibid., 1 Ki 19:11–13