Sing Praise To His Holy Name

³² Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth,
sing praise to the Lord,
³³ to him who rides across the highest heavens, the ancient heavens,
who thunders with mighty voice.
³⁴ Proclaim the power of God,
whose majesty is over Israel,
whose power is in the heavens.
³⁵ You, God, are awesome in your sanctuary;
the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people.

Praise be to God!

Sing a Song

Has your cup been filled with joy?  Has the Almighty fulfilled your needs?  Has He shown His sovereignty and vanquished your enemies?  Sing praise to the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!  God loves to hear our praise and worship.  He enjoys seeing us in worshipful adoration of Him, for He is worthy of all praise and glory and honor.  Let us remember to give to God that which He is owed.  Let our hearts be filled with contentment, and may that manifest itself in the form of worship and singing.

Glorify God

We must glorify God as His witnesses.  If we do not, surely the rocks and stones will cry out in praise to God and glorify His name.  We have been created to worship.  Let us remember our callings and bring to God that which He and He alone truly deserves.  We spend so much time petitioning God for what we need and desire that we sometimes fail to remember to praise and glorify His name.  The  provision of God becomes our focus rather than the Glorious One who has graciously provided for our needs.  To forget God after He has provided is to almost take Him for granted.  Let us make sure that the One who has died for our sins is magnified and glorified.

Proclaim His Power

When we proclaim the power of God to the world, He is uplifted before men so that they will hear of His great and mighty deeds.  How else will the lost know about God unless we tell them?  God has seen fit to make some exceptions to reach people beyond the reach of our voice, especially in areas that are heavily influenced and dominated by Islam.  God has seen fit to reveal Himself to them in their dreams and through visions.

This is both a recrimination towards His disciples who won’t face death to proclaim His name, as well as to show us that God is very interested in bringing knowledge of Himself to them, just as He did with Nineveh.  He revealed Himself through the prophet Jonah to a people who could not tell their right hand from their left.  His words, not mine.  God is revealing Himself in a display of mighty power and compassion, mercy, and grace, to a people who have dedicated their lives to the eradication of  His children.  Just like He did with Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul.

Praise your Provider

Our hearts should reach out in praise to our provider and savior.  It is the hallmark characteristic of a person who is grateful and content.  In Western Culture, it is difficult for us to acknowledge that we would need the assistance of anyone else to help us.  We are taught by culture that to seek help is a sign of weakness.  This is then exploited by the weak to overpower the strong – displaying the absolute need each and every one of us has for our savior’s help in order to discredit us for our failure to be the rugged individualists and self-sufficient people that our culture demands us to be.

The truly grateful person will ignore the call of culture to show gratitude for the one who provides assistance to You.  This attitude of the heart – the desire to praise God – is one that all of the Old Testament heroes of the faith displayed in the private and public lives.  Let us emulate them and praise God for all that He has done and is doing.  Remember – the story isn’t over yet.  And once we get to Heaven and we are in His presence for all eternity, we will have the wonderful opportunity to do what we have practiced here on Earth through trial and joyous times – praising the One who lifted our heads out of the mire, washed us off, and called us His own.  May all praise and honor and glory and power and dominion and strength be unto the Lord God Almighty!

A Qualifying Question

Let’s ask a question:  Am I praising God the way that He deserves?

A short prayer of preparation:

Father in Heaven, You have shown me in Your word just how much You love me, in that Your Son Jesus Christ died for me while I was yet a sinner.  Give me a heart of gratitude that I may worship You as You deserve, and praise Your holy name in private and public, that all may know of Your righteousness, compassion, mercy, grace, justice and holiness.  Help me in my time of struggle to lift You up with songs and prayer.  Guard my heart against any root of bitterness that tries to take hold in the grievous trials that I endure.  Keep my eyes fixed upon You, that Your glory and peace would calm my heart, and that I would praise and worship You continually.  This I ask in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Want more?  Why not try A. B. Simpson or A. W. Tozer?