January 26, 2022

Tonight we are looking at psalms of praise. You will enjoy learning what it means to praise God. Praise is not a feeling. It is a declaration. You praise God no matter how you feel. You declare that glory of God in both the good and the bad. Enjoy this study in the greatness and goodness of God. Learn how to declare God's praise like the Bible says you should.
 
Pastor Mike
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WEDNESDAY NIGHT BIBLE STUDY
The Psalms
“Book 1 – Hymns of Praise and Adoration”
Psalms 1 through 41
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Character of a Hebrew Psalm
 
One of the first lessons you learn when reading the Psalms is that Old Testament poetry is not like modern poetry. The verses do not rhyme. There is not necessarily a cadence or a beat present in the verses like modern songs are sung. You recognize Hebrew poetry by the repetition of thought. For instance, in Psalm 23, which is probably most people’s favorite psalm, the writer says:

The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want.

 
Then the psalmist repeats the same thought by answering why the Lord is His shepherd who meets all his wants:
 

He makes me lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside still waters.

 
For an exercise, look at Psalm 8 one of my favorites. Say out loud the first two lines of the psalm:
 

O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is your name in all the earth…

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Now that’s a bold statement by any standard. Now then, answer the statement by saying out loud how the Lord has established His majestic name:
 

Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!
From the mouth of infants and nursing babies
You have Established strength
Because of Your adversaries
To make the enemy and the
Revengeful cease.

 
All a person has to do to see the majesty of the Lord is look up into the heavens and see the splendor of the sky. Then look into the eyes of a baby and be melted into loving submission.
 
Have you ever heard a grown man full of fire and fury talk baby talk?
 
When the proud and the powerful yield themselves to an infant’s goo’s and ga-ga’s, you know that the majesty of God has taken over. In this way, psalmist using the genius of Hebrew poetry explains the majesty of God through the example of a new-born baby.
 
Now that we have talked about the nature of Hebrew poetry, we will look at the first book of The Psalms entitled, “Hymns of Praise and Adoration.” The first 41 psalms belong in this book.  Praise occupies the largest section of all the books in Psalms. Twenty-six psalms belong in the category that calls for God to be praised because of His nature, attributes and deeds:
 

8                      100                  115                  146
19                    103                  117                  147
24                    104                  134                  148
29                    105                  135                  149
33                    111                  136                  150
65                    113                  139
68                    114                  145

 
You might want to read a few these to get a feel for the nature of Hebrew poetry and also to understand the priority God has placed on praise in our lives. It is significant that the last 6 psalms offer praise to God because of who He is. He deserves praise because He is God. The psalms end its reflection on the nature of God with 6 songs dedicated only to His praise. Let’s look at the very last psalm, Psalm 150
 
This psalm is a Doxology of Praise. It begins with a call to praise, “Praise the Lord!  Praise the Lord in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty expanse” (verse 1).
 
The word “PRAISE” here means to “BOAST” or to “BRAG” on God. Make God the subject of your highest esteem. Put God’s name, His nature, and His character above all other things. Put God on your pedestal. You are to praise God at church (in His sanctuary) and everywhere you go (in His mighty expanse) as well. Brag on God everywhere and all the time.
 
Can you imagine standing in the tax office singing songs of praise to God?
Have you ever praised God if front of someone you do not know?
 
When something bad happens, do you say, “Well, Praise God!”?
 
Don’t be shy. Don’t feel embarrassed. Even though people don’t expect to hear praise, God does. When you praise, you are doing exactly what God wants you to do.
 
Why do we “BRAG” on God?
 
Verse 2, answers the question: “Praise Him for His mighty deeds; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.” The answer to why praising God is the right thing to do is that He deserves it. He is “MIGHTY” which puts God into a category above all others. He is mighty in valor and strength. God has no equal. Then, God is “EXCELLENT.” That means He is “GREAT” or “LARGE.” You can say that God is BIGGER AND BETTER than anything or anybody. He is an XXL when it comes to the magnitude of His goodness and greatness. In God’s presence, everything else shrinks into insignificance. We praise God because as the apostle Paul says, “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21). We praise God because His greatness simply blows our minds.
 
Listen to the list of instruments we are to use when we praise God:
 
Trumpets (verse 3)
Harps (verse 3)
Lyres (verse 3)
Timbrels (verse 4)
Stringed Instruments (4)
Pipes (verse 4)
Loud Cymbals (verse 5)
 
This is the largest list of musical instruments given in the whole Old Testament. We had a saying when I was playing piano, trumpet, and violin in my younger days: “Pull Out All the Stops!” What that meant was in reference to a mighty pipe organ that was constructed with multitudes of pipes that were capable of duplicating the sounds of all the instruments in the orchestra. When you pulled out a stop, the organ would play the sound of that particular instrument. Pulling out all of the stops of the pipe organ made it loud, but it also included every sound from every instrument all at once that the organ was capable of making. When the psalmist listed all these instruments, he was saying “Praise God with everything all at once.” Hold nothing back, “PULL OUT ALL THE STOPS”, and give God all the praise you’ve got.
 
Then, he just comes out and says it plainly so even people who cannot play an instrument can join in, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!” You may not be able to play an instrument or sing on tune, but you have breath. If you can breathe, you can praise. Nobody is excluded from God’s Praise Team. All of us have a place in the Heavenly Chorus of God’s praise. I hear the book of Revelation here:
 
“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9-10).
 
Can you imagine the PRAISE of heaven’s chorus when we get there?
 
What the psalmist calls for in Psalm 150 will be clearly and perfectly displayed in glory. The great thing about the Psalms is that we do not have to wait until we get to heaven. We can praise God with all that we have right here, right now. Just read the Psalms.
 
Next week we will look at a few more of these praise songs from Psalms. Until then, plan to praise God in His sanctuary this coming Sunday morning and praise Him in everything you do all week long.