Praising God Among the Nations

And then secondly, as we've already seen from this psalm, we should honor God with our devotion. It ought to be a matter of priority, not the leftovers.

I've seen this on the internet several times. Everything else shouldn't be the reason you can't attend church. Church should be the reason why you can't do everything else.

And that's got it right, isn't it? And that's just a way of saying, I'm not talking specifically about that issue, though I think I could, but that's just a way of saying, God deserves our first. God deserves our best. God deserves the utmost of our devotion, not whatever's left over. David set the example for that, as he showed us in this psalm, how much he was committed to the worship of God. This is so important that I spend years preparing my instruments for it.

This is so important that I get up before the sunrise in order to do this at the first and freshest part of my day. And we too should honor God with our devotion. And we should magnify God among the nations, as David had a desire to do. Samuel Pierce in his commentary writes that this desire to magnify God among the nations that David wrote about, he says, quote, this would be most effectively done by sending the gospel among them, by giving them a true apprehension of the person and work of Christ. How do we raise praise to God among the nations? By sending the gospel to the nations, by praying God's spirit, pray that the spirit wise will open blinded eyes as we sing in one of our missions month songs, and that other people will be brought to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ and join us in singing praise to his name all around the world. And so we must magnify God among the nations by gospel proclamation, by declaring the gospel at home and abroad, by witnessing to those around us who need to know the Lord. They don't want to hear it.

I know many of them don't, but they need to. Be wise. Don't be overbearing and obnoxious, but don't be silent.

Look for opportunities. I've been sharing with my wife how I've been trying to open the door for a witness with a particular person that I'm seeing for medical reasons, and it's been tough. She doesn't want to hear it, doesn't want to hear anything about God, doesn't want to hear anything about the Bible, doesn't want to hear anything about church, but that doesn't stop me from inserting things almost every time I visit. I find something. She asks, how are you going to celebrate Thanksgiving?

I'm glad you asked. It starts on Tuesday night at church with a praise and thanksgiving service. We will give testimonies of God's goodness to us, and we will sing praise to him.

Well, that's nice. I mean, you know, you run into the same thing yourself, but not everybody wants to hear it, but everybody needs to hear it, right? You never know when the Spirit wise will open blinded eyes. And so we should magnify God among the nations at home and abroad and by helping missionaries who are prepared and called by God and willing to go to faraway places that we would never go to, but we can help send others there. And we support them by our prayers and we support them by our giving so that they can go, so that a gospel message can be taken to places in some cases where it has never before been heard, like among the Kauai, karai of Papua Indonesia and other places. And so we magnify God among the nations by gospel proclamation. We magnify God among the nations by gospel expansion.

As the gospel expands, as the gospel expands, God is more highly magnified. We magnify God among the nations by gospel enthusiasm because we become enthusiastic when we see Christ being honored. We become enthusiastic when we see sinners being informed of their need of Christ and of the wonderful work that Christ did on behalf of sinners. We get enthusiastic when we hear reports of souls that have truly been saved and changed. We become enthusiastic when we learn that churches have been established in far-flung places. We become enthusiastic when we know that God's praise is being heard in every nation. And I can tell you by observation and experience that God blesses a missions-minded church because missions brings praise to God. I can tell you that God blesses mission-minded individuals because their enthusiasm for missions enables churches that they belong to to be involved in missions. God blesses those who give with the right heart motive because they give that the gospel may go and that Christ might be honored and that his praise might be sung among the nations. God enables those who give with the right heart motive to be able to give and to even in many cases increase their ability to give as they give in order to bring honor and glory to God. So let us with David find ways to praise God among the nations shall we pray. Oh Father we pray teach us thy ways and show us thy paths in Christ's name. Amen.