Let's Just Praise the Lord, Part 2

Chuck Swindoll has been presenting us with an in-depth teaching series on the Holy Spirit called Flying Closer to the Flame.

He's chosen to conclude this fascinating study not with more information but with praise. Today on Insight for Living we'll turn our attention to several Old Testament Psalms where we find just the right words to express our affection for God. After all, our objective in this study about the Holy Spirit is to cultivate deeper intimacy with Him and worship helps us do that. Chuck titled today's message, Let's Just Praise the Lord. Psalm 146 talks about when to praise.

If you were asked me to give a title for the Psalm, it would be simply those three words, when to praise. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. O soul, lift yourself in praise to God.

When do I do it? While I live, verse 2. While I have my being, verse 2. When you say, under these circumstances, I can't do that.

What are you doing under there? God has designed a life that's above the circumstances. Look down at verse 5. How blessed. The word means happy and every time it appears in the Hebrew it's in the plural. Oh, the happiness is many times over is He whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord. That Psalm is directed to those that need help and need hope. Praise is the answer. What does it mean to praise Him? To praise the Father means to express words of adoration to Him for what He does, for who He is.

Self is out of the picture. Praise isn't thanksgiving. When you thank the Lord, you thank Him for something He did for you or gave you.

You're in the picture. When you praise the Lord, you say to Him, Father, I praise you. You are faithful.

You are immutable. You are praiseworthy. I praise you for your word.

I praise you for your plan. Psalm 147 talks about whom to praise. Not where, not how, but whom.

146 talked about when, as long as you have your breath. Psalm 147 tells us whom to praise. Now here is the answer, right in verse 1.

The Lord. It is good to sing praises to our God. It is pleasant and praise is becoming. Do you know what we just did in the early part of the service, brought pleasure to God?

It did. He tells us in verse 1 that we do that. In fact, it is pleasant and it is becoming. The Hebrew word means lovely. God looks at the praise of a congregation such as this and He says, that's lovely. That's beautiful because we are praising Him. You see, He says it is the Lord who is to be given the praise. Verse 2 tells you He builds up. Man doesn't.

He gathers the outcasts. We don't. We reject them. He heals.

We don't. We are only able to do a little surgery and patch it up, but we can heal. As a matter of fact, He is great, verse 5. Man isn't.

He is abundant in strength. We're not. We can last maybe 18 hours, but then we need a little rest. God never has to say, that's enough for you folks right now. Don't ask me for a while.

I've got to get caught up on my rest. He's abundant in strength. His understanding?

You need someone understanding? It's infinite. That's why when you go to praising the Father, you just need to open the Psalms and read them to Him. I prayed with a dear saint connected for many years with what was once the overseas crusades and it was during an internship period where I was learning so many things and I was being made aware just with one shotgun blast after another of those inadequacies and needs in my own life.

I began to have as a prayer partner this dear saint that had been in the Orient more than he had ever been in America. As I would kneel with him alongside that man, I would watch as he would have actually his fingers rubbing across the Psalms as he would literally read back to the Father and quote back to the Lord the Psalms. Do you know there were portions of his Bible that had no print on the page?

Can you imagine? He read over that so much that the friction from his fingers just took the print right off the page. Some sections, there were holes worn in it, but he didn't need it. He knew what was there. His book of Psalms looked like a series of tracts.

It was all in several different parts. It just fitted together, giving God praise for what he has said. You say, I'm new at this. Take the book of Psalms. Start in chapter one and in your prayer time, read to him the book of Psalms. He loves to hear his word. Do you like to be quoted? Is it an exciting thing to be quoted by somebody else? God's like that. Quote to me what I have said and when you quote it to him, it brings pleasure to his heart. Better than read it, learn it so that it just comes as part of your prayer life.

Give it back to him by the bushels. That's praise. I'll tell you, you will no longer be enamored with man. You will no longer suffer from the ups and downs of people's acceptance or rejection. Your attention is on the Lord God and I've got some other news. You will give like you've never given in all your life. The praising saint is the giving saint.

No reluctance. My brother is perhaps the best example I've ever met of faith. When he was discharged from the Navy, he was coming back from the Great Lakes area and on his way down, it was in the middle of the winter, he had a pee jacket and that was his only coat. He picked up a fellow in Kansas who was going to go across that state with him and he took him right across the state and by the time they got to the end of the line when the fellow got off, my brother had led him to Christ and the guy got out of the car and my brother said, where's your coat? He said, oh, that's all right.

I'll get one later. He said, no, you need a coat. Took his coat off, gave it to him.

Let me let that sink in just a minute because that's so unusual right there. So the guy put his coat on and he looked at him and he stepped on out of the way and the car drove off. My brother got home.

First conversation with my folks. Hey, son, where's your coat? Oh, I gave it to you.

What? I gave it to a fellow. Well, who was it? I don't know his name. I can't remember his name.

We met him in Kansas. Well, you don't have a coat? No. Oh, but dad, I just praise God all the way from Kansas to Houston for the joy of giving my coat. Not the saint today.

Not many of us. Can you give with praise to God that he will provide? The Psalmist says it is to God that that praise is becoming. Psalm 148 says where to praise him.

Where do we praise the Father? Verses one through six in the heavens. Verses seven through twelve on the earth.

Look at that. Verse one. Praise the Lord from the heavens. Verse seven. Praise the Lord from the earth. That doesn't leave too many other places when you've covered those bases.

That's pretty well it, isn't it? And then it describes the heavens. Praise him in the heights.

We do that, don't we? Take a trip to the mountains. What are you prompted to do when you get all alone early in the morning? Little frost nipping at you.

You're walking out and the twigs are crunching under your feet. And you look up at that massive expanse of real estate. You don't say something shallow as you stand there and look at that mountain.

You just stand in solitude. And you praise him in the heights. God designed that mountain to do that for us. He gave us the hills not to just walk over or ride over or take photographs of. He gave us those great expansive areas to prompt praise in our breast. He gave us the lakes.

He gave us the beauty of this earth to prompt praise to him. As a matter of fact, there's a great section here. Look at verse five. I love this.

Especially for those interested in physics. Verse five. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. He established them forever. He made a decree that won't pass away.

You wonder, what's the process? Well, when God came to the project of making this earth, he commanded it, he established it, and he set a decree on it. He put it there. He gave it a purpose in establishing it. And then he set it in its motion.

The seasons, the orbits, the movements. And he did all of it so that man might praise him. The heavens tell of the glory of God and the firmament declares his handiwork. You're too busy to realize that? You're a little trip away.

A little time alone. Now the exciting part of this is that when God came to that part of making it, it just says he commanded it. Isn't that magnificent? In fact, there's a section in Genesis that says he made the stars also.

Well, that's fantastic. You can study the stars all your life and never get beyond the first galaxy or two. Oh, by the way, he threw the stars in also.

That's sort of the feeling you get as you read it. It was nothing to the hand of omnipotence to make the stars. On this earth, verses 7 through 12, it says from the earth, those sea monsters in the deeps and fire and hail and snow and clouds and storm, they fulfill his word. Give him praise for the seasons, for the times of the year. Where we praise him? Everywhere.

Everywhere we go. Praise is universal. 149, how to praise. I like this song because it has a little shocker in it that I think is good for us. But it's not right away.

It prepares you for the shock. Verse 1, praise the Lord, sing to the Lord a new song. How to praise him? Do it with a new song. Are you given to melody? Do you write music? Write a song to his praise. It's an exciting generation we're living in, in which many of the young people are writing new songs of praise. Many of the hymns would not have been known by the generation ago, or certainly two generations ago. It's a new thing.

It's an exciting era to live on the cutting edge of creativity, where fresh minds and new thoughts are given to new expressions. And that's the way God would have it. I feel sorry at times for people that don't know how to sing. I know some of you try so hard, and it's difficult for you to carry it out.

It's especially difficult for those around you, when you're trying to carry it out. But let me say, you don't have to have a fabulous voice to sing praises to God. He honors those melodies of the heart that come forth to him.

I think of those of our day that are so gifted at putting it together. And I think, wow, they must have a corner on praise that just is not experienced by many people. Song is a vessel used for praise. Don't leave singing out of your prayer time. Don't close that Bible and get up and get on your way until you've given him a song.

Now look also. Let Israel be glad in his maker. Let the sons of Zion rejoice in their king. Verse 3, let them praise his name with dancing.

There's the shocker. Dancing. When's the last time you danced for the praise of God?

Now that's a strange question for a preacher to ask a congregation, isn't it? There are times that you're so overwhelmed with praise that you've got to release it. You've tried singing and it didn't get it all done. You said it and it didn't get it up, so you do whatever it is, you know? You just... Man, at times, last Sunday night, I danced all over the living room and the den. It was fantastic when I got home. Wow, it took a dance to get it out, you know?

Now don't run scared. When I was up in Boston, the Old South Church announced on one occasion a service of praise which they called a dance in the spirit. And it was videotaped and then it was played that week in the Boston area. And believe me, what I heard and saw was not a dance in the spirit. It had nothing to do with the praise to God. It was a fleshly carnal activity and nothing more but to arouse the lust of man and woman.

But my, there are certain expressions that I don't know how to direct your attention to them or to describe it, but wow, you've just got to get into that, you know? There's a response that comes when you're really exhilarated that is, I guess, best described by a dance. David danced when the ark came.

You remember that? Ark came over the hill. It hadn't been there in so long and he saw it. He pulled his robe up and danced all around and it's his wife sitting up in the window and said, oh, that's a dignified way for the king of Israel to act, dancing with all the people. He said, when I dance before the king, it is dignified.

It is unto him that I'm dancing. You see? She didn't get that.

She was all in the corner over there criticizing him and fussing about his expression. Now, be careful about doing that in a congregation. You can't just jump up and start doing a dance type thing. That's not the thing. That's not what's necessary. But there are responses that the praiseworthy people are just involved in. It's just magnificent. There is a freshness and a freedom that comes in praise times that the rigid fundamentalist never enters into. But I'll tell you when the Spirit of God prompts you in your prayer time, there it is. And I want to say to you, just enjoy it. In fact, if you want the highest praise, look at verse 6.

It'll be in your mouth. The song is good. The dance that is an expression of yourself is good, but the highest praise is from the mouth. You will hear no more beautiful tones than tones that come extolling God.

It's a whole dimension that I'm afraid beggars description. And I confess my ignorance in trying to communicate something that is infinitely beautiful. When to praise him? That's Psalm 146.

Whom to praise? That's Psalm 147. When to praise? That's Psalm 148.

How to praise? That's Psalm 149. Why praise him?

That's Psalm 150. Praise the Lord in his sanctuary, in his mighty expanse. Verse 2, because of his mighty deeds, because of his excellent greatness.

Circle that verse. His mighty deeds, that's what he does. His excellent greatness, that's who he is. Praise him for what he does.

Praise him for who he is. You should sit down and make plans to purchase The Knowledge of the Holy by Tozer. Or The Pursuit of God by Tozer. Or a good solid theology on the character of God. So you will know clearly what it is that God is like. Or simply a study of the book of Psalms which is a study of his praise.

I gave you a simple formula. Two W's and two letter P's. Praise him for his work and his word. Praise him for his person and his plan.

And you've covered the bases. His work, what he does. His word, what he said. His person, who he is. His plan, what he has arranged. And that is praise. Verse 6 concludes the book of Psalms and concludes the message. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. When I was overseas, I was working with a man who was under great stress.

Great, great pressure. He was a maverick sort of a missionary. He didn't fit the pattern or the mold of what you would often think of as a missionary.

His ministry was a great deal to the GI who happened to be on the island of Okinawa by the thousands, in fact it might be safe to say tens of thousands. I went to his home one evening to visit with him. I had a little time free that evening and his wife said that he wasn't there. She said I'm not sure where he is but I have a feeling that he's down at the office which was downtown in a little alley area off of the streets of Naha. It was a rainy night and I decided that I would get on the bus and travel down to be with Bob.

She said he's under such pressure from this situation. So I expected to find the man folded up in just despondency and discouragement, depression and just ready to finish it off. I got off that little bus and I walked down the alley about a block and a half and I turned right down a little smaller alley, a little hut with a tatami mat inside. When I turned it was away from the street noise and I heard singing. Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace.

Then that next stanza, prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. I have never told him this but I eavesdropped on a praise service. I stood in the rain and I looked through the walls of that little cheap hut and I saw a man on his knees with his hands toward heaven giving God praise with his Bible on one side and an InterVarsity Christian hymnal on the other side, a little spiral notebook worn from use and I saw him turn from page to page where he would read it to God and he would find a hymn and he would sing it to God.

And the remarkable thing is that that pressure that he was under did not leave for perhaps another two weeks it seems. But that praise service alone before God absolutely revolutionized his life. I have mimicked that plan in my time with the Lord. The most creative thoughts I ever get such as the thought for this whole service that we've enjoyed today came from God as I was with him. They came in the most wonderful way while we were in praise. If you listen to a service of praise and leave and it doesn't become a part of you in some facet, you have missed the whole purpose of a service such as this. There's no better way to wrap up our teaching series than this, praising God for his provision of a comforter and companion, the Holy Spirit. You're listening to Insight for Living and to learn more about this ministry we invite you to visit us online at insightworld.org. Well today Chuck Swindoll presented his final message in a 14-part series called Flying Closer to the Flame.

Let me mention the book that Chuck wrote on this topic. It's called Embraced by the Spirit, the Untold Blessings of Intimacy with God. If you've had good intentions about requesting a copy, well now is the time to get in touch. To purchase a copy of Embraced by the Spirit, go to insight.org slash store or you can call us.

If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888. A look ahead at our next study here on Insight for Living. Chuck will begin a brand new topical series called Clinging to Hope and along the way he'll speak on topics such as what to do when calamity crashes in and how to respond when doors slam shut.

There's a lot to look forward to in this brand new series called Clinging to Hope. By the way, did you realize that Insight for Living produces a daily devotional that's sent by email? There's no cost and Chuck's inspirational writings are designed to help you navigate the challenging issues of your life. To request this free devotional email from Chuck, just follow the simple instructions at insight.org slash devotional. As you sense God prompting you to support Insight for Living Ministries, we invite you to give whatever amount suits you. Every gift, large or small, is valued and every gift will be channeled directly into providing Chuck's daily Bible teaching here on Insight for Living.

Here's the number to call. If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888 or you can go online to insight.org slash donate. You've heard him teach about the Holy Land using word pictures to make us feel like we're actually strolling through the old city. Learning about Jerusalem is fascinating for sure, but seeing the land of Israel with your own eyes is life-changing.

In fact, it's absolutely magnificent. And now you can see Israel with Chuck Swindoll and the gracious hosts and experts assembled by Insight for Living Ministries. Join us on an unforgettable 12-day tour, March 5th through the 16th, 2023. At special sites along the way, I will teach from God's Word. We'll worship at the Mount of Beatitudes and share the Lord's table at the Garden Tomb. In fact, we'll sail the Sea of Galilee together and we'll visit places where Jesus walked and taught. To learn more, call 1-888-447-0444. Just imagine walking along those sacred sites and seeing the Bible come to life before your very eyes. Mark your calendar for March 5th through the 16th, 2023, and make your reservation by calling 1-888-447-0444, or go to insight.org slash events. Insight for Living Ministries Tour to Israel is paid for and made possible by only those who choose to attend. I'm Bill Meyer, inviting you to join us when Chuck Swindoll introduces a brand new series called Clinging to Hope. That's Thursday on Insight for Living. you