PRAISING
GOD MUST BE THE OUTFLOW OF A BELIEVING HEART!
Psalm
33
1
Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!
Praise
befits the upright.
2 Give
thanks to the Lord with the lyre;
make
melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
3 Sing
to him a new song;
play
skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
The
invitation is clear! The righteous should be shouting for joy in praise to the
Lord. The writer reminds us that it is appropriate, indeed, for those who have
a relationship with the Lord to praise Him. Sometimes it’s more impactful to
think about it in the negative: that it is inappropriate not to praise God.
Think
about your expressed attitudes in the last few days. Would those who have
watched you say that your life has been an example of praise? The praise the
psalmist is portraying here is elaborate, and the righteous are well-prepared,
skillfully playing accompaniment with musical instruments to their words of
worship!
These
verses portray a clear image of zealous sincerity in praise. And when we stop
and reflect, we quickly realize there are certainly many reasons for us to be doing
the same.
The
psalmist goes on to remind us of some of these reasons for our praise:
4
For the word of the Lord is upright,
and
all his work is done in faithfulness.
5 He loves
righteousness and justice;
the
earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
6 By the
word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and
by the breath of his mouth all their host.
7 He
gathers the waters of the sea as a heap;
he puts
the deeps in storehouses.
The
word of the Lord can be trusted, and all He does is done in faithfulness to His
character and His promises. God loves all that is righteous and just, and all that
He does is true to what He loves. All God does is motivated by His love. God is
active in showing His love to all mankind, even though they might be oblivious to
it. God’s creation is a display of God’s care for mankind, as He sustains and
controls everything in it.
8
Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let
all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!
9 For he
spoke, and it came to be;
he
commanded, and it stood firm.
The
writer commands the earth to fear God; man should first of all look at nature,
recognize the hand of God, and be amazed at the display of power and perfection
in His creation. God’s sovereign control is effortless: simply by His spoken
word, He creates, controls and sustains all.
As
I think about this, not only should our praise be loud and clear, but it should
also be without shame or fear. We certainly should fear God, but never man.
Even though we live in a world where evolution has become the religion of the
majority, we believers should be courageous in our praise for the Creator of
all.
Romans
1:18-20
For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their
unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God
is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible
attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly
perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have
been made. So they are without excuse.
The
wise recognize the hand of God and act appropriately… They praise Him each day
with loud praise. But we read in Psalm 33:8 that all inhabitants of the earth owe holy fear and awe to the Lord, who
alone deserves it! And thus, the inexcusability Paul wrote about in the Romans
passage above regarding those who deny to even acknowledge God.
May
today and all our days be filled with praise to God!
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