Hallelujah!

I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart;/ And I will glorify Your name forever. Psa. 86:12

Jehovah will reign forever,/ Your God, O Zion, forever and ever./ Hallelujah! Psa. 146:10

As we come to the end of the book of the Psalms, we see the consummation of God’s work of recovery. Eventually, the entire earth is recovered to Christ and everything that has breath will praise the Lord.

God first turns His people from being religious law keepers to crazy loving seekers. They are turned from religion and law, from everything else to Christ Himself. Then, Christ in them is the church, the house of God. They are further brought under God’s rule and reign in life and through life and are enlarged to become the city, the kingdom. It is through the city, the kingdom, through the church, through these loving seekers that God in Christ will turn the earth to the Lord. It is then, that the consummate praise will be offered to God. What is consummate praise? You may ask…well…It is the highest, fullest, total, universal, ultimate praise.

Though the earth has as of now, not been fully recovered, it is our service to God to offer to Him this consummate praise. However, it is not a matter of our being able to simply utter the words: “Praise the Lord.” If we simply say it as a habitual greeting, there may be no “for what,” no substance. For what do we praise the Lord? Our brother shared with us four levels of praise:

1. The first, is we praise the Lord for what He gives. Saints, we must be saved from this thankless, entitled generation. We must praise the Lord for all of what He gives to us! From the air we breathe, the lungs with which we breathe, the water we drink, our bodies, our mind, our strength, our jobs, our food on the table, our car, the metro, the bus, I can’t continue because the list is endless, but for it all we must PRAISE THE LORD!
2. The second, we praise the Lord for what He does. This is deeper, for we not only praise Him for the things He gives, but for His actions, His living and working out every situation in our lives.
3. Third, we praise Him for what He is. Oh, saints, that we would realize and treasure all that the Lord Himself is. This is deeper, because whether He gives, doesn’t give, or takes away, He is the reality of everything to us. It is deeper, because whether He does or doesn’t do, He is our grace and all-sufficient supply.
4. Fourth, the deepest and highest level of praise is when we praise Him not for what He gives, or does, or is, but very simply because He is. We praise Him as the self-existing and ever-existing One. Think about it like this, there is someone, who doesn’t necessarily give you anything, they don’t do anything for you, and it’s not so much that this person is so very awesome or worthwhile, but just their being alive, their having lived, their presence in your life now or at some point meant everything to you. We must get to this deepest level with the Lord, where the simple fact that He is, causes us to worship and praise.

How is that we reach this deepest level of praise?

In Hebrews 13:15 the author writes: “Through Him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is, the fruit of lips confessing His name.”

In second Samuel 24:24 David tells us that he refuses to offer to Jehovah burnt offerings that are of no cost to him.

The way we offer up a sacrifice of praise, costly offerings, to God is through the Christ we experience and enjoy in our daily life not only in calm waters, but even more on the stormy seas of human life. When we pass through reproach or suffering, when we walk through the valley of Baca and in this experience the unchanging Christ as our grace and in this way turn the valley of weeping into a spring, then we will have the substance in our being with which to utter: “Praise the Lord.”

In Revelation 14:3 we are told that the overcomers sing a song that no one could learn. This song cannot be learned because it is a song whose words and melody are produced as a result of these ones passing through their specific experiences.

Saints, have we experienced this? Have we passed through such experiences with the Lord?

Oh Lord!

I know for a fact that I have fallen so short. I don’t yet live a life of praise. But! If you are like me, be encouraged, for we can’t do it! Even if we were to determine to be such a person, it would never happen, but our Lord is this kind of person. As the writer in Hebrew says, through Him!! Through Him let us offer up a sacrifice of praise.

Oh Lord, how much we need You. We need You to touch us to cause us to turn our being to You. Lord, we confess we are so short. We confess we did not praise you so very much this last year; but Lord, this year, have mercy on us that we would be able to declare the words of the Psalmists:

O Jehovah, I will praise You forever. (30:12)

Every day I will bless You,/ And I will praise Your name forever and ever. (145:2)

I will bless Jehovah at all times;/ His praise will continually be in my mouth. (34:1)

I will praise Jehovah while I live;/ I will sing psalms to my God while I yet have being.(146:2)

Bring us, dear Lord into this reality so that through us You may recover the whole earth.

Let everything that has breath praise Jehovah. Hallelujah! Psa. 150:6

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Posted by whippedkreme8 on January 21, 2012

https://readingandwritinggod.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/hallelujah/