First, the Altar. Then the Praise.

 

Praise 4 

 

          One of the beautiful by-products of praising God is how it raises our spirits. We find a classic example of this in Psalm 43.1-5.

1 Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation: O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man.

2 For thou art the God of my strength: why dost thou cast me off? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

3 O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; Let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.

4 Then will I go unto the altar of God, Unto God my exceeding joy: Yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.

5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, Who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

          Put another way round, praising God can become a tool to re-arrange our mood.

          This has both good and bad aspects to it. On the positive side, when I praise God, I almost always find what troubles me receding as God fills more and more of my vision. I receive a letter from the IRS informing me of an upcoming audit. I go to church, open the hymnbook, and sing God's praises from my heart. I forget all about the audit. All of which happened to me one time. As we become overwhelmed with the goodness and power of God, and as we rejoice in Him, that joy bubbles over into our lives.

          "Well, Pastor Brennan, what is so bad about that?" This: if you are living in active rebellion against God in some way while simultaneously seeking to manipulate your emotions via praising Him, you are doing it all wrong. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. (Psalm 66.18)  If your tongue is filled with cursing, your heart lifted up against your parents, your mind filled with adultery, your thought processes with deceit, or you covet all that your neighbor has… …you can sway to the music and lift your hands all you want as you sing praise to God, but He is not even listening. He does not hear your prayer requests. He does not hear your praise. It does not go past the ceiling.

          Why, then, do so many non-surrendered, unrepentant, rebellious people do precisely that? Because they want to taste the joy and sweetness that come as a by-product of praising God. But you do not have a right to give the praise or receive the blessing of the by-product of joy if you have not surrendered to Him first.

          First, the altar. Then the praise.

3  O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.

4  Then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy: yea, upon the harp will I praise thee, O God my God.

5  Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

          Joy comes with praise. Genuine joy, though, cannot come outside the will of God. Often, however, people try to produce synthetic joy through music. And that is precisely the result – synthetic joy.

          Music fascinates me. I have read about twenty-five books on the subject. I have watched hundreds of hours of documentaries about it. I have a lengthy blog series published on this platform discussing it in detail. Music is an emotional language. It is how feelings sound. Music affects your mood prior to/without any words being used even. Sometimes, people use music to reflect their mood; other times, people use music to set their mood.

          In this context, my point is that rebellious Christians often seek to obtain synthetic joy through praise music when they have not been to the altar first.

          I am an unashamed critic of much of contemporary American Christianity. One of the reasons I am is that music represents a more significant portion then ever of their church services.

Most of that music is called "praise and worship." Large, influential contemporary churches use such praise and worship music to produce in their attendees a feeling of being close to God with all the sweetness and joy that accompanies praise. I have read their magazines and the blogs of their worship pastors. They desire to "usher you into the presence of God" and give you an emotional high, mainly due to a produced music set. But you do not get into the presence of God, no matter what music you hear or sing, if your heart is living in rebellion against Him.

For the same reasons, such churches over-emphasize praise and worship music and de-emphasize preaching. Preaching makes people uncomfortable. It confronts them with their wrong. Music, on the other hand, makes people emotionally connected to God. By their own surveys that I have read, their churches are filled to the brim with unsaved or uncommitted Christians. Yet they want their crowd to be comfortable and to feel good. The challenging but correct way to do so would be to confront them with preaching that drives men to repentance. Instead, they seek to synthesize it with music.

By the way, if you know anything about me, you know I am not against music. I am not even against praise and worship music, provided it is biblical. But I am against someone thinking they are experiencing real joy in God while singing praise to Him, all the while some portion of their life is being lived in open rebellion to Him. The last thing I want to do while emphasizing the importance of praise in this series is to produce a bunch of people who chase the good feelings that come while praising God meanwhile ignoring their sins.

Musical praise, or any praise, and the joy that comes with such praise, are only to be offered if you have been to the altar first.

Maybe we should switch our church services around and do that invitation first.