Praise and Blessing

 

Praise 5

 

          I am always looking for things that motivate God. I do not mean to imply that God needs me to motivate Him as if He were drifting down a lazy river at the local waterpark. But He chooses for reasons He determines to bless some people more than others. I want to know what those reasons are.

          Last year, I taught a series in my Sunday School class about the blessing of God. I may turn it into a blog series. In the process, I learned a few things about the blessing of God and what it includes. The term most often translated as bless in the Old Testament implies prosperity, a gift or present, favored of God, and benefit in the original language. A similar, albeit not entirely accurate, definition is the word favor. Expanded, it becomes the word favorite. In a sense, the blessing of God is when God makes me His favorite, bestowing His lovingkindness upon me. For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield. (Psalm 5.12)

          Some form of the word bless is used 475 times in Scripture. Confining ourselves only to Psalms, we discover eight precious things the blessing of God includes.

          First, the blessing of God includes gladness. For thou hast made him most blessed for ever: thou hast made him exceeding glad with thy countenance. (Psalm 21.6) In my book on the Sermon on the Mount, I dwell at some length upon the beatitudes that open the greatest sermon ever preached. Each one begins with blessing, and each blessing carries a strong connotation of happiness. I talked to my doctor yesterday about our church, and I described it to him as a happy church. And it is. Our church is not perfect, but we are blessed by the Lord with gladness.

          Second, the blessing of God includes peace. The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace. (Psalm 29.11) In 2021, I wrote on peace for about five months on this blog. You can find those posts under the tag peace in the word cloud on the right side of this blog. Peace is a wondrous thing. The presence of peace means the absence of worry, frustration, comparison with others, or conflict. The presence of peace does not mean that things never go wrong, but rather that when they do, we are calm. Peace is the security of knowing who we are and Whose we are.

          Third, the blessing of God includes deliverance from trouble. Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. (Psalm 41.1) Elsewhere, Eliphaz informs us man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward. (Job 5.7) Getting into trouble, trouble of all sorts, comes naturally to us. So how do we get out? We scheme, struggle, fight, plan, analyze, spin, and do many other things to do so. Yet God oftentimes delivers us from it out of the goodness of His great heart. What a blessing!

          Fourth, blessing includes protection from our enemies. The next verse to the one referenced above says The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. (Psalm 41.2) It is not my locks and guns that protect me and my family from crime; it is the blessing of God. It is not my native wisdom as a pastor that has allowed me to serve twenty-five years without a lawsuit against any church I have pastored; it is the blessing of God. I do not have a public relations firm to protect me against online slander; the Lord blesses me by doing it Himself. And when Satan would come after me and mine it is not my crucifix that protects me; it is the blessing of the Lord. 

          Fifth, blessing includes strength. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them. Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well; the rain also filleth the pools. They go from strength to strength. (Psalm 84.5-7) It is a blessing that He gives me strength for my daily tasks and more strength for different projects along the way. It is the blessing of God that He enables me to carry my burdens and gives me strength to help others I know carry their burdens as well.

          Sixth, blessing includes rest. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law; That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity. (Psalm 94.12-13) Rest restores. Rest enables us to, once again, join the fray.

          Seventh, the blessing of God overflows onto our children. Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed. (Psalm 112.1-2) Last night, I picked up my phone to discover one of our young men on the other end of the line. After a lengthy deliberation, he yielded to the Lord's call upon his life. I got emotional and, through a choked voice, informed him that serving God is the best life, just a wonderful life. But we do not want an extraordinary life just for ourselves. We dearly, almost desperately, want one for our children. Well, how can we get that? If we get God's blessing on our lives, it will overflow our lives onto our children.

          Lastly, blessing includes domestic tranquility. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. (Psalm 128.2-4) Perhaps the most significant contributing factor to the misery of men is what happens under their roof.

To make matters worse, they often seek to drown that misery in alcohol, drugs, work, hobbies, parties, etc. Beloved, it does not have to be that way. Your home is meant to be an earthly paradise, a place of genuine refuge from the pressures of life, a source of deep happiness. And when God blesses you, that is precisely what your home becomes.

          Now then, having spent a few minutes perusing Psalms, I can honestly say I want to be blessed by God. That is not a selfish statement; it is an entirely scriptural one. These blessings fall not just on us but flow through us to those around us. So what causes that blessing? What moves God to pour out His blessing on His people? I will grant you that some of what God does in this respect is done unconditionally, but for much of it, there are conditions attached. If I can discover those conditions, find out those reasons, and supply them, He will be motivated to bless me.

          A quick perusal of Scripture identifies at least a dozen reasons God blesses people, including obeying Him, loving Him, being thirsty for blessing, because someone else is being blessed and you get the overflow, tithing, faith, following godly advice, assembling with God’s people, accepting chastening, fearing God, and being one of His people. 

          I do not believe that list is exclusive. In other words, you do not have to do each of those things to receive a blessing from Him. Indeed, some of them overlap, and there are others in Scripture that I have not mentioned, but I look at these as I look at prayer promises. They are keys that open various doors in Heaven filled with beautiful things.

          Today, however, I want to point you primarily to one key, one method you can use to motivate God to pour out some of these beautiful blessings on you and yours – praise Him. Praise motivates God to show Himself strong on your behalf. Praise motivates God to favor you. Praise motivates God to place His rich hand of blessing on your life. 

          Here is the proof:

Psalm 67.1 God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah.

2  That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.

3  Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.

4  O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.

5  Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.

6  Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us.

7  God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.

          Do you want gladness, peace, deliverance from trouble, protection from enemies, strength, rest, blessing on your children, and domestic tranquility?

          Praise Him.

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.