Make A Joyful Noise – You Deserve My Praise!
Devotional
Reading: 1 Kings 8:54-62 Background Scripture: Psalm 95
Rev.
Michael J. Hudgins
Sunday,
December 14, 2014
A Call to Worship and Obedience
“The
psalmist here, as often elsewhere, stirs up himself and others to
praise God; for it is a duty which ought to be performed with the
most lively affections, and which we have great need to be excited
to, being very often backward to it and cold in it.”1
Psalm 95:1-7 King James Version (KJV)
The Lord is our rock!
How God is to be praised
With holy joy and delight in him. The praising song
must be a joyful noise
He is our Saviour, and the author of our
blessedness. He is here called the rock of our salvation (Ps.
95:1), not only the founder, but the
very foundation, of that work of wonder, on whom it is built. That
rock is Christ; to him therefore we must sing our songs of praises,
to him that sits upon the throne and to the Lamb.2
Spiritual joy is the heart and soul of thankful
praise. It is the will of God (such is the condescension of his
grace) that when we give glory to him as a being infinitely perfect
and blessed we should, at the same time, rejoice in him as our
Father and King, and a God in covenant with us.
The Lord is our King!
And he answered and said
unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the
stones would immediately cry out.
I don't need no rocks to
cry out for me!!!!
God did not want His
people to have a king over them, as the nations that did not know
God. God was their King and wanted the people to let Him lead them.
But when they became dissatisfied and wanted a king, God let them
have one. Do we remember the name of the first king who ruled over
the Children of Israel?
Much has happened since the days of that first king – the
people became divided and formed two kingdoms, called Judah and
Israel. They had had many kings since the days of Saul; some of the
kings were good and turned the hearts of the people to the Lord and
helped them worship Him. Others were bad and led the people to
worship idols instead of worshiping the true God.3
“Because he is a great God, and sovereign Lord
of all. He is great, and therefore greatly to be praised. He is
infinite and immense, and has all perfection in himself.
He has great power: He is a great King above all
gods, above all deputed deities, all magistrates, to whom he said,
You are gods (he manages them all, and serves his own purposes by
them, and to him they are all accountable), above all counterfeit
deities, all pretenders, all usurpers; he can do that which none of
them can do; he can, and will, famish and vanquish them all.
He has great possessions. This lower world is here
particularly specified. We reckon those great men who have large
territories, which they call their own against all the world, which
yet are a very inconsiderable part of the universe: how great then is
that God whose the whole earth is, and the fulness thereof, not only
under whose feet it is, as he has an incontestable dominion over all
the creatures and a propriety in them, but in whose hand it is, as he
has the actual directing and disposing of all.”4
The Lord is our Sovereign!
“even the deep places of the earth, which are
out of our sight, subterraneous springs and mines, are in his hand;
and the height of the hills which are out of our reach, whatever
grows or feeds upon them, is his also. This may be taken
figuratively: the meanest of the children of men, who are as the low
places of the earth, are not beneath his cognizance; and the
greatest, who are as the strength of the hills, are not above his
control. Whatever strength is in any creature it is derived from God
and employed for him.”5
“The sea is his, and all that is in it (the
waves fulfil his word); it is his, for he made it, gathered its
waters and fixed its shores; the dry land, though given to the
children of men, is his too, for he still reserved the property to
himself; it is his, for his hands formed it, when his word made the
dry land appear.
His being the Creator of all makes him, without
dispute, the owner of all. This being a gospel psalm, we may very
well suppose that it is the Lord Jesus whom we are here taught to
praise. He is a great God; the mighty God is one of his titles, and
God over all, blessed for evermore.
As Mediator, he is a great King above all gods; by
him kings reign; and angels, principalities, and powers, are subject
to him; by him, as the eternal Word, all things were made (John
1:3), and it was fit he should be the
restorer and reconciler of all who was the Creator of all, Col.
1:16, 20.
To him all power is given both in heaven and in
earth, and into his hand all things are delivered. It is he that sets
one foot on the sea and the other on the earth, as sovereign Lord of
both (Rev.
10:2), and therefore to him we must sing
our songs of praise, and before him we must worship and bow down.”6
The Lord is our Creator!
With humble
reverence, and a holy awe of him
“Let us worship, and bow down, and kneel before
him, as becomes those who know what an infinite distance there is
between us and God, how much we are in danger of his wrath and in
need of his mercy.” Though bodily exercise, alone, profits
little, yet certainly it is our duty to glorify God with our
bodies by the outward expressions of reverence, seriousness, and
humility, in the duties of religious worship.
He is our Creator, and the author of our being; we
must kneel before the Lord our Maker. Idolaters kneel before
gods which they themselves made; we kneel before a God who made us
and all the world and who is therefore our rightful proprietor; for
his we are, and not our own.”7
The Lord is Our God!
7 For
he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of
his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,
Because
he is our God, not only has a dominion over us, as he has over all
the creatures, but stands in special relation to us: He is our God,
and therefore it is expected we should praise him; who will, if we do
not? What else did he make us for but that we should be to him for a
name and a praise?
“We
must praise God with our voice; we must speak forth, sing forth, his
praises out of the abundance of a heart filled with love, and joy,
and thankfulness—Sing to the Lord; make a noise, a joyful noise to
him, with psalms—as those who are ourselves much affected with his
greatness and goodness, are forward to own ourselves so, are desirous
to be more and more affected therewith, and would willingly be
instrumental to kindle and inflame the same pious and devout
affection in others also.
We
must praise God in concert, in the solemn assemblies: “Come, let us
sing; let us join in singing to the Lord; not others without me, nor
I alone, but others with me. Let us come together before his
presence, in the courts of his house, where his people are wont to
attend him and to expect his manifestations of himself.” Whenever
we come into God’s presence we must come with thanksgiving that we
are admitted to such a favour; and, whenever we have thanks to give,
we must come before God’s presence, set ourselves before him, and
present ourselves to him in the ordinances which he has appointed.”8
We
are therefore his, under all possible obligations: We
are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
All the children of men are so; they are fed and led by his
Providence, which cares for them, and conducts them, as the shepherd
the sheep. We must praise him, not only because he made us, but
because he preserves and maintains us, and our breath and ways are in
his hand. All the church’s children are in a special manner so;
Israel are
the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand;
and therefore he demands their homage in a special manner.
Psalm 100 King James Version (KJV)
3 Know ye that the
Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we
are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter into his
gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful
unto him, and bless his name.
Singing confuses the enemy – Singing Wins The Battle!
2 Chronicles 20:20-22 King James Version
20 And they rose
early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa:
and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah,
and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, so
shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.
21 And when he had
consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and
that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before
the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth for
ever.
22 And when they
began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the
children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against
Judah; and they were smitten.
Psalm 149 King James Version (KJV)
1Matthew
Henry Commentary
2Matthew
Henry Commentary
3http://www.apostolicfaithweca.org/content/battle-won-singing
4Matthew
Henry Commentary
5Matthew
Henry Commentary
6Matthew
Henry Commentary
7Matthew
Henry Commentary
8Matthew
Henry Commentary
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