Praise rather than protest...

 

Yesterday’s reminders about being thankful and that being thankful is the will of God, also reminded me of how easily I complain. Today’s reading reminds me again, that even the smallest dissatisfaction is finding fault with the Lord. He is sovereign and nothing escapes His notice or is out of His control. How dare I criticize the God I profess to love.

Examples: My toe hurts. It is too windy. The sun is too bright. The day is filled with interruptions. My cousin talks too much. I can’t find shoes to fit my narrow heels. The pizza is too salty.

Need I go on? Do these get excused because they are not about the ‘big’ things like corruption in the market place, drunk drivers, the seductive power of false teachers, or the floods and fires that ruin lives? Do I rate all these things like some people rate sin and make some excusable and others so disgusting that they are almost unmentionable and candidates for a self-righteous declaration such as, “At least I don’t do that”?

Every complaint I make is a verbal insult to God, a declaration that He is not doing His job the way I think He should. It isn’t that God needs me to affirm Him or His wisdom — He knows what He is doing and knows it is perfect. The problem is with me. I can easily talk and act like a spoiled child who wants all things done to suit her likes and dislikes.

What is the cure for such foolishness? I have written in a prayer request notebook that I cannot sin and praise God at the same time. Today’s reading affirms that by pointing out how many times the Bible tells readers to praise and thank Him. The word “praise” is used more than 230 times. Worship is used nearly 200 times, “thanks” and its variations about 130 times. Complain and grumble appear only 40-50 times and is criticized or expressed negatively in every one of those verses.

God saves His people from our enemies. Imagine complaining about that! He heals and blesses us. Do I not thank Him and only complain for more? How ignorant and wrong to think my wants are more important than His will or His wisdom.

Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing to his name, for it is pleasant! (Psalm 135:3)

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. (Psalm 40:3)

Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength! We will sing and praise your power. (Psalm 21:13)

At midnight I rise to praise you, because of your righteous rules. (Psalm 119:62)

God is to be praised for what He does and for who He is. He is Lord of all, loves all, is righteous and good, and sovereign. He also says: “I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7)

This leaves me with nothing to criticize. He knows what He is doing, even if to me it doesn’t seem right or I’ve no clue why some things happen. My role is to trust Him and declare that trust in praise.

PRAY: Today is a new day. It will be filled with all sorts of things. Will my reactions to each one be trust, faith, praise? Or will I doubt and complain? I know that Your Holy Spirit does not produce those sinful reactions. I also know how much I need to be filled with Your Spirit so that I am not sinning by grumbling or even thinking that You do not know what You are doing. Keep me in Your will — thankful and trusting You with all things, including all calamities —along with the well-beings that seem so much easier to praise.

The power of Praise

READ Psalm 106–112

Reading the OT along with the NT is deeply helpful for daily life. In the Psalms I see the balance of what God has saved and is saving me from, and the riches of His plan for my life. The NT tells of Jesus, the One who came to accomplish it, yet lest I get thinking I have already reached His goals for me, the OT reminds me of the power of sin and that my confidence must always be in Jesus, not in myself. This applies: “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” (1 Corinthians 10:12)

While this focus often feels like trying to balance on the middle of a teeter-totter, God is showing me both the reasons for remembering the danger of sin — and the way to always rely on the power of God who saves me from it. Praise has a gigantic effect of keeping that balance.

In the OT, God’s people were slow to learn. The psalmist even asks, “Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord, or declare all his praise?” (Psalm 106:2) This OT saint continued, remembering his history as he reminds me of mine:

Both we and our fathers have sinned; we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness. Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power . . . . Then they believed his words; they sang his praise. But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel . . . .They exchanged the glory of God for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt . . . . Therefore he said he would destroy them— had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath from destroying them . . . . Then they despised the pleasant land, having no faith in his promise. They murmured in their tents, and did not obey the voice of the Lord . . . . Then they yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor, and ate sacrifices offered to the dead; they provoked the Lord to anger with their deeds, and a plague broke out among them. Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was stayed . . . . Many times (God) delivered them, but they were rebellious in their purposes and were brought low through their iniquity. Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress, when he heard their cry. For their sake he remembered his covenant, and relented according to the abundance of his steadfast love. (106:6–45)

Little wonder why the “redeemed of the Lord say so” and we can “thank the Lord for his steadfast love” and “his wondrous works.” Little wonder why “I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is great above the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!” (108:3–5) As I think of my past, both before Christ and after He came into my life, it seems easy to . . .

Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the company of the upright, in the congregation. Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered; the Lord is gracious and merciful. (111:1–4)

Yet this takes time to learn, to realize how much pride in myself messes up reverence for God. It is in the years of His great blessing that my understanding grows into heartfelt praise.

Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments! His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends; who conducts his affairs with justice. For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady; he will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his horn is exalted in honor. (112:1–9)

I’m praying for those who do not know the wonder of God and have no faith in Jesus Christ for eternal life and for His incredible blessings of this life. God, continually “put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God, (that) many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.” (40:3)

 

God is a Song

 

A friend can recite entire SONGS and Bible passages from memory. Another friend says she memorized Scripture by making songs out of the verses. I’m not good at rote learning or turning words into music. For me, rote becomes reciting words without understanding and music is a foreign language rather than an easy talent. However, repetition is changing some of that.

Every morning I sing praises to God for at least ten minutes from printed lyrics. I can now sing many of them without looking at the paper. Sometimes I wake with a song in mind or think of words during ordinary activities. Several OT passages say God not only puts songs in my heart, but He is my song.

Exodus 15:1–2. “Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, ‘I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.’ ”

All through the OT God’s people praised Him and celebrated His goodness with music. Dozens of verses testify how His people responded to the victories He gave them with a song. God even told Moses to write a song as Deuteronomy 31:19–22 says.

“Now therefore write this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the people of Israel. For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise me and break my covenant. And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring). For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give.” So Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the people of Israel.

Songs of victory are in Judges and 1 and 2 Samuel, notably when David returned from battles. These included joy and musical instruments. David was inspired to write many of the psalms as were others. Solomon authored 3,000 proverbs and 1,005 songs (see 1 Kings 4:32).

David “put men in charge of the service of song in the house of the Lord after the ark rested there. They ministered with song before the tabernacle of the tent of meeting until Solomon built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they performed their service according to their order.”

Obviously praise directed to the Lord finds its source in Him and has a purpose. Psalm 40:3 says,

“He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.”

Those songs from Him are prayers as Psalm 42:8 says: “By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.”

I wondered about the value of music and found scientific proofs of what music does, from the obvious lifting of our moods to the startling — it makes us eat less. Some music has a negative effect. For instance, loud rock will kill plants (no joke) and a beat more rapid that a normal heart rate is agitating.

I’ve also noticed that it isn’t so much the words or the tune but the hearts of the performers. Those who do ‘great music’ for the sake of their reputation as a musician do not bless the human soul in the same way as the person who sings to glorify God or even to bless those in the audience. Not everyone will notice these differences. So the question is: At what point does the art detract from building the body of Christ to affirming the arrogance of the individual artist? Three ways can evaluate whether a song is from God or not . . . .

One, as our Song, God gives music that establishes or re-establishes interpersonal relationships called koinonia or Christian fellowship. God’s songs bring Christians together as we focus on Jesus and not ourselves.

Two, His music builds a godly self-view, affirming we are made in the image of God, that sin separated us from Him, and that Jesus Christ and God’s grace brought us back — made new to reflect who He is by the way we think, talk and live.

Three, God’s music has a way of using rhythm to energize and bring order. He is a “God of order, not confusion” thus as our Song, He calms chaos and clears confusion.

Both Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 point to music coming from the heart. It is not necessarily talent and beauty but a God-focused sincerity filling with praise and thanksgiving, even if the words say other things. Like prayer, a song in my heart is one more way to GAZE INTO HIS GLORY!