Differences: Different Ways to Praise
Differences • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 18 viewsNotes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Intro:
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
For the rest of this month, I want to speak about [Differences]. The subject of my message is [Different Ways to Praise].
Differences are all around us. We see that people had different opinions, thoughts, and reactions. Often, when we see something different, initially we might be skeptical.
I remember when Bekah and I were dating and eventually married, we noticed how we had different words that meant the same thing.
Me being from Oklahoma and her being from Indiana, culturally, words meant something different.
I call Coke, Sprite, or any other carbonated beverage Pop, her family calls them Soft Drinks. I remember her grandma asked, “Do you want a soft drink?” I asked Bekah as opposed to what, a hard drink?
Bekah’s family has a lamp on the end table, my family has a little light, as opposed to the big light hanging from the ceiling.
Bekah’s family sleeps under blankets or comforters, my family has covers.
One word we have discussed at length is do we CHUCK something or CHUNK something? Bekah says chuck, but in Oklahoma, Texas, and other southern states, we say CHUNK.
Both words mean the same thing, toss or throw something. And to clarify, according to the March 8, 2018 edition of the Texas Monthly in an article entitled, Talk Like a Texan: To Chunk, or to Chuck? Welcome to chunking territory.
Chunk is commonly used in the south and chuck is generally used in the north. Sources as early as 1825 and 1877 verify that both chuck or chunk are appropriate, depending on where you originate.
But with that being said, there are multiple words to describe the same thing. The problem is, sometimes the deeper meaning is lost in translation.
That also happens in Scripture. The Bible was written in three different languages.
Most of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew
A few portions of the Old Testament was written in Aramaic
The New Testament was written in Greek.
I remember having lunch with an Assemblies of God theologian, who was in his 90s. He had gone to Harvard Divinity School, and I asked him, what is the best translation to read?
He answered, “I prefer going back the Hebrew and Greek!”
At the time Scripture was written, English was not even a language. Modern English did not become common until the 1600s.
So Bible translators had to take the Hebrew and Greek and translate it into our language. In doing so, some of the deeper meanings of the words have been lost in translation.
For instance, in the Old Testament:
The word Adonai (a name or title that emphasizes His lordship)—translated as Lord;
But YHWH (proper name for God)— is also translated normally as LORD in all capital letters.
The two English words of Lord are actually two different Hebrew words.
The Greek is the same way:
The word love has deeper meanings:
One word means to have affection for someone as a friend
The other word means to have selfless devotion
Both words are translated as love.
Same english word, but the Greek words have different meanings.
With this in mind, I want to focus on the topic of praise this morning. But I want us to see that the word praise has deeper meanings.
There are different words for praise in the original language, which all have different meanings:
one word means to raise a shout
another means to joyfully shout
another means to life hands in thanksgiving
another means to sing a new song
another means to kneel before God
And our bibles translate these meanings as one simple english word— PRAISE.
My intention is for more than a vocabulary lesson. I want us to see the different ways we can and should praise God.
In our text we read that God chose us and made us a special people—why? So that we can proclaim the PRAISES of Him!
There are many ways to praise God, but I want to place them into three categories, three different ways to praise the Lord, [Vocal Praise], [Physical Praise], and [Musical Praise].
Let’s begin
1. Vocal Praise
1. Vocal Praise
22 I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You.
23 You who fear the Lord, praise Him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him, And fear Him, all you offspring of Israel!
26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied; Those who seek Him will praise the Lord. Let your heart live forever!
Three times we read the word praise. When we read the word praise, what comes into our minds?
Immediately, I think of giving God thanks for what He has done and who He is, and what He means to me. All of this is true, but this word for praise in the original language means to make a noise.
It includes shouts of jubilation. It is also the word where we get hallelujah.
What does this tell us?
We could read it this way, “in the midst of the assembly, I will praise, I will vocally articulate how I feel about you!”
Praise is to be audible and vocal. We might pray in silence, but praise is OUT LOUD.
Vocal praise is found throughout the Old Testament. When David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem and set it under the Tent, which became known as the Tabernacle of David, he made provisions for people to vocally praise God.
4 And he appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, to commemorate, to thank, and to praise the Lord God of Israel:
30 to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord, and likewise at evening;
He assigned the Levites with an important task, to stand before the Ark, every morning and evening to PRAISE THE LORD!
Again, this word for praise means to make a noise. That tells us that they did not stand silently in front of the Ark. Instead, they would have out loud expressed their love and appreciation to God.
When David wrote Psalms 22, he declared:
that He will declare God’s name to His brothers and sister
He will vocally praise God amongst the assembled people
He will vocally praise God to the descendents of the Lord
Then He instructs all of those who seek the Lord to vocally praise God and when they do, their hearts will rejoice with everlasting joy.
There is power when we praise God OUT LOUD. It can be as simple as saying:
thank you Jesus
bless the name of the Lord
Hallelujah
And when I think about that, it is such a privilege to know that God wants to HEAR us praise Him. He longs to listen to the praises of His people.
Can someone hear us if we never say anything?
Can someone know we are appreciative if we never SAY thank you?
Do people know we love them if we never utter the words?
Praise is vocal.
2. Praise is Physical
2. Praise is Physical
1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
3 My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, “Where is your God?”
4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, With the voice of joy and praise, With a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance.
In this Psalm, the Psalmist speaks of his desire for God in the midst of distress. He uses the imagery of a deer who is thirsty for water.
Likewise, the Psalms speaks of his desire for the source of his strength and life. He was distressed because people asked, where is your God?
This question bothered the Psalmist. His enemies tried to convince him that God was not there for him and that God didn’t care.
As the Psalmist thought about this, he remembered a time when he stood with crowds of worshippers in the house of God singing for joy and praising God.
As He thought about the times he praised God in the past, his thoughts changed. Instead of listening to the lies of the enemy who told him God was not there, He put his hope in God.
He had praised God in the past and God answered, now he declares, I will praise God again and He will come and help me!
This word for praise in the original language focuses on the physical gestures and bodily actions we use when we praise God.
How do we physically praise God?
Let’s look at some examples of physical praise.
11 And so it was, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.
Moses watched from a mountain top as the Israelites were in battle with their enemies. Every time he held up his hands, Israel began to succeed in battle.
The act of lifting our hands in praise to God is a form of physical praise!
1 Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
Simply clapping our hands be it with a song or on our own is a physical form of praising God.
1 I will love You, O Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies.
29 For by You I can run against a troop, By my God I can leap over a wall.
When David wrote this Psalm, He vocally praised God for all that God is and all He does. Then he showed a physical response, when I praise, I can run and leap before God.
4 Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
David also shows this type of praise, dancing before the Lord.
14 Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod.
These are physical ways we can praise the Lord. There is a reason I encourage us to raise our hands or clap our hands, that is just as much praise as it is when someone vocally tells God, I PRAISE YOU.
I have seen people dance or run before God. For some that might seem a little different. But according to Scripture, it is one of the different ways we can praise God!
Praise is vocal.
Praise is physical.
3. Praise is Musical
3. Praise is Musical
7 My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise.
8 Awake, my glory! Awake, lute and harp! I will awaken the dawn.
Once again, the Psalmist takes time to praise God. But this type of praise is not vocal or physical, it is musical.
If we could read Hebrew, we might read, I will sing and I will play a song.
David wrote this Psalm when he fled to a cave to protect his life from King Saul. The first six verses, he is praying for help. But in verse seven, he declares that his heart is confident in God.
He trusted God would do whatever He needed to do to protect His people.
Then David explained, for this reason, I can sing praises. That word for praises focuses on the musical side of praise.
Not all praise is musical. For example:
SAY—Praise Him, Praise Him, Praise Him in the morning, praise Him in the noon time, praise Him praise Him, praise Him when the sun goes down.
SING—Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him in the morning, praise Him in the noon time, praise Him, praise Him, praise Him when the sun goes down.
One is vocal, the other is musical. This form of praise includes singing and playing an instrument before God.
9 I will sing a new song to You, O God; On a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You,
There is a reason we have musicians on the platform who play instruments. In our rehearsals we have discussed that we are not up here reading music, we are praising God on our instruments!
We need to praise God vocally, out loud, giving Him the glory He deserves.
We need to praise God physically, clapping or lifting our hands, or dancing before the Lord.
But we also need to praise God musically. Nearly half of our service focuses on music, why?
Not because Terry and our worship team our talented, which they are. We praise God with music because it is one of the different ways we can usher in the presence of God.
A Psalm of Thanksgiving.
1 Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness; Come before His presence with singing.
3 Know that the Lord, He is God; It is He who has 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 to Him, and bless His name.
5 For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.
I want to emphasize, that our time of praise in each service is not to fill space, getting us ready for the preaching. It is a vital part of our Christian experience.
If we minimize or just “get through” the musical side of praising God, we limit ourselves for ALL that God wants to do in a service and throughout the day.
Regardless of our musical ability we can and should sing to the Lord. And it amazes me, whether we are the best or worst singer, our singing to God is one of the best sounds to Him!
Close:
There are different ways to praise. And as we noticed this morning, every time we read the word praise in english, the original language gives us a deeper meaning to the word.
Praise is vocal
Praise is physical
Praise is musical
There is one point I did not add to this list and that is praise is optional or praise is negotiable, why?
Because we HAVE to praise God. If we are born again and in relationship with the Father through the Son, then we will want to praise God!
Why?
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
God chose
He set us apart
He made us special
For this purpose, so that we may PROCLAIM HIS PRAISES.
We should never become silent in praise for there is no such thing as silent praise.
We can pray silently
We can worship silently
But we cannot praise silently. It includes opening our mouths and thanking the Lord.
It includes clapping or raising our hands and shouting to the Lord.
It includes singing or playing an instrument before the Lord.
If we decide we do not need to praise or if we feel like others need to stop praising God, remember the words of Jesus when the Pharisees wanted Him to stop the people from blessing Him:
40 But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”
The word praise has many meanings in the original language including:
giving a sacrifice of praise, praising God when we do not feel like praising Him.
lifting our hands as an outward sign of what God has done and is doing on the inside
bowing before the awesome presence of the Lord
clapping our hands and shouting to the Lord with a voice of triumph
playing our instruments to glorify God
And there is a Hebrew word that combines them all, it is a form of praise that combines them all:
singing
clapping
shouting
dancing
waving
I hope we see that there are many different ways to praise God, but they all have the same outcome:
3 But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel.
When we praise God, we build Him a throne and invite Him to come on into the room and spend some time with us!
The Psalmist concluded the songbook of Israel this way:
1 Praise the Lord! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament!
2 Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!
3 Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp!
4 Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
5 Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals!
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!