"Why Should You Praise God?"

Good Morning, would you turn with me today to Psalm chapter 65. The Title of our message today is, “Why Should You Praise God?” Why should I praise God? This may be difficult for some today. Why? Because of difficulties in life, maybe even anger at God, or the fact that some folks because of sin are living with guilt and shame, and there is no desire to praise God. One of the biggest problems we can have as Christians is the fact that so often we have become discontent. We have discontent hearts, and so the natural flow is that we begin to grumble and complain about our situations. We complain about the weather, the politics, the people, and life in general.

So, whatever the reason may be today that you find it difficult to praise God, as Christians we should have a desire to seek God through prayer, and praise His name. There might just be a need to get the fire stoked once again and help you see the need to give praise to God. So, I want to help you with this today.

David the author and writer of this song is praising God through this hymn of thanksgiving. The end of this Psalm also shows us David’s prayer for God’s blessing.

I want you to think about this. Let me give you this illustration. When we come together in November for the Holiday of Thanksgiving it can often remind us of things that we are thankful for, or should be thankful for. So too, here in this psalm, as we read these words aloud they should cause us to stop and give praise to God for all of the wonderful blessings that He gives us.

This wonderful hymn expresses God’s past actions of how he has taken care of his people and provided for them. It also deals with the present, and then gives a description of God’s continual involvement.

Psalm Chapter 65 really does give us a new and fresh invitation to praise the One True God of this Universe, the Creator and Maker of all things. This Psalm gives us many reminders and a fresh approach to seek God and praise His name. This psalm motivates us to praise God and to cultivate habits to which we should look too God for all that we need. Let me give you 3 Specific Reasons on why you should praise God. I want to help you remember these so easily that you won’t forget them. So, here are 3 G’s that we need to hold onto.

1. Praise God For His Grace.

Psalm 65:1–4 ESV

1 Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed. 2 O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come. 3 When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions. 4 Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!

One of the wonderful things that we see here about Psalm 65 is that these words point us to God’s worth and His intervening grace. Right out of the blocks here we see that David says, “Praise in due or rightfully yours O God.” So, not only does David come to offer his praise, but also the community of God’s people. They have come to Zion which is Jerusalem. They have come to fulfill their vows and to present their offerings. The vows are an expression of gratitude in that God has fulfilled his promises, and so they express their joy to God for His acts of kindness and grace. Have you taken time to express your praise for God’s kindness and grace?

When we think about praising God it is an appropriate response because of the Lord’s grace to us His people. God’s word makes it clear that we are all sinners and we have all fallen short of God’s glory. We have all grievously sinned against God. The people here as well as David understood that their sin had consequences. Their acts of rebellion and transgressions weighed heavily on them. And yet we see here in verse 3 that God forgave, He atoned or covered their sin. Church this is an amazing picture of God’s grace and how He deals kindly with His people.

You see here that praise and vows are forms of thanksgiving for God and to God as He answers our prayers.

One of the ways that we can see God’s grace is to know that He hears or listens to our prayers.

-Notice that God hears our prayers. (vs. 2)

-As we pray, and we confess our sin to God, He atones our sin. He forgives us. (vs. 3)

-He also brings us near Him. What this means is that as we seek to know Him more and grow in our relationship with the Lord we do become closer or nearer to our Lord. (vs. 4) As we grow in the Lord we understand what God has done for us and we praise Him because we are satisfied and content. We no longer are dealing with discontentment.

-We also know that God will answer us. We see this clearly in (vs. 5)

Christian what a beautiful picture of God’s grace. Psalm 65 shows us how wonderful and gracious the Lord truly is. God has rescued believers from sin. God offers His people salvation. And God is a God of salvation. God hears our prayers of confession of sin and forgives us, which shows us that He does listen to us. God has given us prayer, and His Word and His bride the church to help us as we journey through this life. All of this shows us God’s amazing grace. As you think about this today, may you be encouraged and stirred in your spirit to praise God’s name. Here are a few verses to remind us.

Psalm 145:3 ESV

3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.

Psalm 100:4 ESV

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!

Hebrews 13:15 ESV

15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

We must acknowledge the name above all other names. The King of King and the Lord of Lords. Jesus is coming and one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Will you confess Jesus as Lord today? Will you humbly bow and submit to Him? If you are a believer maybe it has been a long time since you have prayed and sought the the Lord and given Him praise. Why not do that today?

Charles Spurgeon the prince of preachers once said, “If you may have everything by asking in God’s name, and nothing without asking. I beg you to see how absolutely vital prayer truly is.” Would you come to the Lord today and seek God and praise His name?

2. Praise God For His Greatness.

Psalm 65:5–8 ESV

5 By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas; 6 the one who by his strength established the mountains, being girded with might; 7 who stills the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples, 8 so that those who dwell at the ends of the earth are in awe at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy.

We now see how David calls on the community or Israel to remember God’s majesty and power. We see this in verse 5 by how God reveals his awesome deeds. What exactly would that be? Well, think back with me to how God delivered His people out of slavery from Egypt. He did this by miraculously helping them cross the Red Sea. God consistently helped his people and delivered His people from constant enemies. He helped them from famine by providing food, water and even shelter when they were in the wilderness. All of these things show us God’s mighty acts and His greatness.

But then David tells us that God is the God of our salvation. God is our Savior. We not only understand this fully in the New Testament when God gives His Son Jesus, but even in the Old Testament God is our Savior.

-1 Chronicles 16:35. “Save us, O God of our Salvation.”

-Psalm 79:9. “Help us, O God of our salvation”

-Psalm 85:4. “Restore us, O God of our salvation”

God is also our Hope. God’s rule extends to all the earth and so all of His creation will experience His rule. This hymn here shows us the attributes and great powers of God our Savior. (Attributes of God by Arthur Pink)

God is the creator of the heavens and the earth. He formed the mountains and the seas, and all the things that contain them. We see this in verses 6-7. God’s people Israel knew and understood that the Lord had created everything and established His rule over the roaring sea and its waves. The Lord demonstrated His power to the Egyptians and the Canaanites and the other nations who stood against Israel. In fact, the reports of God’s mighty power and greatness caused the other nations to be in fear of Israel and their God.

Great and majestic are God’s wanders in nature and glory. As Christians we must recognize God’s greatness and His power by fearing and praising His name. God’s rule extends everywhere. It extends from the east where the sun comes up in the morning, and it extends to the west where the sun sets every evening. Someday the nations will come together and rejoice when the Lord brings peace and justice to all the earth.

Let me ask you today, are you in awe of the Greatness of God? Knowing all of this today church should cause us to Praise the name of God.

3. Praise God For His Goodness.

Psalm 65:9–13 ESV

9 You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it. 10 You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. 11 You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance. 12 The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, 13 the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.

Starting here in verse 9 we see how God is seen. He comes to us by providing rain and sustaining his creation. We West Texans realize just how important rain is, and so often we have a lack of it. Rain is needed for the fields and it is needed to produce crops. So, where will the rain come from? It comes from the creator. God will bring the growth and He will clothe the hills with joy and gladness. Here we see the blessings and goodness of God.

Here in these final verses we see all of God’s covenant blessings in which He demonstrates to His people that they are His elect.

-One of the first ways we see the goodness of God is how He provides the rain necessary to take care of the crops. God is the one who provides the gentle rain so that the vegetation might grow. And we as God’s people can rejoice and praise Him as we see things in nature grow. We as God’s people should rejoice in all of God’s wonderful provisions. Notice in verse 11 this word “Bounty” Verse 11 in the NASB, CSB version tells us that God crowns the year with His goodness.

-God’s goodness also extends over to the crops and to the flocks. Notice verses 12-13. All of the regions no matter a desert, the hills or the valleys are a picture of God’s abundant goodness in that of His creation. The fields and the pastures rejoice together with God’s people. They shout and sing together for joy. Church, all of this shows us that in God’s kind providence, He cares about our everyday needs, our physical sustenance. But he also cares about our spiritual needs as well.

God forgives us and shows us His amazing grace. God also keeps the creation in order and show us His mighty power and greatness. But, God also provides the necessities of this physical life and He does this by showing us His goodness.

Here we see how God provides His goodness in both physical ways and spiritual ways.

Lamentations 3:22–23 ESV

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Let us stop for a moment and think of all the ways God shows us His goodness.

God is our Righteousness.

God is our Healer.

God is our provider. (vs. 9)

God is our peace.

God is kind. (Jeremiah 33:5-11)

God is sympathetic in mercy. (Hos. 14:4-9)

God is tender.

God is loving and kind.

God is forgiving.

God ultimately loves us so much that He gave up His Son in order to save us from our sin. So God’s goodness through His Salvation.

Conclusion: As we draw this to a close we see that as believers when we listen to God and follow His plan we see how He provides all the things needed in this life. When we think on this we are reminded that we can praise God as He reigns supreme.

This prayer praises God for all of God’s wonderful and abundant gifts and reminds us today for us to lift our heads and look around to see all that God does for us. Today is an invitation to praise God for what is seen and even unseen.