5/7/22 Heart Full of Praise

Calvin

Heart of the Matter • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

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Summary:

A Christian’s Heart

“A Praise-Filled Heart”

Psalm 138:1-2

Introduction

The idea of praising God for who He is, the Almighty God, Creator, Deliverer, Redeemer, Restorer, and Savior should be paramount for all Christians.To praise the Lord is to call attention to His majesty and glory. In fact, it’s God’s breath in our lungs that gives us physical and spiritual life, so we should pour out our praise to God.

Isaiah 43:21. the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.

Psalm 33:1 “Sing joyfully to the LORD, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him.”

Praising God should actually be in everything we do.

King David brings out the ultimate expression of praise.

“I will praise You with my whole heart; before the gods I will sing praises to You. I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word above all Your name.” (Psalm 138:1-2 NKJV)

There are three aspects of a praising heart that are found in Psalm 138.

1. A Whole Heart

Someone said, “We worships his work, work at our play, and plays at our worship.”

This describes our worship more than many of us would like to admit.

Jesus kind of nails this on the head when He said,

Matthew 15:8 “ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. 9 They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’

Half-hearted praise, therefore, is insincere praise. It’s praise without worth, and not worthy of those who call themselves believers in Jesus Christ.

Whole heart praise is leaving nothing behind but unreservedly giving praise to God, we’re to praise the Lord the same way we are to love Him, that is, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And so a praise-filled heart is a heart that is whole, wholly praising the Lord God and Him alone.

The next aspect of a praise-filled heart is that it is

2. A Humble Heart

In verse two of Psalm 138 it says,

Psalm 138:2 I will bow down toward your holy temple........

Psalm 138:6 6 Though the Lord is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly; though lofty, he sees them from afar.

The Apostle Peter picks up on this in his first letter saying,

I Peter: 5 In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.”

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

Humility isn’t denying who God made us to be; rather it’s being honest about who we are before Almighty God, that is, our weaknesses as compared to God’s strength.

In the end it’s all about being humble. Our spiritual transformation comes through humility not pride.

Ended HERE 4/17

So important is this quality of humility of heart that the Lord considers and agrees to dwell with only those who are humble.

“I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” (Isaiah 57:15)

Those spiritually aligned with God and those with whom God aligns Himself with, have a contrite and humble heart and spirit.

King David knew this when he blew it with Bathsheba. He said God really doesn’t require a physical sacrifice in order to get right with Him, instead the sacrifice God is looking for is a broken heart and crushed spirit over their sin, Psalm 51:17.

A humble and contrite heart is therefore what the Lord desires.

A praise-filled heart is also a heart that worships God. Worship is an Anglo-Saxon word better-pronounced “worthship.” It means to give worth or reverence to something or someone. In Greek and Hebrew it means to bow down in humility and submission.

To worship God is to humble ourselves in submission to Him. It’s expressing the same attitude as that of John the Baptist who said concerning Jesus, “He must increase but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)

And so a praise-filled heart is a whole and humble heart that worships the Lord.

Finally a praise-filled heart is

3. An Encouraged Heart

In verse three David said that when he cried out to God, God encouraged his heart.

“In the day when I cried out, You answered me, and made me bold with strength in my soul.” (Psalm 138:3 NKJV)

Encouragement is described as a cool breeze, or a cold drink, on a hot summer’s day. It revitalizes and refreshes our hearts. Therefore encouragement is a vital element for life in the Lord.

When we feel overwhelmed we need to find encouragement to help us overcome and be victorious.

King David knew that such encouragement was vital, not only for his health, but for his survival.

When David and his men returned from a potential disaster which would have found them fighting against their own countrymen, the town where they resided, Ziglag, had been invaded and burned to the ground by the Amalekites, who took not only their possessions, but families as well.

David and his men were so overcome with grief that they wept until they could weep no more. They literally had no more tears left to shed.

Once the shock and grief wore off, depression and potential retribution set into David’s men who now talked about executing him because they blamed him thinking this disaster was his fault.

But instead of allowing grief to rule his heart, David encouraged his heart.

“Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” (1 Samuel 30:6 NKJV)

To be encouraged when pain and problems threaten to swamp our souls, we need to start speaking encouraging words to our hearts as well, which is what David continued to do throughout his life.

“Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” (Psalm 42:11 NIV)

Literally David counseled his emotions. He was telling his emotions what to think and how to respond to the crisis.

In the same way we need to encourage ourselves in order to get the fullness of what God has for us. We need to be careful not to be too critical of ourselves otherwise our hearts will take on that role, that is, we’ll have a critical and condemning heart. We can either be our own best friend or worst enemy.

When our hearts are encouraged and strengthen, then we’ll be able to praise the Lord without hesitation or fear and declare His mighty works to the world.

“I will extol You, my God, O King; and I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall praise Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts.” (Psalm 145:1-4 NKJV)

This is what the disciples experienced after they were baptized in the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. It says that they immediately went out into the streets praising God for His mighty works.

“And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them (the disciples) speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, ‘Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear...them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.’” (Acts 2:6-11 NKJV)

Remember, these were the same guys who were hiding from the authorities. And as they prayed they were filled with the Holy Spirit who encouraged and emboldened them to witness to the very people they were hiding out from.

And so a praise-filled heart is a whole, humble, and encourage heart.

Conclusion

We can have a praised-filled heart when we focus on God through reading His word and finding out just how great and marvelous He really is.

The more we comprehend what God is like, the more we’ll give Him praise.

When we gather with other believers we need to have our focus where it belongs, on God and not on others, or the game coming up on TV, or what’s for lunch. When we’re not fully engaged in our praise, then we’re not really worshiping God. This applies not only to our singing songs of praise, but also when God’s Word is being read or taught.

“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)

Before this can take place, however, we must have the Holy Spirit within, who Jesus called in John 14:17, “the Spirit of truth.” Without the Holy Spirit there is no true praise or worship. It’s the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, who motivates and inspires our praise and worship, and who better since He is the third person of the Godhead.

But to have the Holy Spirit within we must first invite Jesus into our hearts to be our Savior and Lord. It’s only then that our bodies become the temple of the Holy Spirit with Jesus sitting on the throne. And then out of our hearts will flow these rivers of living waters, the river of the water of life, that Jesus said is no one less than the Holy Spirit.

It is only then that we can truly give praise to God, and praise is our way of showing God how much we love and honor Him

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