Focus on Adoration

Overview: The Book of Psalms: Psalm 1 - Psalm 150

Songs and hymns God's followers sang in the sanctuary.

Some songs were sung in the home.

Some were read or sung on special occasions.

Poetry in Psalms: by Israelite sages, kings, prophets.

Masterful use of metaphors and symbolism.

Poems and songs carefully placed to retell the biblical story.

--The temple was built and God's followers gather together. Priests would read the Psalm aloud, the temple was full of artwork and furnishings symbolically proclaiming how God rules the world from the temple mount.

--The temple was a place to be in God's presence and immerse yourself in the story of God's kingdom.

Imagine after the destruction of the temple by Babylonians.

How would they meet with God? Thru the Psalms.
A prayer book for exiles, designed as a “virtual” temple. 
Without a physical temple, Psalms lead you to God:

You “enter” God's presence meditating on these Psalms.

You “hear” the entire biblical story of God's kingdom.

You “sing” the story with poetry, hymns, prayer.

Psalms is organized in 5 sections:

1 / 2: Complicated story of David and his royal family.

3: Tragedy of Israel's exile and downfall of David's line.

4 / 5: Hope for Messiah, new temple, God's Kingdom.

End 5: Conclusion Praising God for His Faithfulness.

Longing to be in God's presence in a temple.

Hoping and praying for a temple.

Hoping and praying for God's kingdom.

These songs/poems become future hope for the Israelite.

These songs/poems become words for how to pray.

These songs/poems become words for discovery of God.

These songs/poems become words of hope: a Messiah.

These songs/poems become words of hope: a Kingdom.

Meditate, think about, struggles but continue to trust him, celebration, praise who God is and what He has done and you will flourish, but the ungodly will be destroyed.

THE FINAL PSALM: PRAISE FOR HIS FAITHFULNESS

Psalm 150: 1-6

1 Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.

2 Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness.

3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre,

4 Praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe,

5 Praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.

6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

The enemy of God lies about benefits of Praising God !

Evangelical attitudes toward worship are being corrupted.

Not yet blaspheme but to make trival God's character.

You don’t have to attack it. All you have to do is trivialize it.

Just reduce it to something humorous or funny.

All that is necessary is just to trivialize God, trivialize Scripture and any other biblical theme and start by doing it in a mass marketing message.

Examples of How the World has trivialized God:

-Made Him user-friendly.

-Made Him utilitarian: main reason is to find faith formulas.

-Made Him one to give you every desire of your fleshly heart.

-Made Him a god of the prosperity cult.

-Made Him a manageable deity.

These titles were found in the local Christian Bookstore:

The Law of Prosperity Kenneth and Gloria Copeland

How To Write Your Own Ticket With God, Kenneth Hagin

You Can Have What You Say, Kenneth Hagin

The Wall Street Gospel, Joe Magliato

How God Taught Me Prosperity, Kenneth Hagin Jr.

God's Plan For Financial Prosperity, Elbert Willis

Living In Divine Prosperity, Jerry Savelle

If you trivialize God, if you trivialize Scripture, you get a trivialized congregation of bored people with a trivialized deity who are short-term, looking for their next thrill.

How contrary to anything that the Bible teaches about worship. The focus of worship is never on the worshiper BUT the focus of worship is to be on the one being worshiped. It is never on the consumer. We cannot gear our message toward you; we must gear it toward God.

He must be the focus of everything. What we say, and what we teach, and what we sing, and what we play must all focus on God and His marvelous work and will.

The way we worship God:

-- implies the way we think about God.

-- implies what we believe about God.

A trivial church has a trivial faith in God.

How a church worships is of tremendous significance.

How a church worships betrays how it thinks about God.

How would God want us to thank Him?

How would God want us to praise Him?

How would God want us to worship Him?

Psalm 150 answers these questions:

How to worship Him?

How to praise Him?

What does it mean to really praise God?

What does it mean to praise God in a fitting manner?

Begins: “Praise the Lord!” That’s a command.

Thirteen times we are called to praise Him.

This call is an appropriate culmination of the Psalms.

The Psalms, you remember, is a whole book of praise.

-Psalm of lament

-Psalm of joy

-Psalm of thanksgiving

-Psalm of exhilaration

-Psalm of pure praise

-Psalms 150 is the path of the believer’s life:

-from suffering to glory.

-from pain to praise.

How does this psalm direct us to praise God?

Where do we praise? Why do we praise? How do we praise? Who is to praise?

1. WHERE:

Verse 1, Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty expanse.

What does that mean?

His tabernacle then later in His temple.

Where God resides on earth.

His Holy Place which was the place where his people gathered for worship. You remember that in the time of the Psalms, the people gathered in the temple to worship God.

Psalm 149:1: Praise Him in the congregation of the godly.

A. Praise Him where His people gather for worship.

We come together on a Lord’s Day.
We come together for the purpose of praising God.

Why do we teach the Bible?

So that we will know Him better and we will understand what He has done better, and you’ll have more for which to praise Him.

Do not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.

We need to be involved in praising God collectively.

With His redeemed people in His sanctuary.

And He dwells or inhabits the praise of His people.

The psalmist is calling to:

--communal worship.

--communal praise.

That is the actual purpose of our coming together.

There were sabbath assemblies in the synagogues.

There were the holy convocations in Jerusalem.

There are assembly of the saints in a worship center.

Come together for that purpose: To Praise God.

B. Praise Him Everywhere.

verse 1, Praise Him in His mighty expanse.

That’s another term for the heavens / created universe.

Collectively we praise him as assembled saints.

Individually we praise Him anywhere in His entire universe.

This command to praise sweeps through the infinity of creation and calls for praise throughout all the heavens.

Praise is a collective function of God’s redeemed people .

Praise is an individual function of each saint everywhere.

Where? In the assembly of the saints and everywhere.

2. WHY:

Verse 2: For what He has done and for who He is. 

Two locations for praise and two reasons for praise. 

A. Praise Him for His mighty deeds.

Praise Him for what He has done.

Praise Him who made heaven and earth.

Praise Him who made the sea and all that is in them.

He is faithful to His promise.

He executes justice for the oppressed.

He gives food to the hungry.

He sets the prisoners free.

He opens the eyes of the blind.

He raises up those that are bowed down.

He loves the righteous.

He protects the strangers.

He supports the fatherless and the widow.

He thwarts the way of the wicked.

He will reign forever.

Praise the Lord!

Examples of what God has done:

That is a motivation for praise.

Recite His wonderful works. That’s pure praise.

We sing songs and hymns that speak of what God has done.

We remember what He has done in our prayers.

-He has created this universe.

-He sustains it.

-He is the one who delivers us from death and sin and hell.

-He is the one who is our Savior.

-He has saved us and redeemed us.

-He is the one who continues to protect us.

-He keeps His covenant with us.

He gives us continuing life.

He has done all that.

B. Praise Him for who He is.

Verse 2 says, Praise Him because of His excellent greatness.

This is about His character, His person.

Praise Him for:

-His sovereignty, His immutability,

-His all knowing, all presence, all powerful nature.

-His almighty power, His grace, His mercy,

-His goodness, His kindness, His holiness,

-His faithfulness, His justice, His wisdom.

Old Testament:  Record of what God has done / who He is.

Praise Him for what He has done and for who He is.

Recite His glorious attributes. That’s praise.

Thank Him for all things that are true about His character,

Praise Him for His great love by which He sent Jesus Christ.

3. Where, Why and HOW:

Verses 3 to 5: It speaks of instrumental means: With trumpet sound, harp and lyre, timbrel and dancing, stringed instruments, pipe, loud cymbals, and resounding cymbals we are to praise Him.

A variety of means are given here to praise Him.

Praise Him for His mighty deeds.

Praise Him for His excellent greatness.

The rehearsal of His attributes.
The rehearsal of His mighty deeds.

Instruments are just the accompaniment to that.

The emphasis is on praising God with all your might.

Use all means possible to the exhilaration of praise.

NOTE: Consider the trumpet. 

A devout Jew would remember the ceremonies and festivals.

Trumpets announced the official sacrifices at Jerusalem.

Trumpets were blown to announce the Day of Atonement.

Trumpets announced the ark of God arriving in Jerusalem.

Trumpets were blown to call the people to worship.

Trumpets were blown to call the people to battle.

Trumpets announced when a king was enthroned.

Trumpets symbolize glorious memories enriching their life.

4. WHO:

verse 6, Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. 

If you’re breathing, you’re supposed to do it.

That’s why God is so offended by the ungodly.
They refuse to praise Him.

They are not thankful.
They will not glorify Him.

-all of us created by God,

-all of us given breath by God,

-all of us redeemed by God,

-all of us saved by Christ, praise the Lord.

-the focus of your life is not you.

-the focus of your life is Him.

-Don’t trivialize the great glory of our great God.

-We must be God centered.

NOTE: Today the world is not just denying great doctrines; it is just trivializing God in shallow praise.

May our praise be deep and rich and understanding praise.
In response to a knowledge of the truth, we praise God in a way that is fitting, and especially for the gift of His Son.

ADORATION / PRAISE INVOLVES THE FOLLOWING:

Psalm 150 Adoration involves thinking:

Think through, or analyze, who God is.

Think through the mighty deeds God has done.

Be specific in the ways God is great:

The greatness of God is beyond our comprehension (Psalm 145:3)

His greatness is in a category all its own: "For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God" (Deuteronomy 10:17)

God is greater than any human we would consider to be great.

He is worthy of our worship and adoration: "For you are great and do wondrous things; you alone are God" (Psalm 86:10).

Psalm 63 Adoration involves expressing:

We articulate the glory of God from a heart of joy.

The more we honor God, and the more we engage our hearts,

To honor God means to give Him the regard, respect, reverence, admiration, adoration, awe, praise, submission, and obedience which are due to Him.

To honor God means to worship Him in all our attitudes, affections, and actions.

Revelation 4:11 Adoration involves appraising:

“To appraise” means “to evaluate the worth; set a value.”

Who else can receive the glory but God? The honor? The power?

Psalm 123 Adoration involves beholding:

We praise God not just because we know of His power and glory,

but because we have seen His power and glory!

We see how He is at work in our lives.

Freedom comes as we see God’s beauty and sense His love.

Habakkuk 2:20 Adoration involves resting:

To rest in God means we cease striving.

We cease working in order to relax, refresh, and recover.

As I behold God on His throne, and compare all others to Him.