are as good a title as any. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye
the Lord. The psalmist here first of all
and above all exhorts the servants of God to praise the Lord. Praise. We don't quite use that word
much except in church. Praise. Praise the Lord. What does it mean to praise the
Lord? What is meant here by this exhortation? The word praise means to celebrate. That's what it means. It even
goes to a point of meaning make a fool of yourself in celebrating. Celebrate. Stand in awe of. That's what it means. Celebrate
the Lord. Stand in awe of Him. Give glory. It means to give
glory to the Lord. to praise the Lord. And the root
word of this, I thought this was interesting, the root word
of praise has to do with shining, making something clear. I'll tell you what, you cannot
praise a God you do not know. Isn't that right? If you don't
know the Lord, how can you praise Him? How can you stand in awe
of somebody you don't know? And so therefore this exhortation
is obviously to those who know the Lord. And he here tells us
to praise the Lord, stand in awe of the Lord, give glory to
the Lord, celebrate the Lord, and make it clear who you are
celebrating. Make it very clear who he is.
who he is. Is this not the purpose of preaching?
The purpose of preaching is to make clear who God is. That is the purpose. Every time
I preach I want to make the message as plain and as simple as I possibly
can. Now as we gather in this place
today Let us take this exhortation to heart. Let this be a serious
thing with us. Matter of fact, the psalmist
here gives us three times. He says, praise the Lord in the
first verse. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye
the name of the Lord. Praise Him, O ye servants of
the Lord. Three times. Is that not indicative
of the trinity of His persons? Praise Father, praise the Son,
and praise the Holy Spirit. Praise the Lord, the Great Three
in One. Praise Him. Let us take this
exhortation to heart and celebrate. Rejoice. That's what has the
idea of praise. Praise is rejoice. Stand in awe
of Jehovah who is worthy of praise. Know this, God is worthy of your
praise. He is worthy of praise. The Lord
is the Creator, the Sustainer of all things. He has made all
things. The Scripture says, He hath made
us, and we have not made ourselves. If you made yourself, you would
be praiseworthy. You didn't make yourself. God
made you. Why are you here this morning?
Why is it that you breathe and others have not this morning?
Many people didn't wake up this morning. You know that? They
went to bed with all kinds of plans. But here it is. You're
here. You and I have woke up this morning.
We have breath in our mouth. We have life in our body. How
is that? It is because the Lord sustained
us. The Lord keeps us. He gives us
life and breath. He gives us our daily bread.
He gives us strength to work and to play. And yet not all
men praise the Lord as they should. You see, man by nature loves
to celebrate. Isn't that right? Have you noticed
that? We are a people of celebration. We're always looking for an excuse
to celebrate something. Always looking for a reason to
celebrate something. I don't know how many, I thought
about looking it up, I just didn't. When I went to school, there
was a certain amount of holidays, but I'm sure that since that
time, it's increased. I'm sure that there are more
holidays today than there's ever been in the history of this nation. We have holidays for everything.
Birthdays, Christmas, New Year. We celebrate Valentine's Day,
Father's Day, Mother's Day, Columbus Day. Memorial Day, and even this
week I found a new one. National Hot Dog Day. I was thrilled. National Hot
Dog Day. Wow, what a time to celebrate.
You go down and we grab some hot dogs. See, we'll use anything,
any excuse in the world to find something to celebrate. to praise. Man by nature loves to be praised
and he loves to give praise. And this natural desire to celebrate
and praise obviously does spill over into religion. Man loves
to praise in religion. He loves to celebrate his religion. Not that men desire to celebrate
and praise the true God, but men do desire to praise the God
of their own making. Many people are in places of
so-called worship giving praise to a God of their own making. Look over in verse 15. God talks
about these gods. The psalmist talks about these
gods. He said, The idols of the heathen are silver and gold,
the works of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak
not. Eyes have they, but they see not. They have ears, but
they hear not. Neither is there any breath in
their mouths. They that make them are like
unto them. So is everyone that trusteth
in them. You see the idols of the heathen
are silver and gold. They're fashioned after what
men value the most. Men love to praise, but they
love to praise what they value the most. They love to praise
what they value the most, silver and gold. They fashion their
gods after earthly means. What men consider valuable, they
make the precious things of the earth their god. What do you consider to be the
most precious thing? What does man consider by nature
the most precious thing in the world is? Himself. Man by nature
thinks of himself to be the center of all things. And therefore,
his God that he makes is like himself. Himself. What good will it do men to praise
a God of their own making? It will not matter how excited
they get or how sincere their worship is. If your God that
you praise is not Jehovah, then your God is of no value to your
soul. Do you see that? Men like to
celebrate, they like to be religious, but truly, if they're not worshiping
the only God, If they are worshiping a false god, it doesn't matter
what they do or how sincere they are in their worship. Their worship
is vanity. It's empty. It will not save
their souls. You remember when Elijah went
before those 400 prophets. I'll tell you what, I don't know
if I've ever been before 400 men that hated me. But this prophet
was before 400 false prophets of Baal. And he said, all right,
here's what we're going to do. We're going to give each of us
a lamb for an offering, a bullock. You take yours. You cut it up
how you want to. You lay it on the altar how you
want to. You call out to your God how you want to. And whichever
God answers by fire, let him be God. And those priests of
Baal, I do not doubt that they were sincere in their worship. These guys, they hollered, they
screamed, they cried out to Baal, they cried out to their God,
they laid all over the ground, they rolled all over the altar
begging and pleading. Scripture says they even cut
themselves and blood gushed. That's the word used, gushed
all over. In other words, people were cutting
their wrists and killing themselves to have their God. Now that's
sincere, isn't it? Is that not sincere? That's sincere. I'll tell you what, they were
excited at the opportunity to have their God speak. I like Elijah. I imagine he's
more like me than I could imagine. He said, maybe your God went
to the bathroom. Maybe he went to relieve himself
and you just need to holler a little louder. He went on a walk and
he's gone and you need to call out to him a little bit. No.
They shouted and they screamed but he did not answer. Now why
do you suppose that Baal didn't answer? Because He is no God. He's not real. How many people
today are praising a God of their own making? Of their own imagination? And I give them credit. I give
them credit that they are very sincere. Someone just told me
that one person in his family traveled to Africa to do all
kinds of work. I'll tell you what, I don't want
to go to Africa. I mean, who wants to go to anywhere
in that part of the world? But this person's really sincere.
Really sincere. The problem is, her God's not
real. If her God's not real, then what good is all that? God
says, He says, they make a god like unto them, their God and
them are the same, they're dead. They're dead. So it doesn't matter
how sincere people are. Doesn't matter. That doesn't
determine worship. Worship is only determined by
who we worship. Successive worship is determined
by who we worship. Jesus told that woman at the
well, he said, you know not what you worship. That woman, she
knew something about religion. I know everybody here knows something
about religion. You've been around it enough
to know something about religion. But do you know who you worship? Because that makes all the difference
in the world. Paul said, I know whom I have believed. Not what I believe. I know whom
I have believed. I thought it interesting that
I read this just this morning. I imagine I read it about 2 o'clock
this morning, but I read it this morning. It was an article, it
says that, you know, the way that things go, it says true
believers believe and trust in who they know. But it always
seems the next generation trust in the creed they know, and the
next generation trust in nothing. I know whom I have believed. Do you know whom you worship? Do you know what you celebrate
this morning? I'm celebrating. I'm rejoicing. I'm rejoicing because I know
whom I have believed. And how then do we come and worship
the Lord who we know? Jesus said the hour is coming
and now is when the true worshipers of God shall worship Him in spirit
and in truth. Spirit and truth. To praise the
Lord is not just some carnal act. Just because you have come
to this building this morning, that does not mean you're praising
the Lord. Well, I'm going to go to that
building and praise the Lord. No. Your coming to this building
does not praise the Lord. That's not praise. That's just
a carnal act. And if that's all you've done
this morning, you're not praising. You're not worshiping God just
because you made it here. Praise to God is not some carnal
act of celebrating. Men try to praise God like celebrating
their birthday. I don't know how many times I've
heard that around Christmas time, somebody singing Happy Birthday
to Jesus. I want to throw up. I do. That just makes me sick. They want to celebrate Him like
they celebrate themselves. No. They use carnal means to
attract men. They use carnal means to keep
men. They use carnal means to excite
men to praise God. But praise is not a carnal matter. It is a spiritual matter. It's a spiritual thing. Yes,
the flesh is involved. The body is involved. But I tell
you, it doesn't come from the body or without, in. It comes from within, out. Praise comes from within and
it comes out. Man by nature cannot praise God
because he's dead. Is the worship of God, listen
to me, is the worship of God wearisome to you? I'll tell you
what, the worship of God is wearisome to the flesh. It is. It's wearisome
to this body. So if you're going to worship
God truly, it's going to cost your body something. Some suffering,
some trouble, The worship of God, if it's wearisome
and a burden to us, that's okay if it's just a burden to our
flesh, but not to our spirit. We who have been given life,
who are true worshipers of God, we are at times burdened and
cast down by our flesh, but worship and praise is something that's
not an option for us, is it? Is worship of God an option for
you? No! And so when I say, praise the
Lord, what does your spirit say? I will praise the Lord. The Spirit
answers this exhortation with joy. We desire to come and worship
God. It is our heart's desire. And
when we are absent from this worship, we are grieved. Is that
not so with you? It grieves me to be apart from
you. It grieves my soul when we're
not together. And the days I long for are these
days when we meet together. Above every day of the week,
I long for these days where we worship together. To me, this is the most exciting
place in the world. Is that not so with you? It's
so because God has given us life and we want to worship. And say to hell with our flesh,
to hell with this world, I must have Christ. You remember when
David was separated from worship, how he said, oh my heart pants. My heart longeth after the worship
of God. And he even said that he envied
the birds that made their nest in the temple of God. And we who hear this exhortation
this morning to praise God, we have this desire. I want to praise
Him. I want to praise you. Notice
this, how then do we praise him? Look at that, praise ye the Lord,
praise ye the name of the Lord. When he says name, we know he
is talking about his character. Praise ye the character of the
Lord. To praise the Lord is to celebrate,
stand in awe, and worship, not the God of our own making, but
God as He has revealed Himself to us in the pages of Holy Scripture. To praise the name of God means
to praise His attributes. Remember when he passed before
Moses, he said, the Lord, the Lord God, gracious and merciful,
long-suffering. He made all of his goodness pass
before Moses. And as we go along in this psalm,
may the Holy Spirit shine on a few things, and I'm just going
to give us a few things with which we can praise our God for. First of all, God is good. Verse
3, Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. You can trust this. God is good. It's not that God just does good. That's one thing. But friends, God is essentially
in Himself good. Good. He is good in everything
because He Himself is goodness. Is goodness. And therefore, because
he is good, all he does is good. Praise the Lord for all that
he has done, all that he is doing, because it's good. It's good. I've told you the story many
times about the king and his friend. and his friend being
the king's friend, being a believer, would always have that saying.
Whatever happened he'd say, well that's good. One day they were
hunting and his friend accidentally discharged his weapon and shot
off the king's thumb. And he said, well that's good.
And the king was so angry he put him in prison, distanced
himself from him and never talked to him. One day the king went
away into this far land on a safari and they were captured by cannibals.
And the cannibals were about to eat them and they started
eating all of his entourage and they came to the king and they
looked at the king and they didn't eat him. And wondering why, he said they
didn't eat anyone who wasn't whole. He was missing a thumb.
So they didn't eat him. And so he comes back to his friend
and he said, Friend, I'm so sorry. You're right. Everything God
does is good. It was good that you shot off
my thumb because they didn't eat me. Would you forgive me? And he said, No, it's good that
I was in here. And the king said, Why? I don't
understand. He said, Well, if I was with
you, they would have ate me. Everything is good. Everything
God does is good. Because God is good. I know this. Many of us who have children
who are not saved, if they were to perish in their
sins, would you still praise God as being good? Did His goodness diminish at
all if He were to cast us into hell? No. Cast our children into hell?
Is God's goodness diminished? No. Absolutely not. God is good no matter what He
does. Everything He does is good. And
so whatever it is in our life, may we praise God for His goodness.
His goodness in providence, His goodness in salvation, and His
goodness in our election. Praise the Lord for His election.
Verse 4, For He hath chosen Israel unto Himself. Oh, is that not
a reason to praise God? If there were no election, there
would be no salvation. When God cast Lucifer and the
holy angels down and provided no savior for them, was he diminished
in his goodness? No. If God would have done the
same to our race, would he have been any less good? No. But God,
who is rich in mercy, For His great love wherewith He hath
loved us. It is by grace you are saved. By grace. God in the goodness
of His own person sovereignly chose a people for Himself because
He is good. We by nature are evil, and there
is none of us that doeth good. No, not one. But God is good
and God has by his own free grace chosen a people for himself. Before the world was, God chose
a people for Himself. God, out of His own sovereign
grace, elected some of the sons of Adam for Himself, purposed
to save them for His own praise and glory of His grace. You can
read these obviously in Ephesians 3. Ephesians 1 and chapter, verse
3 and through 6, how that the Lord chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. 2 Thessalonians 2, 13, we are
bound always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world to salvation through sanctification of the spirit
and belief of the truth. I'll tell you here, it's where
religious and self-righteous men will not praise God. Because their God is not sovereign,
they say, how can God be good and choose some and not choose
others? They say, is there unrighteousness
with God? God forbid. There is none of Adam's race
that deserves such mercy. No man can come to Christ except
the Father draw him. All men are empty of righteousness
and full of enmity against God. And had God not chosen some,
the scriptures are clear, we would have all been as Sodom
and Gomorrah. Therefore, this morning, praise God that He has
chosen some. Even more personal, You who believe
on Christ, you may praise God because He has chosen you. Chosen you. Even you. Is that not worthy of praise? Because I wasn't looking for
God. I did not deserve God to come to me. He came to me
because He would. And now I tell you I give Him
all the glory and praise for His sovereign election. Praise the Lord for His goodness,
praise the Lord for His election, and praise the Lord for His salvation. He says this in verse 8, Who
smote the firstborn of Egypt, both man and beast. How is it
that He saved us? You who are the elect of God,
how is it? Because He smote His own Son
in our stead. That Passover lamb is how God
delivered Israel, His chosen people, which was a type of the
church. By the Passover lamb, Jesus Christ,
He has delivered us from sin, from death, and from the law,
from justice. Do you need a shelter? Do you
need a refuge? No, I'm doing fine. I'm not talking
to you if you're doing fine. I'm talking to people who need
a refuge. Flee to Christ. He's the man
who is the rock. He is the man who is as a culvert
for the wind and rain of God's justice. And all who flee to
Him shall find rest. Forgiveness of sins. Because He suffered in our stead.
Is that not praiseworthy? You bet it is. You bet it is. And not only has He delivered
us, friends, He has promised us heaven. Look at this, in verse
14, He said, For the Lord will judge His people, and He will
repent Himself concerning His servants. This has to do with God's loving
chastening hand. Praise the Lord that he chastens
us. Believer, have you not been chastened?
Are you not scourged by your father's discipline? What is it that constrains you
to praise God? Is it his whip of the law or
rather his hand of love? The love of Christ constraineth
us. This is why I praise God, because
of His love. Bless the Lord, O house of Israel. Bless the Lord, O house of Aaron. Bless the Lord, O house of Levi. You that fear the Lord, bless
the Lord. Blessed be the Lord out of Zion,
which dwelleth at Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord. Believers
celebrate the Lord. Who is He? He is good. All He does is good. Praise the
Lord for He has chosen us, redeemed us, called us, and will keep
us. May God help us to praise Him.