The Perpetuity of Praise, Part 3

It was over 3000 years ago that the Psalms were written and

compiled. Most of them written by the

sweet Psalmist of Israel. King David in Jewish tradition

tells us that the Psalms are just simply praises.

The word means to to pluck with a string, and so most, if not

all of the Psalms were were put to music that they might be sung

in. The Psalms themselves emphasize

the the majesty and the magnificence of God amidst the

malady and misery of man. That's why the Psalm are so

important to read on a daily basis.

For most of us, our our days are filled with misery and heartache

and pain, a lot like those written by the psalmist.

And so through the reading of the Psalms, we begin to

understand more about the the magnificence and the majesty of

God and how he operates. There's 150 chapters in the book

of Psalms. It's the longest, biggest book

in the Bible. So turn with me, if you would,

to Psalm 150. That's the last one.

We'll begin our time there this morning.

Psalm 150 verse #1 it says praise the Lord or Hallelujah,

praise God in his sanctuary. Now maybe your translation says

praise God in the assembly of the Saints, and both are true.

The Bible tells us in Psalm 22 that God inhabits the praises of

His people. And it is true that when we

gather together as a body of believers, as Saints, we we give

praise and honor to God. So we are to praise him among

the assembly of the Saints. But the new American standard.

The text that I use I think is closest to the translation when

it says praise God in the sanctuary in in the temple.

That's quite interesting because believe it or not, your body is

a sanctuary. Paul says it this way in First

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

Corinthians chapter 6 verse #19 Do you not know that your body

is a sanctuary? Your body's a temple of the Holy

Spirit. It was in you whom you have from

God, and that you are not your own, for you have been bought

with a price. Therefore glorify God in your

body. So when the psalmist says praise

the Lord in the sanctuary, in all reality, our whole lives as

believers, our bodies are that sanctuary.

And there's to be this continual praise of God in that sanctuary,

in that temple where the Spirit of God him himself dwells.

And then the last first says, Let everything that has breath

praise the Lord. Let everything that hath breath

praise the Lord. Why?

Because praise truly is the beauty of the believer.

Psalm 147 verse #1 tells us. For praise is pleasant and

beautiful. Psalm 33 One says the same

thing. Charles Spurgeon, who was a

master of words and a master preacher, said this about the

beauty of praise. He said what wings are to a bird

and what fruit is to a tree, what the Rose is to the thorn.

That is the praise to a child of God.

What makes the the the bird beautiful is when it's in flight

in its wings. What makes the tree beautiful is

the fruit that it grows. And what makes the thorn

beautiful is that it's attached to the Rose.

And what Makes You Beautiful is when you live a life of praise.

So Psalm 63 says this verse #4 So I will bless you as long as I

live. I will lift up my hands in your

name. My soul is satisfied as with

Morrow and fatness, and my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.

So as long as I live, I I'm going to offer praises with

joyful lips. It says over in Psalm 113 that

Tim had read earlier. Praise the Lord, praise those

servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord.

Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and

forever. From the rising of the sun to

its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised.

From the rising of the sun to its setting, God's name is to be

praised. So when you wake up in the

morning and you see the sun arise, some of us like to sleep

in so we don't see the sunrise, but the the godly person gets up

before the sun comes up, but he wants to see the sunrise because

you want to praise the Lord from the rising of the sun to its

setting. In other words, praise is

continual. Praise is perpetual.

Praise is something that's ongoing.

Praise never is out of season. Praise is never optional.

It's always essential. Praise is a part of who we are.

It beautifies us when we open our eyes in the morning.

We we praise the Lord for bringing a safety through

another night. We praise the Lord for the

events coming that day. We praise the Lord for all

that's going to happen in my family that day.

And I get in and I, I take a shower and I praise the Lord

that I have running water and that I have towels to dry off

with. And for you ladies, you have a

blow dryer to blow dry your hair.

You praise the Lord for electricity to be able to turn

it on from the rising of the sun to that setting.

God's name is to be praised again.

Charles Spurgeon, who has written so much about praise in

his his book on the Psalms, The Treasury of David.

And outside of that, he has written a a whole lot of books

on the perfection of praise and the practice of praise.

He says these words, and these are written in his devotional

morning and evening on the date of July 31st, as he talks about

First Chronicles 933, where the singers in the temple were to

work faithfully, fervently, ferociously all throughout the

day. They were to sing both day and

night, for their work was never done.

So Spurgeon would comment on that by saying these words.

Well, was it so ordered in the temple that the sacred chant

never ceased. Forever more did the singers

praise the Lord, whose mercy endureth forever.

As mercy did not cease to rule either by day or by night, so

neither did music hush it's holy ministry.

There is a lesson sweetly taught to thee in the ceaseless song of

Zion's temple. Thou too art a constant debtor,

and see thou to it that thy gratitude, like charity, never

faileth. God's praise is constant in

heaven, which is to be thy final dwelling place.

Learn thou to practice the eternal Hallelujah around the

earth. As the sun scatters his light,

his beams awaken grateful believers to tune their morning

hymn, so that by the priesthood of the Saints, perpetual praise

is kept up at all hours. They clothe our globe in a

mantle of Thanksgiving and girdled it with a golden belt of

song. The Lord always deserves to be

praised for what He is in Himself, for His works of

creation and Providence, for His goodness towards His creatures,

and especially for the transcended act of redemption

and all the marvelous blessing flowing therefrom.

And it's always beneficial to praise the Lord.

It cheers the day and brightens the night.

It lightens toil and softens sorrow, and over earthly

gladness it sheds a sanctifying radiance which makes it less

liable to blind us with its glare.

Have we not something to sing about at this moment?

Can we not weave a song out of our present joys, or our past

deliverances, or our future hopes?

He leaves us with a question. What do you have to praise the

Lord for at this very moment? Psalm 119.

The psalmist says these words. Psalm 119, verse #164 Seven

times a day I will praise Thee. Does that mean that I set my

clock for seven different times a day for an alarm to go off for

me to say praise the Lord, or to thank Him for what happened over

the last two hours? So at 8:00 I praise Him.

At 10:00 I praise Him. At noon I praise Him.

At 2 I praise Him. At 4:00 and 6:00 and 8:00 I

praise Him. Seven times a day I praise the

Lord. Is that what that means?

No, now 7 is the number of completion.

It's the number of perfection. The psalmist is saying my praise

for thee will be complete. It will, it will encompass the

the perfections of the day, the completion of the day.

My life will be incomplete if I don't praise you, but my life

will. My life will be complete if I do

praise you. That's what he says.

The psalmist understands perpetual praise.

The psalmist understands the perpetuity of praise, that it's

something that's lasting not just now through this life, but

makes its way into eternal life. For praise truly will be the

eternal service of those who dwell in the presence of the

living God. Amen.

Thank you again. It was Spurgeon who said these

words. He says it is a great thing to

praise Jesus Christ by day, but there is no music sweeter than

the nightingales. And she praises God by night.

His well to praise the Lord for His mercy when you are in

health, but make sure that you do it when you are sick, for

then your praise is more likely to be genuine when you are deep

down in sorrow. Do not rob God of the gratitude

that is due Him. Never stint Him of His revenue

of praise. Whatever else goes short, Praise

Him sometimes on the high sounding symbols with all your

heart and being. But when you cannot do that,

just sit and mean His praise and solemn silence in the deep quiet

of your spirit. Because I want to say it would

create an almost miraculous change in some people's lives if

they made a point of speaking most of the precious things and

least of the worries and ills. Why always the poverty, Why

always the pains, Why always the dying child?

Why always the husband's small wages?

Why always the unkindness of a friend?

Why not sometimes? Yes, and why not always the

mercies of the Lord? That is praise, and it is to be

our everyday garments. So true.

We are looking at the pathway of praise, and we are still

covering this topic, the perpetuity of praise, and giving

you the principles that would allow you to continue on day

after day, seven times a day or all day, lifting up your hands

or making sure that as long as you live, you will praise the

Lord. Giving you the principles that

will help you understand that as you go through the day, God's

power is available. And because God's power is

available, His promises are undeniable.

And because His promises are undeniable, His presence is

unavoidable. And because His presence is

unavoidable, then we know that His Providence is unsearchable,

The Providence of God. Have you ever taken a moment and

look back at your life and watched and seen all the things

that God has done by bringing you where you are to this point

today? It's so important to do that

because as you look back and see what God has done, you're able

to see how God is going to manifest Himself daily in your

lives. That that's just so important.

You read the Old Testament. They were written for our

encouragement. Romans 15, four says why?

Because you see how God led his people all throughout the

wilderness wanderings, how He led the kings and the judges,

how he led the priests and the prophets, how God was

orchestrating everything, determining every event under

the heavens to bring about His glory.

The precision of His plan, the precision of His prophecy all

being fulfilled so that he can say in Galatians 4, in the

fullness of time, God sent forth the Son born of a woman, born

under the law, that he might redeem his people in the

fullness of time. In other words, at the perfect

time, it was the right time. It was the, the, the specific

time God had made a plan and that plan was to make sure that

a son came at the right time and all the events, everything was

right socially, everything was right politically, everything

was right religiously. Israel was right where God

wanted them to be so that he would send forth his son at the

proper time. The Providence of God, it's,

it's unsearchable, it's unfathomable.

It goes way beyond anything we can imagine because God

orchestrates all things and brings about his perfect plan.

But as you travel the pathway of praise, there is times in which

we we sin, there's disobedience on our part, There's times we

think things we should never think about.

We do things we should never do, and we realize that we've sinned

against the Lord. So as you travel the pathway of

praise, the 5th principle is this, that His pardon is

invaluable. His pardon is invaluable.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me.

Bless His holy name, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none

of his benefits. And the very first one the

psalmist mentions is that he pardons all my iniquities.

It is so, so valuable. It is so important to realize

that God is the forgiver of man's sins.

So no longer, no matter how long the journey or how many sins are

committed in that journey, if we confess our sins, our God is

faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from

all unrighteousness. That's why the psalmist says in

in Psalm 32, How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,

whose sin is covered, How blessed is the man to whom the

Lord does not impute iniquity, in whose spirit there is no

deceit. When I kept silent about my sin,

my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me.

My vitality was drained away, as with the fever heat of summer.

So wonder solemnly recorded in Proverbs 2928.

Excuse me, 13 that he who covers his transgressions will not

prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them shall find

compassion. And here is David talking about

the blessing that comes with the forgiveness of God.

But while he hid his sin and concealed his sin, so he thought

he was, the Lord knew. And so he testifies to the fact

that God's hand was heavy upon him.

He drained his couch with tears. Because you see, God doesn't

allow his children to continue in sin without confessing the

sin, without turning from the sin.

And Dave is a classic example of that.

He said God's hand was heavy upon me.

Verse 5 So I acknowledge my sin to you and my iniquity.

I did not hide. I said, I will confess my

transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin.

That is just so great, and therefore let everyone who is

godly pray to you in a time when you may be found surely in a

flood of great waters, they will not reach him.

You are my hiding place, You preserve me from trouble.

You surround me with songs of deliverance.

The Bible says, and Isaiah 53 verse 4.

Isaiah 53:4

Surely our grief see Himself bore, and our sorrows He

carried. Yet we ourselves esteem Him

stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced through for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities.

The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by

His scourging we are healed. All of us, like sheep have gone

astray. Each of us has turned to his own

way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on

him. He was oppressed and he was

afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth.

Like a land that has led to slaughter, and like a sheep that

a silent before its shearers, so he did not open his mouth.

By oppression and judgement He was taken away and asked for his

his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the

land of the living for the transgression of my people to

whom the stroke was due. It just goes to show you that

our Lord is the one who who forgives us all of our sins.

I love what what Nehemiah said in Nehemiah chapter Chapter 9

verse #17 You are a God of forgiveness, gracious and

compassionate, slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness.

Micah would say in seven verse #18 Who was a God like you who

pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious acts of his

possession, who does not retain his anger forever?

Psalm 85. Psalm 85, verse #3 You forgive

the iniquity of your people. You covered all their sin.

You withdrew all your fury. You turned away from your

burning anger. Then over in Isaiah chapter,

chapter 43, the prophet Isaiah records these words in verse 25.

God says, I even I am the one who wipes out your

transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your

sins. Why is it I can continue down

the pathway of praise, giving thanks, rejoicing in God?

It's because His pardon is invaluable to me.

I know that I will sin. I know that I will offend my

God. I know that there's times going

to come that I will not be pleasing to Him.

And so I go to him and when I when I go to him, he so

willingly forgives all of our transgressions.

It's not that they are not already forgiven, because they

are. Ephesians tells us that they

were forgiven in the past, present and future.

His forgiveness is all-encompassing and the very

first words on the cross where Father forgive them for they

know not what they are doing. And even though they necessarily

weren't forgiven at that point, he was saying there's

forgiveness. That's that's available to those

who will come to me and repent of their sin and turn to me.

I will forgive you. Even though He hung on the

cross, but His purpose in coming was to cleanse us from our sin.

And so when we give our lives to Christ positionally in Christ,

we are totally forgiven of all of our sins.

But the reason we confess our sins, the reason we forsake our

sins is because we want the fellowship and the communion

with God to be intimate and sweet.

But because of my sin, I bring up a barrier between me and my

God. It's it's like you and your

children, right? As a father loves his children

and is willing to forgive his his children.

When a child sins against him, he is willing to forgive.

He wants to forgive. He has forgiven.

But the spirit of forgiveness doesn't mean that the Son is

forgiven. He must come and repent of a

sin. And when he does, the barrier

that the Son put up is torn down.

The sweetness of the communion then begins to happen and to

flow because there's been repentance, there's been a

confession of sin. So in a practical sense, not in

a positional sense, because positionally we are, we are

forgiven in Christ, but from a practical sense, from the sense

of our communion and intimacy with Him.

It comes because we go to Him and we confess our sins because

we want to be right with our God.

We don't want there to be a barrier between US and Him

because we've erected the barrier of sin.

So we go to Him and we ask forgiveness and confess our

sins. The word confess means to say

the same thing. So we say the same thing about

our sin that God says about our sin.

And we go to him, and he forgives so willingly, so

freely, because that's the kind of God we serve.

That's why along the pathway of praise, you must remember that

His pardon is invaluable. It will cause you to praise Him

all the more for His willingness to forgive you of all your sins.

So as you travel, remember the power of God is available.

The promises of God are undeniable.

The presence of God is unavoidable.

The Providence of God is unsearchable, His pardon

invaluable. Invaluable.

Remember in Matthew Chapter 9, when the paralyzed man was

Matthew 9 · chapter mention

healed, they dropped him down through the roof.

They couldn't get in because the crowds were so big around the

house that the text literally says they unroofed the roof.

And Can you imagine? Jesus is sitting in the house

and he's teaching people about his Kingdom, and all of a sudden

all of the dirt and the hay and wood come falling down upon all

who are sitting there because the paralyzed man had to get in

to see Jesus. And then they would lower him

down right before him. And Jesus says to him, My son,

your sins are forgiven. Well, why?

And the Pharisees that were there began to say to

themselves, This man blasphemes. And then the text says that

Jesus knowing what they were thinking, that's just so good.

I love that because you know, when I'm preaching, I have no

idea what you're thinking, but the Lord does.

He knows exactly what's on your mind right now.

Those of you are thinking about lunch plans and those of you

think about football plans this afternoon.

He knows what's on your mind, but he knows what's on their

mind. So he says, let me ask you guys

a question. Which is easier to say your sins

are forgiven or to take up your bed and walk?

Well, the answer is simple, just say you're forgiven.

Why? Because who's going to know?

That's right? But if I say to you first take

up your bed and walk and you don't walk, then you're a liar.

You can't do anything. So the Son of Man says your sins

are forgiven, but to prove to you his sons are his sins are

forgiven, he says take up your bed and walk in.

The paralyzed man takes up his bed and walks out of the house.

So great. So in that from that context,

Matthew takes us to the call of Matthew, and Matthew is a tax

collector. He was below the sinners.

He was below the prostitutes, He was, he was below the

adulterers. He was the worst of the worst.

And Jesus says follow me and Matthew leaves.

It all follows Christ. And Matthew was so overwhelmed

by the forgiveness of God, he invites all the tax gatherers

and all the sinners that he knows to come to his house for

dinner. And Jesus and the disciples dine

with the tax gatherers and the sinners.

And again the Pharisees are so upset because here he is dining

with the filthy riffraff of the day and not dining with them,

the religious elite of the day. And Jesus says you guys missed

it. I've not come to call the

righteous. I've come to call the sinners to

repentance. That was his ministry.

Our gods are forgiving God. And so as you travel the pathway

of praise, there's going to come incidences and times and issues

that will arise where you will sin against the Lord.

That's why his pardon is so invaluable that you can go to

him and say, God, please forgive me in my sin.

And God does that. He wants to, he wants to

fellowship with you more than you want the fellowship with

him. And so he he longs for you.

He wants to dwell in intimacy with you.

His pardon is invaluable. Next, his provision is

indescribable. His provision is indescribable.

2nd Corinthians 915 Thanks being to God for his indescribable

gift. Thanks being to God for his

incomparable gift. Thanks being to God for His

irresistible gift. What's the gift?

The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 623 The gift is eternal life.

That's His provision, but his provision goes way beyond that

because He is a son and a shield, Psalm 84 tells us, and

that no good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk

uprightly. Psalm 8411, what a beautiful

verse. But our Lord's a son and the

shield. He's a provider and a protector.

And so because his, his provision is indescribable,

because it is, how do you describe eternal life?

How do you do that? How do you describe the the

angels, Peter tells us, look down upon the redeemed and

scratch their heads. They don't want to stand it.

They don't get it. And yet we in our finite sinful

minds expect to describe eternal life, describe the forgiveness

of sins. We can't do that.

It's indescribable. And so you you thank God for his

provision of salvation. You go all the way back to

Genesis 22. We've already talked about this

where Abraham named that place Yabe Yuray, the Lord, my

provider. The Lord would provide the

substitute at the right moment, at the right time within His

Providence so that you would not have to pay the price for your

sin. God did that, His wonderful

provision so indescribable. The Bible says that eternal life

is imperishable. It tells us that our inheritance

not only is imperishable, it's incorruptible.

We, we don't understand that we, we live in the law of the second

law of thermodynamics, where everything is getting worse and

worse, not getting better and better.

Everything is crumbling. Just look at your own life.

You're getting older, you're not getting more fit, you're getting

less fit. You know you're not getting

stronger, you're getting weaker. Why?

Because your body's breaking down.

But yet eternal life is incorruptible.

It's imperishable. The call of God, Romans 11/29 is

irrevocable. The gifts and calling of God are

irrevocable. God never takes it back.

God says, you know, I know, I forgave you, but no more.

I'm taking the gift of eternal life back from you.

No, He didn't do that. It's it's the unchangeable God,

the immutability of God, the greatness of God that allows us

to be forgiven of our sins and that we are securing Him.

The provision of God is indescribable.

And we live in that realm because we want to try to

explain to you all that eternal life means we just can't.

It's the life with the eternal God in His presence forever and

ever and ever. But it goes beyond an extended

life. Why?

Because the unbeliever, he will have an extended life in hell.

His eternity will be spent in hell.

But the eternal life is the quality of life that God gives.

His children have a certain quality of life that those who

are not as children do not have. They do not have that quality of

life that springs from the inside out because of what God

has done to cleanse their soul from their sin and give them

eternal life. How great is that?

His pardon is invaluable. His provision is indescribable.

And let me give you one more and Lord willing, I'll finish it

next week. His person is adorable, His

person's worthy of adoration. And we've already talked to you

about the person of praise and why it's so important to to bow

before and the magi when they, when they came to the house,

they bowed before the Lord and worshipped him out of adoration.

There's something about our our Lord that makes him so

incredibly majestic that we can't help but bow before him

and worship him. The psalmist said in Psalm 97

verse #12 Be glad in the Lord, you righteous ones, and give

thanks to his holy name. Give praise and Thanksgiving to

the holy name of God. I love what it says in in Psalm

145. I would extol you, Oh my God, O

King, I will bless your name forever and ever every day I

will bless you and I will praise your name forever and ever.

Four times the psalmist says I will do this, I will do this.

I'm giving you my word. This is what I'm going to do all

day long, forever and ever. I'm going to praise your name.

Great is the Lord how to be praised, and His greatness is

untraceable. One generation shall praise you,

your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts on the

glorious splendor of Your majesty.

And on your wonderful works I will meditate.

Men will speak of the power of your awesome acts, and I will

tell of Your greatness. They will eagerly utter the

memory of Your abundant goodness, and will shout

joyfully of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and

merciful, slow to anger, and great in loving kindness.

The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over.

All His works. All your works shall give thanks

to you, O Lord, and your godly ones shall bless you.

His person is adorable, worthy of adoration.

When you can't think of anything to praise the Lord for that day,

as you travel the pathway of praise, you always remember His

holy name and give thanks to Him.

You remember that He's the Lord, my Provider, the Lord, my

Shepherd. He is the Lord of hosts, the one

who fights for me and protects me.

I thank Him for those things by thinking that he's a sovereign

God of the universe who overrides everything because he

rules over everything. That's who he is, Spurgeon said.

These words we don't sing enough.

My brothers and sisters, how often do I stir you up about the

matter of prayer? But perhaps I might be just as

earnest about the matter of praise.

Do we sing as much as the birds do?

Yet what have birds to sing about compared with us?

Do you think we sing as much as the angels do?

Yet they were never redeemed by the blood of Christ.

He says many of our doubts and fears would fly away if we

praised God more, and many of our trials and troubles would

all together vanish if we began to sing of our mercies.

Often times, depression of spirit that will not yield to a

whole night of wrestling would yield to 10 minutes of

Thanksgiving before God. The perpetuity of praise needs

to be understood as you travel the pathway of praise.

And because of what God has made available to you through His

power and His presence, through His promises and through His

provisions, through His pardon and through His person, we have

no excuse not to praise the Lord.

Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.

Let's pray together. Father God, we thank you for

today. We are grateful for all that you

have done. Forgive us Lord, for going

through days, nights, weeks without lifting our voices in

praise. Our prayer, Father, is that we

would be cloaked with the garment of praise every single

day. You've formed us for yourself,

and the people that you have formed for yourself will declare

your praise. May we do that, Lord,

constantly, continually, consistently, as we travel the

pathway of praise until that day where we go home to be with the

Christ and we'll live the life of eternal praise in your

presence. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.