Episode Transcript
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If you're able, please remains standing
and let's give our attention now to God's
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word and first chronicles. This first
chronicles chapter sixteen. So First Chronicles Chapter
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Sixteen. On tonight we hear this
song that David Commands to be Sung and
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the Lord's response. So I'm going
to begin reading it verse seven and we'll
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read through verse thirty six. Let's
hear God's word. then. On that
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day, David first appointed that Thanksgiving
Be Sung to Jehovah by ASAF and his
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brothers. Oh, give thanks to
Jehovah, call upon his name, make
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known his deeds among the People's sing
to him, sing praises to him,
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tell of all his wondrous works,
glory and His holy name. But the
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hearts of those who seek Jehovah Rejoice, Seek Jehovah and his strength, seek
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his presence. Continually Remember the works
that he has done, his miracles and
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the judgments he uttered. Oh offspring
of Israel, his servant, Oh sons
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of Jacob, his chosen ones,
he is Jehovah, our God. His
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judgments are in all the earth.
Remember his covenant forever, the word that
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he has commanded for a thousand generations. The covenant that he made with Abraham,
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his sworn promise to Isaac, which
he confirmed as a statute to Jacob,
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as an everlasting covenant to Israel,
saying to you, I will give
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the land of Canaan as your portion
for an inheritance when you were few in
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number and of little account. And
sojourner's sojourners in it, wandering from nation
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to nation and from one kingdom to
another. People he allowed no one to
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oppress them. He rebuked kings on
their account, saying touch not my anointed
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ones, do my prophets no harm. Seeing to Jehovah, all the Earth
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Tell of his salvation from day to
day, declare his glory among the nation's,
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his marvelous works, among all the
peoples. For Great is Jehovah and
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Greatly to be praised, and he
is to be held in awe above all
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gods, for all the gods of
the People's are idols, but Jehovah made
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the heavens. Splendor and majesty are
before him, strength and joy are in
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his place. Ascribe to Jehovah.
O clans of the People's ascribe to Jehovah
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Glory and strength. Ascribe to Jehovah, the glory, do his name,
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bring an offering and come before him. Worship Jehovah in the splendor of holiness.
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Tremble before him, all the earth. Yes, the world is established,
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it shall never be moved. Let
the heavens be glad and let the
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earth rejoice, and let them say
among the nation's Jehovah reigns. Let the
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sea roar and all that fills it, let the field exalt and everything in
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it. Then the then shall the
trees of the Forest Sing for joy before
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Jehovah, for he comes to judge
the Earth. Oh, give thanks to
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Jehovah, for He is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever. Say
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Also, save us, Oh God
of our salvation, and gather and deliver
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us from among the nations, that
we may give thanks to your holy name
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and glory in your praise. Blessed
Be Jehovah, a god of Israel,
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from everlasting to everlasting. Then all
the people said Amen and praised Jehovah.
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You may be seated. Was We've
been reading in first chronicles. God has
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been chronicling for us the rise to
power of his anointed servant, David the
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King, and through his servant.
He's been showing how he intends to rule
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over his people, how this is
a somewhat the culmination of promises that he's
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been making to them at Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, that they would be
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in the promised land. And now
here they are and here is their king
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ruling over them. But the king, as we have seen, does not
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rule on his own, he doesn't
rule apart from God and a way or
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away from him, a contrary to
what Saldid David has sought. The Lord
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has sought God and has brought the
arc, also called his name to Jerusalem
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and has set it in this place
where God will be worshiped. And now
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the king commands that those who lead
in worship, these levites, who are
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particularly appointed and anointed by the spirit
to lead the people in worship, are
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to call the people to these particular
acts of worship. In other words,
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now that to God, their Lord, Their Covenant God, is placed among
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them, so to speak, as
he is set his king on the throne
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and promised us to rule over them, they are to praise him, they
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are to worship him. They have
received a kingdom, they have a king,
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and a good king who is pointing
them on to their God and not
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to himself. And so we consider
this evening, this song of worship,
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the commands to worship there, as
well as the People's response. But we
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consider it not only from David's perspective, not only from Israel's perspective as those
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who have a new king and are
now further established in the land, but
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we consider it also from our perspective, our particular church, in this time
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and this place. How are we
called to worship? Are we called to
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worship the king? Are we called
to worship God? Well, this is
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the difference, so the great difference
between Israel and us. King, Jesus,
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does call us to worship God,
but he also is God. And
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so whereas Israel didn't worship David but
only worshiped the God who had brought them
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David, we worship both our king
and the one who sent him, the
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father. So I want to begin
by just putting that in perspective of this
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and thinking about our situation, our
call to praise. I'll put it as
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a question. Does Jesus call us
to worship in a way that's similar to
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David? The answer is yes,
you're right. Remember Jesus at the well
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with the woman and John, for
there she asked this questions. While we
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worship on this mountain or on this
mountain, and he says an hour is
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coming when people will worship in spirit
and in truth. Jesus says that an
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hour is coming in even now it's
here. He calls US A to worship
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the apostle, Paul. Jesus is
Apostle, the one he has sent out.
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Calls us in Romans to present our
bodies as a spiritual act of worship.
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I'm in Colossians, we read that
we are to let the word of
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Christ dwell in US, richly singing
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with Thanksgiving
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on the command a to worship not
only the the father, but also the
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Lord Jesus. We read in Philippians
three, where we are told that we
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worship by the spirit of God and
Glory in Christ Jesus. We glory in
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our King, even as we glory
in the father. Or One more,
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Hebrews, Chapter Twelve twenty eight.
Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving
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a kingdom that cannot be shaken,
and thus let us offer to God acceptable
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worship with reverence and awe, for
our God is a consuming fire. So
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Jesus is, of course, the
god of whom David speaks when he says
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we are to worship God, we
are to glory in Him, rejoice in
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him and praise him. Well,
if David calls us to worship our God,
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then how much more, now that
the sun has come, that he
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has come for us and come to
save us, to fulfill the promises that
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we have at the end of this
song? So back to the question.
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Does Jesus call us to worship,
to sing, to praise, to rejoice
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in our God for receiving a kingdom, even as David did? I'll absolutely
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that's exactly what scripture says and it
makes a lot of sense. So let's
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consider now what it is, what
praise is, what does it mean to
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worship? What is David want to
teach us through this song? We're going
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to come. We're going to consider
three things. The how of praise,
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the why of praise, maybe for
the when and the where of praise.
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So the how, the why,
the when and the where. So the
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how of praise. To get at
this question, how are we to praise?
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I want to simply a list the
verbs that are used here in this
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song and I hope that they'll sort
of overwhelm you a little bit. This
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will give me an opportunity also to
do with the puritans off and did in
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their preaching and have lots and lots
of points. So I've got eleven verbs
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here for you and how we are
to praise God. Will move somewhat quickly.
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First, we are to give thanks. This is verse eight. Oh,
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give thanks, we are told.
Praise means being filled with gratitude.
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It means responding for something that is
given. Remember Again Hebrews twelve. We
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have received a kingdom that cannot be
shaken. Therefore, let us worship God.
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We are to be. We are
to be people who give thanks.
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Number two, we are to call
upon him. We are not giving thanks
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sort of just abstractly or just feeling
great and are grateful in our hearts,
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but we call upon a particular a
God, the God of Israel, a
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God who has given his even his
name, Jehovah or Yah, way however
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you pronounce it. These small capital
letters where it says Lord, they're indicate
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this very particular name, the special
covenantal name that God has given to his
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people. We are to call upon
him and him in particular. Number three,
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we are to make known his deeds. Giving praise means not just being
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grateful and calling upon him, but
to make known his deeds or the parallel
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tell of his wondrous works. God
is an active God and we respond by
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sharing and telling of the things he
has done. We don't just tell number
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four, we also sing, David
says in verse nine. Sing to him,
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sing praises to him. We are
not just a talking people, we
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are a singing people. If you
are not a singing Christian, become one.
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Number Five, glory in His holy
name or praise his holy name.
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We are to enjoy, revel in
a sense, and lift up God.
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I lift up his name. It's
not an accident that the ARC is connected
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with his name or that we see
this word Lord or Yahweh or Jehovah over
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and over again. God has revealed
himself in this way. He's made himself
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known to us in his covenant promises. He has promised to rescue his people.
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He says that he is, I
am. We are to glory and
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who he is and how he has
revealed himself to us. Number six,
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we are to rejoice, be happy, have lifted hearts, exalt, we
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read it later, of the trees, even lifting the trees of the field.
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Here, I'm shall exalt and sing
for joy. The seas roared.
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Creation is personified here, is just
filled with noise for God it. He
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is their maker, he made them, he called them to be these kinds
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of creatures. Shall we not also
join in praise? We, who ever
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made higher than them, who are
put in charge of them? Shall the
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trees teach us what to do?
We are God's creatures and we should be
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happy about that. Lift up our
hearts and rejoice. Number seven, praise
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means seeking the Lord. Three things
are lifted. Seek the Lord, his
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strength, his presence. Praising God
means not only calling to him, but
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bringing to mind, as we see
in number eight, remembering. We are
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to remember the things of the Lord, the works, his miracles, his
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attributes. Again, we don't worship
an abstract principle or a theory or an
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algorithm or a feeling. We worship
God, God of Israel, Father,
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son and Holy Spirit. We don't
remember things in general, Remember his works,
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his miracles, his judgment, his
strength, his presence, and we
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seek him in it. Number nine
we ascribe to him praise, not to
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others, but to him alone.
Number ten, we bring gifts. This
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is a part of our worship,
David mentions. It's a it's a way
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that we show our gratitude and rejoice
and give thanks to God by giving things
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to him. And finally, he
loventhe we tremble. We read there in
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the last few verses there, that
we are to tremble before the Lord.
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Remember Again Hebrews Twelve, twenty eight. Therefore, let us be grateful for
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receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God
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acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
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We tremble before the Lord because we
recognize that he is really strong,
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that he is truly powerful. We've
seen it in his works, we know
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it even in his salvation. And
so this is what it means to give
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praise, to give thanks, to
call, to make known his deeds,
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to sing to him, to glory
in his name, to rejoice, to
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seek, to remember, to ascribe, to bring gifts, to tremble.
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This is how we praise. Now
the why of praise? Why does this
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make sense? Well, David gives
a number of reasons. Some we've described
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I'bed already. There's his wondrous works, there's his strength, his presence.
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There's a bit his ability to actually
answer our call when we call upon him
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to be found, when we seek
him, unlike the idols of the people's
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these false gods that do not seek
us and find us and go wherever we
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are, present, everywhere at all
times, always strong, always knowing,
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but rocks and sticks and little things. Why Praise God? Well, because
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of his wondrous works, because of
his ability to answer, because of his
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strength, praise because his creative power, because of his steadfast love and,
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most particularly, because of his covenant
promises, David Says, after in this
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first part, especially calling. This
is where we have the majority of these
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verbs in the first part of this
song. He then says he is Jehovah
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Yahweh our God. His judgments are
in all the earth. Remember his covenant
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forever than he goes on to say
the word that he has commanded for a
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thousand generations. He goes on to
talk about this covenant that he has made
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with able, for him, Isaac
Jacob, Israel, and with us,
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this covenant that he promised to Abraham. This promise that through a child,
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he would make Abraham a great and
mighty people, that he would overcome the
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death that was promised after the fall, that life would be brought forth and
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that the people would enter into a
land where they would dwell with God forever
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and ever and ever lasting. Covenant, he says, and this an act
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of salvation and an act of grace. This is why we praise God.
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As he puts it in perspective in
verses, Nineteen through twenty two, when
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you were few in number and of
little account and of sojourners in it,
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wandering from nation to nation and from
one kingdom to another. People he allowed
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no one to oppress them. He
rebuked kings on their account, saying touch
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not my anointed ones. Do My
prophets no harm. You might summarize all
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that by saying when they were small, God was big. God took care
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of them. They didn't come before
God and say we are a mighty people,
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now you will be our God.
No, God went to them and
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said you're a tiny, insignificant people, traveling, wandering, unsecure her but
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I will make you secure, I
will take care of you and I will
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establish you. And he did,
and he has. Here's David, King
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David with a vast multitude of people
standing there in the Promised Land, all
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pointing forward to the Greater Promised Land
of the new heavens and the new earth,
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where Jesus will stand before millions,
millions who lift up and worship the
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god of the promise. I'll pause
here and say that if you know these
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things, if you belong to the
promised child that is Jesus, as Paul
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tells us, and Galatians, if
we belong to the family of Abraham by
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faith, then glorying and praising and
rejoicing and seeking and calling and giving gifts
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and ascribing, all that makes a
lot of sense. It's like a let's
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imagine a bride on her wedding day. She's been waiting for years and years
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to get married. She wants so
badly to find the man of her dreams
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and then she finally finds him.
He's handsome, he's smart, he's going
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to take care of her, he's
wonderful. And now the day is,
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the day of her wedding. is
she going to be sad and disappointed and
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moping around? No, she's going
to be happy and excited and rejoicing for
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this gift she's been given, this
thing that she has received, this person
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that God has brought into hers her
life, the bride. You won't go
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to the bride and say why are
you just so happy today? It's a
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kind of crazy question to ask.
Of course she's happy. It makes sense.
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Well, this is true of just
a human relationship like this. How
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much more for finding our husband,
Jesus, who takes us not a lovely
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bride who's always wanted a great man, but a whore? The scripture describes
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us a wretched person that is given
herself away over and over again to false
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gods, and he comes and he
takes her and he says, you're mine,
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you belong to me, I will
be your God, you will be
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my bride. Makes Sense that we're
happy. It makes sense that we would
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seek him and call upon him and
give gifts to him and smile and rejoice
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and praise him. Of course,
if you haven't received these gifts, if
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you're separated from Jesus, or if
there's a hardness us in your heart and
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a lack of faith and not really
believing that he said he will do the
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things he will do, then glorying
and praising and rejoicing and singing. They're
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going to feel a little weird.
They're not going to make sense. Maybe,
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if you take it seriously enough,
they'll even be offensive for the Christian
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who's been rescued, the Christian who
knows her husband, we as the church,
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who know the one who has saved
us. The why leads very much
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to the how. The why is
answered, we might say, by a
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WHO. We praise and we worship
our God because he is who he is,
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he's done what he's done. And
now to the when and where.
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What is David say? You read
it in Verse Twenty Three. Sing to
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Jehovah, all the Earth Tell of
his salvation, from day today, never
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stop. In other words, this
praising that he describes here, throughout this
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songs praising that he describes is to
not stop. It's to be everlasting.
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And this makes sense, doesn't it? God is a not a partial God,
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he's an everlasting God, a complete
God, Holy God. His Salvation,
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likewise, is not a partial salvation, a halfway salvation. His Covenant
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is everlasting, his salvation is everlasting. He is everlasting. Shall our praise
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then be a little bit? Of
course not. Our everlasting God who's made
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an everlasting covenant and who saved US
unto everlasting deserves everlasting praise. Tell of
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is salvation. From day today,
should never stop among us and doing our
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homework, in losing our loved ones, in eating a meal, in finding
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a friend, from day today,
from night tonight, from everlasting to everlasting,
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we should proclaim the glories of God. And if the when is always
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the where is everywhere. What does
he say? What is David here say
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to Israel? He says declare his
glory among the nations, his marvelous works
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among the People's. Though the omission
to the world will greatly expand in the
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New Testament with the outpouring of the
spirit at pentecost, with the command and
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Commission of Jesus to go to all
the nations, making disciples, baptizing men
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and teaching them the missionary work of
God's people, is even here in the
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Old Testament. Hear it declare his
glory among the nations, his marvelous works
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among the peoples. If that's true
for Israel again, how much more now
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that the kingdom that we've received that
cannot be shaken as a heavenly one.
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It's one that's everlasting. It's one
that is not limited to just a portion
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of the world, but includes all
of the world and all of the heavens.
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Would we consider the fact that gentiles
like me and perhaps like you,
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have been included in this covenant?
Now that the kingdom has spread throughout all
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the world, where are we to
praise God? Where are we to tell
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of his marvelous works? Where are
we to lift up his name and ascribe
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a glory to him? Everywhere,
always? And so this is what praise
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is. This is what it means
to worship our God. The how,
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the why, the when and the
where. This is what David Commands these
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Levites, asap in particular, and
his brothers, to sing on this and
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things like this. This is the
kind of ministry that they are to exercise.
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And how are the people to respond? will end with this. How
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are the people to respond to this
call to worship? We read of it
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in the very last sentence of this
passage, at the end in verse thirty
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six. Then all the people said
all men and praised the Lord. These
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are the two things they did.
They said Amen and they praised, exactly
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as they're called to do throughout the
song. What does this mean to say
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Amen? One commentator, Robert Rayburn, says. I believe the amen that
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the congregation responds to the words that
they have been a led in worship is
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one of the very best ways of
making sure that all the members of the
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congregation have a proper sense of participation
in the offering up of prayer to God.
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One senses, he says in a
meaningful way, that he is participating
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with others in the offering up of
specific praises and petitions to God, and
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he experiences the communion of the saints
in a very significant way when he joins
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his voices with others in the congregation
or she and says Amen. And this
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is how the people responded to this
call, this call to worship. They
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lifted up their voices and they said
Amen. It's a way of saying yes,
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I agree, my heart is with
these things. It is not,
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in other words, the Levites alone
who have said these things, but when
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the people add their all men to
it, they too are saying them as
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well. There's a quote from Jerome
in the Early Church that he's he described
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the sound of the men from the
congregations like a crack of thunder. Sometimes
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kind of an amazing thing to consider. Suppose the congregations were probably fairly large
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to have that kind of sound,
but even if it's not audibly that loud,
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it should have that kind of feeling
in our hearts. When we say
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all men together, when you say
Amen in response to a prayer and response
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to a song that has been sung
or a blessing that has been given,
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it is the way in which you
unite your voices together and say yes,
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we are together in this, we
participate in this together, and this is
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what they do. They confirm their
minds and their hearts to this confession and
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then they praise as they have been
called to praise. So how shall we
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respond to this God's word, or
the commands that Jesus gives us, or
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the many commands that we have in
the psalms or the spirit in our own
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hearts calling us to worship and praise
God? Amen, and we praise the
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Lord. If you have received a
kingdom that cannot be shaken, if you
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have been married to Jesus Christ,
the great husband of his church, if
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you belong to the Lord God,
who has promised to save us and has
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indeed gathered us and delivered us from
all the nations of the world. Then
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let's join our voices together and say
blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel,
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from everlasting to everlasting, and all
God's people said, let us pray
