Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

A little girl was saying her prayers, and her mother suggested she ask God to get uncle John a job.

The little girl considered this a good idea, and so she included this in her requests.

The next evening when it was time to say her prayers again the mother reminded her to pray for uncle John to get a job.

The little girl looked up at her mother in surprise and asked, "What was wrong with the job I got uncle John last night?"

There are adults who are convinced this is to be our attitude in prayer.

Just ask and believe and it is yours.

Just name it and claim it.

Others are equally convinced that we need to be persistent in prayer, and pray without ceasing, to make it clear to God it is not just a whim, but a sincere heart-felt desire.

There is debate on prayer, but there is no debate on praise, for the Bible evidence is so overwhelming that it convinces all that praise is to be perpetual, persistent, and never ending.

There may be a limit to how many times you pray to God for something, but there is no limit as to how many times you praise God for something.

The Psalms are filled with never ending praise.

Going through the Psalms is like climbing a mountain.

You don't just go straight up, for there are valleys to go down into on the way up.

There are cliffs to go around, and so the journey to the top takes you up and down, and around, and covers a lot of ground.

The Psalms take us into the valleys of lament, discouragement, and depression, and there are times when the Psalmist is singing the blues.

But in the end he gets to the top, and the book of Psalms ends with a series of praise songs unmatched anywhere in the world.

This is the pinnacle of praise, and Psa. 150 is the grand finale.

James Stewart, the great Scottish preacher, wrote, "All the way through the book of Psalms you feel that you are walking on a smoldering volcano of praise, liable to burst out at any moment into a great flame of gratitude to God."

In the last 6 Psalms we are in the heart of that erupting volcano of praise, and in this last Psalm all heaven breaks loose as the angels of heaven join man in the earthly sanctuary in a universal praise of God.

If you are superstitious about the number 13, you will be glad to know the Bible is not.

13 times the word praise is used in this brief Psalm.

There are no unlucky numbers for God.

Praise Him 13 times and you will be blest.

W. Graham Scroggie said, "Was there ever so much said in 37 words as is said here?"

That is all there is in the Hebrew.

There are just 37 words and 13 of them, over one third, are the word praise.

What does this Psalm tell us?

1.

Who is to be praised?-the

Lord.

2.

Where is He to be praised?-in the sanctuary, and in the mighty heavens.

3. Why is He to be praised?-for

His acts of power, and His surpassing greatness.

4. What are the ways He is to be praised?-by

instruments and by voice.

5. Who is to praise Him?-everything that has breath.

This is also the Hallelujah Chores of the Hebrew hymnal, and it calls for total inclusiveness.

Every voice and every instrument are to join in the reverberation of jubilation that fills the universe with praise to God.

Praise the Lord is one word in Hebrew.

It is hallelujah, and this Psalm begins and ends with hallelujah.

You might feel inadequate to join such a choir and orchestra, but if you have breath, you are invited.

It does not say, if you have pitch, and tone, and can read music, and can sing harmoniously.

It says, if you have breath, join in this universal praise.

There are many groups we would not qualify for, and we would not be so presumptuous to even audition, but for praising God we all qualify.

Do you sing in the choir?

Most of us would say no, and, thereby, be guilty of speaking falsely again, for as children of God we are all in the universal choir that offers unto God the sacrifice of praise.

If you are breathing you are in this choir.

Why are the Psalms forever urging us to praise?

They urge the whole world to do so.

They urge the nations of the world to praise God.

They urge the world of nature to praise God.

They urge the angels of heaven to praise God.

They urge God's people to be in perpetual praise.

Why this obsession- this magnificent obsession with praise?

Because the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, and the primary way we do this is by praise.

Every being and every created thing fulfills it purpose for existence in the praise of their Creator.

Spurgeon in his Treasury of David writes of this Psalm, "We have now reached the last summit of the mountain chain of Psalms.

It rises high into the clear azure, and its brow is bathed in the sunlight of the eternal world of worship.

It is a rapture.

The poet-prophet is full of inspiration and enthusiasm.

He stays not to argue, to teach, to explain, but cries with burning words, Praise Him, Praise Him, Praise Ye the Lord."

In other words, this Psalm is pure praise.

It is a call for all-inclusive praises to God.

It is inclusive of the earthly sanctuary and the heavenly sanctuary, and thus, inclusive of men and angels.

It is inclusive of both God's acts of power and God's being.

It is inclusive of all the kinds of musical instruments, and it is inclusive of both instrumental and focal music.

It basically has no other purpose than that of getting you to join the universe in response to the Creator of all that is, with praise.

Westminister Abbey in London is one of the greatest shrines of the English speaking world.

It memorializes the men and women who have made immense contributions to our way of life.

Just inside the main entrance on the floor in the center aisle is a large brass plate in memory of W. H. Auden, a leading poet of this century.

These words are engraved on it:

In the prison of his days

Teach the free men how to praise.

They came from a poem Auden wrote in which he says that the duty of any poet in this difficult fallen world is to give man a reason to sing.

He wrote:

Follow, poet, follow right

To the bottom of the night

With your unconstraining voice

Still persuade us to rejoice.

In the deserts of the heart

Let the healing fountain start

In the prison of his days

Teach the free man how to praise.

The Psalms are the Bible poets labor to do just that, and this final lesson in Psa. 150 makes a powerful point that true praise must be God-centered.

13 times the word praise is used, and all 13 of them have just One they refer too.

Every praise is praise the Lord; praise God, or praise Him.

We are looking at a spiritual pyramid here.

The base is broad and all inclusive of all that has breath, and all instruments, but the pinnacle narrows to a point that focuses on One and no other.

It is not wrong to praise others, for the same word for praising God is used for the praise of the king, ones wife, and other people.

We can praise our heroes, our country, our flag, and anyone or anything for which we feel strong admiration.

The point of the Psalm, and all the rest of the Bible, is that when it comes to worship there is only one target of praise, and that is God.

Miss this target and you have not worshiped.

You can praise the pastor, praise the choir, adore the sanctuary, and admire the stain glass, and be in awe at the organ, or the high arches of the Cathedral; you can go through a host of positive feelings, and feel wonderful about the whole experience, and not have worshiped one second if you offered no sacrifice of praise to God.

On the other hand, you may be disappointed in all of the above, and have no positive emotions stimulated by the environment, or actions of worship leaders, yet have a great experience of worship if you have, by your voice, or in the silence of your mind, praised your Lord.

True worship is not in how you feel, but in who you praise and adore.

You have to take the positive feelings that may be stimulated in a positive worship setting and direct them toward God, for if you do not praise Him, your experience, no matter how pleasant, is not worship.

A.W. Tozer, one of the great writers on worship, wrote, "I want to warn you against the religion that is no more than love, music, and poetry.

I happen to be somewhat of a fan of good music.

I think Beethoven's nine symphonies constitute the greatest body of music ever composed by mortal man.

Yet I realize I'm listening to music; I'm not worshiping God necessarily.