Sermon Tone Analysis

Praise IS Worship

What is Praise?

How is it different from worship?

Is it different from worship?

In the 90’s much of what was sung in churches across America was referred to as Praise and Worship.

This language was being intentionally used to for singing in churches in order to make a distinction between upbeat or fast songs and slower songs.

Fast songs were praise and slow songs were worship.

This of course led to a lot of confusion about music styles in an effort to get away from old school church singing.

When I was saved in 1996 as a teenager, I was a guitarist in a band and immediately went into the church and began to volunteer by playing music.

Now sometimes we would refer to that as the music ministry, yet it would be called the worship team sometimes and other times it would be called the Praise band.

I think all of these terms have become unhelpful for teaching our people what Worship is all about.

It caused our people back then to think we need to start singing praise in an upbeat way, until we are getting into the presence of God then we need to slow things down and reverently worship him.

So singing became a formula that was all about hyping our emotions, which becomes manipulation.

This re-enforced the idea that “worship” was the portion of the service when we all sang together.

This of course is not right at all.

We worship God when we gather, when we talk - fellowship, when we sing, when we give, when we listen to the word preached and read to us, when we pick up our heads off the pillow in the morning and when we lay it back down at night, and everywhere in between.

From the Westminster shorter catechism -

Q1: What is the chief end of man?

A1: Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever.

In laymen's terms our chief end is to worship God in all things at all times, that is what we were created for.

Worship is ascribing worth to someone by holding them in high esteem and submitting your life, your passions and desire to them.

Worship is a lifestyle not an event

Worship is a lifestyle not an event

The book of Psalms is a combination of songs, poems, prayers.

And these all had different emotions connected to them.

Some are psalms of lament and mourning, some are hymns and songs or thanksgiving and praise, some are poems of wisdom, poems of praise, and some are prayers against God’s enemies and some are descriptions of God’s salvation in the coming messiah.

But all the psalms help inform our worship of God for different reasons.

They express different emotions because life is full of different emotions, and we are called to worship God with our life for all of our life.

So what is praise and how is it connected to worship?

So praise, which comes from the Hebrew word - Halal, means to honor and ascribe worth to something or someone verbally.

That is why the word hallelujah - Halal plus Jah (which is short for Yahweh) means to honor and ascribe worth to God verbally.

To say “Hallelujah” means Praise to God, Honor and worth to God!

So Worship is ascribing worth to someone by holding them in high esteem and submitting your life, your passions and desire to them, and Praise is to honor and ascribe worth to someone verbally.

Do you see the connection.

Worship is your lifestyle and praise is your words.

Praise is worship that can be seen and heard

Praise is always some form of external display.

Praise is most commonly verbal worship.

This can be loud with a shout and quiet with common expression in speech.

Yet for those who cannot hear or see or speak, praise can be done with clapping your hands, and lifting your hands, it can be done with dancing, shouting and even crying.

I also would point out that praise for God happens all around us by the rest of his creation, seen and unseen.

The Psalm we have before us today is a poem of Praise.

It has no known author, and for very specific reason I believe, hold that thought.

It is the last psalm in the psalter and it is meant to the final word in instruction of prescribed praise to our God.

The literary styles of parallelism will show that the psalmist is saying somethings that are similar yet different, and there is a layer of multiple meaning when you understand the culture that it was written to and that sang it.

For 6 verse that seem on their face to be simple, there is much here to understand and yet a simple message.

This Psalm will tell us Where to Praise God, Why we should Praise God, How we should Praise God, and Who should Praise God!

Let’s dive in!

So… Praise the Lord, or Worship God in a way that can be seen or Heard… But Where?

This poem is written in a parallelism style where a similar thought is said in a different way to show movement and emotion.

And please remember this was written to Jews who went to a temple to worship God and sung these psalms while going in, while inside and while leaving.

We need to get a picture of that before we can import it to our times for application.

Now the correspondence in this verse is obvious… “Praise the Lord”, “Praise God”, corresponds with “Praise him”.

And “in his sanctuary” corresponds with “in his mighty heavens”.

There is a parallel thoughts here that gives a full picture of what the psalmist is instructing.

We have covered Praise the Lord, but what is meant by, “in his sanctuary” and “in his mighty heavens”?

“Praise God in his sanctuary”—that is, the earthly sanctuary.

So this poem is calling upon earthly worshipers to praise God, but it’s not enough for God to be worshiped in the earthly sanctuary.

As grand and as glorious as that might be, God is worthy of a worship that far transcends the worship that can ever be given to Him in an earthly sanctuary.

No, we must also praise God in His mighty heavens—that is, in the heavenly sanctuary.

And so, there’s movement from calling on earthly worshipers to calling on angelic, heavenly worshipers.

While they were calling for this to happen, we have a glimpse into the heavenly sanctuary this has happened and is happening.

In John has a vision of a scroll that cannot be opened except by the Lamb the was slain, and then praise for him and worship happens in the mighty heavens! is prescribing something to God’s people that has been and will continually be done!

But let’s not mention it… you have to hear from the scriptures.

Where Should God be Praised??? on earth as he is in Heaven!

In our gatherings like he is in that gathering!

Praise the Lord!

Praise God in his sanctuary; Praise him in his mighty heavens!

As much as the psalmist is telling them to praise God in the heavens he is encouraging praise here to be like it is there!

But why would we praise God like this?

So here we have it again, some parallel thoughts that correspond to each other and show a full picture of worship to God.

“Praise him’ corresponds to “Praise him”, and “his mighty deeds” correspond to “his excellent greatness”.

What does that mean?

His mighty deeds, are the the things he has done, they are his works… Yet his excellent greatness is who he is, that is his worth.

What God has done, he has done because of who he is!

His works are because of his worth!

Praise God for his works because of his worth!

What does that look like?

Well, what are his works?

God created the heavens above and the earth below, the sun moon and stars, and the light they give off.

the expanse of the land and the rising of the mountains to the deepest of oceans.

He made humanity in his image and likeness, and everything that lives and breathes and moves on this planet.

He did not stay far off and uninvolved in this life he gave us, he was gracious to Adam and Eve when they sinned, he was gracious to cain after he killed his brother, he was gracious to Noah who immediately sinned after the ark came to rest.

He was willing to have a covenant with his creation and swear by himself when he covenanted with Abram in .

He graciously gave him a son in Isaac and then another one Jacob.

He sovereignly delivered Joseph into Egypt’s hands in order to providentially save his people through Egypt’s wealth that Joseph was in charge of.

God saves Moses from death as a child and then calls him to deliver his people from Pharaoh’s slavery.

God delivers his children BEFORE giving them the law by which to live by.

God gives them the power to take the promised land under the leadership of Joshua, and then raises up Judges to help rule the people who are constantly following other gods and falling away from their true deliverer.

When his unfaithful people want a king he gracious raises up kings for them to follow, and when the kingdom is divided and he has to judge the sinfulness of his people he raises up prophets who declare that one will come to fight the battles that they cannot win and restore them as a people to God who is Holy even though they have no hope of being Holy like God is.

God destroys every nation that tries to harass and kill his people and ultimately sends his son to save us from our sins.

In one epic moment he takes on flesh and does for us what we cannot do for ourselves, which is to be perfect and never sin and yet die for sinfulness in order to beat death, hell and the grave once and for all who believe… Which are those he has predestined since before the foundation of the world that he created.

He sends his Spirit to reside in those he has saved and promises to empower us to endure to the end when he will judge the living and dead and ultimately welcome his children into the closest of all relationships, where we will worship him forever… Those are just some of his works!

But none of this is because of our worth, rather it is all because of his worth, his excellent greatness!

God does not do his mighty deeds because we are so special and worth while, because we have disobeyed and are in a sinful state and do not deserve his love.

Yet it is the very nature of God who is...

Light and Love!

God who is eternal, self sufficient and self existent!

God who is Holy, righteous, and transcendent (meaning there is none who compare to the uniqueness of our God.)

God who is Omnipresent, Omniscient, and omnipotent… (he is everywhere, all powerful and all knowing).