The Perpetuity of Praise, Part 3

It was over 3,000 years ago that the psalms were written and compiled. Most of them written by the sweet psalmist of Israel, King David. And Jewish tradition tells us that the psalms are just simply praises.

The word means to pluck with a string. And so most, if not all of the psalms were put to music, that they might be sung. And the psalms themselves emphasize the majesty and the magnificence of God amidst the malady and misery of man.

That's why the psalms are so important to read on a daily basis. For most of us, 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 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 number 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. 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 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 the temple. That's quite interesting because, believe it or not, your body is a sanctuary. Paul says it this way in 1 Corinthians 6, verse number 19.

Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary? Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is 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 is to be this continual praise of God in that sanctuary, in that temple where the Spirit of God himself dwells.

And then the last verse 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 number 1, tells us, for praise is pleasant and beautiful. Psalm 33, verse 1, 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 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 number 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'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 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 praise the Lord for bringing us safely 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 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 its setting, God's name is to be praised. Again, Charles Spurgeon, who has written so much about praise in his book on the Psalms, The Treasury of David.

And outside of that, he has written 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 1 Chronicles 9:33, 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. Forevermore 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 its 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 girdle 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 transcendent act of redemption and all the marvelous blessing flowing therefrom. It is 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 number 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 o'clock I praise him, at 10 o'clock I praise him, at noon I praise him, at 2 I praise him, at 4 and 6 and 8 I praise him, seven times a day I praise the Lord. Is that what that means? No.

No, seven is the number of completion. It's the number of perfection. The psalmist is saying my praise for thee will be complete.

It will encompass 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 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.

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. It is 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 in solemn silence, in the deep quiet of your spirit.

He goes on 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 garment. 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 looked 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's just so important. You read the Old Testament. They were written for our encouragement, Romans 15:4 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 His 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 specific time. God had made a plan, and that plan was to make sure that His Son came at the right time.

In 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 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 sin. There's disobedience on our part.

There are 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 fifth 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 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 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.

It's no wonder Solomon recorded in Proverbs 29:28, excuse me, 13, that he who covers his transgressions will not prosper. But he who confesses and forsakes them shall find compassion. And here's 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 David's 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.

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 in Isaiah 53 verse 4, surely our griefs he 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 is led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away and as for 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 forgives us all of our sins. I love what Nehemiah said in Nehemiah chapter 9 verse number 17. You are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abundant in loving kindness.

Micah would say in 7 verse number 18 who is 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 number 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 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 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.

In 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 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 like you and your children, right? As a father loves his children and is willing to forgive 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 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.

Remember in Matthew chapter 9, when the paralyzed man was 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 the dirt and the hay and wood come falling down upon all who were 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 who are thinking about lunch plans, and those of you thinking about football plans, this afternoon he knows what's on your mind.

But he knows what's on your 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: to say you're forgiven. Why? Because who's going to know? 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 sins are forgiven, he says take up your bed and walk, and the paralyzed man takes up his bed and walks out of the house. So great!

So 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 below the adulterers, he was the worst of the worst. And Jesus says, follow me, and Matthew leaves it all follows Christ. And Matthew is 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 God’s a 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 of my sin, and God does that.

He wants to fellowship with you more than you want to fellowship with him, and so 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. 2 Corinthians 9:15: thanks be unto God for his indescribable gift. Thanks be unto God for his incomparable gift. Thanks be unto God for his irresistible gift. What's the gift? The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6:23, the gift is eternal life. That's his provision, but his provision goes way beyond that because he is a sun and a shield, Psalm 84 tells us, and that no good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly. Psalm 84:11, what a beautiful verse, but our Lord is a sun and a shield. He is a provider and a protector. And so because his provision is indescribable, because it is, how do you describe eternal life? How do you do that? How do you describe that?

The angels, Peter tells us, look down upon the redeemed and scratch their heads. They don't understand 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 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 Yahweh Yireh, 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 don't understand that. 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're not getting stronger, you're getting weaker. Why? Because your body is 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 never says, you know, I know I forgave you but no more. I'm taking the gift of eternal life back from you. He didn't do that.

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 secure in 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 a 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 his 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 is worthy of adoration. and we've already talked to you about the person of praise, and why it's so important to bow before. The Magi, when they came to the house, they bowed before the Lord and worshipped him out of adoration.

There's something about 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 number 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 Psalm 145. I will extol you, O 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, highly to be praised and his greatness is untraceable. One generation shall praise 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 lovingkindness. 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. I thank him 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. Oftentimes 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 has 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 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 Christ and will live the life of eternal praise in your presence.

In Jesus name we pray, Amen.