HALLELUJAH - PRAISE YE THE LORD

Let Everything That Has Breath

Praise The Lord.
Psalm 150 : 6

As we conclude the year 2009 and step into 2010, let us offer our thanksgiving, praise and worship by declaring Psalm 150 - PRAISE THE LORD! The word "PRAISE" is used thirteen times in this psalm, and ten of those times, we are commanded to "PRAISE HIM"

The word "HALLELU YAH" - Hallelujah - means "Praise The Lord!" Jehovah (or Yah, for Yahweh) is the covenant name of the Lord. It reminds us that He loves us and has convenanted to save us, keep us, care for us, and eventually glorify us, because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, His Son, on the cross. The new covenant was not sealed by the blood of animal sacrifices but by the precious blood of Christ.

Jehovah God is the "power name" of God - El Elohim, and this reminds us that whatever He promises, He is able to perform. Worship is not about the worshiper and his or her needs; it is about God and His glory, honor and power. Certainly we bring our burdens and needs with us into the sanctuary (1 Peter 5:7), but we focus our attention on the Lord.

"You Are Worthy, O Lord,
To receive Glory And Honor And Power;
For You Created All Things,
And By Your Will They Exist And Were Created."
Revelation 4:11

All true praise and worship must begin and remain centered on God and His absolute worthiness to receive all glory, honor and power. There are no techniques for worship, here; no instructions for the praise band - just a number of doorways for you to open to the vast realms of praise await us all.

"Great Is The Lord And Most Worthy Of Praise."

1 Chronicles 16:25.

God is not just worthy of praise, He is MOST WORTHY of praise. In other words, whatever praise we can give Him, He deserves it. We cannot overestimate His worth because He is worth more than anything.

Right now would you join me with your voices, or songs, or instruments, or dances to PRAISE THE LORD by declaring Psalm 150?

Praise God in his sanctuary;
Praise him in his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his acts of power;
Praise him for his surpassing greatness.
Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
Praise him with the harp and lyre,
Ppraise him with tambourine and dancing,
Praise him with the strings and flute,
Praise him with the clash of cymbals,
Praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath Praise the Lord.
PRAISE THE LORD.

Blessed New Year!
TPWC

THE WORTH OF YOUR WORSHIP

"All this I will give you," he said,

"if you will bow down and worship me."
Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan!

For it is written:

'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.' "
Matthew 4: 9-10

We learnt in the last post, the Lord is MOST WORTHY OF OUR PRAISE. Jesus is MOST WORTHY of our worship, yet at the same time He demostrated true worship for us in the flesh. The worshiped became the worshiper for a brief moment in time when he came to this world as the incarnate God. He's our key to how worship ought to work.

His lesson in human worship begins for us in His temptation. Satan, the enemy of anything and anyone who honours God instead of him, waved his withered hand toward all the kingdom of the world and promised them to Jesus in exchange for the Son's worship. It was a monumental request for Jesus to flip the switch of our universe so that all worship would flow in the opposite direction from it's true course. If the Son had worshiped the rebel, the tide would have turned. God would have given up His place as rightful Lord. But that's a temptation we're faced with daily. Our sinful flesh and our number one adversary try to distract us, to distort our motives and our vision, and to get us to tell a monumental lie. A corrupted world, still firmly gripped by the chief rebel, still waves it's kingdoms in front of us and tells us we can have them - at least intriguing and provocative pieces of them. A little misplaced ambition here, a little greed and lust there, and suddenly we're lying about worthiness of God. We're worshiping the unworthy. We've tried to flip the switch ourselves because we want the current of the universe to run in the direction of our cravings.

It won't work. Jesus is our model. He knew up front that the kingdoms of the world were a pitiful reward for forsaking the true God. That thought has to permeate our thinking so that our response in temptation is always an automatic reflection of verse 10: "Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only."

(An extract from Worship The King - by Chris Tiegreen)

Have A Victorious Week!

TPWC