PRAISE THE LORD!

PRAISE THE LORD!

Another opportunity, privilege is available today for us to praise God and thank Him. Thanksgiving is not what we should be taught or forced to do but the way we have been going about the whole things is terribly sickening. Any attempt to treat thanksgiving with contempt and embittered heart goes way into the bones getting them cracked… “A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.” Whenever we sing, “we’re grateful Oh, Lord” It should be what we mean not what we just sing. A man once said, I am afraid I react quite violently when a worship leader says, “Just do whatever you each want to do. If you want to sit, you sit. If you want to stand, you stand. If you want to dance, you dance.” What he is doing is dividing the people and each of them is doing their own thing. “If you want to come out and wave a flag wave a flag.” “If you want to do this, if you want to do that....” That is not corporate worship.

LET THE PEOPLE PRAISE THEE, O GOD; LET ALL THE PEOPLE PRAISE THEE – Psalms 67:3

These words are no vain repetition but are a chorus worthy to be sung again and again.  The great theme of the psalm is the participation of the all the people in the worship of Jehovah; the psalmist is full of it, he hardly knows how to contain or express his joy. Let the people praise thee, O God.  Cause them to own thy goodness and thank thee with all their hearts; let nations do this, and do it continually, being instructed in thy gracious way. May every man bring his music, every citizen his canticle, every peasant his praise, every prince his psalm.  All are under obligations to Thee, to thank Thee will benefit all, and praise from all will greatly glorify Thee; therefore, O Lord, give all men the grace to adore thy grace, the goodness to see thy goodness.

The chapter started with mercy and this marks the sweet order of the blessed Spirit: first, mercy; then, knowledge; last of all, praising of God.  We cannot see his countenance except he be merciful to us; and we cannot praise him except his way be known upon earth.  His mercy breeds knowledge; his knowledge, praise. The verse is exceedingly emphatic: First, by an apostrophe to God, in the pronoun, Thee. As if he said: Let the people praise thee, not strange gods; for thou art the only true God. Secondly, inasmuch as it is not said, Let us praise Thee, O God; but let the people praise Thee, and let all the people.  For here is expressed the longing of the pious heart, and its fond desire that God should be praised and magnified throughout all lands and by all people of the round earth. Thirdly, by the iteration, in which the same particle is repeated in this and the fifth verse no less than four times, as if the duty could not be sufficiently inculcated.  It is not enough to have said it once; it is delightful to repeat it again – “Let the people praise Thee.”

THEN SHALL THE EARTH YIELD HER INCREASE; AND GOD, EVEN OUR OWN GOD, SHALL BLESS US – Psalms 67:6

We have comforts increased, said Thomas Manton, the more we praise God for what we have already received.  The more vapours go up, the more showers come down; as the rivers receive, so they pour out, and all run into the sea again. There is a constant circular course and recourse from the sea, unto the sea; so there is between God and us; the more we praise him, the more our blessings come down; and the more his blessings come down, the more we praise him again; so that we do not so much bless God as bless ourselves.  When the springs lie low, we pour a little water into the pump, not to enrich the fountain, but to bring up more for ourselves.

Our unthankfulness is the cause of the earth's unfruitfulness.  While man is blessing God for his mercies, He is blessing man with his mercies. Sin first laid a curse on the soil, and grace alone can remove it.  Under tyrannical governments lands become unproductive; even the land which flowed with milk and honey is almost a wilderness under Turkish rule; but, when the principles of true religion shall have elevated mankind, and the dominion of Jesus shall be universally acknowledged, the science of tillage shall be perfected, men shall be encouraged to labour, industry shall banish penury, and the soil shall be restored to more than its highest condition of fertility.  We read that the Lord turneth "a fruitful land into barrenness," for the wickedness of them that dwell therein, and observation confirms the truth of the divine threatening; but even under the law it was promised, "The Lord shall make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land for good."

None can yet say to what extent praising God is capable of doing. As the ground was cursed for the sin of man, and the curse was to be removed by Jesus Christ, the fertility of the ground should be influenced by the preaching of the Gospel; for as the people's minds would become enlightened by the truth, they would, in consequence, become capable of making the most beneficial discoveries in arts and sciences, and there should be an especial blessing on the toil of the pious husbandman. Whenever true religion prevails, every thing partakes of its beneficent influence.

PRAISE GREETINGS TO YOU ALL

Happy New Month Proper.

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