Is Praise Really That Big Of A Deal? (Psalm 47)
GIST: Everyone should boldly, joyfully, continually, and wisely praise God because He’s worthy, powerful, sovereign, providential, and loving… just to name a few ☺️.
I started the service this morning by reading a testimony I first shared at our business meeting Wednesday. This summer, we were able to see God do some absolutely incredible things, and I wanted to make sure we didn’t forget to praise Him for it.
And praise is exactly what Psalm 47 is all about. It’s a short psalm, but it’s packed with an awesome response to our driving question today: Why is praise such a big deal?
“1 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy! 2 For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth. 3 He subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet. 4 He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom He loves. Selah 5 God has gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet. 6 Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! 7 For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm! 8 God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne. 9 The princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; He is highly exalted!”
Why is praise such a big deal? Here’s our gist for this morning: Everyone should boldly, joyfully, continually, and wisely praise God because He’s worthy, powerful, sovereign, providential, and loving… just to name a few. Yeah, I know that’s a mouthful, but I told you, there’s a lot in this little psalm! Let’s break that down by looking at two categories this morning. What does this psalm have to say about how we should praise and why we should praise? Now, this won’t be an exhaustive look at the subject, but I think it gives us plenty to chew on ☺️.
I. How Should We Praise Him?
Look at just that first verse. It’s packed! “Clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!”
Everyone. Before we even look at how we should be praising, I think it’s worth noting who the we is. It’s, well, everyone. Praise isn’t something reserved for pastors or worship leaders. It’s a vital part of all our lives. We were made to praise, and we will. The question is, where will our praise be directed? There is something in your life that captures your imagination, something you find yourself thinking about, or dreaming about, or bringing up in conversations. There are people and places and things (nouns, I guess ☺️) that excite you on a level that other stuff just doesn’t. We were created for praise…but we’re not always praising the One for whom we were created.
I know this is leading into point two a bit ☺️, but we were made to praise God, and we should be praising Him at least a couple different ways. The first way alluded to in these verses is→
Boldly. Notice the volume connected to this praise. Hands are clapping. People are shouting loud songs. I know this goes against a bunch of silly Baptist stereotypes, but that’s good! Praise is not meant to be something constrained, and it’s definitely not meant to be something hidden. I know I’ve made this statement often this summer, but it’s something that weighs heavily on my heart. If the only time I love Him is in safe spaces where that love won’t be challenged or threatened or questioned, is that love real? No. I can’t say with a clear conscious that it is. One day, I will stand before Jesus. I don’t want Mark 8:38 to be true of me, and guys, it’s not easier for me to stand in this world than it is for you: “38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” Our praise should be something we want to share, and share→
Joyfully. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking ☺️. I promise I don’t go verse hunting, so I can bring up my favorite topics! We walk through books of the Bible to avoid that, but if it keeps coming up it means… it’s in there a lot!
You’ve heard me say this probably 1,000 times: Christians should be the most joyful people in the world. Too often, we’re not even close. Why? Because we allow so many lesser things to rob us of the excitement of belonging to Jesus. Guys, we’ve seen God move this summer. It should be something that’s ringing in our hearts constantly, but it’s probably not. Why? Because Satan and our sin-natures don’t want us to be joyful. Joyful people are contagious. Joyful people are excited about Jesus. That’s dangerous. Instead, there have probably been a lot of distractions that have crept into your heart trying to turn you away from joy toward frustration, or fear, or anger, or worry. I know, because it’s been happening to me too. But we’re called to sing praises because our lives have been transformed by joy… even when life isn’t going like we had planned.
In addition to this, we often look at living for Jesus as an obligation instead of a blessing. We don’t want to tell people about Him because we don’t want to burden them with our faith that might be different from theirs. Tim Keller put it better than I could in his devotion on the psalms: “Lord, “sharing my faith” feels like a threatening duty, but it should not be that. If I urge people to believe in you, I am summoning them into joy. I should not do such a thing with a long face.”
Yeah, that’s just the first verse! Look at verses 6-7 again. And I’m going to quote this from the NASB this time because it draws attention to the type of psalm to which the original Hebrew seems to be referring. “6 Sing praises to God, sing praises; Sing praises to our King, sing praises. 7 For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with a psalm of wisdom.”
Ok, two more points here. First, we clearly need to be praising God→
Continually. In two verses, the psalmist tells us to sing praises… five times! We won’t always feel like it. That’s something we have to remember. Not being in the “mood” to praise isn’t weird. We all feel like that. But we have to inform our emotions with the truth. Charles Spurgeon put it so well when he said, “[God] never ceases to be good[;] let us never cease to be grateful.” Even when you don’t feel like it, praise Him anyway, and see what that does to your heart!
And that feeds directly into the last one here→
Wisely. The word for psalm here is maskil. You probably recognize it from several of the titles of the psalms where it will say something like “a maskil of David”. While it’s a word that translators struggle with, it seems to be, at least on one level, connected to contemplation, and that seems to be the consensus of commentators on this verse. When we praise, we don’t just make noises or get caught up in emotional responses. We praise the God we know. The closer we walk with Him, the more we come to know Him, the deeper our praise. That’s why, again, it’s so important that we not neglect really digging into His Word!
So, all of us are called to praise Him boldly, joyfully, continually, and wisely. Why?
II. Why Should We Praise Him?
Well, the psalm has a few awesome things to say about that too! First, because He’s→
Worthy. “2 For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth.” Then, verse 5 says, “5 God has gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.” Nearly all commentators connect these images to Jesus Christ’s second coming. If you’ve been with us for our Revelation study, this trumpet imagery will be a familiar one. Remember that throne room picture where the scroll that represents God’s plan to redeem the world is sealed and no one can open it? They start crying out, “who is worthy”, and the Lamb that was slain enters the scene. Who is worthy of our praise? The Jesus who came, took on Hell in our place, and is coming back to redeem the world once and for all!
And He’s→
Powerful. That’s at least part of what verse three is referring to: “3 He subdued peoples under us, and nations under our feet.” I might not need to spend too much time on this since we’re a week removed from spending a whole weekend discussing His power in VBS ☺️, but it’s something we should never forget. No matter how big the problem, our God is bigger. It’s easy to forget who He is and what He’s done, when we’re wearing the blinders of the here and now. But He’s monumental (to use our VBS terminology ☺️), and He’s→
Sovereign. Look at verse 8. “8 God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne. 9 The princes of the peoples gather as the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God; He is highly exalted!” Honestly, there are some pretty cool things going on in these verses. We see God portrayed as reigning. It’s the beautiful reminder that no matter how shaken we feel, He’s still in charge. My parents really liked the show “Who’s The Boss?” when I was a kid. The definitive answer to that question is not Tony Danza, but God Almighty!
The second part of this verse might seem less clear. We have the princes of the peoples gathering together as the people of the God of Abraham, and something about shields belonging to God. This is a further picture of God’s sovereignty. All the power of the world belongs to Him, and He chooses to “shield” the earth. Now, that imagery is really awesome. An old commentator I read pointed out that a shield is a weapon of mercy and grace. The shield takes the arrows meant for you! That’s exactly what Jesus did on the cross, and this gracious sovereignty is extended to all nations. No one is outside of His love! And, He’s→
Providential. Look at verse 4. “4 He chose our heritage for us, the pride of Jacob whom He loves. Selah” Isn’t it great that God inspired the writers to use Jacob’s name here? If you’re not super familiar with the Old Testament, God promised Abraham He would use his offspring to bless the world. He made a covenant with him that would be carried for generations until we would see that promise ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. Abraham didn’t have any kids with his wife until he was really old, and that “son of promise” was named Isaac. Isaac then had two sons, Jacob and Esau, but the blessing and covenant continued with Jacob’s line. He’s the one God renamed Israel, and the one who had 12 sons that later became the 12 tribes of Israel…etc. Often, when referring to God, the Old Testament will refer to Him as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They all had their share of trials, but Jacob had to have started as the biggest scoundrel of them all!
Why do I take the time to draw all that out toward the end of a sermon ☺️? Because God has awesome plans and purposes… that have nothing to do with our worthiness. Let me just lay out two observations here before we move on because they’re worth thinking about:
1. You don’t have to earn God’s favor. He loves you because that’s His character. Don’t wait to come to Him until you think you measure up. None of us ever will.
2. You’re circumstances are part of His design. That’s super comforting…unless you don’t particularly like your circumstances right now. I read a lot of great quotes on this point this week, but I’ll share one that hit hard from a 16th century English poet, Giles Fletcher, “It may be thou art godly and poor. It is well; but canst thou tell whether, if thou [weren’t] poor, thou wouldst be godly? Surely God knows us better than we ourselves do, and therefore can best fit the estate to the person.”
Remember, this design comes from the God who is→
Loving. Verse 4 ends by calling God’s people, the people “whom He loves. Selah” That word Selah indicates a pause, and it seems to be a call to take it in, to really consider what has just been said. We, like Jacob, are a bunch of messes, still, God loves us. Oh, we should praise Him!
I know that was a lot to address from a little psalm, so I’ll try to be quick in my→
TAKEAWAYS
Praise should spring from us boldly.
Praise should bring us joy.
Praise should be our natural and continuous reaction to life.
Praise should grow deeper with serious contemplation.
…As we consider the worth, power, sovereignty, providence, and love of our amazing God.
Are we letting that sink in?
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