Singing Praise to God
—What exactly is praise?
Andrew Fountain – Dec 11, 2016
I recently read about how to approach English royalty—the “neck bow”
That wounldn’t of cut it with Henry VII (what would have been cut would’ve been your head)
What about God?
Today you’re going to learn more about how God wants us to approach him 1. Worship
What is the difference between “praise” and “worship”
We tend to use the terms interchangbly nowadays
That’s fine. Words are fluid and change meaning over time
The Bible uses them much more specifically
We’re going to see how the Bible uses them
Hebrew words for worship
sha-chah or hishtawa
literally mean to “prostrate yourself” in respect and honour
It has the idea of going down, in recognition of their greatness
to throw yourself down on the ground in front of them
like an extreme form of bowing down before someone (neck bow)
It is an acknowledgement of lordship That everything belongs to our king!
But this extends to the whole of our lives
It does not involve singing or dancing, but it may involve offering gifts, and our own selves
Please understand: I’m not trying to tell us we’re to stop calling our singing “worship”
Nowadays we don’t make a distinction between praise and worship
But the Bible does, and it’s useful to understand it
So worship means literally to “lie on your face before God”
But sometimes the Bible uses it of actions that carry the same message
e.g. Giving gifts
in fact our whole lives act this out
Two examples of worship that was pure action
e.g. The Elder’s threw their crowns down before the Lord in Revelation
The woman who anointed Jesus’ feet with oil
Definition:
To worship God:
To acknowledge him as our Lord
2. Praise, the other side of the Coin
This is what I want to focus on today
There are a number of Hebrew words for praise
Hebrew for Praise:
Common word: halal
from which we get halelu-jah = praise Jah
Praise ⇧ has the idea of lifting up
Worship ⇩ is casting ourselves down at his feet
Nehemiah 8:6
Then all the people answered, ‘Amen, Amen!’ while lifting up their hands.
Then they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
The physical actions are completely opposite
Exactly the same but in reverse order:
2 Chronicles 7:3
they bowed their faces to the ground on the pavement, and worshipped
then praised the LORD , saying: ‘For he is good, For his mercy endures forever.’
Ronald B. Allen makes the following statement (quoting Westermann):
Praise in the O.T.
“…Praise to God must be vocal
Praise! A Matter of Life and Breath by R. B. Allen (Nashville:Nelson, 1980), p.58
You may say “that’s not true at all, I can do that…”.
That’s not what he’s saying—he’s speaking of the O.T.
Before we go any further, I’ll give you a couple of examples
notice what David says here about praise (parallelism)
just show v.1
Psalm 9
I will praise you O LORD , with my whole heart.
Sing praises to the LORD , who dwells in Zion!
Praising God, is telling of his works. It is telling forth, declaring, proclaiming God’s works.
In verse 11 the Psalmist encourages other people to join in…
Psalm 107
Oh, that men would praise the LORD for his goodness
Let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving,
Same idea
1 Peter 2:9 —a very clear verse
1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen generation, proclaim the praises
3. Examples
Allen —apples in car (p.61.63)
Read v.1–8
v.19–21
and then God answers! v.22–25
Psalm 22 tells a story
David Cries out to God
Who heard prayer in the past
The problem
The prayer
The praise
Psalm 22
My example: keys lost
Anyone here have some stories? 4. Praise is Public and vocal
Some examples
Praise in the Psalms
Ps.35, 40, 111 God, if you help me, I’ll tell everyone about it!
-My example: someone handed me a cheque, totally out of the blue
-Praise is addressed to God, but it for others to hear
Ps.149 Amazing that God takes pleasure in our praise!
Summary: Praise is generally addressed to God, but it for others to hear
I went through all 150 Psalms to see how many actually addressed God
99/150 (was hoping for 100)
The others tell of what he has done—addressed to other people, but about God
For the first half hour or so or our meetings we are singing to God
Please don’t misunderstand—a difficult point to make without being taken the wrong way
We often call it worship time, but technically it is praise
You can do anything you want during this time—you can stand or sit or lie on the floow
You can pray, or dance, or repent or kneel in worship, it is between you and God
But if you want to praise God, understand you can’t praise him without moving your lips
Also the idea is that it is public, so people should be able see you are praising God by looking at you But am I making too much of a distinction?
Isn’t there really a big overlap between praise and worship so that they amount to the same thing?
It is true that when we are praising God, in some senses it is an act of worship
But if we muddy them together, we will lose the intensity of each one
Eating a meal—nothing to stop us mixing main dish and desert together
e.g. David dance before the Lord in 2 Sam 6
Half dance/half prostrate... Sit? Flop?
dance with one leg and arm lying down?
Lie down with a leg twitching
God understands, we don’t want to be legalistic here
But God likes intensity, not lukewarm-ness Why sing? Why not just talk?
The N.T, word “Psalm” literally means to “pluck a string”
very strong idea in the Bible of singing to praise God
Part of the way we are made is to express joy with singing
English soccer match—no singing, just state your praise for your team
We are going to do it now... (Possible songs:)
God, You have Done Great Things (Let your Mercy Rain)
From the Highest of Heights (Indescribable)
I see your face (beautiful)