Thursday, March 1, 2018

Thursday - Psalm 47 - Sing Praises


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lap, shout, sing... in some way, form or fashion, we owe God vocal, vigorous and visible praise. In the words of David, God is high, terrible, great, sovereign, loving and holy. And, seeing that He is indeed worthy of tremendous accolades of praise, we who are His creations should pay Him what He deserves.

Notice now that in this psalm David said that we are to sing praises "with understanding" - that's significant (Psalm 47:7).  It is truly one of the most critical characteristics of our existence, the ability to choose to love and worship and to do it not only volitionally, but with a clear realization of what exactly we are doing or saying in our adoration.  Ignorant praise is hardly praise at all... it’s flattery.  Our praise can (and should) be intelligent praise for 2 reasons.   First, there is plenty of information available about who God is, so we have no excuse for being ignorant of His person.  Second, God is not like us (in that the more we know about each other, the less we are impressed.)  As we have already stated, God is actually worthy of all praise.  He is infinitely worthy.  So, knowing more will (or should) naturally drive us to praise Him more.  Hence, intelligent praise is required.

In Luke 10:27 & 28 we find (among other things) that we are to love God with our mind.  He is worth examination.  We should indeed research, evaluate, meditate on and discuss who God is and what He does.  It is not just a beneficial exercise... it is invaluable and expected.  Sing praises with understanding.

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