1Praise the LORD! For it is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant and praise is becoming. The LORD builds up Jerusalem; He gathers the outcasts of Israel. 3 He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.4He counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them. 5Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite. The Lord supports the afflicted; He brings down the wicked to the ground. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; Sing praises to our God on the lyre,

This has little to do with "performing" a musically-correct piece. It has everything to do with bringing-forth to God the very best praise from within YOU! You can’t do that if you take a slip-shod or lackadaisical attitude. It is as bad as a preacher "winging" the sermon. That’s not bringing the best of praise from within – that’s offering a blemished sacrifice!

Put a smile on your face and sing! No one came here to hear you hit the wrong note. We are here to offer the sacrifice of praise.

Henry Ward Beecher was one of those "celebrity preachers". He was famous for his ability to hold an audience spellbound. One bleak day as the service was to begin in his church, the pews were full, but it was Henry’s brother Thomas who emerged from the pastor’s study.

Realizing that the lesser-known preacher was going to fill in that morning, a number of the members and visitors got up to leave. In a moment of inspiration, Thomas Beecher stood and said, All those who came to worship Henry Ward Beecher this morning may leave…Any who came to worship God may stay.

Our singing is for the glory of God. There is no place for hero worship, other than Jesus. But there is also no place for half-hearted, feeble worship. Our singing ought to be strong.

Every revival in the modern era has been characterized by two great features – Biblical preaching and great Bible-based singing. In England, when the state church had become stiff, formal and decadent – so empty and hollow that it had lost its message, it was the Wesleys that God sent on the scene. John Wesley was a fiery preacher who went to the common people and preached. But, alongside the great preacher was his brother Charles, author of great soul-stirring words, sung by common voices…miners, farmers. Consider those Methodist pioneers’ contributions to hymnals in almost every denomination:

O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing,
Blessed Be the Name
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,
Christ the Lord is Risen Today
A Charge to Keep I Have

There is not an Easter, Christmas or hardly any other week that passes that we aren’t touched by the Wesleys. Let us sing!

Sing praises to our God on the lyre,

I am as nearly musically-illiterate as one man can be…however I CAN make music. It may not be particularly pleasing to your ears, but in the context of worship, I wouldn’t be playing for you!

Children have less hang-ups than we adults; they just make music. Have you ever heard a child when he is happy – there’s always singing, humming, whistling. The lyrics are incredibly creative and hardly ever rhyme. You won’t find them in anyone’s hymnal or praise & worship segment; but they are songs gushing from a happy and pure heart. Perhaps that is what Jesus meant when He said we must become like little children to enter the Kingdom. Just make music!

Reverence
11The LORD favors those who fear Him, Those who wait for His lovingkindness.

Do you know that reverence has much less to do with being quiet than being ready? Reverence is found in a heart that is willing to do the will of God. There are times to be quiet in church, children [in particular] and some adults must be taught about those times. But true worship with reverence demands that we shout the "AMEN" at the appropriate time as well. Children need to behave…adults need to be alive!

Telling Others
Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion! 13For He has strengthened the bars of your gates; He has blessed your sons within you. 14He makes peace in your borders; He satisfies you with the finest of the wheat. 15 He sends forth His command to the earth; His word runs very swiftly. 16He gives snow like wool; He scatters the frost like ashes. He casts forth His ice as fragments; Who can stand before His cold? 18He sends forth His word and melts them; He causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow. He declares His words to Jacob, His statutes and His ordinances to Israel. 20He has not dealt thus with any nation; And as for His ordinances, they have not known them. Praise the LORD

Sooner or later it comes down to being willing to share Christ. Last week I made the point that the church only exists for two purposes, worship and witness. In reality they are components of only one purpose – that of being the people of God. To witness is to worship; to worship is to witness.

Invariably they also point to each other. All true worship will witness to the presence of God, while the witness is incomplete, except it points to the worship of God.

What, why and how – these are the questions that Psalm 146 and 147 have shown us clear answers to.

Victor Hugo, in one of his short stories, describes a man walking along a path. Suddenly he discovers that the path is slipping out from under him. He sees that he is caught in something sticky that is pulling him down. He tries to get out; he pulls at his feet, but the harder he tries, the deeper he sinks.

Hugo describes the horrible feelings of this man in despair. As the man sinks to his waist, he tries to reach the tree limbs, but they’re too far. He reaches upward to the sky and cries out. The sand comes up…up…up.

The sand reaches his neck, and he begins to choke with the pressure. Then his drying, cursing, shrieking lips are suddenly covered by the sand…and he strangles, and is gone.

You know what quicksand is; we live in a world that is like quicksand. It is constantly pulling us down and we are reaching out and crying out. We worship because God has reached His loving hand downward in Jesus Christ. We simply take that hand, and are saved. THAT is something to worship about – enthusiastically! Let the church say, Amen!