WORSHIP AND SONG AND PRAISE

Lesson 6 for August 6, 2011

When Saul was anointed as king of Israel, God “changed his heart” (1 Samuel, 10: 9) by filling it with the Holy Spirit.

However, Saul’s heart was not perfect before God and He gradually separated from Him.

Because of that, the kingdom was taken away from him; God sought a “man after His own heart” (1 Samuel, 13: 14)

A MAN AFTER GOD’S HEART

David’s heart didn’t exalt like Saul’s, but kept being a heart after God’s heart.

A MAN AFTER GOD’S HEARTDavid was that man after God’s heart. That means that he had already surrendered his heart to God even before being anointed and receiving the Holy Spirit. We can read that in the psalm he composed while he was grazing his father’s sheep, Psalm 23.

Good examples are his fight with Goliath or when he forgave Saul’s life several times. The Bible tells us that “David behaved wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him” (1 Samuel, 18: 14)

How is your heart before God?

DAVID’S PRAISE IN DIFFICULTIESDavid’s life was a life of worship. Every event in his life was a reason to worship God through music and song.

We can see that in the psalms he wrotein hard times of his life.

Psalm 59When Saul

ordered to watch his house to kill him and his wife

helped him to runaway

1 Samuel, 19

Psalm 34When he acted

like insane before the

Philistine king Abimelech

1 Samuel, 21

Psalm 57

When he hid from Saul in the cave of

Adullam

1 Samuel, 22

Psalm 52

When he found out that Doeg had killed the priests of Nob

1 Samuel, 22

Psalm 63When he was fleeing from Saul through the desert of

Judah

1 Samuel, 23

Psalm 54

When the Ziphites told

Saul where to find David

1 Samuel, 23

Psalm 142

When he was hidden in the

cave of En-Gedi

1 Samuel, 24

Psalm 18

Remembering the times God

saved him from Saul

2 Samuel, 22

Psalm 60

During the war against the Edomites

2 Samuel, 8

Psalm 3

Fleeing from Absalom

2 Samuel, 16

DAVID’S PRAISE IN DIFFICULTIES

Do you praise God in the hard moments of your life? Do you remember what He did for you when you were in difficulties?

DAVID’S PRAISE IN REPENTANCEDavid understood the need for divine forgiveness. He didn’t despair when he sin, but he came before God with a “broken and contrite heart” (Psalm, 51: 17); he was confident that only the sacrifice of Jesus could forgive his sins.

He wrote several Psalms about his experience; they show his repentance and his trust in the forgiveness God provides. Believers of all ages have found comfort for the desperation that sin generates in those psalms.

Let’s read Psalms 32, 51 and 86 in the context of the sacrifice of Jesus, under the shadow of the cross on Calvary.

Psal

m 3

2: 5“I acknowledged

my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," And You forgave the iniquity of my sin” Psal

m 5

1: 9

-10“Hide Your face

from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me”

Psal

m 8

6: 5“For You, Lord,

are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You”

DAVID’S PRAISE TO GODDavid’s songs and prayers show a deep feeling of reverence to God, whom he loved and knew as a personal friend and Savior.

In his psalms of praise, David reflects the reasons we have

to praise God: His acts, His greatness,

His power...

It was composed for the move of the ark to Jerusalem; it invites all the nations in earth to recognize the universal sovereignty of God. It has been called a “Missionary hymn for all ages”. This psalm praises God as creator and maker of wonders from antiquity (vers. 1-6), as ruler of present world (vers. 7-9) and as a redeeming judge when all things will get restored (vers. 10-13).

In 1 Chronicles, 16, this psalm is extended with references to God’s pact with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (vers. 15-22). God’s part in the pact is to make them a great nation, to bless them and to carry them to the Promised Land. Man’s part in the pact is to love, to obey and to worship God as his Father and God.

That pact --along with its best promises-- is the same God makes with us today.

PSALM 96

DAVID’S PRAISE TO GOD

“Sing to the Lord, bless His name;Proclaim the good news of His

salvation from day to day”Psalm 96: 2

This psalm is an invitation for all the nations to praise the Lord for his merciful goodness towards His people. Jesus used this psalm after the last supper. “Before leaving the upper chamber, the Saviour led His disciples in a song of praise. His voice was heard, not in the strains of some mournful lament, but in the joyful notes of the Passover hallel [Psalm 117]”(The Desire of Ages, cp. 73, 672)

“Praise the Lord, all you nations!Laud Him, all you peoples!

For His merciful kindness is great toward us,And the truth of the Lord endures forever.

Praise the Lord!”

PSALM 117

They are hymns of joy and rejoicing by praising God. Those psalms invite us to thank God for all is help and to trust Him and not men; they show God as our healer, restorer, supporter and governor of all the nature. That’s why the psalmist asks for universal praise to Him.

PSALM 145 a 150 (and others)

Psal

m 1

45: 1

-3“I will extol You, my God, O King;And I will bless Your name forever and ever.Every day I will bless You,And I will praise Your name forever and ever.Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;And His greatness is unsearchable” Ps

alm

150

: 6 D

HH “Let

everything that has

breath praise the Lord. Praise the

Lord!”

The psalmist extends that invitation to every living being in earth, to heavenly beings and even to inanimate nature. No one is excluded from this universal invitation to praise the Creator and Supporter of all things.

“There are psalms for every person, every mood and every need: for the frustrated, for the downhearted, for the elders, for the desperate; for the sick and for the sinners; psalms for the young, for the vigorous, for the hopeful, for the faithful and believer son of God, for the triumphant saint. There are some psalms with only a small note of hope in their desperation atmosphere; otherwise, there are psalms of praise that have not a word of request. There are psalms where the sinner stands “in the secret place” of the “presence” of God “under the shadow” of his “wings” to express his most intimate feelings in loneliness; and there are psalms where the holy of God joins the huge assembly of worshippers in the great congregation to praise God with loud voice and all sorts of instruments. Through the whole collection, God is exalted as the solution to all the human problems, as the Whole for everyone: our hope, our confidence and our fortress; our triumph made flesh in the Messiah, whose coming brings redemption and generates the universal and everlasting kingdom of justice. Christ acts through all the psalms; we find prophetic hints of his deity (Psalm 45: 6; 110: 1), of his condition of Son (Psalm 2: 7), of his incarnation (Psalm 40: 6, 7), of his priesthood (Psalm 110: 4), of his betrayal (Psalm 41: 9), of his bounce (Psalm 118: 22), of his resurrection (Psalm 16: 9, 10) and of his ascension (Psalm 68: 18)” (SDA Bible Commentary, introduction to Psalms)

The heavenly beings take their musical instruments; they tune their voices and sing praise songs to God.Which is the theme of their praise?

αΩ Honoring, glorifying and thanking God for His creating and supporting action (Revelation, 4: 9-11)

αΩ Praising Jesus for the redemption that His sacrifice provides (Revelation, 5: 9-13)

αΩ Recognizing that God deserves all the “blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might” (Revelation, 7: 10-12)

HEAVENLY PRAISE

“What compassion, what matchless love, has God shown to us, lost sinners, in connecting us with Himself, to be to Him a peculiar treasure! What a sacrifice has been made by our Redeemer, that we may be called children of God! We should praise God for the blessed hope held out before us in the great plan of redemption, we should praise Him for the heavenly inheritance and for His rich promises; praise Him that Jesus lives to intercede for us.

E.G.W. (Patriarchs and Prophets, cp. 25, pg. 289)

“Whoso offereth praise,” says the Creator, “glorifieth Me.” Psalm 50:23. All the inhabitants of heaven unite in praising God. Let us learn the song of the angels now, that we may sing it when we join their shining ranks. Let us say with the psalmist, “While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.” “Let the people praise Thee, O God; let all the people praise Thee.” Psalm 146:2; 67:5”

HOW TO PRAISE GOD

“Music is acceptable to God only when the heart is sanctified and made soft and holy by its facilities” (E.G.W., Evangelism, cp. 15, pg. 512)

What principles must guide us when we choose music for our worship?

“do all to the glory of God”(1 Corinthians, 10: 31)“whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things” (Philippians, 4: 8)“that in all things He [Christ] may have the preeminence” (Colossians, 1: 18)