Hallelujah

Well, that was relatively easy access to go from the song to the podium. I was really glad I wasn't all the way on the other side of everybody. That would have been really difficult. Thank you so much. I want to thank the children for participating in that. The whole thing actually was conceived by my son, Desmond. They did this song at the feast in Montana two years ago, and he really wanted to sing, and he really wanted to be a part of it.

And then it kind of turned into this family thing. Well, all of us travel so much, we rarely have time to get together and practice, but it was wonderful to have the opportunity to put it all together. Well, brethren, during the six weeks between the end of Thanksgiving and the beginning of January, you would be hard-pressed to go anywhere outside of your home and not be submitted to Christmas music in some way, shape, or form.

Whether the songs are the smooth jazz Kenny G-style versions that are playing in the supermarkets that you might be in shopping in, or whether they're more traditional songs sung by random carolers that show up at your door—where's Matt and Jamie at, who had some random carolers show up at their door this week?—or whether they are the extremely bass-filled techno drops from Have a Bassy Christmas, which your office mate at school plays on loop for close to four hours Friday morning on a subwoofer which he brought from home.

Hypothetically, of course, but you haven't lived until you've heard Silent Night on a 12-inch subwoofer. Quite seriously, though, it is difficult to get away from. It seems like, especially now that we're really in the world's countdown to Christmas—we're inside of the quote-unquote twelve days to Christmas, we're in that countdown now—it seems like they're everywhere. Christmas songs have been covered by various artists. They've been reimagined from genre to genre. There's punk rock Christmas albums. There's country music Christmas albums. There's all sorts of things. It doesn't seem to matter what genre, what artist, or what style they happen to be.

They are catchy when you don't want them to be. They are catchy when you do not want them to be. They have a way of getting in your head and getting stuck. We sometimes call those earworms. They get in and they don't want to leave. There are a number of traditional songs that we're all aware of that have become part of the radio landscape specifically written for this time of year. We've all gotten really good at recognizing those songs within the first two to three notes. It's at the point where you hear the first couple of notes and you go, nope, next.

You switch to the radio station. It gets rough, though, when it starts to get within two to three days of Christmas and it's everywhere. It's that point you turn the radio off and start listening to CDs again. What's interesting is one of the songs that has been played during this time of year was not originally written for Christmas. Instead, it's been taken hostage and forced to play this time of year in a variety of venues against its will.

That song was written by George Frederick Handel and it was his masterpiece, his title work, Messiah. In London, in late 1741, early 1742, the song was written and it came on a string of a heel or on the heels of a string of failures in Handel's life. It was really the one thing that sort of brought him back from what he at that time described as what he felt would be his last performance.

Then it kind of took off. It was first performed in 1742 in Dublin. It opened to great success and over the next seven years he tried so hard to get the piece to take off and get it going in London. It didn't want to take off and he struggled with it and he played it and he tried to get more people involved. But as a result of snippets of the piece being played at a fundraising concert for a London hospital in the late 1770s, the public started becoming interested in the piece in its entirety.

It was this spring tradition yearly in London for close to 20 years. For close to 20 years it was played every spring in and around London. And so because of the timing near Easter at that point in time, and as a result of the fact that there were a number of these kind of sacred songs that were done right around Easter every year, and very few during the winter holidays after Handel's death, the conscious choice was made by many of the symphonies to play the piece during the winter near Christmas instead of during the spring.

And the result of that and the reason for that was because of the connection of some of the earlier parts in the piece that deal with the fulfilled prophecies about Christ's birth found in Isaiah 9. The most popular section of the oratorio is the Hallelujah Chorus, and it's the part of the piece that most are familiar with. And probably, you know, as soon as it's mentioned, it pops into your head.

You can hear it, you know what it is, you recognize it. And it's taken from Revelation 19, verse 6, and Revelation 11, 15 through 17. Let's go ahead and turn over there to begin this afternoon. Revelation 19 and verse 6, and we'll go ahead and start there today.

Revelation 19 and verse 6 says, And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, large group of people, great multitude, as the sound of many waters, and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns. And you'll recognize those words from part of the Hallelujah Chorus. Halleluia, the Lord God, omnipotent reigns. There was a voice of a great multitude that said these things that was great enough sounded like many waters, sounded like mighty thunderings, saying, Halleluia, also translated into English as praise the Lord, praise God.

Revelation 11 and verse 15, just a couple of pages back in John's vision, Revelation 11 and verse 15, which again, a passage that we often read in commemoration of the Feast of Trumpets.

Revelation 11 and verse 15 says, Then the seventh angel sounded, there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. Verse 16, and the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshipped God, saying, We give you thanks, O Lord God Almighty, the one who is and who was and who is to come, because you have taken your great power and reigned.

Ultimately, you take the two phrases, essentially. You look at this kingdoms of the world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. You add that together with what we read in Revelation 19, verse 6. You add some music, a little bit of repetition, and you essentially get the refrain from the Hallelujah chorus. Now, I'm sure it was harder than that. I'm not a music person. I'm sure it was harder than that. You know, it didn't just stitch little phrases together and add things in there as he quite felt like it, but that's essentially what Handel did.

When you take a look at these particular passages, Hallelujah was a term that was used in this context in worship and in praise to God by the multitude that was described in Revelation 19.

Now, while not specifically stated in Revelation 11, the 24 elders were described as bowing to God in Revelation 19 and verse 4 and saying, Amen, Hallelujah. You know, it's not unreasonable to assume that their worship described in Revelation 11 is of similar phrasing as the Lord Jesus Christ has given control to the kingdoms of this world by his Father. You know, this phrase, Hallelujah, was being expressed as a way of giving thanks, of expressing praise to God. In fact, the word that's used in Revelation 11, 17, for giving thanks is euchristio, G2168, which is an outward expression of gratitude and thankfulness to God. Hallelujah, aka, praise God, praise the Lord. More than a hundred times throughout the Bible, we read commands and declarative statements regarding praising the Lord, praising God. Yet, despite the amount of times throughout Scripture that it's mentioned, when it comes to praising God, what does it mean? What's intended to be done? How is it intended to be done? What does God expect of us today? Do we, as followers of God, do we satisfy our obligation of praising God, singing a half a dozen hymns once a week? Or is there more to it than that? Today, in the time that we have left, we're going to explore the concept of praise and try to make connections to our actions and what we do in order to help apply the attitude of gratitude and thankfulness that we have to be cultivating towards our great God. To do this, what we're going to do is we're going to examine praise like a reporter would approach a story.

We're going to ask the five W questions, as they sometimes call them, or the reporter questions, which is who, what, when, where, why. But finally, we're going to also ask how.

So the title for the sermon today is, Hallelujah Praise the Lord. And we're going to spend the majority of our time today in the book of Psalms, and for good reason. The book of Psalms is a collection of songs of praise. It's a collection of songs of praise. Individually, each individual psalm is known in Hebrew as a mismorem. It's a mismorem in Hebrew. And collectively, the entire book of Psalms is referred to as the tahiyam. And tahiyam means praises or songs of praise.

From start to finish in the book of Psalms, David and the other psalmists write and capture their praise for God in the pages of the book of Psalms. Now, it's not worthy to mention. It's not worthy to mention as we look at this. Throughout the book of Psalms, the writers are not simply singing hallelujah over and over and over and over again. They are not saying, praise God, praise God, praise God, praise God over and over and over again today, which for some reason has become what many in the churches of traditional Christianity today have taken this to mean.

Vain repetition of a phrase that they consider to be praising God. Instead, the writers of Psalms are consciously stating what they are praising God for in these psalms. They focus on His nature.

They focus on His character. They focus on His providence. They focus on His protection throughout so many of these short psalms. By way of example, let's go ahead and turn to Psalm 1. Might as well start in the beginning. We're going to go to the end anyway. We might as well start in the beginning. We'll start in Psalm 1. We're going to read quite a few psalms today and take a look at quite a few psalms today as we kind of establish this. Psalm 1 is the very beginning of the book of Psalms, at least as it's been collected and brought to us today, whether that was the case back in the day. Not 100% certain. But Psalm 1 is entitled, The Way of the Righteous and the End of the Ungodly. Psalm 1 begins, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He shall be a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

So what is the psalmist praising God for in Psalm 1? Take a look at it again. What is he praising God for in Psalm 1? The psalmist is ultimately praising God for the law that he has provided, and he's making the point that the man who walks in it doesn't walk in the path of the sinners, doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly, or sits in the seat of the scourner.

The man who walks in the law of God will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth fruit in season, whose leaves will not wither, and whatever they do shall prosper.

He's praising God for what God does for his people, that he cares for those who are his.

He's praising God for that aspect of his character, for his protection, and for his divine providence.

This pattern of praising God continues through the Psalms. However, it's most noticeable in the final five psalms of the book. It's Psalm 146 through 150, which are sometimes referred to as the Hallelujah Psalms, aka the original Hallelujah Chorus. Let's go ahead and turn over to Psalm 146.

Let's go ahead and turn over to Psalm 146. We're going to read these. We're going to look at them. We're going to examine them. We're going to see what they say.

And then as we go through and we take a look at this, we're going to try to see what we can learn from these particular psalms with regards to praising God and what that entails. Now, the reason these are called the Hallelujah Psalms is because each of these psalms begins and ends with the word Hallelujah. You'll notice they all start with, praise the Lord, and end with, praise the Lord. So these are referred to as the Hallelujah Psalms, or I call them the Hallelujah Chorus. So they might as well. It's different than Handel's, but you know, it's the same basic principle. But each of these psalms begins and ends with the word Hallelujah in Hebrew, praise the Lord, and specifically praises aspects of God's character, praises his deeds and his wonders, praises his mercy, his creation, and the promises that he has fulfilled to his people. So let's start in Psalm 146. Start in Psalm 146, and we'll take a look at what God is being praised for in Psalm 146. Now, this thalmist in these five psalms is not specifically identified. It's not specifically identified. It doesn't say at the top that it's a Psalm of David or a Psalm of Asaph, so I'm not going to try to declare who wrote these and who it won about lost to history, as far as we can tell in this situation. So I'm not going to make a declarative in any way on that. But it reads as follows, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul, while I live, I will praise the Lord. I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Do not put your trust in princes, nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help. His Spirit departs. He returns to his earth. In that very day, his plans perish. Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord, his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps truth forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry, the Lord gives freedom to the prisoners. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind, which we were all at one point in time blind.

Metaphorically, of course, he also opens the eyes of the blind, quite literally. Saw Jesus heal people in the New Testament of blindness. But the Lord raises those who were bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the strangers. He relieves the fatherless and the widow. But the way of the wicked he turns upside down. The Lord shall reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. So in this particular psalm, the psalmist is praising the faithfulness of God. He makes the point that you can trust in God. When he is your help, and he is your hope, happy or blessed is the man. He praises God for his creation. He praises him for his justice, for his providence, for what he does for man. And finally, he starts to praise God for his plan. Now let's look at Psalm 147. Psalm 147 says, Praise the Lord, for it is good to sing praises to our God. I don't know if you notice this or not, but two of the hymn, well, one of the hymns we sang, one that we almost sang, was the one that Mr. McNamee pulled back real quick and changed the numbers on. But both of those were taken from Psalm 147. I thought, Oh, that'd be great! That would be such a cool connection. But Psalm 147, Praise the Lord, for it is good to sing praises to our God, for its pleasant and praise is beautiful. Praise the Lord! It's beautiful! The Lord builds up Jerusalem. He gathers together the outcasts. He heals the brokenhearted, and he binds up their wounds. Has anybody ever been brokenhearted? He heals, and he binds up their wounds. He counts the number of stars, calls them all by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power. His understanding is infinite. The Lord lifts up the humble, and he casts the wicked down to the ground.

Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving. Sing praises on the harp to our God, who covers the heavens with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth, who makes grass to grow on the mountains. He gives to the beast its food and to the young ravens that cry. He does not delight in the strength of the horse. He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, and those who hope in his mercy. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem. Specifically saying, Jerusalem, praise the Lord. Praise your God, O Zion. For he has strengthened the bars of your gates. He's blessed your children within you. He makes peace in your borders and fills you with the finest wheat. He sends out his command to the earth. His word runs very swiftly. He gives snow like wool. He scatters the frost like ashes. Cast out his hail like morsels, who can stand before his cold. He sends out his word and melts them, causes his wind to blow in the waters to flow. He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes, and his judgments to Israel.

He has not dealt thus with any nation, and as for his judgments, they have not known them. And again, as with all of these, it finishes with hallelujah, or, praise the Lord. So in this situation, the psalmist is praising God for his binding up of the brokenhearted, for his healing, for his mercy.

He praises God for his character and for his omnipotence, his care for his creation, his care for man, his care for his special people, Israel, whom he gave his statutes and his judgments. He makes the point near the end, he didn't just do that to any nation. No, he gave it to his special people, Israel. And he praises God for working with Israel. Once again, notice, this is not thirty-six lines of hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. He's getting specific. Why? You know, it reminds me of that Shakespeare line, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways, right? He's going through this process of, look, this is why you are to be praised.

These are the aspects of your character for which I will sing your praises.

And he's very specifically listing them out in these particular sections. Let's go and look at Psalm 148. Psalm 148 says, praise the Lord again, hallelujah, praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the heights, praise him all his angels, praise him all his hosts, praise him sun, moon, praise him all you stars of light, praise him you heavens of heavens and you waters above heavens. So all the aspects of this creation, praise him. Let him praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. He also established them forever and ever. He made a decree which shall not pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures, in all the depths, fire and hail, snow and clouds, stormy wind fulfilling his word, mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl. And then he starts getting into the people, kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all judges of the earth, both young men and maidens, old men and children. And it's very probable that as I'm reading this, the Dwight Armstrong tune is rolling in the back of your head from this particular hymn.

This one's pretty recognizable. Not a lot of words changed on this one. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted, his glory is above the earth in heaven, and he is exalted the horn of his people. The praise of all his saints of the children of Israel as a people, or a people near to him, praise the Lord again. So in Psalm 148, the psalmist encourages the entirety of creation to praise God, to thank him for its creation. He makes the point that regardless of age, regardless of gender, praise is an expectation. It's an expectation of all things which God has created, that they would be thankful, that they would be grateful, and they would ultimately praise God for it. The point that he's making is he created all of these things, and even in that he's exalted Israel above that creation, a people that is near to him, his own peculiar people. He says hallelujah for that. Psalm 149 is a little bit shorter.

Praise the Lord, sing to the Lord a new song, and his praise in the assembly of saints.

Let Israel rejoice in their maker, let the children of Zion be joyful in their king. Let them praise his name with the dance. Let him sing praises to him with the timbrel and the harp. For the Lord takes pleasure in his people, he will beautify the humble with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory, let them sing aloud on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand to execute vengeance on the nations. Punishments on the peoples to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron. To execute on them the written judgment, this honor have all of his saints. Again, praise the Lord. He praises God for the creation of man.

Says he praises him with dance, praises him with timbrel and with harp, as these individuals are described as being joyful to their God. He praises God for his judgment on the nations, his punishment on the peoples, and the execution of written judgment.

And then we reach Psalm 150, which is the final psalm of the Hallelujah Psalms. The final one, the last one. And if you think about it, I like to think of these in this way. It's a little bit outside of things, but I like to think of it in this way. I like to think of these previous Psalms as movements in a symphony. And maybe Psalm 146 starts out with just a single oboe, kind of playing quietly. Psalm 147, the violins come in. 148, in comes the basses, the cellos and the violas. 149, the rest of the symphony. And then in 150, everybody comes in. And you've got the conductor up there, Q and these guys here. And Q and those guys over there. Bring it all. You guys come up louder and you come up louder. Everybody in on 150.

And we see Psalm 150 build to this incredible crescendo, this climax, this crescendo, this symbols and the timpani's are coming in and they're making all kinds of noise as they really kind of pull out the stops. Psalm 146, 147, 148, and 149 lead into Psalm 150. And Psalm 150 says, praise the Lord, praise God in his sanctuary, praise him in his mighty firmament, praise him for his mighty acts, praise him according to his excellent greatness, praise him with the sound of the trumpet, praise him with the lute and with the harp, praise him with the timbrel and dance, praise him with the stringed instruments and flutes, praise him with the loud symbols, praise him with clashing symbols.

Verse 6, let everything that has breath praise the Lord. And then it finishes once again with hallelujah, praise the Lord, praise him in his sanctuary, in the firmament for his mighty acts, for his excellent greatness, praise him with a wide variety of instruments. And then finally, verse 6, let everything that has breath praise the Lord. And with that final statement, the book of Psalms, the tahaim, the songs of praise, ends. So what can we gather from these passages with regards to our own practice of praising God? Let's ask those five W questions that we talked about earlier. Let's start with who. So who is supposed to praise God? It's actually a pretty easy question to answer. It's right there in Psalm 150. Everything that has breath should praise the Lord. Psalm 148 records old men, maidens, young men, children, age, gender, doesn't matter. The expectation is praise. We're all responsible for praising God. But interestingly, not only us. Psalm 148 records vast aspects of creation praising God. And how can creation praise God?

Every time we look at the creation and we are blown away by its wonder, it is screaming its praise for God from the heavens. When we look out and we see stars and we look out and we see planets and we see galaxies and galaxies and galaxies and galaxies, all of those things are a huge chorus of praise to God. And then here's little insignificant us. And yet we are the crown jewel of His creation, what He has made it all for. Mountains and hills, fruit trees, cedars, fire, hail, snow, clouds, they all testify of the greatness and the wonder of God. He created it all and as a result, it should all praise Him. In Luke chapter 19, we won't turn there, you want to jot it down, you can, and read the account a little bit later. Luke chapter 19, we read the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ through the city of Jerusalem on the back of a colt. He sends out His disciples to go find Him a small colt to ride on and they go and they ask the guy like, hey, we need to borrow your tiny donkey here. And for what? He says, Lord needs it. All right, cool. Gives him the donkey. Ultimately, they come back, they put clothes on his back, they sit Jesus on it. And as He descends kind of from the Mount of Olives in towards Jerusalem, all the people begin to shout and they begin to praise God in a loud voice for all the mighty works that He had seen. And you know, we're not there, we don't see exactly the cacophony of noise. You don't know if it's exact, you know, because you've seen large, I don't want to liken this to a protest, but that's a large gathering of people, right? They're not always in unison. You know, oftentimes it's a large cacophony of screams and shouts. But in this case, we do know what they said, whether it was all in perfect unison or not, we're not 100 percent, but we do know what they said. It says, blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest. And at that point, the Pharisees said, you need to rebuke your disciples.

You need to rebuke your disciples. And Christ told them, and I love his response, he said, essentially, someone is going to praise God. Someone is going to praise God for his mighty deeds and for the works that they've seen for my coming. And if not them, then the rocks will cry out. Something, someone is going to praise God for what they are experiencing at this time. The coming of the King. You know, as followers of Jesus Christ and as children of God, we have a responsibility to praise Him. We have a responsibility to praise Him, to express our thanks for who and what He is. So who, brethren? Us. Us. If not you, then who, as they often say. So let's ask the second reporter word, which is what? So who praises God? And now, well, what? What are you supposed to do? Well, you're supposed to praise God. Okay, great. What does that mean? Well, in the case of Psalm 146 through 150, the primary word that is used for praise is the Hebrew word halal, which is the first part of halaluya. Halaluya. Okay? So it's the very first part of that particular word. And there's numerous other words that are used on the circumstances. We're going to look at some of those. But the one that's used most consistently throughout the book of Psalms is halal. It means to boast or shout. And sometimes in some contexts, it means to make a foolish clamoring. It means to make a foolish clamoring at times. This style of praise is meant to show whom we serve, to boast of His deeds. Not to boast of our own works, but to boast of His deeds, to shout of His wonders. What's really interesting about the word halal, we mentioned it earlier, it also means to clamor foolishly. It is the word that is used in 1 Samuel 21.13 when David is described as feigning madness. The word madness is halal. Now, it's a slightly different version of the word. There's an extension of the final vowel. It's called a hythpaul, and it's an extension of the final vowel, a lengthening of that. It changes the emphasis of the word, changes its meaning slightly. When David feigned madness before King Abimelech, feigned madness is halal, a foolish clamoring. And where that connects and how it connects is that when he did that, he made a show out of it. He made a show out of it. He pretended to be insane.

In our modern vernacular, we might say he made a scene. You might say, if you ever had your parents say, don't you make a scene in this store? As a kid, you go, I don't know how to make a scene. Don't you dare make a scene in this store. But in the context of praise, in the context of what this word ultimately means, it's getting other people's attention to illustrate the goodness and the wonder of God, to make a scene, so to speak, but to show God's goodness, to show God's wonder in that process of, this is why I follow this God. Some faiths, charismatic religions, for example, have taken this use of halal to mean letting the spirit fill you. They ride around, speak gibberish, and do other actions that frankly do not honor God.

They certainly make a scene, but does that scene boast of God's goodness?

Does it boast of his wonders? Does it edify those who hear it? No.

A spirit is moving them, but it is not the spirit. So when we talk about what, when we talk about what, when we look at what exactly it is that we're supposed to do, we are supposed to praise. We are to boast about God's goodness, to shout about God's goodness, to get people's attention and tell them what God has done for us. Which brings us to our third word, when. So when do we praise? When do we praise? Now, while Psalm 146 through 150 doesn't address it specifically, another of the Psalms, Psalm 34 verse 1, does. So let's go ahead and go over to Psalm 34 and verse 1.

Interestingly enough, it's the Psalm that was written after David Fain Madness in Abimelech's presence. And in Psalm 34 and verse 1, David here says, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord, the humble shall hear of it and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together. So while 146 to 150 doesn't address the concept of when, Psalm 34 verse 1 does, we should endeavor to have His praise on our lips at all times.

Again, looking at, we talked about this when we talked about gratitude and thankfulness, having a mindset of gratitude and thankfulness, that we look at the world around us and our life with the approach of being thankful, looking at our life with the approach of praising God at all times. The times that are good, the times that are bad, when we're full, when we're hungry, and again, keeping that praise continually in our mouths for His character, for His providence, His protection, and so much more that God does for us. When we're grateful and we're thankful, we'll praise Him continuously. But not just with our words, we'll also praise Him with our actions, with our life that we lead. You know, as a body of believers, our actions exalt His name as well as our voices, and our actions are as much praise to God as our words are. If people see a changed life, you know, probably one of the best compliments that somebody could ever give you is when you meet them after a 20 to 30 year absence, they go, who are you? You are not the person that I used to know, hopefully in a good way. I mean, hopefully it's not the opposite of, you really gone downhill. No, that's not the idea. But people should see a difference in our life after many years of God's Spirit working in us to convert us. It's also important, and I think very important, honestly, to recognize the time element that is in Psalm 146. He says, I will praise God while I live, while I have my being. We have a way about us as humans sometimes to say things like, I'll get to it tomorrow. It'll still be there tomorrow. It'll be fine. I got a lot to do today. It'll still be there tomorrow. And sadly, we know that sometimes tomorrow doesn't come. And we know that sometimes we don't get tomorrow. And so it's really, really, important. And I think a major aspect of this that we can't afford to put off to tomorrow, what must be done today. We must praise God today. Not tomorrow and tomorrow. Today and tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that. But we don't want to put it off and say, I'll get to it tomorrow. I'm really tired. I'm going to get some sleep or I'm working on my Netflix binge. So I need to make sure that I continue. I'm sorry, I pick on Netflix. I shouldn't do that. So let's ask the fourth question. Let's ask the fourth W. Where? So where do we praise God? Okay, where do we praise God? Well, that's easy. Psalm 150 verse 1, everywhere. Praise God everywhere. We praise Him in a sanctuary. We praise Him in the firmament. We praise Him before our Maker. We praise Him when we're by ourselves. We praise Him when we're in our car. Every opportunity that we have, there's no limits on where God is to be praised. He's to be praised at all times and in all locations.

Which really makes it wonderful because if you're by yourself, nobody can judge you for your praise.

You can sing as loud as you want, even if you can't carry a tune in a bucket.

You can praise God with your voice. Or even if you're not the best instrumentalist in the world, you know, you can praise God with your song. Lastly, why? What's the final W question here? We have one more after this, but the final W question here, why? Why do we praise God? Psalm 150 and verse 2. We praise God for His mighty deeds. We praise Him for His excellent greatness. We praise Him for His creation, for His plan of salvation, His law that He's given to us, for His blessings, and so much more. So, you know, just through the last five passages of the book of Psalms, we can determine the answer to the majority of our questions. Those four passages tell us that praise is a declarative statement that gives God thanks for what He does for us.

It's to become an attitude that remains on our lips at all times, considering and really thanking God for His ongoing providence. Everything that has breath has a responsibility to praise God. Us, obviously, since we draw breath and we've been called, we're part of that, especially us as God's followers. It doesn't matter where we are. It doesn't matter what state we find ourselves in life, whether we're hungry, whether in need, whether we're full, or whether we're in abundance.

We have a responsibility to praise Him, because again, the incredible things that He has done for us. He's given us life. He's created this incredible world around us, and He's called us to be a part of His family, to become spirit beings in the kingdom of God, spiritual sons and daughters.

So with the five W's out of the way, we now come to our last question.

How? How do we praise God? And Psalm 150 begins to answer that question, at least in part.

Psalm 150 states, praise Him with the sound of the trumpet. Trumpets today in our ensemble over here.

Praise Him with the lute and the harp. Anybody play lute? Nobody? Harp? How about guitar? Basically the same thing. Praise Him with the lute and with the harp. Praise Him with the timbre and with dance. Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes.

Praise Him with loud cymbals, crashing cymbals.

You know, within this passage, we see some of the musical instruments that are used to praise God, at least at this point in time, are instruments that we might consider to be kind of unconventional for praise. Might be considered a step or two above joyful noise, quote-unquote, right? I actually played cymbals for about one concert in my middle school band. Through my years of band, I actually played saxophone. That was my instrument for a number of years. And I got bored with it my eighth grade year. And I'd played the alto, I'd played the tenor, I'd played the bass sax or baritone sax. And I wanted to learn percussion. I was really interested in percussion. And I had my eyes on that drum kit. I wanted to learn how to play drums. And I've got pretty decent rhythm until you put sticks in my hands. And then as soon as you put sticks in my hands, it's like, I can't, I can't do it. And so, you know, I take the sticks away, I play the bongos, it's like, like, you know, best of them. But anyway, He gave me a shot. We had a really solid drummer at that point in time, so the drums were just not in the cards. I was not going to learn how to play drums.

But like I said, I don't have the greatest natural rhythm, and we already had a really solid drummer. So he said, I'll tell you what, you can learn how to play cymbals. And I kind of went, excellent cymbals. I've seen cymbals before, and they're doing this, you know, they're crashing, and they're making all kinds of noise. I was so excited. Cymbals make so much noise. They just look cool. So I had these two gigantic cymbals, one on each hand. And to play them, I got to crash them together as loud as possible, theoretically in time with the music. That was the theory aspect of things. It turns out I was not terribly good at the cymbals. I wasn't. It was a short-lived career. I made a resounding noise. I made all kinds of noise, crashed those things together with absolute reckless abandon. But it turns out there's a bit more finesse to the cymbals than what I had at 14. It also didn't help that I was really distractable.

And during the Star Spangled Banner, at the very first concert that I ever had opportunity to play cymbals for, I got distracted and was not paying attention to the band director. So as you well know, that in that song, there is some serious cymbal part. And you're supposed to be crashing away with reckless abandon in time with the music. Once again, we establish that I'm not terribly good at that. And during that particular song, I missed a number of my cues to come in.

I would love to say it was one and I caught back up. It was not one. I did not catch back up. I was off and I was off so bad. And if you ever heard a cymbal that is off from the rest of the band, like you're coming in on the off beat and you're not supposed to be, it's a problem. So my band... I still... I never get Mr. Fosburg's face out of my head. My band teacher looked my way kind of wild-eyed. I mean, like just full-on wild-eyed. And he had this huge broom mustache, this just big old broom mustache. And it was only emphasizing his frustration. Every time he'd like cock his mouth right, the tip of it, one tip would go up, and his big old wide eyes. And he was trying to still conduct the band while Wilder was trying to tell me to crash. Like... You know, trying to get my attention. And I was a disaster. It just was not a good thing. Needless to say, I was asked to go back to the saxophone the next morning, and my short-lived career as a cymbal player was over.

But those things are loud. They are loud. Praising God with cymbals is an interesting concept.

And notice not just cymbals, clashing cymbals, clashing cymbals, loud cymbals, to praise God.

That's unconventional. That's very unconventional. I would venture a guess that in the churches of God today, that would not be an allowable form of special music today. I'm just gonna... It probably wouldn't be, even though, even though, scripturally, we can see that at one point in time, it was acceptable. So there's a number of other ways that people praise God. In fact, if you take a look at the Hebrew language and the words that are used for praise within Scripture, there are seven different words that are translated praise in Scripture. Each of those different words are different because they were different contexts of the ways that Israel praised God. And so I'd like to take a look at those today as we kind of bring this to a close over the next probably 15 minutes or so. So the first of those words was halal, which we've already talked about. We've already looked at. Halal is the beginning of the word from hallelujah. It means to be clamorously foolish, to shout, or to boast. And in the event that you would like to do additional study, which I would strongly encourage the very interesting study to dig into kind of what praises and how praise works. This is not meant to be an end-all by any means, but like a springboard hopefully for further study on your part. But h-1-9-8-4 is the word halal. h-1-9-8-4, if you like, do word studies. And it's the word that we looked at first. It's to shout or to boast, to draw attention to, or to make a show of something. And the example is provided throughout the... it's used throughout the book of Psalms, but one of the examples is in 1 Chronicles 16. Let's go ahead and turn over to 1 Chronicles 16, and we'll see a use of the word in context. With each of these, I'm going to endeavor to give the word in context so that we can see kind of how it's how it's set up. So 1 Chronicles 16... 1 Chronicles 16 and verse 1, we have the bringing of the ark to the tabernacle.

And it says, So they brought the ark of God, and set it in the midst of the tabernacle that David had erected for it, and then they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord. Then he distributed to everyone of Israel, both man and woman, to everyone a loaf of bread, a piece of meat, and a cake of raisins. And he appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, to commemorate, to thank, and to praise, halal, to praise the Lord God of Israel. Asaph the chief, and next to him Zechariah, then Jael, Shimermoth, Jehael, Matathiah, Eliyeb, Ben-Aniah, and Obed-Edom. Jael with the stringed instruments and harps, but Asaph made music with cymbals. And we see other Psalms of Asaph recorded in here, but Asaph made music. He had better rhythm than I did, clearly. Ben-Aniah and Jehaziel, the priests, regularly blew the trumpets before the ark of the covenant of God. So David specifically appointed priests, Levites, to minister before the ark, to serve before the ark, to commemorate, to thank, and to halal, to praise the Lord God of Israel, using cymbals, harps, stringed instruments, making a shout, making a noise to God. Nehemiah 12, verse 24, also illustrates a group of men that were appointed to do something similar, where they would continually gave thanks and gave praise to God by an assignment to David. That's Nehemiah 12, 24, and we won't turn there. But to make a boastful praise of the goodness of the Lord, of the God whom they served, drawing the attention of the people to God's goodness, and thanking him for it. The next word that was used in Hebrew to describe the concept of praise was the word yada, y-a-d-a-h, in the, you know, the transliterated spelling. But it's showing reverence and praise with an outstretched hands. So with outstretched hands.

Yada itself is illustrated in a number of places. Psalm 42 and verse 5 is one of them. Let's go ahead and go to Psalm 42 and verse 5. Psalm 42 and verse 5.

Psalm 42, verse 5 says, Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God, for I shall yet praise yada him. I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.

Remember, reverence and praise without stretched hands. And sometimes we see, again, traditional Christianity has the whole hand raised in sway while they sing sort of thing. Okay, this is kind of a somewhat of an application of yada in a way.

However, in this case, why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God, for I shall yet praise yada. I shall yet outstretch my hands to him for the help of his countenance. I shall raise my hands outstretching them for the help of his countenance, like a child reaching for his father. Why are you disquieted, O my soul? Here I am, I'm down, and I'm reaching out to you, Father, for that inevitable pick me up. 2 Chronicles 7 includes this expression of praise as well during the dedication of Solomon's Temple. We won't turn there again. That's one that you can study out. But express it just during the dedication of Solomon's Temple. So you can kind of picture in your mind's eye the celebration, the praise that was being given by the Levites as they dedicated the temple, the assembly is gathered, there's lots of noise being made, picture the trumpets being blown, and the hands of the people raised as they praised God before that temple. That's yada, an outstretching of the hands. The next word, sorry, and the the the Strong's number for that is H 3 0 3 4. H 3 0 3 4. The next word is toda, which is a similar word to yada. It's toda, and it's H 8 4 2 6. H 8 4 2 6, which seems like most lexicons are keyed off of Strong's these days. So regardless of your lexicon, if you don't use Strong's concordance, you can find it easily using the numbers. But toda is showing praise and agreement to God through an outstretched hand. It's showing praise and agreement to God through an outstretched hand. Specifically, it stated in one lexicon an outstretched right hand, that it was important that it was an outstretched right hand. Toda is very similar to yada in that there is an outstretching of hands, but this time it's just one, and it's just the right hand. Sounds like something we have today in our culture, where you outstretch your right hand to seal a deal or make a pact with someone. We call it a handshake. In this case, this particular method of praising God is often connected with thank offerings. It's connected with thank offerings, and it's kind of similar in a way to a handshake. It shows our agreement with our part of the bargain. Let's go to Psalm 50. It's a couple pages over from where we are now. It's Psalm 50, and we'll take a look at the word in context. Psalm 50, verse 23. Psalm 50 and verse 23 says, whoever offers praise glorifies me, and to him who orders his conduct aright, I will show the salvation of God. Whoever offers praise, toda. Whoever offers praise to me. Whoever stretches out his right hand to me, glorifies me. Whoever agrees with the conditions, so to speak, glorifies me, and to him who orders his conduct aright, I will show the salvation of God. How many of you are holding an NIV version in your lap? You don't have to raise your hand. It's fine. If you have an NIV version in your lap, you might see that there it says, instead of praise, thank offering. Thank offering glorifies me instead of praise, which honestly is more appropriate given the context. It's a more appropriate translation given the context. In fact, if you go up to Psalm 50 verse 14, so up to Psalm 50 and verse 14, it says specifically, offer to God thanksgiving, offer to God thanksgiving, and that word is toda. Offer to God thanksgiving. Give him the thanks offering. Offer to him thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the most high. So the thanks offering was a physical gift of praise. It was something that was given to God that showed your praise for him and your thankfulness for what he had done for you. It was a physical gift of praise, given with an outstretched hand and with an attitude of thanksgiving and praise.

The next word, the next of the seven Hebrew words that looks at praise specifically is barak, spelled just like the outgoing president, barak, b-a-r-a-k, which is h-one-two-eight-eight, h-one-two-eight-eight. And barak means to kneel or to bow down to show adoration.

It means to kneel or to bow down to show adoration. And it specifically insinuates before the altar. It specifically insinuates before the altar to show adoration, to show your praise for God in showing that I know that I am inferior. And so when I come into your presence, I'm hitting my knee. You know, we know that at one point in time every knee shall bow. We know that every knee shall bow. Every knee shall barak in Hebrew, shall bow before our king.

But what's really interesting is we've all seen movies where when the knight comes before the king immediately hits his knee and says, my liege. Right? It's a show of inferiority. It's a show of praise that I recognize that I am inferior to you and I'm praising you for your greatness.

We're offering praise to God through a recognition of our inferiority. Psalm 95 and verse 6 illustrates this quite literally. Psalm 95 and verse 6 illustrates this literally.

Psalm 95 and verse 6 says, O come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel, barak, let us kneel, before the Lord our Maker. So quite literally it is saying, kneeling before God, taking a knee, so to speak. Psalm 103 also uses this. If you go just a couple pages over to Psalm 103, it's also used there as well. Psalm 103 and verse 1 says, Bless the Lord, O my soul. The word bless there is barak. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all of your iniquities.

Transplant the words, kneel before the Lord, O my soul, all that is in me.

Kneel before his holy name. Kneel before the Lord, O my soul, and forget not his benefits. It is a recognition of our inferiority and a recognition of the greatness of God. The Psalm goes on, but it finishes with these final three verses starting in verse 20 of Psalm 103.

Bless the Lord again. Word kneel. Bless the Lord, you his angels, who excel in strength, who do his word, heeding the voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all you hosts, you ministers of who do his pleasure. Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Once again, kneel before the Lord, you angels, you hosts, you ministers of his. Kneel before the Lord, all his works. Kneel before the Lord, O my soul.

Praising God comes with an appropriate recognition of who and what we are.

We are vastly inferior to our great God, and as such we must bow ourselves before him. And that is a form of praise. That is a form of praise.

Next word is H8416, and it is pronounced tahila with a little more H. I can never do the Hebrew H.

I can't do it. It's tahila. It sounds like tequila if I say it like that. It's not tequila. Tahila. I tried. Tahila is interesting in that it's spontaneous singing that is intended for God. And you'll notice the book of Psalms is the tehilim. It's the plural of tehila. And so what it is, is it's a collection of spontaneous songs. It's a collection of spontaneous writings.

Writings that bubbled up from within. Have you ever been so moved by God that you began to sing praises spontaneously? I can think of a couple times in my life where I had no option but to sing out.

Where you've been moved to the point that you're just like, I have to praise God, I don't have a song in my head, I'm just going for it.

You know, we have those kind of moments in our life, and maybe a hymn bubbles up to our lips, but that's the kind of singing that's represented by this. This is the word, again, from the plural of the Hebrew word for the book of Psalms is taken. And these are spontaneous songs that bubble up in the heart of the psalmist. Interestingly, whenever the word tehila is used, it's accompanied with this idea of sing a new song. Sing a new song, a fresh song.

Psalm 33 is an example of this in its context. Psalm 33. Psalm 33. And we'll pick it up in verse 1 of Psalm 33. Psalm 33 in verse 1 says, Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, for praise from the upright is beautiful.

Praise the Lord with a harp, make melody to him with an instrument of ten strings, sing to him a new song, play skillfully with the shout of joy. The word praise from the upright is beautiful. The word praise is tehila. Psalm 22 verse 3 makes the statement that God is holy and enthroned in these spontaneous praises. That he's enthroned in them. Psalm 22 and verse 3.

Psalm 22 and verse 3 says, But you are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel.

These Psalms, these spontaneous songs that are given to God, God has enthroned in them, it says.

But it's not just spontaneous. It's not just bubbling up from within you. They prepared songs work too. That song today was not spontaneous. We prepared that song. It was not a tehila.

That was the next word, zamar. That was the next word, zamar, Z-A-M-A-R, and it's H2167.

H2167. And it means to pluck the strings and to celebrate with song and with music. And I would make the argument that when it comes to what we would consider praise in the churches of God today, most of what we would consider is zamar. Prepared songs, prepared musical selections of some variety, hymns that are sung together as a congregation, all of those things are zamar. When we sing our hymns, those songs are not spontaneous. You know, Mr. McNamee is not up here making up a song for all of us to follow along with. These are prepared songs. Now, interestingly, the songs that we sing are based off of what was once tehia. They were spontaneous songs that were collected in the book of Psalms. We've taken them, we've prepared them, we've used them for multiple years, we know them by heart, in many cases, and we're able to then go through and sing those. So, whenever you see zamar in Scripture, it's connected to singing praise. It'll often say sing praise, and that word is zamar. Psalm 147, verse 7. Psalm 147 and verse 7 is a place that we saw today that talks a little bit about singing praise. Psalm 147 and verse 7. Psalm 147 and verse 7 says, Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving, with toda. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving.

Sing praises, zamar. Sing praises. All together, sing praises. Zamar on the harp to our God. Sing to the Lord. Reach out to Him in thanks with music. Sing praises on the harp to our God. Plucking the strings. Praise to God doesn't always have to be accompanied by words. It doesn't have to. It doesn't have to be. Zamar also includes plucking on the strings. Instrumental music can, praise God. Psalm 150 talks about the praise from all the other different instruments, the symbols, the lute, the harp, and much, much more. The final word, the last word of the seven, is Shabbat.

Shabbat. And it's H7623. H7623. And it means to address in a loud tone or to shout wholeheartedly, with everything you got, as they might say. And that final word that's translated is Shabbat. And it means to address or to shout in a loud tone with all of your heart. But what's interesting is, it also could mean to silence or to stroke or to pacify in the sense of comforting a child.

So it can also mean that the song that is given could comfort a child. You know, parents sing to their kids when it's time to go to sleep, right? That is also Shabbat. So you got loud tone Shabbat. You got sing quietly to your child Shabbat. So when we take a look at scripture, there's a little bit of debate in a couple of places where Shabbat is used. Let's go over to Psalm 63.

Psalm 63.

Psalm 63 in verse 1.

Psalm 63 in verse 1 says, the Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah, O God, you are my God, early will I seek you. My soul thirsts for you, my flesh longs for you, in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for you in the sanctuary to see your power and your glory, because your loving kindness is better than life. My lips shall praise Shabbat you, shall praise you, Shabbat. And he goes on, thus I will bless you while I live, and I will lift up my hands in your name. I believe David here is making the case for loud shouts of praise to God. Now, in the context of that particular passage, it seems like he's weakened. It seems like he's fading away in some ways, and maybe that that is not such a loud shout of praise. But when you look at the context of this passage, David's in the wilderness, says his soul thirsts not for water, and said it thirsts for God, his flesh longs for God. He specifically states God's loving kindness is better than his own life. And he states that his lips will praise God while he lives, in some ways as though he's saying, even if I die of thirst, even if I die of starvation in the wilderness, so to speak, that I desire God, and I will praise God loudly with my dying breath. Not try to conserve energy, but with my dying breath, lifting my hands to God with that last bit of energy that I have. You can take a look at additional context. Psalm 63 and verse 7, if you go down just a little bit further, it says, because you have been my help, therefore in the shadow of your wings I will rejoice. And the word rejoice there is the Hebrew word runon, which is more frequently translated shout. So therefore in the shadow of your wings I will shout. I will shout my praise to you. Shabbat is a loud tone of praise. It's a shout. And so we can see it's clear. In scripture, there's a variety of words that are used in the Old Testament to express the concept of praise. There were a variety of methods by which God was praised in the Old Testament period.

Scripturally, we see examples of God being praised through the raising of hands, through kneeling before His presence, through extending the hand in thanks. He was praised through clapping and dancing and singing, through testimonies of His goodness and His strength, through prayer, through service, through sacrifice, and through giving. Does that mean that we then should begin dancing in church? Does that mean that we should invest in a worship band and somehow modernize our music?

Does that mean that we should start clapping and chanting along with the music, raising our hands and swaying or randomly shouting out words like hallelujah or praise God during services because we see examples of those forms of praise within Scripture? No. No. Do we praise God in the exact same way as God was praised during the Old Testament today? No, we do not. No, we do not.

Methods have changed over time. Culture has changed over time. Obviously, we are not the physical nation of Israel. We are spiritual Israel. We are a group of individuals who were called by God from every nation and ultimately united through His Spirit. So while our methods of praise for God may have changed over time, culturally, the more important point is the expectation has not changed one iota. We are expected to praise God. We are expected to praise God. And so we have to look at what it is that we do and why it is that we do it. And I know this is the slippery slope kind of argument here. This is the slippery slope argument. I'm going to identify it right up front. Praising God today has less to do with the how, the specific aspect of it, and so much more to do with the why. And I recognize that that is a slippery slope argument. I totally do. The attitude behind what we are doing and why we are doing it. If we are cultivating a heart of gratitude and thankfulness, praising God will naturally follow. It will not necessarily be something that is intended to draw attention to ourselves. It is not necessarily something that ultimately is going through the motions. Because there's a danger even on the other hand of that of just going through the motions. Let's go to the book of Matthew to finish up today.

Matthew 15.

Matthew 15, as we'll see Jesus Christ quote Isaiah by way of response to the Pharisees that were gathered here at this time. Matthew 15, and we'll pick it up in verse 1. Matthew 15 verse 1. Matthew 15 verse 1 says, You know the Pharisees question Christ And he ultimately makes the point that they honored him with their lips, but their hearts themselves were far from them. Going through the motions is a very dangerous place to be. You know, in the Church of the God, we praise God in a variety of ways. Today we sing hymns of praise to God. Some of you have been singing those songs for 40, 50 years. You know? They're the same songs. And at times, I don't know about you, I'll freely admit it, there are times where it becomes an obligation of sorts. Maybe your heart's not in it like it should be. Brethren, God deserves more than that. He deserves more than that. So is it important that the exact method of worship that was in the Old Testament is replicated today? Is that the important piece? Is it important that we somehow make sure and replicate the exact method of worship that David used? Leaping and dancing in our loincloth before the Ark, so to speak? One, nobody wants to see that. Two, more importantly, what does it achieve? Would it edify? Or would it simply draw attention to one's self? We sing hymns of praise to God in the Church. We've been accused in some ways. There have been criticisms from our youth in particular as they see or experience organic music and organic praise and organic things. And we've been criticized in some ways in that we have a very traditionalized service, where we come in and we have a five hymn format. We come in and we sing our five hymns and maybe they're special music. Maybe there's not, depending on your congregation. And that's that. Is that only praise? Are the hymns that we sing the only praise that happens during the service? Yes, we sing hymns of praise, but you know what? We also pray to God. We also serve one another. We also perform and we appreciate special music. We fellowship. We share stories of God's providence. You know, there's a number of ways that we praise God. And yes, we may not dance. We may not shout out in the middle of a service, hallelujah. We may not raise our hands and sway back and forth as we see outlined in Scripture. But primarily because culturally, that's just something we haven't done for a very, very long time. Does it mean it's wrong? No. No. Is it culturally something we're not used to? Oh, yeah. Definitely. Very much so. Does it mean that you can't personally do these sorts of things outside of church setting? No. Go for it. Dance your heart out. Absolutely. Dance your heart out. Sing out to God. But 1 Corinthians 14, verse 40, which is where we'll end today. 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 40 is, I think, an important thing to consider. 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 40, because what's really interesting, when you take a look at how praise changed in the New Testament from what we see recorded, we see places where hymns were sung, we see places where thanks were given. We don't see the same things that were present in the Old Testament in places here. We don't.

So culturally, things changed. Have things changed slightly from the New Testament to today? Yeah. Culturally, they have. 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 40. We'll go ahead and pick it up. Oh, fine. Verse 33.

Again, the statement that God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. And this was getting at this idea that in worship service, having somebody just stand up randomly and shout something out, and somebody else stand up randomly and shout something else, and then somebody else respond to that and go. It talks about it being confusing. It talks about it being something that's difficult, not just to manage, but difficult for the people who are there present to be able to work through. And again, culturally.

So verse 33, verse 34. Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they're not permitted to speak, but they're also to be submissive as the law also says. Again, culturally, things have shifted. And if they want to learn some things, let them ask their own husbands at home for it's shameful for women to speak in church. You know, you guys don't zip the mouths closed when you come in services. And I'm thankful for that. I learned so much from talking with the women in the church. I really do. I learn a lot. And so I'm very thankful that this is not culturally a situation that we are still in these days.

Verse 36. Through the word of God come originally from you, or was it only you that it reached? If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord. But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant. Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy. Do not forbid to speak with tongues. Specifically, in that case, things that could be interpreted, not gibberish. But let all things be done decently and in order. And so allowing for decency and order within the service itself. You know, we talked about earlier, too, the going through the motions concept, allowing our praise to become stale, allowing it to be something that, again, we go through the motions of it. The songs in our song service, I've often said, you know, I really wish everybody had a chance to experience in person a song service in West Africa. You know, just the sheer joy and praise and just it honestly brings cheer to your it brings to your eyes. And, you know, it's one of those things where I always end up I'm always the first message whenever we go over there. And so I got to sit up there and start like, okay, that was really awesome. Give me a minute, you know, and try to get my composure back because it's so beautiful. It's so organic. It's so beautiful. And sometimes I think we can allow our ours to become stale if we're not careful. But I am so unbelievably thankful that we have such a musical congregation. I am so thankful. I end up in pockets sometimes of people around me that know the different parts to the songs and it just harmonizes so beautifully. And it encourages me to then, you know, want to sing along to those parts. It's just it's beautiful. But I love it when we have a chance to get into a pocket of people that can sing those parts and are really singing out with such emotion and with praise to God. Brethren, God the Father is our Creator. He's made us. He sustains us. He protects and He provides. He's called us to be part of His family. He's offered us eternal life through the sacrifice of His Son. He is so, so good. He is a great Heavenly Father. He is on His throne. His Son will return and the Kingdom will be established. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord.