It's Good To Praise The Lord

It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp. (Psalm 92:1-3)(NIV)

Right now, on the dry-erase board in the choir room at The Ridge, I have Ps. 33:1 displayed for our choir members. This verse kinda goes hand in hand with the one above, reminding us that it is good to praise our God. Let's look at how Ps. 33:1-3 reads in both the NIV and The Message.

NIV--Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him. Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy. The Message--Good people, cheer God! Right-living people sound best when praising. Use guitars to reinforce your Hallelujahs! Play his praise on a grand piano! Invent your own new song to him; give him a trumpet fanfare.

It's good to praise the Lord! Why? Because He alone is worthy of all praise. And it's fitting for the upright to praise Him. I like the way that The Message puts it, "Right-living people sound best when praising." And it's not that we necessarily sound good, we might not have the best singing voice or even be able to sing in key (but God's not that concerned about those things); but we're at our best when we're assembled together, focusing on Jesus, worshiping together in unity. It's fitting for the righteous to praise Him, because when we're gathered in His name, He's right there in our midst. (Mt. 18:20)(KJV) It's good to praise the Lord because God inhabits the praises of His people. (Ps. 22:3)(KJV) So if God's presence is in our midst and He inhabits our praises, then we can rest assured that as we gather in His name and worship Him in spirit and truth---there He is. And where God is, there is love, joy, peace, mercy, power, truth, healing, salvation, deliverance, faithfulness, strength, forgiveness, life and hope. Wouldn't you like to be in the midst of some or all of these things right now? You can. Just send your praises up to God, and He will rain down His mercy, love and power over your life! I've always marvelled at how simply praising God can alleviate and/or disintegrate things like stress, depression and anxiety. Sometimes when I'm worried or stressed out about things I find that just singing a simple praise chorus or hymn will calm me down. As we focus our attention on God and His majesty, we get a better perspective on our problems and the worries of this world. As we praise Him, thinking on the eternal blessings He's poured out on us, His children, the cares of the world pale in comparison. That thought reminds me of the beloved hymn, "Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus", by Helen L. Lemmel. You'll recall the lyrics to the chorus of the song:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace

When we turn our eyes on Jesus, giving Him our full attention, all that this world can offer pales in the brightness of His glory-- the true Light (Jn. 1:9), the Bright Morning Star (Rev. 22:16). Truly, it's fitting for the upright to praise Him and it is good to praise the Lord!
Joey C.

The Lord Reigns

The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed in majesty and is armed with strength. (Ps. 93:1)(NIV)


Our God reigns. He is the Sovereign Lord of all! And yet, if we're not careful, we can lose sight of that truth when we see the state of the world we live in. When we see the acts of terrorism, the natural disasters, the economy crisis, the poor and ungodly decisions of our leadership in Washington, the senseless violence, the attack on our religious liberties, the way our culture continues to paint what's good and true in an ugly hue so that what's evil and sinful is seen as the "norm", then we have a tendency to forget that God is still on the throne. But He is! In fact, He's not worried one bit about all those things because He's still got everything well under control. The Word assures us that our Lord reigns and even tells us how and to what extent He reigns. Here's some scriptures from the NIV translation which use the word "reign":

• Ex. 15:18-The Lord will reign
• Isa. 9:7-He will reign on David's throne
• Isa. 24:23-For the Lord Almighty will reign
• Jer. 23:5-6-A king who will reign wisely
• Lk. 1:33-He will reign over the house of Jacob
• Rev. 11:15-He will reign for ever and ever
• Rev. 22:5-And they will reign for ever and ever

Here's a few passages that use the word "reigns":

• Ps. 9:7-The Lord reigns forever
• Ps. 47:8-God reigns over the nations
• Ps. 96:10-Say among the nations, "The Lord reigns"
• Ps. 97:1-The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad
• Ps. 99:1-The Lord reigns, let the nations tremble
• Ps. 146:10-The Lord reigns forever
• Isa. 52:7-"Your God reigns!"
• Rev. 19:6-For our Lord God Almighty reigns

There's no doubt in my mind that the Lord still reigns! The only real question is --"Does He reign over your heart?" Oh, He still reigns over all the universe, and He's still Lord of all, and He's still in control. But is He in control of your life? Have you given it over to Him? You see, although God is all-powerful and all-mighty and has the authority and power to speak the cosmos into existence, He's not going to force you to relinquish the throne of your heart to Him. He cares about you and loves you enough that He gave you the freedom to choose to receive Him or not. Only you can choose to give Jesus His rightful place on the throne of your heart. Only you can decide whether or not you will allow God to reign in your life as Savior and Lord. And we know, sadly, that many will not accept Jesus as their personal Lord, (I pray that you're not one of them) but everyone will one day acknowledge and proclaim the inevitable truth of who He is. Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)(NIV)(also see Romans 14:11 and Isaiah 45:23) For many, it will unfortunately be too late at that point, because they failed to take self off the throne and give it to God while they were alive on earth.(please contact me via email if you would like info. on how to put Jesus on the throne)

I'm so glad that I know that my God reigns and will reign for ever and ever! (Rev. 11:15)He's the Sovereign God who made the heavens and the earth (Jer. 32:17), the One Who was and is and is to come.(Rev. 1:8) And we also have the promise that if we believe in Him and follow after Him, enduring to the end, that we will reign with Him! (2 Tim. 2:12) Isn't that amazing to think about! Praise His name--OUR GOD REIGNS!
Joey C.

Evening Worship? You mean Church is Open on Sunday Night?

(Psalm 134:1-3))(HCSB) Now praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord who stand in the Lord's house at night! Lift up your hands in the holy place, and praise the Lord! May the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Zion.

You know, each Sunday churches all over the country have evening worship services. And I'm sure that the pastors of most of those churches are often disappointed. "Why?", you ask? Because these services usually suffer from poor attendance. It's seems that no matter what they try, church leaders all over struggle with this, because many of the people just never or rarely come to an evening service. I've seen some other churches in the area use bright, flashing marquis signs, advertising their evening services, as if to say, "Hey, look! We are indeed having church tonight!" But I know that the turnout is still not what it should be. In fact, many churches have switched to a schedule of no evening services or have meetings in home "cell" groups instead. Now, here at RABC, we have Sunday night services, although I often wonder if many of our church members realize it. (You sure don't see much evidence of it on any given Sun. night!)

Now you may say, "Wow, he sure is harping about this subject!" And maybe I am, but maybe somebody needs to, because I seem to remember a passage of scripture that says something like, "we shouldn't forsake assembling together, but encourage each other, especially as the day of Jesus' return draws closer." (Heb. 10: 25)(joey's paraphrase) And each day, we draw one day closer to the day that Jesus is coming back for His church!

There are several passages in the Psalms that mention worshiping or praying or meditating in study of God's Word at night.

We see in Psalm 92, a picture of worshiping day and night:
It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp. (Ps. 92:1-3)(NIV)In Psalm 77, we have a passage that shows the psalmist crying out to God in distress, lifting hands in worship at night:
I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me. When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out untiring hands and my soul refused to be comforted. (Ps. 77:1-2)(NIV)In Psalm 1, we see that we will be happy when we turn away from the path of sin and the advice of the wicked and instead:
Instead, his delight is in the Lord's instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. (Ps. 1:2)(HCSB)
Now, I admit that you can cry out to God in worship and meditate on His Word when you're alone at home (or somewhere esle)as well as when you're at church; but these passages to me show an underlying desire, an unquenchable longing for God that should easily prompt us to make every effort to worship each chance we get in a corporate worship service with our church family where we can encourage and be encouraged by fellow believers.

Here's another verse from Isaiah that expresses this type of longing for God, a desire to seek Him in the evening:
Yes, Lord, we wait for You in the paths of Your judgments. Our desire is for Your name and renown. I long for You in the night; yes, my spirit within me diligently seeks You, for when Your judgments are in the land, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. (Isa. 26:8-9)(HCSB)
We see other passages in the Old Testament exhorting us to study God's Word day and night. And again, I believe that we should do it privately--some one on one time in personal worship, prayer and study with the Lord--but also we should study and worship together. In Joshua chapter 1 we read:
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. (Joshua 1:8)(NASB)
So you see that we are to be in worship and in study of God's Word at night as well as in the day time hours. And I don't know about you, but ever since God saved me from an eternity without Him in a terribly horrible place called hell...since He forgave me and washed away my sins with the blood of His only Son Who died in my place on the cross of Calvary... since He gave me an assurance of my salvation and eternal life that only comes through Him, I just don't want to miss a single opportunity to praise His name and express my love and thanks to Him for Who He is and for what He's done in my life! How about you? When we have this inner desire to seek Him and worship Him and study His Word in the evening as well as in the morning, we can be sure that the "Maker of Heaven and Earth" will send down His blessings on us! (Ps. 134:3)See you next Sun. Night!

Joey C.