The enemy forces were encamped at Ein Gedi. The king and his people were filled with alarm, so Jehoshaphat called a fast and began to seek the Lord as did all the people. In his prayer, Jehoshaphat talked about evil coming upon the nation, in the form of the sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine. In the verse just before my text, the king prayed in the Temple and said, "O our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do; but our eyes are upon you." (2 Chron. 20:12). Then the Spirit of the Lord came on Jahaziel the Levite, who announced that the next day all this great host would be overthrown and destroyed. So it was, and so it happened, for Judah’s enemies quarreled among themselves and slew one another, leaving to the people of Judah only to gather the rich spoils of the dead. A similar situation has arisen here in America.
The last 2.5 months in America mirror something like Jehoshaphat and the Israelites were facing. It seems that we are surrounded by enemies. It has felt to me like we have been part of the opening scenes in a horror movie about a nation facing an apocalyptic ending. First, it was (and still is) the Pandemic, with health officials quarantining the well, but exposing the old and sick in nursing homes and assisted living facilities to the virus, where 42% of the deaths have occurred nationwide; where Walmart, Target, liquor stores and pot dispensaries were allowed to stay open, but churches were ordered closed then raided by police; where you’d be arrested for swimming in the Atlantic Ocean, or for surfing in the Pacific or handcuffed for tossing a softball to your daughter in an almost-empty public park, and the acts of tyranny by mayors and governors, almost of all whom are of one particular political party, goes on and on.
Then, last week in Minneapolis, a policeman held his knee against the neck of a black man for 8 minutes while Mr. George Floyd laid face down in the street, and tragically, Mr. George died. Is what the Minneapolis Policeman, who was white, did to George Floyd, who was black, evil, and illegal? Yes. Was it brutal to watch as he pressed his knee into Mr. Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes, while Mr. Floyd was saying, “I Can’t Breathe?” Yes. Do I believe the policeman and his “3 blind mice,” associates should be prosecuted to the fullest extent the law will allow? Yes. Do I believe they should spend a long, long time behind bars? Yes. Then protests began, at first peaceful, but then soon turned into rioting, beginning Wednesday and continuing through the weekend, with clashes with the police and reckless mayhem and destruction of property, ironically, most of which were owned by minorities, many by African American business owners.
Here is a partial list:
Minneapolis – St. Paul, MN (3rd precinct police headquarters was abandoned by police; rioters entered it, trashed it, and burned it to the ground; 170 businesses were looted and/or burned down)
Louisville, KY (7 shot, not by police)
Atlanta, GA (CNN headquarters overrun and trashed)
Portland, OR (state of emergency declared)
Columbus, OH (state of emergency declared); Cincinnati; Canton
Denver, CO
Detroit, MI
Kansas City, MO
Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Sacramento, San Jose, Oakland, and San Francisco CA
Des Moines, IA
Indianapolis & Fort Wayne IN
Milwaukee, WI
Washington, DC (where protestors breached the White House security fence and were repulsed by Secret Service, but the Democratic DC Mayor refused to send police to assist; the Treasury Dept. bldg. was also breached)
Rioting in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin, TX
New York City and its boroughs (police cars set on fire; NYPD Police Precinct overrun; police van set afire; officers injured)
Lincoln, NE
Boston, MA
New Orleans, LA
Newark, NJ
Richmond, and Virginia Beach, VA
Seattle, WA
Attorney General Bill Barr said Saturday, that “…it appears the violence is planned, organized, and driven by anarchic and left extremist groups, far-left extremist groups using Antifa-like tactics many of whom traveled from outside the state to promote the violence.” What should be a Christian response to the events that are unfolding in our country? We are to do what God instructed the Israelites to do: We are to praise the Lord and worship Him. We read, “Jehoshaphat stood and said, ‘Hear me, O Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall you be established; believe His prophets, so shall you prosper.’ And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, ‘Praise the Lord; for His mercy endures forever.’ And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set an ambush against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten” (II Chron. 20:20-22).
I. PRAISE
A. The command to Praise in the reading is the Hebrew word ya da’ and means “to give thanks, laud, and praise; to confess the name of God.”
B. The word in the OT most translated into English as “Praise” is from the Hebrew: “Halal.” Hallelujah comes from this word and means: “to shine; to boast; to rave; to celebrate; to be clamorously foolish.” When we say: “Hallelujah to the Lord,” we are saying “praise You Lord.”
C. Another word for praise is: “Nasa'” which means “to lift up, or to throw out the hand; or worship with the extended hand.” As the Psalmist says, in Psm. 63:4, “I will lift up my hands” unto Your name.”
D. Another word in the OT is “rü·ah',” and means “to shout in a loud tone.” As used in Psalm 47:1, “Clap your hands all you people. Shout (rü·ah') unto God with the voice of triumph.”
E. Another word is “bä·rak,” meaning “to kneel down as an act of adoration.” This word is in Psalm 95:6: “Oh come let us worship and bow down; let us kneel (bä·rak) before the Lord our maker.” So, when we kneel, we are praising Him.
F. Two other common words are “Zamar” and “Tehillah” which are words referring to praising God by singing with accompanying music, and by playing on a variety of musical instruments.
G. So, in all these references praise is:
1. Vocal or verbal; even loud, such as by shouting His name; speaking out the words of praise, and/or by singing
2. Visible (as seen by lifting the hands; clapping the hands, by kneeling; and/or by playing instruments. We should use all these methods of praising Him
II. A keyword search for the word “Praise”
A. There are at least 259 verses in the Bible with the “Praise” in them; some had that word in it more than once.
B. The Psalms alone had the words: praise, praises, or praised 185 times!
C. I love Psalm 104:33: “I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.”
D. And 118:28: “The LORD is my God! I will praise Him and tell Him how thankful I am “(CEV).
E. And 35:18: “And when Your people meet, I will praise You, and thank You, Lord, in front of them all” (CEV).
F. And especially Psalm 63:3: “Because Your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise You” (ESV).
G. We are to Praise Him for Who He is because He alone is worthy to be praised. He is the One, true living God of all the universe, and beside Him, there is no other God to worship.
H. We are to Bless the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, giving the Triune God all glory, praise, and honor, both now and throughout all eternity.
I. Our Lord Jesus Himself is from the tribe of Judah, which means “Praise,” so it is fitting that we should Praise His holy Name: Jesus, Yeshua: Jehovah, our salvation! Glory be unto Him!
III. Christian Praise
A. In the OT, the people would not come personally to God, but the priests would come to Him for them. As Christians, we don’t need a priest because we have been made “…Priests of God” (I Pet. 2:9) through the sacrifice of Christ. He is our High Priest, and we come through Him personally.
B. I found 32 verses in the NT with “Praise” or its variations: praises, praising, praised. Some are:
1. Matt. 21:16: When the Jewish leaders were upset because the people were praising Jesus, He said: “…have you never read: “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings You have perfected praise.”
2. Lk. 19:37: As Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a donkey and the people began to praise Him, we read: “…the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen…”
3. In Acts 3:8; when Peter and John healed the crippled man, we read: “and he, leaping up stood, and walked and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping and praising God.”
4. I Pet. 4:11 says, “…that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
5. Hebrews 2:12: uses the Greek word: hüm-ne'-o, which means to sing a hymn, from which we get our English word: Hymn; “I will declare Your name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church, I will sing praise (hum knee’ o) unto You.
6. Luke 1:64 uses yü-lo-ge'-o, which means: to invoke blessings; to celebrate with praises; When the tongue of the father of John the Baptist, Zacharias’s was loosed, “…he spoke and praised (“yü-lo-ge'-o”) God.
7. Hebrews 13:15 uses the Greek word: i'-ne-ses, meaning “a thank-offering presented to God for a benefit received;” “By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually, that is, the fruit of our lips…”
Closing:
James 3:14-16 tells us where the evil we see on our TVs comes from. “But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descends not from above but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” Our enemy, satan, is behind all that’s going on. He is the true enemy. The Apostle Paul wrote about the last days. He said, “…perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (II Tim. 3:1-5). The devel is the instigator of all this chaos and turmoil.
So, if we are to be protected from our enemy, the devel, and from his servants, who are either consciously and knowingly worshipping him, or from those who are unwitting tools under his power, we MUST PRAISE OUR GOD! Praise must become a central part of our devotional life. Psalm 22:3 says, “God inhabits (ya shav’: dwells in; sits enthroned upon) the praises of His people.” In Psalm 111, we read, “Hallelujah. I will praise the Lord. I will praise with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation. And notice that the Psalmist is saying: “I will praise the Lord.”
C.S. Lewis said: “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed,” So, if I love the Lord, whether the church praises the Lord or not, I am to praise the Lord. Whether the brother or sister in the pew praises the Lord or not, I am to praise the Lord. Whatever anyone else is doing, I am to give honor and reverence to The Lord God Jehovah, and His Son, Jesus, the One, true and Living God; the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the only One worthy to be worshipped.
He is the One Who will protect us from our enemies, and give us strength; Who provides for us, and gives us food to eat; Who is our Shepherd, Who gives rest to our souls, and keeps us in all our ways; the One who is our light in dark places. We are to worship and give Praise and honor to the One who saved us by His blood, and Who brought us into the light of His glorious gospel; the One who delivered us from the grip of the devel, took our sins away and gave us His righteousness. That is Who we are to worship! Just as Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah praised Him and were delivered from their enemies, let us also praise Him to be delivered too! Does it mean all our problems will go away? No. Because Jesus said, “In this world you WILL have tribulation,” but He will be with us because He has overcome the world.
