The point of interest in this passage is not the fact that Daniel and
his friends prayed. This is neither unusual nor surprising under the
circumstances. Their lives were at stake unless they had a direct
revelation from God. One would be shocked if they did anything else
but pray. One does not need to be a unique person of prayer to cry
out to God when the danger is great. Even unbelievers pray when
they face grave danger. The text, therefore, does not even give us the
prayer he offered for help. It gives us the response he made in prayer
after God granted the help by revealing to him the dream and its
meaning.
When he prayed for help his prayer was a solemn matter of
petition, and his heart would be heavy. He would be on his knees, or
flat on his face earnestly pleading for God's mercy. But in this
response we see a totally different aspect of prayer. It is a matter of
praise, and his heart would be light, and his body so filled with
grateful joy that it is likely he would be standing or walking with eyes
uplifted to heaven. The posture of prayer and the nature of prayer
varies with the circumstances. There is no best way, for it is such a
personal matter of one's own relationship to God that the best is
relative to the individual. Two Christians going to prayer may be
very different, and one may desire to fall on his knees before God
while the other wishes to stand. Daniel goes through both of these in
one night, and it is his shout of praise that is recorded.
Richard Llewellyn in How Green Was My Valley has this
conversation. Mr. Gruffydd, a minister, tells a boy to keep his spirit
clean, and the boy responds, "And how shall it be kept clean, Mr.
Gruffydd?" He said, "By prayer my son, not mumbling, or shouting,
or wallowing like a hog in religious sentiments. Prayer is only
another name for good, clear direct thinking. When you pray, think
well what you are saying, and make your thoughts into things that are
solid. In that manner, your prayer will have strength, and that
strength shall become a part of you, mind, body and spirit. I think
the author has gone to far here in ruling out sentiment and the role of
emotion, but what he does say is good. It fits the character of the
prayers of the Bible.
Some of our best thinking and theology, and practical guidance
for life comes from the prayers of the Bible. Daniel's prayer of praise
is a prayer of solid things and clear thinking. We want to examine if
from the point of view of what it teaches us about God. The first
thing this prayer of praise teaches us is that-
I. GOD IS WORTHY OF PRAISE.
Someone has said, "There is something sweeter than receiving
praise, the feeling of having deserved it." God alone is always
deserving of praise, and that is why Jesus begins the Lord's Prayer
with the adoration, "Hallowed be thy name." Daniel also begins with
adoration: "Blessed be the name of God forever and ever."
Adoration of God is the highest attitude one can have in His presence.
Someone has written, "In adoration the soul comes to God sensible of
His love, majesty, holiness, and infinite greatness; feeling, and seeking
more fully to feel the awe, reverence, and holy affection due to His
great name; it transcends admiration and wonder; it is a blending of
love with the fervent desire that all the world should know and
magnify the glory of the Lord."
Our praise and adoration cannot exalt God objectively for He is
already the highest and ultimate in majesty, but it does exalt Him
subjectively by placing God in His rightful place in our lives and
thinking, and that is right at the top if first place. And attitude of
adoration and praise is essential if we are to have an adequate
concept of, and relationship to God. God alone is worthy of the very
highest of our emotional responses, and if He does not receive them
then we are lacking an allegiance to Him. Or if someone else or
something else receives them we are idolaters.
The occupation of heaven is praise someone said, and this is
because those who are there are fully aware of the majesty of their
Maker. On earth we often slip into an unawareness of the greatness
of the God who loves and saves us. Because of this it is important that
praise be a part of our prayer life, for praise tends to keep us
conscious of our smallness and God's greatness. In petition and
intercession we are usually focusing on self and others and human
needs, but when we praise we are caught up to heaven to focus on
God and his all-sufficiency for every need. In praise we focus on the
Giver and not just the gift.
God does not need the creatures praise for he is self-sufficient, but
the creature needs to praise the Creator to keep himself conscious
that he is not self-sufficient but dependent upon the grace and mercy
of the Creator. Praise is a benefit to man for both now and in
preparation for eternity. Andrew Melville said, "Praise is the best
auxiliary to prayer. He who most bears in mind what has been done
for him by God will be most emboldened to ask for fresh gifts from
above." To neglect praise does not injure God, but id injures your
own soul and cuts your blessings in half because you lose the joy that
comes with praise. Thomas Chalmers said, "One of the most essential
preparations for eternity is delight in praising God." Man will be at
his highest when his whole being expresses adoration for God. Faber
looked into eternity and sang-Father of Jesus, love's Reward!
What rapture will it be,
Prostrate before Thy throne to lie,
And gaze and gaze on Thee!
The twenty four elders that John saw falling down before the
throne of God were singing and this was their song in Rev. 4:11:
"Worthy art Thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor
and power..." We praise God because he is worthy of our praise.
Daniel in lifting his voice in praise to God makes it clear where his
ultimate loyalty is placed. God is indeed his God, and he longs for his
name to be blessed forever and ever. The second thing this praise
prayer teaches us about God is
II. THE ATTRIBUTES THAT MAKE HIM WORTHY OF PRAISE.
The two that impress Daniel at this point are God's wisdom and
might. These are called His omniscience and omnipotence. He is all
knowing and all powerful. Daniel is praising God for showing these
attributes in his own life. In verse 23 he says he thanks and praises
God forgiving him wisdom and strength. All the wisdom and power
we have comes from God, who is the source of all wisdom and power.
Daniel is especially conscious of this, for let us remember, at the
time that he is praying he has had a full revelation of the king's
dream. He knows what history is going to bring forth in the future.
He knows there will be many changes, and kings will rise and fall.
This is what he is speaking of in verses 21 and 22. In verse 20 he
names the two attributes, and then in 21 and 22 he spells out how they
effect history. The first he explains is God's might. He changes time
and seasons, and he removes kings and sets them up. Changing times
are not mere accidents. They are a part of God's plan. Behind
progress is a planner with a goal. God works in history through changes.
We need to be among the optimists who believe that God is
working even in the rapid changes of our time. It is easy to talk about
God as a sovereign and powerful God of history, and then turn
around and talk as if history was in the hands of men or Satan.
William James visited Thomas Carlyle in 1856 and afterward
wrote this to a friend: "Carlyle, the same old sausage frizzing and
sputtering in his own grease, only infinitely more unreconciled to the
blessed Providence which guides human affairs. He names God
frequently an alludes to the highest things as if they were realities, but
it almost looks as if he did it only for a picturesque effect, so
completely does he seem to regard them as habitually circumvented
and set at naught by politicians." His belief in a sovereign God was
only theoretical but not practical. He never carried the doctrine into
reality, but kept it strictly in the realm of words.
I fear that Carlyle is not an isolated example, and that all of us
tend to fall into this trap of keeping belief and action in water tight
compartments. The Greek word for believe is so much a matter of
action that there is an actual record of a farmer who believed his seed
to the ground, he committed it and trusted it the ground. He bet his
life on the fact that it would grow. Christian belief has got to be
practical, or it is powerless. To believe seed will grow and never to
act on it by planting the seed is not faith, but it is folly. So also to
believe in a God of history who is sovereign, and yet to talk of only
the despair and act as if it was only a meaningless mess is to deny in
action what you profess in words.
Like Daniel we must not only say it, but live as if we really
believed in God's power. We need to understand that being all
powerful does not mean that he can do anything. Thomas Aquinas
said, "Omnipotence is the power to do whatever does not involve a
contradiction." This means that there is much in history that is not
God's will, for He cannot let man be a free agent, and then make sure
he does not use his freedom to do anything contrary to God's will.
Evil will have consequences that are not God's will, but evil can only
postpone God's plan. It cannot stop it, and so the Christian can
always be hopeful, and they can always praise God because he will
accomplish his purpose.
Daniel is greatly impressed also with the omniscience of God. He
has all wisdom. There is no mystery so deep, or no question so dark
that his light cannot penetrate it and make it clear. Daniel has just
had it revealed to him concerning the great empires that will follow
the Babylonian Empire, and he marvels at God's knowing the end
from the beginning. Some poet has written,
Eternity with all its years,
Stands present in Thy view;
To Thee there's nothing old appears,
Great God, there's nothing new.
James says that if we lack wisdom we need to ask God, for He is
the source of all wisdom. Daniel is praising God for the wisdom He is
giving to him, and we are all wiser if we will follow his example and
constantly praise God in prayer.
THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE Based on Heb.13:15-21
In the middle 1800's Henry Comstock staked his claim and dug
until he found gold. He was getting some, but knew there had to be
more. He was convinced there was a mother load there somewhere,
and he kept digging. Weeks turned to months, and months to years,
and finally he gave up in 1859 when he was offered
$11,000 for his claim. The new owner dug just a few feet deeper and
struck that mother load. The Comstock mine produced 340 million in
gold.
So often in life we stop digging too soon, and miss the mother load
of blessings God has for us. That is why Paul wrote in Gal. 6:9, "Let
us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will
reap a harvest if we do not give up." After Christmas is over it is
easy to give up the Christmas spirit, and put wonder and praise on
the back burner for another year. When we stop digging for the
wonder that makes us worship, and the presents that makes us praise,
we stop short of the mother load, and fail to get all the gold God
wants to give us.
Mary Lacyin her book A Woman Wants God tells of asking her
new neighbor if they were going to her mother's home for Christmas.
"Oh, no," she said, "My husband has to work on Christmas day, so
we will stay right here." "But doesn't that nylon plant close down
even for Christmas," she asked. "No, they can't," her neighbor
replied. "Once the flow of liquid nylon begins to move through the
large pipes it would be disastor to stop it. It would cool and harden,
clogging and ruining the machinery. They must keep the nylon
flowing even on Christmas day, for it is a continuous process."
That is also the description of Christian praise. It is not something
you can shut down, for it is also a continuous process. It, of course,
does not stop for Christmas, but it is to be a continuous process that
does not stop for non-holidays and week days either. We have a
tendency to stop and give up praising God, and thereby robbing
ourselves of the mother load of blessings God has for those who learn
that praise is a continuous process. The main reason we stop short is
because we never really grasp the Biblical teaching that every believer
is a priest whose job it is to continually offer a sacrifice of
praise. This text in Heb. 13:15 that tells us this, is in direct opposition
to the common concepts that only a special class of people can be
priests, and that sacrifice is no longer necessary, and that praise
should be limited to certain days and places. Hidden within this verse
is a mother load of golden truth that can make each of us rich if we
are willing to keep digging until we strike it.
I am convinced that the key to a happy New Year, and the key to
a happy new forever lies in our digging out of this verse all that it
contains. This verse is a shaft to a mine that runs all through the
Bible, and as we dig deeper and deeper I can assure you that if you
hold on to what we dig up you'll be rich in the way God wants you to
be rich in the days ahead. This verse opens up many veins of treasure
concerning praise. We see here:
THE PATHWAY TO PRAISE-through Jesus.
THE PRIESTS OF PRAISE-let us.
THE PERSON OF PRAISE-God.
THE PERPETUALNESS OF PRAISE-continually.
THE PRICE OF PRAISE-offer a sacrifice.
THE PURPOSE OF PRAISE-confess His name and please God.
These and many other aspects of this subject will be our focus in
the coming weeks. Since it is a subject that most of us have not
studied in any depth, we are going to start our exploration of this gold
mine of Biblical truth by focusing on our duty as Christians to be
perpetually offering to God the sacrifice of praise. Therefore, the
first shaft we will descend will be called-
I. THE PRIESTHOOD OF PRAISE.
Martin Luther brought it to life; the Baptist picked it up as one of their
foundation principles, and most other denominations
acknowledge it as a basic Biblical truth. It is the priesthood of all
believers. The Old Testament system of priests and sacrifices has
been made obsolete. Sacrifice was done away with by the once for all
sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The idea of a special class of people
who alone could intercede and offer sacrifice is eliminated, for the
curtain in the temple was rent from top to bottom, when Jesus died on
the cross, allowing all to come into the presence of God. There is
neither male or female, Jew nor Gentile in Christ, for all are equally
free to come into the very holy of holies to offer to God the sacrifice
of praise.
No longer is there a Gentile part of the temple. No longer is there
a female area beyond which women could not go. No longer is there a
division of lay people and clergy where the clergy could go into the
presence of God, but not the lay people. All of the old system is
changed, and now, in Christ, all believers are equal, and have full
access to the presence of God. Freedom of worship is what Jesus
made universal by His sacrifice. Now all Christians have the right
and the privilege of offering to God the sacrifice of praise.
The primary purpose of our existence is to be people of praise, and
to do those things in life that produce praise to God. That is the
whole point of God giving man gifts. Every gift we have has one goal,
and that is to produce praise. The purpose of all creativity is to
produce praise. The beauty of music, art, literature, science, and all
of life is to lead us and others to praise God. Thank God for all which
kindles love and appreciation for the Author of life.
Why do you think Paul wrote in Phil. 4:8, "Finally, brothers,
whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is
pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is
excellent or praiseworthy-think about such things." It is because Paul
knows the very essence of life is in praising God, and the more you
focus on the things to praise God for the more you will fulfill your
purpose for being. Praise is no sideline. It is the job of the believer.
It is the duty of the priests to offer praise perpetually, and this can be
hard to do if you take your eyes off the lovely and praiseworthy, and
begin to focus on the evil and ugliness of a fallen world. You cannot
escape this reality, and neither could Paul, but your job as a priest is
to always look beyond it to that which leads to praise.
George Herbert wrote, "Of all thy creatures both in sea and land
only to man thou hast made known thy ways and put the penne alone
into His hand and made Him secretarie to thy praise." As secretary
of praise it is our job description to take notes of all there is to offer
praise to God about, and encourage others to do the same, and live a
life of praise without ceasing. The point we need to grasp is that this
duty of praising God perpetually is the duty of every Christian. It is
not a specialized task like teaching or preaching, or playing an
instrument. All of the gifts of the Spirit, and all talents are
specialized ministries which are limited to those who have the gifts
and talents. The members of the body who do not have these things
cannot perform the tasks of those who do. The eye cannot hear, and
the ear cannot see. The hand cannot smell, and the nose cannot lift,
and on and on we can see the many things that are specialized tasks
for people who can do them.
Offering the sacrifice of praise is not one of these specialized tasks.
It is the duty of every believer because every believer is a priest, and
every believer has a duty to offer sacrifice, and the only acceptable
sacrifice is the sacrifice of lip and life, which is praise to God. This is
what all parts of the body have in common. It is the basis for unity.
Gifts give us variety in the body, and praise gives us unity.
Since many of you may not have known that you were priests, because
you do not recall your ordination into priesthood, it will be our first
task to help you see that this is your vocation in the body of Christ.
The more you see who you are as a priest who leads worship in the
temple of the Holy Spirit, which is your own body and life, the more
you will be a true worshiper in spirit and in truth, which Jesus says,
the Father is ever looking for.
Christian worship is not a matter of professionals doing something
while the rest of the people watch. Christian worship is a matter of
participation by every person in the congregation. We need to get
the true picture that Kierkegaard gave of the church at worship.
God is the audience; the congregation are the actors or worshipers,
and the pastor, song leader, organist, pianist, and choir, are the
promoters whose job it is to motivate you to praise God. The leaders
of worship are to be aids to your worship. You hear a song and you
praise God for its beauty and its truth. You hear an insight into
God's revelation, and you thank God for it and praise Him for His
Word. The essence of all we do as leaders is to get you, the
worshiper, to praise God, for that is your job as priests. If you do not
praise God, you have failed to worship, for that is the essence of
worship.
If we learn this, every service will become more meaningful, for
you will not just be passive spectators, but active participators in
worship. If the promoters are so poor that nothing they do or say
motivates you to praise God, then do it on your own. Think on those
things that move you to praise God, for just because someone else
does not do their job does not mean you have no obligation to do
yours. Your job is to continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise.
Now, lest you think this is an isolated verse, let me share with you
that this is the clear teaching of Peter the leader of the 12 Apostles. If
anyone would want to suppress the idea of the priesthood of all
believers, and keep this job in the hands of the professionals, it would
be Peter.
But Peter throws the door open to all in I Pet. 2:9.
"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of
Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. Peter
belonged to the most exclusive Christian group ever to exist-the 12
Apostles. But he knew that the 12 had no corner on the priesthood.
This was the office of all Chrisitans, and all are called to the ministry
of praise. You can lack the gifts you wish you had, and feel inferior
and inadequate in many ways, but you are a part of the royal
priesthood if you are a believer in Christ, and you have the duty of
offering the sacrifice of praise; not once a year, or once a month, or
once a week, but continually. The temple of praise is never closed.
As American Christians we pick up the values and practices of our
culture. Being a mere spectator is a major part of our culture. Ride
the bus and leave the driving to us, or we do it all for you, as the ad
says. We bring this attitude to church, and expect others to do our
job for us, but it doesn't work that way. I can only praise God for
myself. I cannot give God your sacrifice of praise. The choir can
only praise God for themselves. They cannot do it for you. Every
Christian has to offer their own sacrifice of praise, and this is good,
for when they do they become a part of true worship. This is the goal
of God, and so everywhere we see the idea of the priesthood of all
believers, we see the act of praise. Priesthood and praise are linked,
for that is the primary task of New Testament priesthood.
In Rev. 1:5-6 we read, "To Him who loves us and has freed us
from our sins by His blood, and has made us to be a kingdom of
priests to serve His God and Father-to Him be glory and power
forever and ever." Praise God that we are all called to be priests who
praise God. It is our purpose as the people of God to offer perpetual
praise. But since we have not paid close attention to this, we can go
through a service and never think of it. We have much to praise God
for, but we are not conscious that it is our duty. We have stopped
short, and the mother load is left just a few feet away, and we rob
ourselves of the riches that come with doing our duty.
This vein of golden truth was buried for centuries. The clergy took
over the whole process of worship, and the laity was shut out. Only
the priest could offer sacrifice and give holy communion, and only
they could baptize. The church forgot grace and fell back under the
law of Moses. It began to function much like the Old Testament
system of temple worship. Jesus destroyed the temple and raised up
his own body as the temple, but the church raised up the old temple
again, and for centuries Christianity was made a modified form of
legalistic and ritualistic Judaism. It was the same system where Jesus
himself did not qualify to be a priest, let alone the high priest.
In 1520 Martin Luther began the reformation, and one of the key
truths that he revived from the New Testament was the truth of the
priesthood of all believers. He wrote, "Christ has made it possible for
us, provided we believe in Him, to be not only his brethern, co-heirs,
and fellow kings, but also his fellow-priests. Therefore we may come
boldly into the presence of God in the spirit of faith and cry "abba
Father." Pray for one another, and do all things which we see done
and foreshadowed in the outer and visible works of priests."
The basis for women being deacons and serving communion is the
doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Their is nothing any
layperson cannot do that the priests of the Old Testament did as an
exclusive body of people, for now Jews and Gentiles, bond and free,
male and female, are all priests of God. To deny this you have to
rewrite the New Testament. Jesus did not qualify to be a priest under
the Old Testament, but now He is the Hight Priest over the people of
God. None of us qualify to be priests under the Old Testament, but
now under our High Priest, we all qualify just by bing a part of His Kingdom.
We no longer offer blood sacrifices, for Jesus eliminated that by
His own sacrifice. Now we offer spiritual sacrifices. In I Pet. 2:5 Peter
writes, "You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual
house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices to God
through Jesus Christ." How often to we come to church and do not
recognize that we come as priests to offer the sacrifice of praise? I
have never asked anyone if they wanted to be a priest, but I have
asked many if they want to become a Christian by faith in Christ. I
just never stopped to think of it, but when you ask the one you are
also asking the other, for as soon as you become a child of God you
are a priest of God. It is the priesthood of all believers, and not just of
some, or of more mature believers. All believers are a part of the
priesthood. As soon as you believe in Christ you are on duty, and
responsible for offering the sacrifice of praise. Praise is the universal
gift of all God's people.
A believer who does not praise God is like a doctor who does not
give medicine; a teacher who does not give knowledge; a pilot who
does not fly. A priest must praise for that is the very purpose of his
being a priest. Even the believing children are priests. Psa. 8:2 says,
"From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise."
When children sing Jesus loves me this I know, or any other song of
recognition of Christ, they are fulfilling their duty as priests of the
Lord most high. There are no exceptions. There are no children of
God who are exempt from this duty of praise. It is absolute and
universal-let all who have breath praise the Lord.
If the choir has sung beautifully and we have not praised God, we
have not worshiped. If the soloist does a marvelous job, but the rest of
us have not praised God, we have not worshiped. If the pastor
preaches a wonderful message, but we have not praised God it is
mere noise, and we have not worshiped. That which makes all that we
do be true worship is the sacrifice of praise. Only when the whole
priesthood offers the sacrifice of praise have we worshiped in a
God-pleasing and Christ-honoring way. This means we can not
longer come to church as mere spectators expecting someone else to
do the duty of worship for us. We must come with the expectation
that we as priests will offer to God the sacrifice of praise.
