Praise Him Always — Jim Cymbala

The Triple Call to Praise in Psalm 135

There's a spirit of praise in the building. Obviously, you've come with a lot of thanksgiving in your heart, amen, and with praise. So let's just look at these verses if we could. Psalm 135, verse one, praise the Lord.

Praise the name of the Lord. Praise Him, you servants of the Lord. You who minister in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of God. Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. Sing praise to His name, for that is pleasant.

Let's read that together from verse one, ready? Praise the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Praise Him, you servants of the Lord. You who minister in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.

Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. Sing praise to His name. Notice in the first verse, there's a triple call to praise. Praise is mentioned three times in one verse. Praise the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord.

Hallelujah Means Praise the Lord

Praise Him, you servants of the Lord. Praise the Lord. As we know, praise there, repeated like that, is for emphasis, and it's interesting because the word for praise the Lord is the word that we use, hallelujah.

Everybody say hallelujah. Hallelujah means praise the Lord. That's what that means, praise the Lord. Hallelujah, with the last J-A-H being one of the Hebrew names for God. Hallelujah, praise the Lord.

The Universal Call to Praise

Notice two things about that. It's a call to praise the Lord. The psalmist here is calling other people to praise the Lord. It's not like he's just saying praise the Lord. He's saying to us, you praise the Lord.

Join me in praising the Lord. Can't you praise the Lord more? Can't you praise Him deeper? Doesn't He deserve more of our praise? Hasn't He been wonderful in our lives? So, the psalmist is calling us to praise the Lord, and since He's anointed by the Holy Spirit, this, of course, is the great common call of God at all times to all men everywhere.

Oh, that men would praise the Lord. At every moment of every day, it's always right to praise the Lord. Even if you're praying for some severe need, you can intersperse, hallelujah. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord.

Praise Invites the Congregation to Join In

Notice also here, because he's praising the Lord, he wants us to join him in praising the Lord, and that's something about praise which is so interesting. When you're praising the Lord, you love others to join you.

You don't want them to watch you. You want them to get with it, too. Come on, let's praise the Lord together. Let's honor, come on, let's put our hands together. Let's honor Him together. In other words, I don't wanna do it alone.

I wanna do it with you. Notice the three times, praise, praise, praise. You can look at it this way. Praise Him for what He's done in the past. Praise Him for what He's doing right now. Praise Him for what He's gonna do in the future even before He does it.

Praise the Lord. If you look back, praise Him. If you look today, praise Him. And if you go to the future, oh, praise Him anyway. He's gonna help you. Come on, let's say amen to that. Praise the Lord.

Praising the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Another thought just comes to me. Praise the Father because He loved us so much He gave us His Son. Praise God who created the universe, who watches out for us, our Father God. Praise the Son. Praise Jesus who died on the cross, who rose again from the dead, who's coming back.

Praise Him. Praise the Holy Spirit. He lives inside of us. He gives us life and joy and peace. Triple praise. Praise the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Praise Him, you servants of the Lord. Let's look at that word name.

The Name of the Lord Reveals His Character

Praise the name of the Lord. Name in the Bible speaks of character. The name that reveals the character. One of the first names that God gave to His people is I am that I am. I am eternal. I'm not I was or not I will be.

I am. Whatever day you wake up, I am. A million years from now, I am. Two million years ago, I am. I am. I am always. So praise the name of the Lord. And of course, the sweetest name of the Lord is Jesus.

Savior. Friend. Sticks closer than a brother. Look in verse two. Well, the end of verse one, you servants of the Lord, you who minister in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God.

Ministry Must Not Replace Praise

It's just strange. The psalmist is now telling the people who minister in the temple, most believe that this psalm was written after the second temple was raised in the time of Joshua and Zerubbabel. Not the first Joshua, but the other Joshua was the high priest.

He's talking now to the people who are in the house of the Lord, who minister, the priests, the Levites. He's telling them, make sure amidst all of your business, amidst all of your work in the choir or deacon, pastor, symbola, amidst all your preaching, amidst all your work, missionary work, and your trips, remember, if you're working so much that you stop praising the Lord, you're working too much.

It's not even right to work for the Lord if you're gonna stop praising him. You gotta praise him while you're working. It's always right to stop and say praise the Lord. Isn't that true? We can get so busy even going to church.

We can get so busy doing things to help people that we can stop praising the Lord, and then a heaviness comes on us because there's nothing better to lift burdens than to praise the Lord. So he's warning those that minister to God, the priests, the Levites, you remember as the midst of all of that, don't get mechanical.

Don't get regimented, this is what I do because I do it. Be praising the Lord, you who work in accessorize. Be giving them hallelujahs while you're waiting for the next vehicle. You who set up the communion utensils, be praising the Lord.

That's a good warning to all of us. He's telling the very servants of the Lord. He's not telling someone far away, hey, you better praise the Lord. He's saying, no, you who minister, who stand in the courts of God, you who come close to God, remember, as you're serving the Lord, be praising him, be worshiping him.

God Is Good and Praise Is Pleasant

Why? Finally, for he is good. And to praise him is pleasant. Notice verse three, praise the Lord again, for the Lord is good. Sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant. I got all kinds of praise pent up inside of me today because I've been looking back on my life, talking with the pastors, praying with the pastors today.

God has been so good to me. God has been so good to this church. Has God not been good to us? Can we put our hands together and say God is good, has been good, will be good. Notice, praise the Lord, for the Lord is good.

We praise people who are kind to us. We thank them. People in the world praise their idols, their entertainers, their sports figures. Oh, that men might praise the Lord. We who know our God, how ought we to praise him?

Praise him more, praise him deeper. You know, all of us tonight, I want us to go to another level of praising God. For the Father seeks those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. I want the Holy Spirit to help us.

Praise Comes Before Petition

You know what? If we serve communion at the end, and there's some requests I have, individual, and then for our own church, before we even ask God for what we need, he already knows it. We're not like enlightening him on something that we need.

We're right to petition it, but we don't have to repeat it 100 times. Ask and you shall receive. We're gonna ask and we're gonna receive, but praising the Lord, that has no end. That has no end. Our occupation in eternity is gonna be praising the Lord.

The Unending Praise of Heaven

Some people think that at times in the Old Testament they got so caught up with praising the Lord that they tried to get the choirs to keep praising and bring in another choir, or bring in a rotation of priests, so the praise never stopped.

There was never a lull in the praise, because God deserves to be praised, because he is good. In heaven, it seems like whatever else is going on, the praise never stops. There are certain creatures around the throne that are described in the book of Revelation and elsewhere.

They never stop praising God. It's like they only live to praise God. They're always worshiping God, worshiping God. Our occupation in heaven, a billion years from now, I can be telling you what you're gonna be doing.

You're gonna be praising the Lord, because there's something about his presence that draws out praise, and that he loves praise, for he is good. Oh, I am so far behind on praising him. I have praised him a lot, but he deserves more of my praise.

I'm gonna make up some tonight. I am gonna give him extra praise, super praise, total praise. Every praise is due our God. I wanna just say that last phrase. Sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant.

Praise Makes Believers Beautiful and Encourages Others

I wanna say to all you ladies, all you men, you are never more attractive than when you're praising God. Amen. There's something about praising God. It's the most pleasant, wonderful thing. It makes us beautiful, because we were made to praise.

It stirs others up. I have walked in here, this building and the other building, sometimes so discouraged, so distracted by whatever, it doesn't matter. I'm not even here 30 seconds, and I see you, and you don't know I'm looking at you.

I'm coming in from the side. You don't know when that door will open, and I'm coming in, and when I see you praise God, I'm telling you, as God is my holy witness, I can't wait till I get to my little seat over there, so I can start praising God, because you so overwhelm me.

Isn't that the way God uses the choir? Doesn't matter if they're the best singing choir in the world or not. They're good, but that doesn't even matter. When they praise and sing to God, it lifts you up, and you wanna praise God with them.

Am I right? Why is that? Why, or when they're singing, why do I see hands go up? Why do I see people start standing? They're not telling you to stand. They're not telling you to lift your hands. Why are we doing that?

Because as they worship God, it draws you in. It's so beautiful. You wanna praise the Lord, too. I wanna praise God tonight. How many have a lot to praise Him for? Lift your hand high. But I want us to praise Him.

An Exhortation to Praise Without Reservation

Holy, holy is your name. Holy, holy is your name. I wanna praise Him now deeper than we've ever praised Him. I wanna thank Him more. Some of you that are held back in your personalities, I want you to let loose and praise God with everything in you.

Praise the Lord. For the Lord is good. Praise the Lord. Praise again the Lord. Sing praise unto the Lord. For praise is beautiful. He deserves to be praised. And even if you've been serving the Lord 40 years, praise Him even more tonight after 40 years.

If you're brand new, if you just got baptized, you're just becoming a member, praise the Lord. Join with the angels. Join with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Every one of them is up there praising the Lord.

When we join with them, we join with that stream, that stream of praise. Come on, let's clap our hands. Lord, we praise you. We praise you. We praise you. We have our needs, we have our requests, but we will not even mention those until we praise you, God.

A Corporate Prayer of Praise

We will praise you, God. We will bless your name. We praise you. We adore you. We celebrate you. God, you are so good. How many times have we fallen but you picked us up? We praise you. Almighty God, we praise you.

You are awesome in this place. We praise you on the instruments. We praise you on the keyboard. We praise you on the drums. We praise you. The deacons praise you. The pastors praise you. The congregation praises you.

We praise you. Everybody open your mouth and praise the Lord. We praise you in the morning. We praise you in the daytime. We praise you at evening. We praise you in our beds at night. We praise you in the subway, in our car, walking.

We praise you. You are worthy to be praised. Forgive us for not praising you more. We praise you for the Father. We praise you for the Son. We praise you for the Holy Spirit. We praise you for what you've done in the past.

We praise you that you're with us today. We praise you now for what you're gonna do in the future. Hallelujah to God. Hallelujah. All that men might praise the Lord.