Think about it! Would you rather have a relationship with a disappointing person who is always apologizing to you, or a relationship with someone who praises you, and is grateful for you?
Don’t get me wrong, we all need the Lord’s sacrifice on the cross to atone for our sins. But let us press on into praising His Name. Singing God love songs! Magnifying and giving Him thanks!
Our God raises the dead! Praise the Lord!
Jesus said, “As the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.” [2] Jesus resurrected from the dead. He also resurrected dead people back to life: Jairus’ daughter, the widow of Nain’s son, and His friend Lazarus, just to name a few.
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” [3]
The composer of sweet songs of praise to God wrote, “Our God is the God of salvation; and to God the Lord belong escapes from death.” [4]
This same Psalmist wrote, “You have ascended on high You have led captivity captive; You have received gifts among men, even from the rebellious, that the Lord God might dwell there.” [5]
Jesus Christ ascended on high. He captured my captor, namely rebellion. My rebellious nature was a cruel jailer. Sin made me do things I did not want to do, and afterwards condemned me and beat me for doing them. But praise God, Jesus saved me. He gave me the gift of faith. He gave me His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gave me spiritual gifts. Now, the old has passed away, the new has come, I’ve been born again. I have a zeal for God.
Zeal for God is a precious gift. Treasure your love for God no matter what others say about it.
King David was born into a large family a royal family. While others played, he was watching his father’s sheep. He did not complain. He did not rebel against his father. He learned to play a stringed instrument and wrote praise songs to God.
His family scorned his love for God. He wrote, “I have become a stranger to my brothers, and an alien to my mother’s children; because zeal for Your house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me. When I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, that became my reproach. I also made sackcloth my garment; I became a byword to them. Those who sit in the gate speak against me, and I am the song of the drunkards.” [6]
Amidst rebels against God, a lover of God may be insulted, laughed at and mockingly sung about. But if he or she loves the rebels with the love of the Lord, and prays for them, they too may believe in Jesus Christ.
Jesus daily experiences ridicule and blasphemy from rebels. Both now, and when He hung on the cross. David wrote prophetically of the crucifixion of Jesus when he wrote, “Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness; I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” [7]
The gall and vinegar was a pain reliever given to those who were about to die. Jesus refused it to bear the full brunt of the pain that our sin deserved. His heart was broken because those who crucified Him did not know what they were doing. They were murdering the very one who loved them the most. The Savior who delivers lost souls from hell!
Hell is horrible! It is forever! It is the incinerator for those who trashed God and God’s Word. The worst humanitarian crisis is to be a lost soul that’s about to die without God.
The good news is that Jesus Christ wants to save us. He wants to redeem us. He said, “As the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.” [8]
Jesus gives eternal life to those who listen to Him and believe in Him.
Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My Word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” [9]
In other words, faith in Christ seals the deal. The believer in Him already has eternal life.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. The hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”[10]
This is significant! Hear His voice and live!
Some use the Bible to talk about themselves and other things, but Jesus said the Bible testifies to Him. “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” [11]
We need to beware of charlatans: “If another comes in his own name, him you will receive.” [12]
This is precisely why it is vital for us to gratefully praise the Name of God with songs. Otherwise, we will go downstream with those who are giving and receiving honor from one another. Jesus asks us, “How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? [13]
The Lord gave Moses instructions about offerings of thanksgiving to God. People were to bring a tithe of the firstfruits of their field’s produce to God. The priest was to receive the offering, and then, give them opportunity to profess the following words...
“My father was a Syrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us. Then we cried out to the Lord God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression. So, the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey; and now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you, O Lord, have given me.” [14]
Coming before God with one’s offering was a time to remember. Remember how the Lord delivered you from a miserable lifestyle that you could not deliver yourself from.
The Lord urges us to “Rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and your house...” [15]
And the Lord, “He will set you high above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to the Lord your God, just as He has spoken.” [16]
[1] Psalm 69:30-31
[2] John 5:21
[3] John 11:25
[4] Psalm 68:20
[5] Psalm 68:18
[6] Psalm 69:8-12
[7] Psalm 69:20-21
[8] John 5:21
[9] John 5:24
[10] John 5:25, 28-29
[11] John 5:39
[12] John 5:43
[13] John 5:44
[14] Deuteronomy 26:5-10
[15] Deuteronomy 26:11
[16] Deuteronomy 26:19
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