The LORD's Day August 26, 2007

Oh That Men Would Praise the LORD

Psalm 135.1-3

Oh that men would praise the LORD for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men Psalm 107.8 KJV

Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; sing praise to His name, for that is pleasant.


The LORD deserves all the praise, honor and glory. It is sad that He is not given it by man. In Psalm 107 a cry goes up from the Psalmist that men would praise the LORD. He is speaking to men. Man has received many many blessings from the LORD. So few acknowledge where they come from. So few realize that it is from God that all blessings flow and that He is to be praised.

What is even more tragic is that the church is often guilty of this- not praising the LORD. I hear pastors praised and am told about churches that are spectacular. I hear about music programs or other ministries. I am with the Psalmist, “Oh that men would praise the LORD ” When God is genuinely praised I am thrilled. When the attention goes to Him my heart is stirred. My spirit is troubled when anyone else gets what belongs to the LORD alone- praise and glory.

Now I am not advocating a pumped up type of thing-with more noise and not much heart- God knows we have enough of that

The call here is for genuine praise to come from the people God has created. He has been good to us. There is much to praise Him for. So why this lack?

First, we are often distracted. Our lives are so busy that we seldom give God the praise He deserves. We forget. We enjoy the blessings but forget where they came from. We mean to but we never get to. It has not become a priority or a lifestyle.

The Psalmist here is talking about a way of life for God’s people.

He tells us to praise the LORD. Then he tells us something very interesting.

He says it is pleasant. It is there same Hebrew word used in Psalm 133 where we are told it is good and pleasant for brothers to dwell in unity. Two weeks ago we looked a that Psalm and if you remember we spoke of the rich meaning of that word.

Pleasant = delightful, sweet, lovely, agreeable, lovely, beautiful (physical), singing, sweetly sounding, musical


1. It is Delightful Thing to the LORD when We Praise Him.

We bring delight to the heart of God when we praise Him the way we ought to. We are giving back blessings. We are offering the sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our lips.

We talk about so many things...

You and me we use so very many clumsy words.
The noise of what we often say is not worth being heard.
When the Father’s Wisdom wanted to communicate His love,
He spoke it in one final perfect Word.

He spoke the Incarnation and then so was born the Son.
His final word was Jesus, He needed no other one.
Spoke flesh and blood so He could bleed and make a way Divine.
And so was born the baby who would die to make it mine. -Michael Card

The LORD God Almighty is the One Who deserves our praise
Let your soul boast in Him

I believe that too often we are looking for the delight in worship for ourselves. It is a delightful thing for us to sit in God’s Presence and give Him praise. But the focus of our worship ought to be the LORD. It is for His glory. We come to praise Him. We come to bring Him delight.

That begins with lives lived for His Glory, lips used to thank Him and build each other up, offering ourselves to Him as a living sacrifice. (Romans 12.1-3) This is our spiritual worship. We should seek to bring Him delight from our lives, the way we live as well as the words of our mouth and even the meditations of our heart. (Psalm 19.14)

The LORD doesn’t need our praise but He desires it. It is a delight to Him.


2. It is Lovely Thing to Praise Him.

I still get choked up at weddings. When our national anthem or another anthem about America plays it touches me deeply. When I think of loveliness of things- the innocency of a child among them my heart is touched.

But my heart is deeply moved whenever I think of Jesus. He died for me and for the whole world. Thoughts about my LORD are lovely.

We join with all nature... mortals join the mighty chorus... When we praise the LORD it is a lovely thing. I was visiting a church one time with a friend who is a pastor. We were worshiping the LORD and there was a young lady across from us in her teens. He pointed her out to me. She quietly had her hands raised to heaven and the expression on her face was one of love for her LORD. It was a lovely thing to behold.
It is a lovely thing when the creature returns praise to its Maker. The birds are beating us out on this frequently but we ought to be leading the way


3. It is a beautiful thing to praise the LORD.

Psalm 27.4 One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in his temple. The LORD is beautiful. When His people recognize that there is a connection like nothing else on earth.

We know the LORD looks down from heaven to the earth. We are told about this in Genesis 5.-8. We know from this passage that God was grieved in His Heart. We know from the Psalms that is a good thing to praise the LORD and how beautiful it must be as He sees all the wars and sin taking place He can see hands lifted up to heaven praising Him

The LORD can be praised through the gifts He has given to us. It is a beautiful thing when talents He has given are used for His kingdom and His glory. Whether art or music, cooking or helps. When God’s people give back to Him it is a form of worship and honor to their Creator.

David sang Psalms to the LORD. Obviously the LORD had blessed him with the gift of poetry and he chose to use it and when He did the LORD used a little shepherd boy to write Psalms that would bless God’s people for 3,000 years. He continues to use what He breathed through David. David was always careful to give the glory to God. He took great care and concern for the name of the LORD. We see it when Saul, who for a time was David’s enemy, was killed. David did not rejoice. Rather he led the people of Israel in a lament. That lament contained instructions concerning the cities of the Philistines and the news of Saul death reaching there. He called Saul’s Israel’s glory and he didn’t want the enemies of God rejoicing over his death. David was more concerned about God’s glory than his own comfort (II Samuel 2.17-20)


4. It is sweet sounding music.

It is interesting that the LORD chose music as a vehicle to communicate with Him. We are called upon to sing to Him. When we are moved by His Spirit spontaneous praise erupts from within our souls. Then sings my soul Inside this word pleasant is the idea of sweet sounding music. These are love songs to Jesus.

There are many ways to praise the LORD as we said, but there is nothing quite like singing to Him with sweet sounding music. Perhaps here among us today there are some the LORD wants to use to write music to Him. He continues today to give music to the church to sing back to Him in praise and worship.

We are to sing together and we are to sing in our hearts. (Colossians 3.16)
We have been in the Psalms for a year now, taking our time going through them. We’ll finish in a few weeks. The last Psalm speaks about giving God praise through music. Psalm 150 caps off this worship and praise section of God’s Word with calling on us to praise God with instruments. It calls us to let everything that has breath praise the LORD

Again I think we will be overwhelmed to say the least when we get to heaven and participate in the worship there. We read Revelation 4 a few weeks ago but let me read it to you again along with chapter 5. What an awesome scene We will join in it one day soon.

Right now here on the earth our worship to the LORD as feeble as it is is sweet sounding music to our King and God He loves to hear us call upon His Name

As we think of worship in those terms we move from it being a chore to it being something we desire to do for the LORD because He is good and because of how good He is has been to us and all the wonderful things He has done for us.

Think about it. Hasn’t He done marvelous things for you? He has surpassed our wildest dreams in many ways. This morning you are with God’s people in the house of God Jesus does extraordinary things for us

There are things the LORD has done that are simply beyond our power to do, be difficult to do. Think of the miracles He has brought in your life Eloise’s words about being alive. Hallelujah What a Savior

Delightful, Lovely Beautiful and sweet sounding are the things our worship of the LORD is to Him. Let’s praise throughout eternity !
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The LORD’s Day
August 26, 2007

We Worship In Singing
We Worship In Prayer
We Worship In Hearing the Word of God
Oh That Men Would Praise the LORD Psalm135.1-3

*Tithes and Offerings can be placed in the box at the rear of the sanctuary*
Please join us for coffee and bagels downstairs if you are visiting today.
Prayer in the Parsonage Backyard-6pm


This Week
Bible Reading Psalm 141-143

Monday Men’s Prayer Meeting 6:30am in the church basement
Wednesday Bible Study -7:30pm at the parsonage
Thursday Bible Study 10:30am in the church basement
Next Lord’s Day
Morning Prayer- 10am in the church basement
Morning Worship- 10:30am(Sunday School for Children) The LORD’s Supper
Spanish Service- 4pm


In Your Prayers For All of God’s People

Remember the men serving in the armed forces: Bradley, Julia Bujold’s grandson with Special Forces in Afghanistan, home on leave right now, Ken Brown, Pastor’s friend’s son on his third tour of Iraq- He will be there until October. Please pray for the whole family. Billy Knapp, Jr. in Iraq with the Marines (neighbor of the church and Pastor- Billy’s sister graduated from Good Shepherd). He is due home at Thanksgiving. Matthew Klaus, brother of Good Shepherd parent in Iraq as a firefighter for Haliburton. Pastor’s nephews’ and niece’s cousin Kim’s husband, Jay, in Iraq. Pray for them and the others away from their families. Praise God for keeping David Louis, Jake Morgan and Tom Hindelang safe during their times in Iraq. Christine Frankland, Katharina’s daughter undergoing treatment for leukemia. Kathy, Ziggy and Margot’s daughter-in-law, under the doctor’s care for fibromyalgia. Thanks Godfor answers to prayer for her. Pray for Eloise Brooks in Sunrise Manor undergoing rehab and hopefully coming home soon. Remember Jean Louis as both he and Eloise are on dialysis. Grace Martin, Edie Raevis’ daughter, facing surgery on her back. Edie’s daughter’s mother-in-law, Millie Espisitohas a severe infection and is in grave condition. Reginald Mooney, friend of Terri and John Garry, with a tumor in his kidney. Please remember Pastor’s friend Kim Richardson’s (who is recovering from a heart attack) daughter, Kelly, finished chemotherapy this past week and will have an MRI in a few days. Please remember this whole family in prayer.. Jeannie Rocarro recovering from surgery. Pastor Jerry Bonfiglio’s family who has been through so much grief this summer... Leah May’s cousin, Joan, respiratory problems, now in rehab. Lucy Mancini under Orthopedic Specialist’s care and physical therapy for pain and injuries resulting from the accident. MRI results came back showing minimal damage. Mary Butler, Pastor’s family’s former neighbor from Bellmore and dear family friend, recovering from surgery removing a tumor in the colon as well as removal of gall bladder and appendix. Stephen Huges, brother of a Good Shepherd Nursery School Mom, their parents home in Hewlett was destroyed in a fire. He has burns over 20% of his body and is Nassau County Medical Center. He had surgery this past week. Judy Mucci is in the hospital. The cancer has spread to her spinal fluid. She has been placed in Hospice and has been given two to six months to live. Please remember her and Dr. And Mrs. Mucci this week in your prayers.