Let's Return to Praise

The psalmist David tells us countless times to "Praise the Lord". As I was watching some church services on Youtube the Holy Spirit began showing me a few things.

1. Where has the Praise gone?

2. Where is the celebration?

3. Why has music become somber?

To start with I am not opposed to slower and somber music but I wonder where the praise has gone.  The Hebrew word that David used was Halal which means to be boastful. When was the last time you were boastful about your God? When was the last time you let people know what He had done for you? We love to worship God in a soft and reverent manner, that's easy, but when was the last time you gave God your very best praise in a way that demonstrated your boast in Him. David was so expressive to God that his own wife was embarrassed and gave him a hard time for it. He basically told her that he didn't care and to hold on cause he would do it again. No wonder God called David a man after His heart. 

In the Bible the Hebrews used feasts and celebrations as a way to honor God and demonstrate their loyalty and gratitude toward Him. After Christ's ascension back into heaven He promised the Holy Spirit would come. And He did. In the middle of Pentecost, In the middle of a feast, In the middle of a celebration. We need to reestablish a heart of praise that will release the key of David. Worship will usher in the presence of God but the psalmist tells us that praise is a weapon. The enemy can't stand when we praise, especially through circumstances because he looses the ability to wear us down. The bible says that God inhabits the praises of His people. When we praise Him we are establishing a throne in our lives that He can sit upon.

When we boast about someone we are expressing with excessive pride the things or achievements they have accomplished and performed. When we do this about God it automatically positions us in a mode of humility and acknowledges that He is Most High and is above all. As we acknowledge Him as the one who sits high on the throne of Heaven, we open up the door for Him to move in our world and situations. That is how praise becomes a weapon.

So I release you to go beyond what you know as praise and worship and begin to excessively express that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is still worthy of that same kind of praise that caused King David to loose his garments. Begin to Halal in every situation and at all times. With your coworkers, friends, family, the cashier at the grocery store, begin to boast in your God. Let's restore the praise back into our lives.