Saturday, Dec 12th 2020
Title: Praise the Lord
Author: Pastor Andrew Lim
Interpreter: Irene Hong

Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His mighty heavens.
Praise Him for His acts of power; praise Him for His surpassing greatness.
Praise Him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise Him with the harp and lyre,
Praise Him with tambourine and dancing, praise Him with the strings and flute,
Praise Him with the clash of cymbals, praise Him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

Psalm 150 begins with “Praise the Lord”, and end with “Praise the Lord”.

1 We praise because we obey God

Why is praise so important? Not to mention what we will get from our praises, or how much satisfaction our God will get from our praises; praise itself is a service, the most beautiful service. It is praise that covers all the services with glory of joy and satisfaction, it is praise that cleanses our hearts, purifies our minds, sublimates our emotions, elevates our realms, it is praise that makes our life beautiful, make our hearts pure and lets God receive all glory. Praise is willing to be submissive before God. If we are willing to obey God, it is easy for us to praise God. Those who are not willing to obey God will not find it easy to praise God, because they are not willing to let God take control of their lives.

2 We praise because we saw the works and attributes of God

If you have seen Mt Huangshan in China, you would say: Wow, how majestic! So beautiful! This is our natural reaction when we see great things. As Christians, will we be praising the mountain or praising the God who created these majestic mountains? Of course praising God. This is what happens when we see God’s mighty works and praise Him. Or when the crowd saw Jesus made the mute speaks, the disabled recovers, the lame walks, the blind sees, so they marveled: Wow, what had happened? It was miraculous, so they praise God. People praised God when they saw the great things God had done in their lives. Did we see the great works that are accomplished in our lives?

We should praise God for we are able to eat because there are many that are not able to eat because they have problems with their throats; thank God we are able to go to toilet every day because many people have problem with their excretion system; when we choose to see the works and attributes of God, we will be able to praise God frequently. There are some people would would deliberately “turn a blind eye”, which means they actually saw but pretended that they did not see. When we “turn a blind eye”, it hinders us to see God working in our daily lives, and we are not willing to praise God. Are we such kind of person?

3 We praise because we experience God

It is easy for those that see the works of God and experience God to praise Him. Have you seen the works of God and experience Him?

We praise God when we experience His goodness, for He is good to us. God blesses us, God makes all things to run smoothly, give us a healthy body, allow our children to be filial, all these draw us to praise Him.

What about those things that are no good? Will we praise God? Paul is an extraordinary person, he obeyed God, and had unusual experiences, he even went to the third heaven, but Paul also faced many problems, one of them is the thorn in his body which made him very painful. Paul prayed to God to remove the thorn but God never did.

Paul did not complain, curse or was dissatisfied in his suffering, he look at this difficulty with different perspectives, and learned within his sufferings and considered the thorn as a gift of God. Paul accepted this gift and rejoiced, became strong in his weakness and wrote letters joyfully from prison.

4 We praise because we are thankful to God

When we are willing to thank God in all our experiences, be it good or bad, then we will be able to praise God, and be joyful. God can use our experiences to become His witness before other people. So a person who is thankful will come to praise God.

Did Jesus not heal the ten who had leprosy? How many among them returned to thank Jesus? Only one! And he was a Samaritan, who came before Jesus to thank Him and praised God in a loud voice. So those who are thankful will come before God to worship Him and praise Him.

A person who loves God, a person who obeys God, a person who has experiences with God and a person who is thankful, he will come to praise God. May we become one of these person.

Prayer
Abba Father who loves us, it is your grace that enabled us to praise you. Let us be able to be thankful and praise you every day, because your love to us is so long and wide and high and deep. Help us to bear good witness for you in all aspects of our lives. May others see your wonderful works and be willing to accept you, and come to praise you. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

每日灵修
星期六2020 12月12日
标题:你们要赞美耶和华
作者:林金仪
翻译:

你们要赞美耶和华，在　神的圣所赞美他，在他显能力的穹苍赞美他！
要因他大能的作为赞美他，按著他极美的大德赞美他。
要用角声赞美他，鼓瑟 、弹琴赞美他。
击鼓、跳舞赞美他，用丝弦的乐器和箫的声音赞美他。
用大响的钹赞美他，用高声的钹赞美他。
凡有气息的，都要赞美耶和华！你们要赞美耶和华！

诗篇150一开始就说“你们要赞美耶和华”。在结束的时候也说“你们要赞美耶和华”。

1 我们赞美是因为顺服上帝
赞美为何如此重要，且不说我们在赞美中得着了什么，也不说我们的上帝在赞美中得到任何满足。赞美的本身就是侍奉，就是最美的侍奉。是赞美让所有的侍奉都披上了喜乐和满足的荣耀，是赞美让我们的心灵被涤荡，思想被纯净，情操被升华，境界被提升，是赞美让生活美丽，让心灵纯洁，让上帝得到荣耀。赞美是愿意屈服于上帝面前。如果我们愿意顺服上帝，那我们就容易来赞美上帝。那些不愿意顺服上帝的人，就不容易来赞美上帝，因为他们不愿意让上帝来管理他的生命。

2 我们赞美是因为看见上帝的作为和属性
你有没有看过中国的黄山，你会不会说：哇，好雄伟，好漂亮。看到伟大的东西后我们的自然反应。那我们基督徒是赞美山，还是赞美创造这些雄伟的山的上帝？当然是上帝啦。这就是看到上帝伟大的作为而赞美上帝。又或者当群众看到耶稣使哑巴说话，残废的复原，瘸腿的行走，瞎眼的看见，就十分惊奇，哇，不得了，出了大神迹，所以，他们就赞美上帝。当人看到上帝在人的生命中伟大的作为而赞美上帝。对于我们的生命，我们有看到吗？
我们可以吃东西其实就应该感恩赞美上帝，因为有许多人喉咙有问题没有办法吃东西；有些人可以每天上厕所，也要感谢上帝，因为有许多人有排泄的问题；当我们选择愿意看见上帝的作为和属性时，我们就会常常赞美上帝。有一些人故意“视而不见”，就是明明是看见了，但却当作没看见。这“视而不见”让我们看不见上帝在我们日常生活中的作为，也不愿意赞美上帝，我们是这样的人吗？

3 我们赞美是因为经历上帝
看见上帝作为而对上帝有经历的人，就特别容易来赞美上帝。那你有没有看见上帝的作为而经历上帝呢？
我们经历的上帝的好我们一般会赞美，因为上帝对我们好，上帝赐福我们，上帝让我们顺利，让我们有健康的身体，让我们的孩子孝顺，这些都让我们容易来赞美上帝。
对于不好的事情呢？我们会赞美上帝吗？保罗是一个了不起的人物，他顺服上帝，也有特别的经历，他甚至去到第三层天，但保罗也面对许多的困难，其中一个是他身上的刺，让他非常的痛苦。保罗向上帝祈求把那根刺挪开，可是上帝却没有这样做。
保罗在苦难时没有埋怨、咒诅和不满，但以不同的眼光看困难，还学习把不同苦难好这根刺看为上帝的恩赐，保罗接受这恩赐，因此喜乐起来，也在软弱中刚强，并写下喜乐的监狱书信。

4 我们赞美是因为向上帝感恩
当我们愿意为我们所经历的一切，无论是好是坏，而向上帝感恩时，我们就会赞美上帝，就可以喜乐起来。上帝就可以使用我们这些经历来为上帝在人前做美好的见证。因此，一个懂得感恩的人，就会来赞美上帝。
耶稣不是治好了10个痳风病人吗？当中有几个人回来感谢耶稣？只有一个，而且还是撒玛利亚人，来到耶稣的面前，感谢耶稣，大声赞美上帝。所以，懂得感恩的人，就会回到上帝面前来敬拜祂，来赞美祂

一个爱上帝的人，一个顺服上帝的人，一个对上帝有经历的人，以及一个懂得感恩的人，他就会来赞美上帝。愿我们成为这样的人。
 
祷告
爱我们的阿爸父，我们能来赞美你都是你的恩典，让我们每一天都懂得感恩和赞美你，因为您对我们的爱是何等的长阔高深，求你让我们在生活中用各种方式活出美好的见证，让人看见你奇妙的作为，而愿意来接受你，来赞美你。奉耶稣的名祷告。阿门。