PRAISE THE LORD BECAUSE

PRAISE THE LORD BECAUSE
If You Need a Reason

Psalms 145:1-21 (KJV)
David's Psalm of praise.
I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.
Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.
I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works.
And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness.
They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness.
The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.
The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.
They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power;
To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season.
Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.
The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.
The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.
The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.
My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.

I saw a cartoon the other day with two men, each in a pit. Each one had a rock in the pit with him. Each pit was the same size and depth.
· One man was using the rock to dig steps out of the pit he was in.
· The other man was crawled up in a ball crying.

The caption said something to the effect of, “You can either look for opportunities to dig out of your circumstances or you can surrender to despair.”

No one would argue that happy people are happier people.

Happiness is, in almost every situation a choice.
· It might be, for some people, a very difficult choice to make.
· It might be that there is a great deal of pain involved in digging out of your pit of despair

But there can be no doubt that choosing to make that choice is a much happier one than the choice to give in to trouble.

Pastor Caleb said it well Wednesday night.
God’s will is that you give thanks and that you give thanks in everything.

We can give thanks:
· That we are alive
· That we have loved ones
· That our lights turn on and off
· That we have clean water
· That we have food to eat
· That we have work to do
· That we have a vehicle to drive

Anita and I were talking about the message I am preaching tonight and we decided,
· Some people cannot be happy that they are healthy because they want a big house and
· Some people can’t be happy that they have a big house because they want to be healthier.

Either way, the truth is, we would be happier if we were happy where we are.

We have before us tonight an interesting Psalm because it is called, David’s Psalm of Praise.

He praised the Lord many times in the Psalms, but this Psalm is specifically his Psalm of Praise.

I want to give you from it six reasons to praise the Lord.
If you ever find yourself in need of a reason to praise the Lord, this Psalm can help you out.

Praise the Lord
I. FOR HIS PATIENCE
Psalms 145:8 (KJV)
The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.

Notice the operative terms in the verse:
· Gracious
· Compassion
· Mercy

I want to fix your thoughts on this one, “The Lord … is slow to anger.”

Aren’t you glad about that?

I am not sure I want to ask you to think about all the sins you have committed, all of the times God could have been angry with you. I don’t think it is healthy to get obsessed with those things.

It is much better to be obsessed with God – with salvation.

· How many times has God been gracious to you instead of angry?
· How many times has God showed you compassion instead of anger?
· How many times has God been merciful upon you when He could have been angry?

Some time when you are enjoying visiting with the Lord why don’t you praise Him because He is, “gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.”?

Praise the Lord
II. FOR HIS AFFECTION
Psalms 145:9 (KJV)
The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

The word mercy means, “not getting what you deserve.”

I suppose then that it would be possible for a judge to be merciful, and dismiss a charge against a person, without going the extra mile and doing good besides.

· God does more than rescue us from hell, doesn’t He?
· God rescues us from hell AND He seats us in heavenly places.

· God does more than forgive our penalty
· God makes us a prince

· God does more than remove us from the children of unrighteousness
· God adopts us as joint heirs with His Son Jesus Christ

· God does more than justify us
· God then proceeds to sanctify us

· God does more than pay our debt
· God gives us the riches of heaven in Christ Jesus

God gives us more than His mercies. God gives us His tender mercies.

That’s a reason to praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord
III. FOR HIS SUPPORT
Psalms 145:14 (KJV)
The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.

Proverbs 24:16 (KJV) says
For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: …

You know why he rises up?
Because God is there to support him and pick him back up.

If we take seven as the number of perfection or completion, the idea is that the just man will rise back up every time he is bowed low, every time he falls because the Lord is there to support him every time.

He never leaves us nor forsakes us.
· In our good days when we think we have it all handled or
· In our bad days when we can’t imagine how we can take another Christian step
God is there to support us to comfort us, to encourage us, to take our arm and lift us back up so we can move ahead until we reach heaven’s home.

We can praise the Lord for His support

Praise the Lord
IV. FOR HIS HOLINESS
Psalms 145:17 (KJV)
The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.

God does not make mistakes?
· Everything He does
· Everywhere He takes us

It’s all good

There are times when life does not feel very good.
We can look around sometimes and think life hasn’t been very fair to us.

It’s true; this world is not our friend.

But God is.

Regardless what this world dishes out to us – different for every person, we can rest assured that God is going to use it for our good.

The Bible teaches that some Christians will have an abundance entrance into heaven and others will be saved yet so as by fire.

Some Christians will have crowns and trophies to cast at the Saviour’s feet; others will suffer loss and shame.

But every bit all of that is on us.

Every Christian in eternity will praise the Lord because He did right by us.

Praise the Lord
V. FOR ATTENTIVENESS
Psalms 145:18 (KJV)
The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.

Psalms 34:15 (KJV)
The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.

2 Chronicles 16:9 (KJV)
For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. …

Imagine God scouring the earth:
· searching,
· looking, and
· combing every corner of the planet
to check up on His children.

The picture is an anthropomorphism – it’s using a human concept to help us understand something bigger than ourselves.

· God sees everything at once. There is nothing hidden from His eyes.
· God hears everything at once. There is no plea that escapes His attention

The idea is the He is more anxious to see our need and to hear our prayer than we are to show Him our need and cry out to Him in prayer.

You can praise Him for that.

Praise the Lord
VI. FOR HIS PROTECTION
Psalms 145:20 (KJV)
The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.

This verse has both the offensive and the defensive element to it.

· God surrounds us so that the enemy cannot harm us then
· God avenges us so that the enemy can no longer threaten us

Praise the Lord for that.

Conclusion
I didn’t take the time tonight to bring together all the lessons David gave between these reasons to praise. You should search them out for yourself one day.

I just want to remind you we have reasons to praise the Lord
· For life
· For family
· For food and shelter

We can thank the Lord
· For the air we breath
· For the water to refresh and cleanse us
· For the health and opportunity to work

But some time, just because you can, you ought to sit down alone with the Lord and praise Him because:
· He is patient and slow to anger
· He is affectionate and gives you more than you could ask for
· He is supportive and lifts you when you fall
· He is holy and never makes mistakes
· He is attentive and anxious to be with you and
· He is protective and always has your back