Proclaim His Glory (Sermons, List 4)

Text:  Psalms 19:14 (NKJV):   “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.”

Introduction

      Did you know that the things you think about and meditate on help to determine the kind of person you are – or the person you might become with changes in your thought patterns? Proverbs 23:7 says as much in these words: “As (a man) thinks in his heart, so <is> he.”

So what do you think about most?  Consider that question in light of another. What is your favorite topic of discussion? Unless someone else monopolizes your conversations, never allowing you to express your thoughts, you probably talk about things that are  'on your mind.' And anyone who listens closely to what you say should be able to determine what you have been thinking about recently.

Hopefully everyone here meditates regularly on God’s goodness - as He expressed it to us in His glorious Son, Jesus. Born-again Christians, who appreciate knowing their sins are paid for, are apt to glorify their Redeemer, by thinking of and talking about Him, often.

Nature glorifies the Creator.

      In Psalm 19:1 David said, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork.” Does that give you a clue concerning David’s meditations? He was thinking about his God, the Creator of all things. The heavens reflected the glory of the One who formed them, reminding David of his need to do the same. David wanted to Glorify God regularly - through the things he said and did. Perhaps he knew that would require him to keep his mind “stayed” on God? Isaiah 26:3 does say, “You (God) will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.” 

Help

      David needed help to glorify God and he asked for it. Psalm 19:14 says, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.” Obviously, He wanted to please God by his thoughts as well as by his words. His prayer states those objectives well.

Note:  David did not ask God to accept every thought that might cross his mind; he asked God to direct his thoughts and his words according to God's standards. He asked correctly. The words of his mouth were affected directly by the meditations of his heart. Yours are too. When your thoughts please God your words will do the same.

God’s way. 

      David did not sit and wait for God to contact Him supernaturally. He considered the ways in which God had already made Himself known to mankind.

Psalm 19:1-6 speaks of how God revealed Himself in nature, and how it should be obvious to all who think about it. Verses 7 -11 address God’s revelation of Himself in His ‘perfect law,’ which can convert the soul and make wise the simple. Verses 12 - 14 declared David’s intention to please God through blameless living, which would require his words and his meditations to please God.

A different Psalm expressed David’s question about how to please God and then answered it.  “How can a young man cleanse his way?  By taking heed according to Your word.”  (Psalm 119:9). The next two verses say, “With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You!” (Psalm 119:10-11). Since the Psalmist really wanted to please God, He did not stop at reading the Word; he obeyed it in order to keep himself from sin. God honored the request too.

Many of David’s spoken words, which resulted directly from his meditations, were captured for posterity in the Psalms.  They are available to us today, not only for our edification but also to help direct our thoughts (and thus our words) in ways that glorify God. Ask God to direct your thoughts. Make David’s prayer yours: “Let the words of your mouth and the meditation of your heart Be acceptable in the sight of your LORD and Redeemer.”

God’s salvation

      In 1st Chronicles 16:23-26 David advises men to ‘declare’ God's redeemer, calling Him ‘His salvation.’ The word translated to ‘salvation’ was ‘Yshuwah,’ the ‘One’ we know as our LORD Jesus Christ.  “Sing to the LORD, all the earth; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.  Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. For the LORD <is> great and greatly to be praised; He <is> also to be feared above all gods.” (1^st Chronicles 16: 23-25). That's good advice.

Our God is glorious and worthy to be praised. Besides, our praises may do as much for us as for Him. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, consider what Jesus said in John 4:24: “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24). We cannot worship God in person today. We can worship Him on a higher plane, where He who is ‘truth personified’ communes with us spiritually, becoming as real to us as life itself.

When you worship God, stop and visit a while. Enjoy it as  “The Spirit Himself bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of God and a joint heir with Christ.” (Romans 8:16-17). Worship is personal, even when we offer it in a crowd. Song of Solomon 6:3 and 2:4 express the relationship, saying, “I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.” And “His banner over me” is “love.”

Jesus, our salvation

      We should recognize God’s glory in the fact of our redemption. When we consider what Christ saved us from, and other benefits of salvation, we can't help rejoicing. I was thinking about that recently (2 days before my 82^nd birthday) as I took my regular early morning walk.

While I meditated on the goodness God had delivered to me through Jesus, in my lifetime, I wondered how I might best phrase my praises. Then, although I didn’t realize it at the time, God directed my thoughts to the words of a song written by William E. Booth-Clibborn before I was born. 

There are many God inspired hymns that praise God well. The one He called to my mind on this occasion was “Down From His Glory.” It praised God in the person of Jesus long ago and it praised Him again through me on this day as I tried to remember and sing the words.

Down from His glory,
Ever living story,
My God and Savior came,
And Jesus was His Name.
Born in a manger,
To His own a stranger,
A Man of sorrows, tears and agony.

O how I love Him! How I adore Him!
My breath, my sunshine, my all in all.
The great Creator became my Savior,
And all God’s fullness dwelleth in Him.

Do you understand? Let thoughts of Jesus thrill your soul often and use your words to glorify Him. When you worship Jesus you worship God. He is God manifest in the flesh. As Colossians 2:9 says, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” He deserves, and is always happy to receive our worship.

As I said, praising God is good for you. If you want to feel His presence as I did, raise your voice in sincere worship to Him in whom all of God’s fullness dwells. Psalms 22:3 says our Holy God ‘inhabits’ the ‘praises’ of His people. Psalm 34:8 invites us to praise Him, too, saying, “O taste and see that the LORD is good.”

Privacy

       Some people can praise God well in public; others need privacy. Jesus advised the use of closets for prayer (Matthew 6:6) but God has been known to encourage corporate worship too. (See Psalm 150).

It’s difficult for me to either pray or worship well quietly. I need to be on my feet, free to move around just to stay awake and maintain my concentration. As a pastor, my best perk involved the use of the church as my private prayer and praise closet when no one else was around. It’s a shame more people can’t enjoy that privilege.

God speaks today

      In case you’ve wondered, God does speak to men today - so listen. You might hear His voice audibly; sense it as you read the Bible; or discover, later, that He directed your thoughts on a particular occasion.

Be alert. God never contradicts Himself and the Bible is complete. We can neither add to the canon of scripture nor take away from it. As Psalm 19:7 indicates,  "The law of the Lord is perfect." The things we “hear” from Him, however we hear them, will always reflect the Bible’s perfection. So listen, learn to know His voice, and be ready follow His directions. (John 10:4). 

God The Son

      Learn to Glorify the One the Scriptures reveal as God's perfect Son (Yeshua Hamashiach). If you are well acquainted with your Bible you can use its words. Jesus, who is the ultimate expression of God's glory, is identified by His name, ‘Yshuwah’ ‘or Salvation’ at least one hundred times in the Old Testament. (See Strong's 03444).

Declare

The Hebrew word translated to "declare," in 1st Chronicles 16:24 was "caphar," which means, "to count" in the sense of counting up or checking off. And Old Testament manifestations of God's presence were sometimes seen as intense brilliant light.

Ezekiel 1:28 described the atmosphere around God’s throne: "Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so <was> the appearance of the brightness all around it.  This <was> the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD."  The brilliance included the colors of the rainbow, which reflect the many parts of which visible white light consists.

God's glory can be “declared,” or counted up in its parts, by the meanings of His Names. He is "Almighty God" (Gen. 17:1), "Judge of all the earth" (Gen. 18:25),  "The Most High" (Deut. 32:8),  "Redeemer" (Job 19:25), "Wonderful, Counselor, [Everlasting Father], and Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6). He is Jehovah-Elohiym, The Creator (Gen. 1:1); He is Jehovah-Jireh, The Lord who provides (Gen. 22:14); Jehovah-Rapha, The Lord who heals (Ex. 15:26); and Jehovah-Shalom, The Lord of our Peace (Judges 6:24).

His Glory

For those who know Jesus intimately He is worthy of praise as The lover of our souls, The Rose of Sharon, The Lily of the Valley, The Bright and Morning Star, and our Hope of Glory.    The Hebrew word translated to "glory" in Ezekiel 1:28 is "kabod." It means, "weight" as well as "splendor, magnificence, and power."

God's glory is actually the full weight of all He is. He is glorious in goodness and compassion (Exodus 33:18-19); He is glorious in power (Psalm 63:2). He is also glorious in grace, justice, mercy, salvation, wisdom, knowledge, and love.  Giving Him glory involves recognizing the weight, the magnificence, and the greatness of all He is.

The greatest manifestation of God's glory came when Jesus walked on earth as a man.  John 1:14 says this of that event: "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." The incarnation revealed God’s glory through His love for mankind. We may not understand it. We can experience the results of it personally and we can praise Him for it.

Be a declarer

      Look at 1 Chronicles 16:23-25 again:  "Sing to the LORD, all the earth; Proclaim the good news of His salvation (Yshuwah) from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. For the LORD <is> great and greatly to be praised; He <is> also to be feared above all gods."

The command to “declare” God’s “glory" is not limited to orators; all of the redeemed can proclaim the good news of salvation wherever they are. You and I do so when we share our salvation experience in Jesus with the people we contact day by day.

Don’t hide your light

      David spoke of the heavens declaring the glory of God in Psalm 19.  Jesus said the stones would cry out if His Palm Sunday followers failed to glorify Him. (Luke 19:40). We must not hide the good news of salvation either, especially from people who need desperately to see it in us and hear it from us.

Jesus said, "You are the light of the world.  A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.  "Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all <who are> in the house. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:14-16).

Reminder

      At the beginning of this session I said most of us talk about things that interest us. If Jesus is your Savior your primary interests should be centered in Him. Christians who are thrilled with God’s grace cannot keep it to themselves. Consider it often. Let it fill your mind and direct your speech so others can learn to know Him too.  

You can refresh your memory of God's glory and grace by meditating on the fourteen verses of Psalm 19. I suggest doing so often. They begin with: “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork.”  (Psalm 19:1). They end saying,  “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer.” (Psalm 19:14).

Exhortation

      If you have not been saved, from the penalty your sin has earned, you cannot rejoice about it now or later. The unsaved can look forward only to “a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.” (Hebrews 10:27). Don’t go to hell by default. Look for salvation in Yshuwah, Jesus. Ask Him to forgive you and give you eternal life. (John 3:16). “All who call on His name” shall be saved. (Acts 2:21).

If you are saved already, consider the event that stirred my soul a few days ago. Perhaps God arranged it primarily for your benefit? Let it serve to remind you of God’s desire for worship. You need to please Him by worshipping Him often.

Hebrews 13:15 says, “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.” Praising God may seem like a sacrifice when you don’t feel like it. But it can make you the primary beneficiary of your exercise. Remember what Jesus said in Revelation 3:20. He knocks at the doors of our hearts, awaiting our invitation to come in and fellowship with us.

Glorify Him

So, if you don’t do so already, begin glorifying  God regularly in your private devotions. He loves you and He hopes to be loved by you in return. As I said earlier, many God-inspired hymns express acceptable devotion. But listen again to the one I used to say I loved Him on that Sunday morning.

DOWN FROM HIS GLORY*

By Will­iam E. Booth-Clib­born, 1921.

Ar­ranged from E. di Capus

Down from His glory,
Ever living story,
My God and Savior came,
And Jesus was His Name.
Born in a manger,
To His own a stranger,
A Man of sorrows, tears and agony.

What condescension,
Bringing us redemption;
That in the dead of night,
Not one faint hope in sight,
God, gracious, tender,
Laid aside His splendor,
Stooping to woo, to win, to save my soul.

Without reluctance,
Flesh and blood His substance,
He took the form of man,
Revealed the hidden plan,
O glorious myst’ry
Sacrifice of Calv’ry,
And now I know Thou art the great “I Am.”

Refrain

O how I love Him! How I adore Him!
My breath, my sunshine, my all in all.
The great Creator became my Savior,
And all God’s fullness dwelleth in Him.

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 Prayer: Thank you Heavenly Father for your gift of your Son. Thank you Jesus for loving us when we were among your worst enemies. Receive our expressions of gratitude now and direct us as we attempt to serve you according to your leading day by day. Amen.

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David Beneze, Canon City, CO.  See word study in P. E. of 1/20/80. Latest update 08 September 2007.

* Song can be found on the Internet at http://www.cyberhymnal.org/ttl/ttl.htm