[0:00] I've got a great delight to be with you again and a greeting to our friends on live stream. I think live stream is a very odd expression, isn't it? I mean, you wouldn't actually have dead stream, would you?
[0:12] It's like when they say, this is a live performance from the Albert Hall. You think, well, if the musicians were all dead, there wouldn't be much music at all. Anyway, can't do any harm, I guess.
[0:26] Let me ask you, what is the place of praise in your life? What is the place of praise in your life?
[0:38] We are taught, aren't we, when we're young, to thank people for what they do, and that's a very good habit to get into. We thank someone for what they do for us.
[0:50] We praise someone for who they are. Thank you, Mummy and Daddy, for a lovely birthday and Christmas and holidays.
[1:13] That's thanking your parents. Mummy and Daddy, you're the best Mummy and Daddy in the whole world. That's praising your parents.
[1:31] Thanks, dear, for a lovely dinner. That's thanking your wife for a lovely dinner. You are the best wife anybody could ever find.
[1:45] Is sort of moderate praise, I think. That's right. It's good to ask, what is the place of praise, praising, in your life?
[2:10] Because I think you'll find that if you're not in the habit of praising people, rightly praising people, then you won't be in the habit of praising God.
[2:25] There are some people, I admit, who do praise others but never praise God. But generally, if our praise muscle is not engaged regularly in praising people, then it won't be engaged in praising God.
[2:45] And I'm sorry to say that I have met some people who lead a praise-free life.
[3:00] They cannot praise anyone at all. That is a very, very dismal existence.
[3:11] Particularly if they have good reason to praise somebody but decide not to praise them. Or, of course, some people live in a distracted life where they're praising everything.
[3:30] That's the kind of overexcited world we live in nowadays, isn't it? I was in a cafe and I chose whatever it was, dead sausage on a bun or something like that.
[3:42] And the waiter said, brilliant choice. And I thought, wow, it's not so difficult to be brilliant after all. You just have to choose one thing on a menu.
[3:53] Because I'm sure if I'd said scrambled eggs or boiled eggs upside down or something, he would have said, brilliant choice. How lovely to live in a world in which everyone is brilliant and everything is praiseworthy.
[4:09] You have the most wonderful saucepan in the world in your kitchen. You have the most wonderful doormat. It's just such an extraordinarily splendid doormat. And your garden is just absolutely splendiferous.
[4:24] It must be exhausting to live in such a many splendid world, mustn't it? And that means that we're distracted from praising God, who is, of course, the giver of absolutely every good and perfect gift.
[4:44] Friends of mine have moved into a new house recently. They're not downsizing, they're upsizing, I think would be the right expression. And the new house has two kitchens, which I think is tremendously useful.
[4:58] One kitchen is to actually do the work in, and the other kitchen is a display kitchen. So when you invite people in, you show them the display kitchen, and they say, what a wonderful kitchen, and they don't see the mess in your real kitchen.
[5:15] It's a great idea if you can afford to have two kitchens in your house. But a distracted life often leads to misdirected praise.
[5:26] That is, we praise the gifts, but not the giver. We praise the gifts, but not the giver. I probably told you the little story, which I'm sure you've seen many times, of little Lucy or Percy or someone who's given a gift at Christmas by Granny, and so excited with the dinosaur, with its head chopped off, or whatever it is, whatever the great treat is, that little Percy or Lucy, they're so focused on the gift, they forget to thank the giver.
[6:02] And Mother has to say, dear, don't forget to thank Granny. Thank you, Granny, and then back. I do that with presents of food, I must say. More likely to look at the food than the person who gave me the food.
[6:17] That was a joke, by the way. Thank you. Was that a bird in some kind of distress? I'm sure it's praising you for your kindness.
[6:34] But misdirected praise means that we praise people for being wonderful people, or things for being wonderful things, or experiences being wonderful experiences.
[6:46] But forget that God is the giver of every good and perfect gift. And so the place of praise in your life ought to include a great deal of time and energy praising the Lord our God.
[7:19] So, what is the place of praise in your life? What is the place of praising God in your life? Praising God is not the same as asking God for things, though that's a good thing to do.
[7:35] Praising God is not the same thing as thanking God for good gifts he gives you. Praising God is praising God because he is the generous giver.
[7:46] It's not just that he occasionally hands out nice presents to us. No, we praise God because his very heart is a giving heart, a loving heart.
[7:58] We praise him for who he is as a faithfully generous and gracious and compassionate and loving God. We know that his gifts don't come out kind of erratically or randomly from a person who is basically disinterested in us.
[8:14] No, we know that every gift is doubly precious because every gift we receive comes from the Father's heart, from the Father's hands to us.
[8:29] I was called to visit somebody in hospital. A friend rang me up and said her friend wanted to talk to an Anglican minister and so I went along, very happy to do so.
[8:45] I said, well, before, I know you've got some questions, but before you ask your questions, just tell me about yourself. And she told me about the life she'd led, which was a wonderfully rich life, including a donkey, I remember, in early days.
[9:01] I forget the donkey's name. But anyway, from having a donkey and riding a donkey, well, life got better and better. Then she said to me, what's going to happen to me after I die?
[9:13] That was the question she wanted to ask. And I said, after you die, you're going to meet God. She said, what is God like?
[9:24] I said, you've told me about all the wonderful things that's happened to you during your life. Perhaps you don't realise that every one of them was a gift of God, your creator.
[9:45] So they were all doubly precious, not only lovely in themselves, but also a loving personal gift from God, your creator.
[9:57] And then after we'd discussed that for a while, then I went on to say, and that's not all God did for you. He also sent his son. And so we led to the gospel and her conversion.
[10:10] But you see, every gift we receive, every good thing is doubly precious. It's not only nice in itself. But it is the deliberate and intentional and loving and compassionate gift of God, our creator and our saviour.
[10:37] So what does a healthy, praise-filled life look like? Well, according to the psalm we're looking at tonight and according to the scriptures in generally, a healthy, praise-filled life is centred on praising God.
[10:56] And all other praising comes second to that. So a healthy, praise-filled life is a life in which we consciously and intentionally and habitually praise God.
[11:11] And then, as we'll see in the psalm, you can't praise God without calling other people to praise God as well. As the psalm begins, sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth, sing to the Lord, praise his name, proclaim his salvation day after day, declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous deeds among all peoples.
[11:38] You know when someone's just found a new clever device for their kitchen and they won't stop talking about it. Every time you meet them, they're still chatting on about this wonderful thing which can, what can it do, remove a pickle from a jar without opening the jar and put it in a jar of honey without opening the jar of honey.
[11:58] Or one of those very clever machines you have in a kitchen. I'm a great sucker for clever machines. I can't go through a homeware store without thinking, oh that looks really useful, even if it isn't.
[12:11] But the person who's telling you, if a person's found something they want to praise, they want to tell you about it, don't they? Indeed they might, if you're really lucky, have a picture of it on their mobile phone.
[12:26] And it's just there, it's just here, I'll just show it to you. It's here somewhere. Missed it.
[12:41] And so forth. That is, when we find something, someone who is worth praising, it's like people who fall in love, isn't it? It's really sickening, isn't it? All you can hear is how wonderful Hubert is or Beatrice or whoever it is.
[12:57] But that's right. That's exactly what praise should lead to because praising the Lord our God should lead to others, calling others to praise the Lord our God and as this psalm does, calling everyone and everything to praise the Lord our God.
[13:17] Now, I've put some little comments in little tame brackets there to keep them from getting out because this isn't something that comes from the psalm.
[13:32] But I think a good practice when we're praying for others and telling them that we're praying for them, that we tell them that we praise God for them, I think that's a great thing to do.
[13:46] What a great encouragement to have someone say to you, I praise God for you. And I think praising others is a good habit for us to get into when, of course, it's appropriate.
[14:07] Now, do you know how much value you get from listening to a talk like this? Probably about that, I think. Do you know how much value you get from a talk like this if you do something about it?
[14:28] It's like a Sunday sermon, isn't it? What value is them listening to a Sunday sermon? But what value if you actually do something, anything, well, not just anything, but something that's related to the sermon as a result of the sermon?
[14:49] It's the same with Bible reading, isn't it? You can read the Bible. Is that of great value? Well, yes, it can't do any harm. But it can do more good if you actually put the Bible reading into practice.
[15:00] There is a verse in James, something about that, isn't there? So I've included some words which may be feminine to you, and I'm going to break into these spontaneously during the rest of the session.
[15:16] Praise him, praise him, Alleluia, praise with us, the God of grace. And when I do that, I hope you'll join in.
[15:29] And if I don't do it, you're allowed to do it. Some fine voices here. I said some fine voices here tonight who could lead us in.
[15:42] Praise him, praise him, Alleluia, praise with us, the God of grace. Okay, let's look at Psalm 96.
[15:55] Notice, the psalm is not the writer of the psalm praising God. The writer of the psalm is encouraging other people to praise God, which is exactly what I'm doing tonight.
[16:11] How does he do it? Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise his name, proclaim his salvation day after day, declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all people.
[16:27] Do you notice he's saying, sing to the Lord, but then as we're praising God, we also praise God by proclaiming his name, proclaiming his salvation day after day, declaring his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all people.
[16:46] So, already in these three verses, you have the God-directed action, sing to the Lord, sing to the Lord, sing to the Lord, and that God-directed action, praising God, singing to God, which then wants to encourage other people to do the same.
[17:03] Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth, sing to the Lord, praise his name, proclaim his salvation day after day, declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
[17:20] So, this is not a mindless singing or praising. It's full of content. Praise his name, proclaim his salvation, declare his glory, declare his marvelous deeds.
[17:37] And, as a matter of fact, it's a very wide view of the people whom the psalmist wants to encourage to do this. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
[17:52] So, he has a big view of God and a wide view of the people who should be praising God. Do you see that? A big view of God leads you to a wide view of the people who are praising God.
[18:06] So, this doesn't lead to a self-centered life. It leads to a God-centered life and an other person-centered life. This is the opposite of the self-centered life.
[18:21] Here is the God-centered life, praising God and calling others to praise him and to know him and to declare his marvelous deeds as well.
[18:33] Verses 4 to 6, we have why we should sing, sing, sing. What's the reason?
[18:45] For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise. In fact, he is to be feared above all the gods, all the kind of gods that people have.
[19:03] Even clever inventions for the kitchen. For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him.
[19:17] Strength and glory are in his sanctuary. If someone asks you, why do you praise God? Here is a great reply. Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise.
[19:31] splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and glory are in his sanctuary. What great reasons to praise God, as well as, of course, his salvation, verse 2, his glory and his marvelous deeds.
[19:50] In verse 3. And the sing, sing, sing is matched by ascribe, ascribe, ascribe.
[20:02] Ascribe is not a word we often use. It means to know something and to give an appropriate response. So to ascribe to the Lord glory and strength is to recognize, to know that he is a God of glory and strength and then to proclaim him, to praise him as a God of glory and strength.
[20:27] So, sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth, sing to the Lord praise his name. 1 to 3. Ascribe to the Lord all you families of the nations.
[20:40] Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name. Indeed, his name is due such great glory that we should bring an offering and come into his courts, worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness and tremble before him all the earth.
[21:05] And what is the new song that we should sing?
[21:15] I think it's in verse 10. Say among the nations the Lord reigns and the sign of that is the world is firmly established. It cannot be moved.
[21:29] Stability and then that God who made this world established it so firmly that it cannot be moved he is the one who will judge the people with equity.
[21:44] Now somebody is going to put up their hand and say but the earth does move and I seem to remember from science in primary school that something like that is happening though it seems to me wildly improbable.
[21:59] I would have thought we would all be kind of shooting off if the earth was moving around. How do we kind of keep in contact with it? It's a great worry really. But the point is not that the earth is in itself immovable but it is stable.
[22:17] That is although it's moving it's stable isn't it? When you turn on the tap tomorrow morning water is possibly likely to come through. If you put your foot down you'll probably meet the earth.
[22:30] gravity is still functioning otherwise we'd be floating around up there somewhere. I mean lots of things keep going don't they? And that's because God keeps them going. And then the who and why at the end.
[22:48] Not only this is a big view isn't it? Not only a great God and all the nations all the people but let the heavens rejoice let the earth be glad let the sea resound and all that's in it.
[23:03] Let the fields be jubilant everything in them. Let all the trees of the forest sing for joy. Let all creation rejoice before the Lord for he comes he comes to judge the earth he'll judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.
[23:20] How does the creation praise God? By doing what God made it to do. I happened to watch an echidna on Monday scrambling up onto a veranda rather slowly.
[23:37] You know echidnas have their back feet on the wrong way round. It looks pretty odd really but anyway and he kind of walked along the veranda and then he found the birdbath. There was a sign up saying birdbath but he ignored the sign the birdbath.
[23:53] He got up on his hind legs and put his snout into the birdbath and had a good drink. Well that's just what God wanted him to do. God loves echidnas even when they drink from water which is clearly marked birdbath.
[24:12] The birds were not so pleased but the echidna was very happy indeed. Creation praises God by being itself. but also of course in Romans 8 we know that it is subject to futility, to vanity and it's waiting for the revealing of the children of God when the Lord Jesus returns to attain again the glorious liberty that it lost at the fall of humanity.
[24:40] I can feel a praise coming on. Thank you.
[24:53] Praise with us the God of grace. Wonderful, that's wonderful. What about one from this side? Praise him, praise him, and praise with us the God of grace.
[25:12] I'm sorry, it's a bit confusing isn't it, but it's meant to be praise him, praise him, hallelujah, that's it, and then praise with us the God of grace. And so, why is it a new song that the Lord reigns?
[25:30] Surely the Lord has been reigning, ruling, for a very long time, ever since he made the world. Well, if you read one, 1 Chronicles 16, as I suppose you do frequently, you'll discover that this psalm is inserted in David's song, where he's celebrating a new stage in the life of the people of God.
[25:54] They're coming to Jerusalem and the plans to build the temple. So every time God fulfills a promise, every time God acts in the world in a new way, by bringing God's people out of Egypt, by bringing them into the promised land, by giving him the king they'd appointed, by rescuing them from the exile, by sending his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, by sending John the Baptist to proclaim the glory of his cousin Jesus, the baptism of Jesus, the miracles of Jesus, the teaching of Jesus, the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, the ascension of Jesus, the sending of the Spirit, and the day of his return.
[26:46] Every one of those events calls for a new song, a fresh expression of praise for God. Sing to the Lord a new song, say among the nations, the Lord reigns.
[27:00] Here's another sign that God reigns among us. We looked at Augustine the other night, didn't we, and talking about those promises that God makes in Scripture.
[27:12] And do you remember the quotation about God promised this and he did it? He promised this and he did it. He promised this and he did it. Well, every time we should be moved to more praise, new praise, because God is working his purposes out in this world.
[27:37] The next point, this comes from Kanishka Raffel at the CMS Summer School. What motivation do we use to help someone or urge someone to become a Christian?
[27:52] We often use the gospel blessings, don't we? We say, well, if you come to the Lord Jesus Christ, your sins will be forgiven. That's a great miracle. Only Jesus can do that.
[28:03] Or we say, if you come and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be at peace with God. Only Jesus can do that. Receive that gift. Or we say, if you come to God, then you'll receive the gift of eternal life.
[28:16] So it's the gospel blessings that we use to encourage people to become Christians. But if we read the New Testament, occasionally the apostles, and indeed Jesus, tell people that the best reason to follow him is to avoid judgment.
[28:35] In the words of the book of Revelation, only the blood of the Lamb, that is the death of the Lamb, can protect us from the wrath of the Lamb. But here's another reason to become a Christian.
[28:51] I haven't thought about this one. God is worthy. And for people who find their life is without meaning, without worth, that nothing is worth doing, we need to say God is worthy.
[29:11] And to people who found their worth in something other than God, their fitness, their success, their ability, whatever it is, we need to say those are wonderful things, but without God they are worth nothing.
[29:35] How wonderful to find someone who is worth trusting, worth loving, worth believing in, worth praising.
[29:57] Over the page, the danger of not praising and thanking God for creation. Paul is writing here about the nations, and they're words which are probably familiar to us, but it's very important to look at them carefully.
[30:16] Although they knew God, they neither glorified him, that is, praised him as God, nor gave thanks to him for his creation, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
[30:37] Well, that's interesting, isn't it? That suggests that glorifying God, praising God, and giving thanks to him is really important. It's good for us to believe in God, good for us to trust God, good for us to depend on God, good for us to love God.
[30:57] But according to Paul here, it's also important to glorify him as God, that is, to praise him as God, and give thanks to him. And Paul doesn't just mean that we think that we ought to do that, he means that we actually do it.
[31:14] We don't glorify or praise God by thinking, I think God is praiseworthy and God deserves to be thanks. No, we do it by doing it.
[31:26] Glorifying him, praising him, adoring him, and thanking him. Furthermore, in Revelation we learn that we can praise God for his just judgment.
[31:40] Revelation 15, great and marvellous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty, just and true are your ways, King of the nations. I find that verse really encouraging when I look at the mess in the world around us today.
[31:55] I think, well, actually, there is a God, and although our ways are not great or marvellous or just or true, his ways, his deeds are great and marvellous, and his ways are just and true.
[32:17] And despite the weakness and sinfulness and evil of humanity, God's deeds and God's ways will triumph. Or you might know the saying of St.
[32:35] Augustine, you've made us for yourself and our heart is restless, let find its rest in you. That's quite often quoted, but here's the full quote. You stir us to take pleasure in praising you because you have made us for yourself and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you.
[32:56] So what is it to find your rest in God? It is to praise him. It's not oblivion. It's not sleep. It's not apathy.
[33:08] It's not inaction. Resting is none of those things. For Augustine, resting in God is finding the one whom you're built to praise and who through Jesus Christ you do praise.
[33:27] Next point. Of all our praying, praising God is the least self- centred and the most God centred. So when we pray to God to ask something, which is a good thing to do, we're asking for something for ourselves.
[33:44] When we ask God to forgive us our sins, which is a good thing to do, I hope you do it every day, then we're asking for forgiveness for ourselves. When we want to lament our sorrow and grief, well, we want comfort from God.
[33:58] That's why we do it. And when we thank God, we've often got half an eye on ourselves. I thank you, God, because you provided that gift just in time, and I'm so grateful to you.
[34:11] You knew what I wanted, and it arrived just in time. But when we're praising God, we're not thinking about the benefit we get. We're delivered from self- centredness, which is a massive deliverance, actually, because praising God is the most God centred thing we can do.
[34:31] Another quotation, this time from Bernard of Clairvaux, first of all, we love self, that is ourselves, for ourselves' sake. Then we love God for self's sake, that is, because he's been so kind to us, given us all the gifts of creation and salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[34:53] And finally, we love God for God's sake, for who he is. a more contemporary voice.
[35:07] I think we delight to praise what we enjoy, because the praise not merely expresses, but completes the enjoyment. It is its appointed consummation.
[35:22] I occasionally do a bit of travelling, and there's something slightly tedious about travelling on your own. Because when you see something really beautiful, there's no one to say, isn't that beautiful?
[35:38] And beauty shared is beauty which is enjoyed even more, isn't it? Because you enjoy the enjoyment of the other person. I remember flying in an aeroplane, I should say.
[35:54] That's the usual way I fly. We were flying into London, Heathrow. It was raining, of course, it had to be. That was required.
[36:06] And we flew through one bank of cloud, and then we flew through another bank of cloud, and it was one of those wonderful aeroplanes with a camera in the thingy at the back, you know, that sticks up.
[36:21] yeah. And I really enjoyed that because if the planes start shuddering, you can look and see if the wings are still attached or not, so it's very useful.
[36:36] Anyway, the view from this little camera at the back, which we were able to see on our screens, was that we flew through the centre of a circular rainbow because when you're in the sky, as you may have noticed, those of you who are particularly tall, when you're in the sky, you actually see a whole circle of a rainbow.
[37:00] We little chaps, we miss it because the earth takes up all the space, you see. So we flew through the centre of one rainbow, and then through the clouds, and then through the centre of the second rainbow.
[37:16] Boy, it still makes me shiver to think of the beauty of it. And there's something frustrating about seeing beauty and not having someone to say, isn't that wonderful?
[37:36] We delight to praise what we enjoy, because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment, it is its appointed consummation.
[37:47] what I should have done, and someone's about to advise me on this, is to say immediately, praise God for the beauty of rainbows.
[38:04] Talking of praising God, praise him, praise him, alleluia, praise with us, the God of grace.
[38:16] God of praise him, praise him, praise him, praise him, praise him, praise him, praise him, praise him, praise him, praise him, if you were taking part in the Olympics, which I think are this year, aren't they, in Paris, is that right?
[38:28] it's probably a bit late to start training, if I might say, but anyway, just imagine you were, well, you'd probably be training some years ahead, wouldn't you?
[38:43] Well, we're in training now for our eternal future, and what will we be doing in our eternal future? Praising God, there it is, Revelation 4 and 5, we praise God because he's worthy of our praise and is our eternal song.
[39:06] To God the creator, you're worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created things, all things, and by your will they created and have their being.
[39:18] Or to the slaughtered and standing lamb, let's say it together, to Jesus, you are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
[39:37] You've made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth. Worthy is the lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise.
[39:53] and we'll stand to say the last one. Doesn't mean we're at the end of the talk, but we'll stand to say it. Okay. To him who sits on the throne and to the lamb, be praise and honour and glory and power forever and ever.
[40:12] Amen. Thanks. Do sit down. The obvious question which I've been asked a million and a half times is won't it be boring praising God?
[40:27] And the answer is you have no idea how glorious and how beautiful and full of splendour God is.
[40:42] And as the hymn puts it, even eternities too short to praise our great God. It's hard to imagine, isn't it, for us, that something or someone is worth praising for eternity.
[41:01] That shows the narrowness of our understanding, doesn't it? And our experience. to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb, be praise and honour and glory and power forever and ever.
[41:23] Amen. praise him, praise him, alleluia, praise with us, the God of grace.
[41:49] Thanks. Thank you, Peter.
[42:00] There'll be more opportunities to praise God. And this next song is actually good. It's on.
[42:15] Yes. Okay, it's on. All right, as with previous weeks, we've got a chance to ask some questions. My number, that's a new number, is on the screen if you want to prefer to ask via text, but otherwise put up your hands.
[42:32] I'll run with the microphone. Yes, thanks, Peter's going to get things going. Thank you, Peter.
[42:43] A couple of questions. First of all, what do we do when our vocabulary for praise is taken and cheapened? I mean, every second cricket shot is majestic.
[42:59] Menu choices are brilliant and just about everything is awesome. How do we deal with that? Secondly, how can we avoid the temptation to make calling other people to praise just a validation of our choices?
[43:18] so like with your kitchen appliance owner, encouraging somebody else to get something similar might just be validating their choice of kitchen appliances or whatever.
[43:36] So how do we avoid that temptation to make it about us and our choices? Yeah, thanks so much. Yes, was there a margarine called praise?
[43:49] I think, is that right at one stage? Yes. All I can say is it's not quite as good as the real thing. my apologies if you are a margarine maker.
[44:03] Yes, I think the appropriate response to the devaluing of language in that way is to say it to God, look, the world in which I live is full of people saying things that are awesome and wonderful and brilliant and so on, but actually you really are.
[44:27] So express the problem to God and then get on with the action, I think, is the way to do it. And I think for some people praising God is a foreign personal practice, that is, they haven't done it, they don't know how to do it.
[44:46] My advice would be to say out loud to God Psalm 96 for the next 30 days and then find another psalm of praise.
[44:57] There are lots of psalms of praise, or if you know your hymns or songs, you can find one of those and use it. We often need to learn the vocabulary of praising God and it's good to use the language of praise from the Bible.
[45:15] You can go to the Magnificat Mary song or Paul in Ephesians, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and so on, because I can't remember the rest, but you can use the words of scripture or the words of songs or hymns or whatever it is, just to get you into the it's like having water wings when you're learning to swim, and then once you've got the thing going, then you'll be able to do it yourself.
[45:43] The second question you asked, we shouldn't be asking people to validate us or our opinions and so on, but if we really love God, we will want others to love God.
[46:04] If we really think that God is worthy of praise, we'll want others to join in the one who is worthy of praise. And we realise that God's worthiness is so far above the worthiness of the small gifts we enjoy, that we want to actually expand people's vision to the glory and majesty of God who is worthy of all praise.
[46:34] But I think, as we're saying, people have such a narrow, a small view of what is praiseworthy, we need to give them a big view of the praise worthiness of God.
[46:45] A good thing to do would be to write down collect from the scriptures 35 reasons why God is worthy of praise and have those verses all ready to tell people.
[47:02] Thanks. While we're waiting, a couple on the text, what does it mean to praise God for other people?
[47:17] Well, you can praise God for your parents, because without them, you wouldn't have much existence, would you? You can praise God for people whom God has used to bless you, and you can say, thank you for being a blessing to me.
[47:41] God for the example of someone and praise him for that person.
[47:57] And I had a tooth taken out. It wasn't just that I thought, I'll have a tooth taken out today, and went along to the dentist and said, well, I'd like any tooth.
[48:10] It's fine, just take it out. It was a disobedient tooth and needed to be extracted. And at the end of the extraction, I said, I thank and praise God every night for the good gifts he gives me, and tonight I'll praise and thank him for you.
[48:34] So I'm saying, you're a gift of God. I love saying, I've taken weddings of people who want to get married normally, though I'm not fussy about that, and I often say to the parents, I think you did a great job.
[48:55] And the funny thing is, nobody else says that to them. But it's worth recognising the great job that parents do, isn't it?
[49:08] I was speaking at a Bible college in France on preaching, and the students were doing all the work running, you know, all the hard work running the conference, and the pastors were enjoying it all.
[49:25] So I said to every student I met, do you remind me of somebody I know, Jesus, because he was a servant too. So I'm trying to dignify serving, because those are the people who will be praised at the end.
[49:46] Yeah. I hope that answers the question. This one's maybe not quite on praise, but it's sort of, the question is, in God's judgment, how do righteousness and faithfulness differ?
[50:00] How do righteousness and faithfulness? Oh, see, that's a quote from the psalm, isn't it? I think. Is that right? It could be.
[50:12] Probably is, it sounds like it. Yes, he will judge the world, the last verse of psalm 96, he'll judge the world in righteousness and his peoples in his faithfulness.
[50:26] psalm 96, he'll judge the world in the world in the world in the world. That means that God has made it clear to people, either through their conscience or through the law he has given, about the basis on which people will be judged.
[50:43] So it's not an erratic judgment, it's not I like your face so you're okay or something like that. it's based on the morality which God has knitted into the human race.
[50:58] And, you know, we may get confused about some details, but we know that murder is wrong now. There may be in some religions ritual sacrifices, but that killing is kind of justified in their mind by the idea that their God requires this.
[51:17] But there is a kind of basic morality which is universal within humanity, and therefore God isn't. There are no surprises about the judgment of God.
[51:29] And the faithfulness is his faithfulness to his declared word. So we know where we are before God because of what he's spoken to us. Thank you.