How Are We To Praise??!

Psalm 66

We are walking in today: How Are We To Praise??!

Witness shout throughout the Bible: H7321 ruwa'--to shout, raise a sound, cry out, give a blast

Ezr 3:11 And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the LORD; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted H7321 with a great shout, when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.

The Torah testifies...............
Leviticus 9:24 And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.

The prophets proclaim..................
1 Sa 4:5 And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted H7321 with a great shout, so that the earth rang again.

The writings bear witness...........................
Jos 6:5 And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout H7321 with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.

Psa 47:1 [[To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah.]] O clap your hands, all ye people; shout H7321 unto God with the voice of triumph.


How Are We to Praise The Most High?
Be the concert. Don’t just attend one.

Praising The Most High has many forms, all of which have a common denominator: Praise is always extroverted. In other words, praise can always be seen or heard. It cannot be hidden or kept silent.

Therefore, all expressions of praise must be vocal or in some other way outwardly expressed.

For the Hebrew people, this seemed to be easy. A study of the Old Testament shows that they were an emotional, expressive people. Maybe this is why The Most High liked them. They were not afraid to openly show how they felt about The Most High. Celebration and exhilaration were regularly part of their worship.

This is not, however, always the case for us. Some believers seem to prefer to sit and soak in service rather than to be active participants. Such behavior is not true praise. Just as you cannot cheer on your favorite sports team without moving around and making some noise, so you cannot praise The Most High calmly and quietly.

This is not to say that quiet times of worship are not sometimes appropriate—particularly after the presence of The Most High has become manifested among His people. Yet, praise must be declared or manifested in some way. Otherwise, it is not praise.

Unfortunately, some of us are so inhibited that we refuse to abandon ourselves to praise. We don’t want to express it in an observable manner. To avoid this outward expression is to disobey The Most High, since He specifically commands us to let the sound of our praise be heard:

Praise our The Most High, O peoples, let the sound of His praise be heard (Psalm 66:8).

Many people assume that this command refers to singing.

Singing is not, however, the only form of biblical praise that can be heard. Shouting, clapping, laughter, singing and praying in the Spirit, and playing musical instruments are all expressions of praise that can be heard. We must be careful, therefore, that we do not exclude certain forms of praise simply because we are uncomfortable with them. Rather, we should seek to understand why we are uncomfortable and to make adjustments that will challenge our comfort zone. Otherwise, how can we fully proclaim the good tidings that are ours in HaMaschiach Yeshua?

You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your The Most High!” (Isaiah 40:9)

The King James Version uses the phrase, “lift up thy voice with strength...” in this verse. This certainly seems to indicate that our praise is to reveal a definite conviction and involvement. We are not to speak or sing in a timid manner, but with energy and assurance. When we are uncomfortable, it is difficult to be either assured or energetic. Therefore, we must challenge ourselves to go beyond the forms of praise we have always used.

This is not to say that our praise is to be showy for the sake of show. Quite the contrary is true. Our praise is to be genuine and authentic, arising out of our relationship with The Most High. Therefore, our praise can reflect no more than is truly inside. If we have no passion in our heart for The Most High, we should not be surprised when our praise lacks passion.

The absence or presence of passion for The Most High within us just naturally becomes evident in our expressions of love, adoration, and appreciation.

On the other hand, some of us may find a particular form of praise difficult because we prefer to be entertained rather than to do the praising ourselves. We love to go to concerts where there is lots of energy and excitement, but we resist showing that same level of intensity in our praise on a Sabbath morning.

Praise requires effort on our part. It is not something another person can do for us. Yes, a worship leader can make suggestions that may lead us into praise, but we must make the choice for ourselves as to whether or not we are going to praise The Most High.

Some people are also uncomfortable during times of praise because they think they are too dignified to celebrate The Most High with abandon. I remember one day after services, a young child who was content in the arms of a woman until sees her daddy and begins to kick and pull away until the woman who was holding her could not hold her any longer. Therefore, she put the child on the floor and watched her run.

People were talking and walking all around, but this little girl didn’t care who else was in the room. She had seen her daddy, and he was her sole focus. She also was unconcerned that her dress was in the air and she was showing her underwear.

Such abandonment is what the Lord wants from us. Often we become self-conscious because we are not The Most High conscious. Yes, we may be feeling poorly, or things in our life may seem to be falling apart, but this is precisely when we need to run to our Abba. He is the only One who can heal us and put us together again.

Whether we feel like it or not, we need to praise Him.

I want to make sure you understand what I just said. You need to praise The Most High, and you need to do it with your whole being. Your need is more critical than your level of comfort. Whenever you relinquish your will and praise The Most High however His Spirit leads you, you will find that His presence is the only place you want to be. It is also the only place where you can find everything you really need.

Ask anyone you know who is a praiser. He or she will soon tell you that The Most High fills those who hunger for Him, and He gives righteousness to those who thirst for it. (See Matthew 5:6.)

Biblical Forms of Praise
Every form of praise contained in the Scriptures is an expression that the service as a whole, and we as individual members, need to use. I know that some denominations, congregations, and pastors like to choose which expressions of biblical praise they will use, but this is certainly not The Most High’s intent. Our degree of comfort or the popularity of a particular form of praise does not change the fact that it is both commanded in the Bible and taught by example.

Singing
Sing to the Lord, you saints of His; praise His holy name (Psalm 30:4).

Sing for joy to The Most High our strength; shout aloud to The Most High of Jacob! (Psalm 81:1)

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation (Psalm 95:1).

Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord (Ephesians 5:19).

Let the word of HaMaschiach dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to The Most High (Colossians 3:16).

Singing is certainly the most common form of praise practiced today. In the Scriptures, singing was part of both private and public worship, as well as of celebrations following a victory The Most High had won. Examples of these victory celebrations include the song of Moses following the drowning of Pharaoh’s army (see Ex. 15), the singing of the Israelite women after David killed Goliath (see 1 Sam. 18:6), and the song of David after The Most High delivered him from the hand of Saul (see 2 Sam. 22).

Shouting
May those who delight in my vindication shout for joy and gladness; may they always say, “The Lord be exalted, who delights in the well-being of His servant” (Psalm 35:27).

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music (Psalm 98:4).

Shouting is a less common form of praise today than singing. Nonetheless, singing and shouting are commanded together in the Scriptures, and either word may be used to translate the same Hebrew verb, ranan. Therefore, shouting and loud singing are to be companions in our praise. Together they express joy and exultation, as is seen following the consecration of Aaron and his sons, when the fire fell from The Most High’s presence and consumed the sacrifices (see Lev. 9:24). The people’s rejoicing is described as shouting.


Making a Joyful Noise (So It Can Be Heard)
Praise our The Most High, O peoples, let the sound of His praise be heard (Psalm 66:8).

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King (Psalm 98:4-6 KJV).

There’s a place for triumphant celebration and loud worship. The Most High is not nervous, so we can make noise. Indeed, He evidently enjoys it, for the Bible includes commands that we make a joyful noise before Him. This joyful noise may be singing, shouting, or some other audible form of praise.


Laughter
When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy (Psalm 126:1-3).

He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy (Job 8:21).

This form of praise is rarely used today and is even treated with suspicion by some people. Yet, the Bible tells us to rejoice with laughter. Psalm chapter 126, in particular, paints a lovely picture of laughing with delight over The Most High’s goodness in bringing His people back from exile. It is an expression of pure joy and wonder following a difficult season. The same seems to be true in Job, where joy and laughter are also used in a parallel form.

With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord:

“He is good; His love to Israel endures forever” (Ezra 3:11).

I will praise The Most High’s name in song and glorify Him with thanksgiving (Psalm 69:30).

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name (Psalm 100:4).

Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to The Most High our Abba for everything, in the name of our Lord Yeshua HaMaschiach (Ephesians 5:19-20).

Thanksgiving and praise are often used in parallel constructions in the Scriptures, as is evident in the verses quoted above. In particular, they seem to be paired in public worship. The Book of Nehemiah, where it states that the priests were to stand opposite each other and perform an antiphonal form of praise and thanksgiving (see Neh. 12:24), provides an example of this. Ezra 3:11, Psalm 69, and Ephesians 5:19-20 also seem to indicate that thanksgiving incorporated singing.


Standing
At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister and to pronounce blessings in His name, as they still do today (Deuteronomy 10:8).

They were also to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord. They were to do the same in the evening (1 Chronicles 23:30).

And the Levites...said: “Stand up and praise the Lord your The Most High, who is from everlasting to everlasting.”

“Blessed be Your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise” (Nehemiah 9:5).

Behold, bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord (Psalm 134:1 KJV).

Standing is a bit more common form of praise than some are, but we need to increase our times of standing before the Lord in worship. Sometimes after we stand for a while, we become self-conscious and think we are getting tired. Even then we should remain on our feet because standing is an act of honor. We stand in worship because it shows our respect for The Most High.

Kneeling
Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker (Psalm 95:6).

For this reason I kneel before Abba (Ephesians 3:14).

That at the name of Yeshua every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Yeshua HaMaschiach is Lord, to the glory of The Most High the Abba (Philippians 2:10-11).

Kneeling is a form of both humility and honor in our praise and worship. It shows our recognition that The Most High is the Lord and we are His people. Some people still kneel for prayer, but in many denominations and congregations, kneeling is no longer practiced at all. Reinstating kneeling to our worship services would do much to restore the sense of reverence that we are sometimes missing.


Clapping Our Hands
Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to The Most High with cries of joy (Psalm 47:1).

Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy (Psalm 98:8).

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands (Isaiah 55:12).

Clapping is a show of approval and appreciation. Yet, many services don’t encourage people to clap their hands to the Lord. Those who omit clapping from their praise do themselves harm because The Most High is the One who determines how we should praise Him.

Moreover, clapping has benefits that we don’t fully understand. Studies done in Japan over the last thousand years have shown that our hands and feet contain nerves that attach to every organ in our body. When we walk, we are therefore stimulating all our organs and giving them life.

The same is true for our hands. Maybe this is why The Most High commands us to praise Him with clapping. He knows that as we clap, the nerves in our palms and fingers stimulate our whole body, bringing us life. Thus, when The Most High says, “Clap your hands,” He’s really saying, “Get life.” How like our The Most High to give us commands regarding praise that not only bring honor to Him but also benefit us in ways beyond the blessings of obedience.

If you don’t believe me, try this sometime. When you are getting drowsy in the middle of the day, or you have trouble getting up in the morning, start clapping. You will feel your whole body wake up and start to work again.

Dancing
Let them praise His name with dancing and make music to Him with tambourine and harp (Psalm 149:3).

Praise Him with tambourine and dancing, praise Him with the strings and flute (Psalm 150:4).

The Lord your The Most High is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice [joy, KJV] over you with singing (Zephaniah 3:17).

Few congregations use dance in worship, and some folks actually disapprove of it, but dancing before the Lord is scriptural. In truth, Psalm 149:3 specifically admonishes us to let people praise Him with dance. Sometimes this is the only form of praise that can adequately express the intense joy and longing that well up inside us. We know we must move physically to release our love and devotion to the Lord.

Certainly, dancing must be done decently and in order. Yet, we must be careful not to limit such expression because we do not believe in it or do not understand it. Dancing is both an acceptable and essential part of our worship.

At times, our dancing may even become boisterous as we leap and show great joy. This was surely true for Miriam and the other women in Exodus 15 who celebrated The Most High’s victory with timbrel and dance. It was also true of Yeshua when the disciples He had sent out two by two came back telling of all they had seen and done.

Luke 10:21 (KJV) says that Yeshua“rejoiced in spirit.” The Greek word that is translated here rejoice means to “jump for joy” (Strong’s, G21). In a similar manner, the word giyl (Strong’s, H1523), used in Zephaniah to speak of The Most High’s rejoicing over us, means “to spin under the influence of a violent emotion, i.e. usually rejoice.”

I wonder how often the Lord is dancing in the Spirit but we are sitting still. He is having so much fun, but He is watching us and wondering why we don’t dance too. If the joy of the Lord is truly in our heart, it will sometimes show up in our feet! I will praise You as long as I live, and in Your name I will lift up my hands (Psalm 63:4).

Lift up Your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord (Psalm 134:2).

I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing (1 Timothy 2:8).

Many of us sing about praising The Most High with uplifted hands, but we seldom do it. Yet, we see here that we are commanded to lift our hands in The Most High’s sanctuary. The sanctuary is where we come to worship. It’s The Most High’s holy dwelling place. Therefore, if The Most High says to lift holy hands, we’d better do it. If we don’t obey this command of the Lord, we can’t expect Him to keep His promises to us, since He is holy and cannot lie. Our obedience is what opens The Most High’s hands to give us what He has promised.

Therefore, our praise must meet The Most High’s requirements all the time. We can’t choose when and where we will lift our hands or do any of the other forms of praise. Obedience requires that we follow the leading of The Most High’s Spirit wherever we are and whenever He prompts us to praise.

This is what obedience is. It’s going against our own will to fulfill the will of another; it is submitting our desires to the desires of someone else. In essence, we object to our own personal wishes so we can submit to the wishes of another. Praising with uplifted hands is thus a matter of obedience, not of personal preference.

Making Music on Instruments
David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals (2 Samuel 6:5).

Praise the Lord. Praise The Most High 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).

Psalm 150 in its entirety exhorts us to praise the Lord, and instruments are an important part of this praise. Instruments are not, however, to take over the praise and worship time. This is not The Most High’s intent. Praise through musical instruments isn’t to be offered until after we have brought our sacrifice of thanksgiving and raised our voice in praise.

How We Praise Depends on How Well We Know the One We Praise

The characteristics of our praise to the Lord depends on the depth of our relationship with Him. If we have built an intimate, lasting friendship with Him and have become perceptive praisers, we can expect that all these forms of praise will be part of our experience. Should this not yet be our practice, we can start where we are and ask The Most High to lead us into the less common forms. Those persons who sincerely desire to obey Him in praise will find that He soon answers their prayers.

In truth, the more we abandon ourselves to the work and leading of The Most High’s Spirit within us, the more we emulate the praise that is pictured in the Scriptures.

And why should we not, since praise leads us to our heart’s true home. There, as The Most High’s presence comes to us and stays with us, we discover the depths of joy and wonder reserved for those who wholly give themselves to the praise of The Most High. Our praise is no longer governed by traditions or comfort zones. Instead, we find that we need every form of worship The Most High has given us because no one form or expression can adequately reveal the love, adoration, and faith we feel inside. True praise shows forth in some observable manner our delight and our wonder that The Most High has chosen us to be His children and even now draws us close to Him.


PRINCIPLES

1. Praise takes many forms but must always be visible or audible.
2. We cannot choose which forms of praise we want to use. We need to praise The Most High with our whole being.
3. Nobody can praise The Most High for us.
4. Biblical forms of praise include:
Singing
Shouting
Making a joyful noise
Laughter
Thanksgiving
Standing
Kneeling
Clapping
Dancing
Uplifted hands
Making music on instruments

Shema Selah, thank You the Most High for our how to of Biblical praise!!! https://youtu.be/PwS7o83ZDdY