Praising God

Praising the Lord!

32 Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them.(Y) 33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”
34 They replied, “The Lord needs it.”
35 They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. 36 As he went along, people spread their cloaks(Z) on the road.
37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives,(AA) the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”[b](AB)
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”(AC)
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”(AD)
40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”(AE)
41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it(AF) 42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.(AG) 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls.(AH) They will not leave one stone on another,(AI) because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming(AJ) to you.”

2 Samuel 22:47
“The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be my God, the Rock, my Savior!Psalm 150New International Version (NIV)


Psalm 150
1 Praise the Lord.[a](A)
Praise God in his sanctuary;(B)
    praise him in his mighty heavens.(C)
2 Praise him for his acts of power;(D)
    praise him for his surpassing greatness.(E)
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,(F)
    praise him with the harp and lyre,(G)
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,(H)
    praise him with the strings(I) and pipe,(J)
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,(K)
    praise him with resounding cymbals.
6 Let everything(L) that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.   

Praising the Lord is a requirement of our decree that Christ is the Son of God.  Praise glorifies the Holy Trinity. Most of us praise God when things are going well in life. We give thanks for the blessings, and we mean it wholeheartedly. But, how many of us pray when life is thrown into a chaotic tornado that flings you into the midst of a hurricane? What I am getting at is this: when the good times or day light, seemingly end, and night, chaos, ensues, do we Praise God the same?  When a loved one, financial security, amongst other things are taken from us, can we still praise God and give thanks for what we have? When we are denied an opportunity for advancement at work, cannot find a job, just cannot get a break, can we still praise God and trust Him to deliver us? Paul asked that a thorn be removed from his side. God said, “in your weakness My strength is made perfect!” In situations like these, and plenty others not mentioned, it is super easy to fall victim to the tunnel vision syndrome that will only allow us to tend to the issue at hand. That often means for many of us that we loose sight of God,  and thus cannot praise Him as we should.  In the Luke Scripture, the people and Christ’s disciples openly praised Jesus as He entered Jerusalem, much to the Pharisees’ dismay. The Pharisees demanded that He rebuke them. He replies, “40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”” The stones will cry out. That is powerful! If we fail to praise God, the rocks will cry out in our place.  The point is to praise God more and more everyday, despite the circumstances in your path. They must have no bearing on how and why, or even where we Praise God! Amen