1 Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song.
Sing his praises in the assembly of the faithful.
2 O Israel, rejoice in your Maker.
O people of Jerusalem, exult in your King.
3 Praise his name with dancing,
accompanied by tambourine and harp.
4 For the Lord delights in his people;
he crowns the humble with victory.
5 Let the faithful rejoice that he honors them.
Let them sing for joy as they lie on their beds.
6 Let the praises of God be in their mouths,
and a sharp sword in their hands—
7 to execute vengeance on the nations
and punishment on the peoples,
8 to bind their kings with shackles
and their leaders with iron chains,
9 to execute the judgment written against them.
This is the glorious privilege of his faithful ones.
Praise the Lord!
If you have ever been at the opera then you know. What seems like a normal human being acting on stage catches you by surprise when they start to sing. Oh my gosh, that person can sing like crazy, you think. Or when you are at a concert and you hear the main group start their hit song, something comes over you and you have to sing along no matter how bad you sound. What is the big deal anyway? They are just words anyone can sing. If you just read the same words to your favorite song it does not hit you the same. In fact, something spectacular is missing. Reading words on a page is not the same without the instruments, the speakers, or the singing. There is something about singing words. The Bible calls it “praise.”
Psalm 149 is famous for praise. If you look up the definition of praise in the Bible it reads, “In the Bible, praise refers to the act of expressing admiration, gratitude, and reverence towards God, often through words or song. It is a fundamental aspect of worship and acknowledges God’s character, deeds, and sovereignty” (Bible Hub). Praise is essential in the Christian life.
This Psalm is anonymous, no one knows who wrote it, so we cannot give David or Moses or Asaph credit. It is like the Lord wanted us to know how powerful praise is straight from His own mouth. Our local Christian radio station does a challenge every year. It is called the 30 Day Challenge. You commit to only listening to Christian music on this station for 30 days straight, nothing else. I did it and it changed my listening patterns for sure. It opened up my eyes to what I was listening to previously, and it also fed my spirit and I was hooked. Hooked not on Christian music but on praising the Lord. Hebrews 13:15 says, “Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name.” The crazy thing is that now all I listen to is praise music just like Hebrews 13 says we ought to do. I did not just decide that I would only listen to Christian praise music one day, no, as my relationship with the Lord grew stronger that is all I desired to listen to.
I could go on for chapters on how praising all the time changed my life, but I want to focus on something most people do not recognize about praise. Praise is a weapon. Yes! Praising the Lord is a weapon, and Satan hates it. When we lift up the Lord in praise the Lord honors us no matter where we praise Him, even lying in bed (vs 5). The Lord told Joshua to put the priests who sang praise to the Lord in front of the battle-hardened soldiers when they were marching around Jericho. It was like the Lord was demonstrating to us how powerful praise is.
Verses 6-9 tell us that when we praise the Lord using our mouths it is like we have a sharp sword in our hands executing vengeance on nations and punishment for evil. Also, it says praise binds kings and leaders of political powers in shackles and in iron chains to execute judgment written against them. The final feather in our caps is that the Psalm says this is the privilege of His faithful ones. When you praise the Lord it is like you are fighting against the gates of hell and pushing them back. It is not you doing the pushing back but the Holy Spirit inside you acting on your behalf.
A quick story. My daughter, a school SPED teacher in elementary, recently renewed her commitment to the Lord. Her coworker had Tourette’s and most days it did not bother her, but one day she was being held down by some other teachers who were having trouble holding her. My daughter, hearing the commotion, came to help and to her surprise a demon verbally called out to her from the teacher being held down. She did not know what to do and started to panic. She then started playing praise music and within a minute or so the demon came out of her coworker and she was calm again. Praise drove the demon away!
Today, no matter what you are doing, pause for a moment and praise the Lord in song, in prayer, and in thanksgiving. Your circumstances do not have to be your downfall. When you praise they can turn into testimonies of how praising the Lord gave you peace, joy, and contentment in the middle of the fire. Paul and Silas sang praises in prison and the chains binding them just fell off (Acts 16). I do not know about you, but sign me up. Let’s get to praising all the time.
Prayer: Father, I pray that praising you never leaves my lips, in Jesus’ name, amen.
Let It Go 
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