Sing Praises

Images of People Singing Praises (screen capture)

When I was in High School (yes, over half a century ago) we sang a song that went:

Sing praises, sing praises. sing praises to our King

Sing praises, sing praises. sing praises,

Sing praises, sing praises. sing praises 

Sing praises, sing praises. sing praises  

I know, it seems repetitious, it was, but the music and rythm changed and we sang it with meaning, so it was truly praises, just as the angels before His throne say "Holy, holy, holy" and we sing it from a hymnal:

And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. (Revelation 4:8)

But - we are not a repetitious people. We sing praises in a number of ways, though Psalms alone show 15 verses with that phrase, a couple of them repeat it:

Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. (Psalms 47:6)

That looks rather familiar, doesn't it?

While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. (Psalms 146:2)

While not my life verse, that one is just about my favorite. While this one reminds us why we praise:

Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. (Psalms 106:1)

Another way of praising Him is in modern song. One of my favorites, "Satisfied," includes:

Oh Hallelujah! I have found Him, Whom my soul so long has craved!

That song begins: 

All my lifelong I have panted For a drink from some cool spring

That I hoped would quench the burning Of the thirst I felt within

That thirst is what Jesus answered the woman at the well:

Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. (John 4:13-15)

How appropriate that following John 3, the conversation Jesus held with Nicodemus is followed by His explanation of living water. That His ability to discuss theology with a Pharisee member of the Sanhedrin (and remind him of things he should have known) is just as important to discuss where and when to worship with a woman living without marriage, but who needs God just as much as Nicodemus. God truly is no respecter of persons.

And that is simply another reason for praising Him as our Father in Heaven, where we will live eternally, through His grace and our faith.

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:5-9)