BE ENCOURAGED

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Praising the Lord
In Psalm 115:17 it says,” It is not the dead who praise the Lord, those who go down to silence; it is we who extol the Lord, both now and forevermore. Praise the Lord.”

We need to be spiritually alive in order to be able to praise the Lord. Once we have come out of darkness into light, from death into life we cannot but praise the Lord.

When we are praising the Lord, things are going to happen. Remember Paul and Silas in prison in Acts 16? They were singing hymns to the Lord. The other prisoners were listening. There was an earthquake. The prison doors flew open. Praise is the key for those who belong to the Lord. In Second Chronicles 20:22 the people began to sing and praise and the Lord set ambushes.

Long ago I read the following true story:

Two young men fell into the hands of robbers . The robbers took everything and took off leaving them only with a bit of clothing. What would you have done in a situation like that? The 2 men were actually students of the Bible visiting the old parts of Jerusalem a long time ago.

They started to sing the song “A Mighty Fortress is our God….” You may know that is a hymn by Martin Luther, the German reformer, who lived from 1483-1546.

What do you think, happened? The robbers were not too far gone and superstitious. They could not believe their ears and thought the two men were special. In their language they cried holy men holy men. We cannot do this to them. The two got everything back.

Let us also praise the Lord, especially when we don’t feel like doing so. Praise the Lord!

Psalm 150 is the last Psalm and the Psalm starts with “Praise the Lord” and ends with “Praise the Lord.”

And here is some homework for those who want to do it. A question: How many times do you find the word PRAISE in Psalm 150?

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