TEXT: James 1:26

SUBJECT: Bridled Tongue #8: Praise

Today, with God’s blessing, we’ll continue our study of The Bridled Tongue. To "bridle your tongue" means to control what you say, when you say it, and how. You ought to do it because—if you don’t—your "religion is useless".

Thus far, we’ve looked at the qualities of good speech. Whether you’re preaching a sermon or talking on the phone or chatting in bed, everything you say ought to be true, kind, wholesome, timely, humble, and brave. These are qualities of good speech.

But now, we’ll move on to the content of good speech. Or what you ought to be talking about. The Lord is so generous that He allows you to discuss almost anything you want to. He doesn’t forbid fishing stories, for example. He nowhere says, "Thou shalt not discuss cars, sports, TV, hair, clothes, or pop music". When talked about in moderation and with good humor, such things can relax you and promote friendship. Isn’t our Heavenly Boss good? He lets us talk about these things…on company time!

And so, just about anything can be discussed. But some things are better to talk about than others! We ought to converse on them more often than we do. What are they? Here are the ones I thought of:

• Praise

• Thanksgiving

• Evangelism

• Edification

Our tongues would be better bridled if we spent more time praising God, giving thanks to Him, witnessing to the lost and building up the Church. These are the topics for the next few weeks, the Lord willing.

Starting with Praise.

Many things can be praised—and ought to be. If you read The Song of Solomon, you find a man going on and on about his wife and her beauty. Or, in Psalm 8, we have a man staggered by the majesty of nature. Proverbs 8 is a glowing tribute to Wisdom. II Samuel 23 celebrates The Mighty Men of Valor who served their king so well. Many things are worthy of your praise. And ought to have it.

But the great object of praise is…God. Psalm 150 is only six verses long, but the six verses call on us to praise God no less than 13 times!

Psalm 150 is not alone. If you look at your concordance, you’ll find the word, "praise" applied to God in over and over again. But don’t leave it there, go on to find the related words.

If the Bible teaches anything at all, it teaches that God must be the great object of praise! Though it’s not wrong to praise other people and things, they must always be secondary to the glory that God alone merits. The Heavenly Choir knows that,

To praise anything more often or more fervently than God is…idolatry,

God is the Great Object of Praise,

What does it mean to "Praise the Lord"? In one sense, everything you are or do either praises the Lord or dishonors Him,

But that’s not the topic for today. No, by "praising the Lord" I mean something less than that. In general, I mean speaking well of Him or honoring the Lord with your words. Hebrews 13:15 gets at it pretty well,

That’s true, but it may be too general. To be more particular, you praise the Lord when you tell Him how great and glorious He is! When you recall His holiness and justice, His love and mercy, His power and wisdom. But even more, you praise Him when you talk about the Works that display His glory--creation, providence, and redemption.

"Praising the Lord", then, is the opposite of two things: Tearing Him down and…never bringing Him up.

I assume no one here blasphemes the Lord. But I know some of you hardly ever bring Him up. You talk about Him in church, maybe, or at family devotions, but nowhere else. This is far cry from David, who said,

Praising the Lord, then, is telling Him how wonderful He is.

When should you do that? The short answer is: All the time,

This doesn’t mean every second of the day, of course. But the Lord should be praised in every part of your life. At home, in the car, at church, in school, at work, in a restaurant, and so on. You mustn’t do it in a loud-mouthed and obnoxious way. But you should do it as often as you can.

Though it’s good to always praise the Lord, there are two times in your life when it’s doubly good.

The first is When things are going well. Happiness, good health, and prosperity have a way of making us forget the Lord. Deuteronomy 32:15 describes God’s people this way,

Do you enjoy the good health you have? Are you happy you’re in love? Is it great to be young or successful or good at what you do? If so, praise the Lord who gave you all these things and more! You happiness doesn’t come from luck or chance or karma, it comes from the Lord,

When things are going well with you—when they couldn’t be any better, sing the Doxology—and mean it,

The other time you need to praise the Lord is When things are going…horribly. Job was the holiest man in the world. He was never better than when he got the news that his children had died and his fortune was wiped out. What did he do? He tore his clothes, sat in sackcloth and ashes, and…

Job was not a Pantheist, thinking good and evil were the same. He was a Christian, horrified by his losses but still devoted to the God who sent them his way.

In the changing circumstances of life, Job praised the One who does not change! It wasn’t easy for him; it’s no easier for you and me. But you should do it. When you feel you can’t, pray with the worried father,

When should you praise the Lord? All the time—but especially when things are going your way. And when they’re going against you.

Did you know that everything praises the Lord? Including rocks and trees, birds and fish, and so on? Psalm 148 says so.

Ezekiel 15 and Romans 9 add to the list. They say that even demons and impenitent sinners pay tribute to the Lord! Dry brush is no good for building a house, but it’s very good for kindling a fire! That’s what Ezekiel says. Paul says that even the arrogant and sneering Pharaoh was raised up so that God’s

Inanimate things (like dirt) or mindless things (like fish) and bad things (like sinners and demons) all pay tribute to the Lord—but not from the heart. Rocks and birds don’t know what they’re doing. Sinners and devils don’t mean to, but still—they all praise Him in one way or another. They can’t help it! For God’s wisdom or power or justice or love is seen in them all.

Believers also praise the Lord. But unlike most other things, we can praise Him on purpose!

What a privilege that is! Of all the things God made, He made only Man to praise Him from the heart. After the Fall, He gave only His people the grace to do it.

Who are we to offer praise to a God who doesn’t need it? To give gifts to the One who has everything? Is it a duty to praise the Lord? Sure, it is. But it’s not only that. It’s also a privilege. He honors us by allowing us to honor Him.

About conducting his first Mass, Martin Luther said,

"I was utterly stupefied and terror-stricken.

Luther was right about the Lord. And right about himself, too. Yet—for some reason we can’t figure out—this God wants our praise and is happy to hear it, even when it’s stammering and stale and half-hearted.

It’s good to say We have to praise the Lord. It’s better to say We get to praise the Lord. What a privilege! The praise of Seraphim is not enough; He wants to hear it from you.

Most of us, I think, want to praise the Lord more and better than we do, but we’re hindered from doing it. Some of the obstacles cannot be avoided. You’re trying to praise God—and the baby cries or the phone rings or you get sleepy or you have to make dinner or go to work and so on. There’s not much you can do about these things. And you mustn’t feel guilty about them.

Other hindrances, though, are not so innocent. You can do something about them. And ought to! There are many of these, but I’ll name two.

The first problem is worldliness. You rarely praise God because you hardly ever think about Him. You never think of Him because your head is too full of other things. Work, hobbies, TV, sports. There’s nothing wrong with these things, of course. Unless they crowd out your thoughts of God and His grace. Our Lord told us to beware of,

They have a way of choking out the Word. And your praise, too.

The second problem is fear. You’re afraid to praise the Lord because someone might laugh at you if you do. You’re afraid to offer thanks in a restaurant because somebody might think you’re weird. That’s nothing but the fear.

The other kind of fear is even worse than this one. It’s not the fear of unbelievers, but the fear of other Christians. If you say, "Praise the Lord", too often or loudly people at church are going to think you’re going Pentecostal on them! And you wouldn’t want that, would you?

But I say, "Why not?" I don’t deny the Trinity because the Nazarene Church affirms it! And, if they’re better than we are on this point, I say, we ought to follow them as they follow the Lord!

Do you want to praise the Lord more and better than you do? If you do, maybe I can help you.

If you want to praise the Lord, Read the Bible. Maybe you’re not praising Him very well because you don’t know Him very well. If you want to know Him better, open the Bible and start reading it. Not every verse is equally full of His glory. But if you read a chapter or two each day, you’ll soon find a lot to praise Him for!

Read Genesis 1 and you can praise Him for being Eternal and Almighty and Wise and Kind.

Read John 3:16 and you can praise Him for His great Love and Generosity.

Read Psalms 145-150 and you’ll find all manner of things to praise Him for!

Read the Bible, that’s Number One.

In the second place, Meditate on the Word. Running your eyes over four chapters a day won’t do much to foster praise. But thinking about what you’ve read will. When you read a verse or chapter, ask yourself, What does this say about God?

John 3:16 is pretty obvious. But what about those weird passages? Genealogies, for example, or all that stuff about bodily fluids in Leviticus?

Genealogies tell us God knows His People by name (including you). That’s something to praise Him for, isn’t it?

The clean/unclean verses say something about God’s Wisdom and Holiness. He can distinguish between clean and unclean. And He loves the clean and is repelled by the unclean. That, too, will make you praise Him.

The story of David and Goliath means God is fighting for us! The story of Jonah says He is merciful to the backslidden. And so on. This kind of Bible reading is far more profitable than the kind that wonders, "What kind of fish could swallow a man?" Or "What is the deeper meaning of Fish?" When you read the Bible, look for the Character and Works of God. If you do, you’ll praise Him more.

The third thing is to Pray for a spirit of praise. If your heart is cold, ask God to warm it. If your mind is fuzzy, ask Him to bring it into focus. If you can’t think of the right words to praise Him with, ask Him to give you the words. Maybe

Finally, Just do it. It’s best to praise the Lord from a heart brimming with love and adoration. But most of the time we don’t feel that devotion to Him. So what do we do? We praise Him anyway. Maybe your heart is cold because you’re not praising Him! Maybe if you praised Him as if you were enraptured with Him, you’d become enraptured with Him. Nothing stirs up a spirit of praise more than…praising the Lord.

Let me close with a story. My mother came from a family of nine children. Like other kids, they had their arguments and fights. But my grandmother had a very interesting way of resolving them. If two girls fought, for example, she would make them hug and kiss on the lips until they love each other against. At first, this was sickening. But after doing it awhile, they started laughing and before you know it, they forgot what they were fighting about. She didn’t make them feel love before they showed it, but she made them show love until they felt it.

Do the same with praising God. Praise Him until you feel like praising Him.

The love of God be with you. Amen.