Await and Arise Teaching: Praise God

This is the final teaching for our 30 weeks in Psalms.  What a great study it has been.  And a perfect wrap to this study of why we praise God in all situations.  Struggle or victory...praise God.  

I hope you have been encouraged and edified by these teachings and I look forward to seeing you back here in the fall when we start our study in Joshua. 

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Transcript

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Well, welcome back. This week we went over our last five chapters of the Psalms, which was awesome. 146 through 150, I think. Anyways, it was the Hallelujah Psalms. And really, it was just accumulation of everything we've been learning in the Psalms. That whether we're struggling or we're praising or we're victorious or we're um down in the dumps, wherever we are, we should be praising God's name. But anytime David maybe was struggling or he was suffering or he was being chased or he was celebrating, he was victorious, he was um he was seeing God's glory every time it ended in praise, always ended in praise. Sometimes it started in praise, went through the struggle, ended in praise. It always, always, always ended in praise. And that's um what we go over this week. Why it's so important that we spend our lives praising God, that when we are in trouble, when we are in struggle, when we are in victory and celebration, that we are seeking him, that we are praying for his will through our situations, our his will in our lives, and that we are be obedient to him, and then that we are praising him because praise changes everything. When we praise him, we acknowledge who he is, we recognize the characteristics of God, we see our problems as much smaller, and he as so much bigger and in control and sovereign, and we can lean into him and then we can seek after him, we can seek to know his will and obey his will, and we can praise him. So, my encouragement to you as we wrap up the Psalms is praise him because it's always, always good. Always, and if it isn't good yet, it's because he's not done. So trust God and praise him and enjoy the teaching. Welcome to another episode of A Wait and a Rise. Join me as we dive into scripture and just pause in awe of our good God, and as we give our souls just a moment of rest and refresh. Anything this year, that is what you should have learned. But in everything, praise God, praise God when you're struggling, praise God, when you're victorious, praise God, when you're complaining, praise God. When things seem to be crumbling all around you, praise God. When things seem to be all working out, praise God. And why? Why do we praise God? What does it do? Well, it does a couple things. First, it takes our mind off of the problem and it puts our mind squarely on the one who handles the problem, right? And I don't know about you, but when I start talking about his name and his accolades, and I start saying who he is, all of a sudden I realize how small I am and how it's not my problem to solve it all. It's his. And he's real good at solving it, and he's real good at walking me through it. He doesn't say, hey, I'm gonna fix it all for you. You come to me and I'll just, that's all good to go. Nope, he doesn't do that. But he does say, I will be with you, and I will walk with you, I will show you the way out, right? He tells us that temptation is gonna come to you. Just normal. It's normal that temptation is gonna come to you, but I will show you the way through it. And that's what we learn in the Psalms. We look at David, we look at all the psalmists, we watch them struggle, we watch them. I mean, David, his life was like a woo-woo roller coaster, right? Up one minute, down the next, making great decisions, making not so great decisions, but in everything, he always took it back to the Lord. Even when he made the worst decisions, he took it back to the Lord and then he praised God. And what does God do every time? God brings him back to him every time. God doesn't ever go, well, that was the final straw, I'm done with you. Never. And what a good thing we get to look at David's life and go, man, I'm a lot like that. So this week, I'm gonna talk about praise. Praise also leads us from individual meditation to corporate worship. And that is a really good thing. It's so good that you spend time alone with God. Go for a walk outside and experience what he's created. Meditate on his word, study. But it is so important that you gather together and you worship together. That you remember, as some forget to do, it says in the word in Hebrews. Do not fail to gather together. And that's not just a Sunday mandate, that's an everyday mandate. That's an as often as you can mandate. Because God knows you're gonna need people next to you who help build you up and strengthen you, and they need to be strengthening you in the word. Right? Because anything else, hogwash and not gonna do any good. It's gonna be real watered down and it's just not gonna have any longevity. But the word, the word will carry you. God will carry you. And friends who trust in God, they will edify you. So fellowship as often as you can come together. Corporate worship. Then praise causes us to consider and appreciate God's character. Who is God? Who is God? Well, he's greater than you and I. And he created all that we see. And he is worthy, as we just got done singing, of our praise. He is worthy of our acclamation. He is worthy of you to seek him. So that's what praise does. Praise also lifts our perspective from the earthly to the heavenly. Now I don't know about you, but do you get kind of exhausted by the earthly? Yeah, it's overwhelming. How many of you look at Facebook? That ought to do it. Just five minutes, and you will think, yep, we're all doomed. It's all over. I'm out. Yeah, don't look at that. Open up your Bible. Look about how many times the world has felt like it was doomed. And God said, No, not quite. I got this. Look at how many times Israel, especially in the Psalms, is in captivity, is wherever they are, they have gone the wrong way, they have forsaken God, and then they come to this acknowledgement that, wait, this is not what it's supposed to look like. And they start to seek God again and they start to praise God where they are, even in captivity, and God rescues them. God is not done. Doom and gloom. God is not done. Not until he's done, and he's not done. We got to watch as David walked out this road. We got to watch as the psalmist walked out this road. We got to see victories, we got to see low times, but in all of it, it was always praise. There's some times where he goes straight to praise, right? He's praising and then all of a sudden the struggle happens and he's seeking God, and then God comes in and says, rescues him or shows him the right way, and then he's praising again, right? Those are great times because he started with praising. I always like it when I start right. How about you? But more often I start wrong. I mean, just being honest with you. Sometimes I step with my left foot instead of my right foot, and I should have stepped with my right foot, right? And that happens a lot in the Psalms. We saw that over and over again where they stepped wrong. They were in captivity because they stepped wrong. They left God, they abandoned him. But he still showed up when they hollered out for him. When they called out for God, he was faithful to be there for them. And we see it over and over that they could abandon him, but once they called out for him, they would see him again and then they would praise him. And we always ended up struggle, call God, praise God. Right? Always. So if you learn anything in Psalms this year, that should be your learning. That's the pattern. Oh, I'm struggling. What was the next part? I think it was call someone. Oh, yeah, God. And then praise him. It's pretty simple. It feels really repetitive. We did it for 30 weeks, and I think that's really on purpose. It's so on purpose because we forget. And remember, we talked a couple weeks ago about the strength of remembering? It is so important to remember. This morning, Audie gave her devotion on gratitude, and she just tracked back through times in her life where she saw God. And it was so cool to listen to. Because you know, in those times it was hard. There was a struggle, there were decisions that had to be made that were hard to make. But looking back at it, she sees God's hand in all of it. And that's why remembering is so important. Because then what do we do? We praise God. And that's the point. We praise God. So we seek Him, we trust Him, we obey Him, and we worship Him. This is praise. So this summer, I hope that as you go away from here after our beautiful tea, that that's what you do. You trust Him, you seek Him, you obey Him, and you worship Him. Because in all of those things, that is praising God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much. That we can come before you and that doom and gloom is not the end for us. You have promised us an end with you, an eternal life with you. Lord, I just thank you that we can come here and we can learn. We can study in your word, and we can hear the way that you guide us and lead us. That yes, we might be struggling. And yes, we might be celebrating. We will go through hard times, good times, but that you are always with us and you say, trust me, seek my face, obey me, and give me the worship that I'm due. Lord, that's what we want to do. Seek you, trust you, obey you, and praise you. Amen. Thanks for joining me today. If your soul was refreshed by this pause in the word, then I hope that you'll continue to join me weekly for these await and arise meditations. My hope is that this podcast space will be a reprieve for you to just take a pause away from the world, to be refreshed in the word, and to await in the presence of a good God. Would you go to the comment section and leave a word or a scripture that's lifted you up this week? I really do love to see how God is working in all of our lives. And my desire is to see that this space just grows as a community of people who come together and encourage each other in the word. I want to see him working in all of us. It's just such a sweet reminder that we are all in this together. And God, he goes before us. So until next time, I'm praying your heart stays anchored in his truth. A Wake and Arise podcasts are available on all podcast players. If you would like to see Angela as I teach weekly live, click on my YouTube channel or go to my webpage, AngelaRaber.com, and you can find those episodes there. Meditations come out each week on Thursday, and live teachings are weekly on Monday, and I post those on Tuesday. We hope that you'll subscribe and feel free to share this episode with family and friends and on social media. For more information for connecting with a community Bible study in your area, you can also click those links below. You can join a Connect group online, or you can find a community Bible study in your town or in your area that you can join in person. It is so important to be in the Word, meditating on it and studying it for yourself. So it is my encouragement to you to find a Bible teaching church and an in depth Bible study and dig in. Thanks for listening. Now, awake in his presence and arise at his call.