Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Three P's of Praise | The Writings | Psalm 113

Episode Date: November 11, 2024

Do you praise persistently? How can we praise God when times are hard? Do you see your spiritual poverty? In today's episode, Keith shares how Praise 113 gives us three P's of praise: Persistent, Position, and Poor. Prepare your heart this Advent with the 2024 TMBT Advent Calendar! Each day, receive a new prompt for Scripture, prayer, and reflection—designed to help you slow down and reflect on the Hope, Love, Peace, and Joy that Jesus offers. Sign up now to receive your free Advent calendar! Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Praise 113

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Psalm 113 begins and ends with the same phrase, praise the Lord. And that's exactly what this Psalm does. Although it's only nine short verses, Psalm 113 is packed with important truths about the God we worship. The Psalm opens with a clear and straightforward call to action. Verse 1 says, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord you his servants. Praise the name of the Lord. So right from the beginning of the Psalm, we are reminded of our purpose in life. We are called to live lives that praise God. But what does that really mean? Praise isn't something we just do in church or when life is going well or whenever we feel like it.

Praise is far more than singing songs on Sunday or saying thank you to God. This Psalm challenges us to rethink what it means to praise the Lord. And it shows us how our praise is meant to reach into every part of our lives. There are three major themes in Psalm 113 that help guide our praise. And these themes are what I like to call the three P's of praise. These three ideas shape the way we worship God and the remind us of who he is, how we relate to him, and why he is always worthy of our praise. So let's start by looking at the first P of praise. And that's the word persistent. Psalm 113 verse 2 says, let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and forevermore. From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised. Praise isn't something we're meant to do occasionally. According to this

Psalm, praise is meant to be persistent. From the rising of the sun to its setting, God's name is to be praised. That means from the moment we wake up to the moment we lay our heads down to sleep. God is worthy of our praise. But here's the thing. This isn't about singing all day long. It's not about spending every waking moment with your hands raised in worship. After all, we have to live lives. We have families to care for and jobs to do. The psalmist isn't commanding us to sing nonstop. Instead, he's showing us that praise should be woven into the fabric of our daily lives. Praise is a lifestyle. It's about living in a way that glorifies God no matter what you're doing. First Corinthians, 1031 says, whether you eat or whether you drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

See, even the basic things in life like eating or drinking can be done for God's glory. So when you're patient with your spouse or your kids, you're praising God by reflecting His love and your relationships. When you work hard at your job and do it with integrity, you're honoring God with your efforts. When you're generous with your time, your resources, and your finances, you're acknowledging that everything you have ultimately comes from him. That's why Paul says in Colossians 3, whatever you do, whether in word or deed,

do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Whatever we do, we do it with a heart of praise. It's about living in a way that everything we say or do points back to God and brings Him glory. So think about your everyday life. How can you praise God in the little things? It's not about adding more spiritual activities to your day.

It's about turning your existing activities into worship. There's a story I heard about a man who was feeling guilty because he didn't have time to pray or at least not as much time as he thought he should be praying. His life was busy. He had a job. He had a family to take care of. He had kids to raise. And he felt like he was letting God down because he wasn't setting aside enough time to pray.

But someone reminded him that taking care of his family, loving his wife and kids, working hard to provide for them. All of that was a form of prayer. It was worship and action. He was honoring God through his daily responsibilities, and that was just as valuable in God's eyes as hours of prayer. Eric Liddell, the famous Olympic runner and missionary who had a movie made about his life called Chariots of Fire. Well, he had a similar perspective. He said, I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure. Liddell understood that even running could be an act of praise because he was using his God-given abilities to glorify the Creator. So how are you praising God in your everyday life?

How do you approach your work, your relationships, your conversations with a mindset of worship? Praise isn't confined to the church. It's something we're meant to carry with us throughout the day. From the rising of the sun to its setting, God is worthy of our praise, and our lives should reflect that. But what about when life is hard? How do we praise persistently when things aren't going the way we planned? How do we maintain a heart of worship when we're struggling with pain or disappointment or uncertainty? And that brings us to the second P of praise position.

Here's Psalm 113, verse 4. The Lord is exalted over all the nations, His glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, the one who sits enthroned on high, who stooped down to look on the heavens and the earth? We praise God not just for what he's done, but for who he is. He is exalted over the nations, and his glory is above the heavens. God is seated on his throne, ruling with all authority and power. Whether we're in the middle of a season of joy or in a season of hardship,

God's position remains the same. He is in control. He is sovereign over all creation. This is what allows us to keep praising him, even when life is hard. When everything feels chaotic, we can trust that God, is still in control. He is still seated on his throne. He is still reigning over all the earth and nothing happens outside his sovereign will. This is the kind of praise we see from Job in the Bible. After losing everything, his wealth, his family, even his health. Job didn't understand why God

allowed all this to happen, but he still worshipped. He fell to the ground in grief and declared, The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised. Job didn't need to understand his circumstances to praise God. He trusted that God was still in control, that God was still good, even in the middle of his suffering. But here's the best part. God, who has exalted over all the earth, doesn't stay distant from us. He doesn't just look down from his throne and watch us from afar.

No, verse 6 says that God stooped down to look on the heavens in the earth. The one who sits enthroned above all creation, humbles himself to be near us, to care for us and to walk with us through our struggles. When we praise God for his position, we're not just acknowledging his greatness. We're also celebrating his closeness. He is both the God who reigns above all and the God who is near his people. So when life feels overwhelming, ask yourself, how does knowing that God is in control help you praise him in difficult times? How can you rest in the fact that the God who rules over the heavens also deeply cares for you? And this This brings us to the third P of praise in Psalm 113.

And that's the word poor. Here's verse 7. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them with princes, with the princes of his people. He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children. God is not just high and exalted. He is also deeply compassionate. He reaches down to lift up the poor, the broken, the vulnerable, the forgotten.

He doesn't leave people in their suffering. He raises them up, seats them with princes, and restores their dignity. And this isn't just about material poverty. Spiritually, we are all poor. We're all in need of God's grace. Before God, we're sinners, we're broken, we're unable to save ourselves. But God, in His mercy, lifts us up from the dust. Through Jesus, he raises us up from our spiritual poverty and gives us new life.

He doesn't just forgive us. He forgives us and elevates us and seats us with him as sons and daughters as heirs of his kingdom. This is why we praise him because he didn't leave us in the dust. He didn't leave us in our sin. Through Jesus, he came down, lifted us up, and gave us a new identity. So how has God lifted you up from spiritual poverty? How has he restored your life and how can you use your story to inspire others to praise him? We are persistent with our praise because we have a good.

God who is persistently gracious. We take a lowly position of praise before our God who reigns over the heavens, and we come to him as poor sinners before a God who is rich in mercy. Live today praising the God who has set us free. Amen.