Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Who Deserves Your Praise? | Historical Books | Judges 5

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

Whose praises do you sing? When things go well, who do you thank? When things go poorly, who do you depend on? In today's episode, Jensen shares how Judges 5 encourages us to put our trust in God. Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. 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: Judges 5

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. Who gets your praise? It's an interesting question. I asked Chat GBT, GBT, who deserves our praise? And it said that praise is generally reserved for people who make a positive impact, whether in your personal life or on a broader scale. So we praise the people and things that help. us out, that offer us something. The people we praise are the people we believe deserve the credit

for whatever blessings or good things that we're thankful for in our lives. Now, I took a course on how to get my baby to sleep more at night, and when I say that my life drastically improved for the better, because of that course, I mean it, made me a whole new human. I will sing the praises of that course any day, all day. See, when something amazing or life-changing or just even pretty good happens in your life, you probably offer praise to someone. Maybe it's just a quick, thanks so much, that made my day so much easier. Or it could be like me with my baby sleep course, and you want to literally sing the praises of the person who changed your life. Now, that's how it was for Deborah in Judges Chapter 5. She's so overwhelmed with gratitude and awe at how God,

has moved and provided for his people that she sings a song of praise to God. Deborah praises God. She sings in verse three, hear this, you kings, listen, you rulers, I, even I will sing to the Lord. I will praise the Lord, the God of Israel in song. Now, in verse 10, she calls everyone, those who write on donkeys, the rich, and those who walk by the wayside, the poor, to consider the song, to consider her praise to God. So when things go right for Deborah, when she has a victory in battle, when a positive impact is made in her life,

she praises God. Do you? Now, further down, as she's praising God by recounting the battle, she sings this. From the heavens the stars fought, from their courses they fought against Cicero. The River Cichon swept them away.

The age-old river, the River Cichon, March on My Soul Be Strong. So Deborah is recounting that God was so powerfully behind her that the earth itself fought for the Israelites. The stars fought. The rivers swept away their enemies. Now this isn't just a reminder that God is so powerful that he can control the natural earth. It's also a jab at their enemies. See, the Canaanites and the Israelites, who did evil in the eyes of the Lord and worshipped idols, these idols that they worshipped were supposedly in control of the natural forces. And yet, here, the things that they praised were used against them.

Powerless next to the one true God. Deborah's being intentional here. It is possible to give your praise to the wrong things, to lesser things, to worship and praise and thank and put your trust in something that cannot hold the weight of your idolatry. Where are you tempted to give your praise? Are you tempted to praise science, to put your hope in a medical advancement to improve your life? Or maybe it's a politician that you praise, that you depend on to better your circumstances to deliver you from oppression? Or maybe it's beauty gurus and fitness routines that will make you beautiful, technological advances

that make your life more comfortable or more profitable. Here's the thing. It isn't wrong, to offer praise to people or other things, right? Like, it wasn't inherently wrong for me to sing the praises of my baby sleep course, and it isn't wrong for Deborah to say, most blessed be the women of J.L. Honoring her because she's the one who killed their enemy. Now, the problem is deeper. It comes with the deeper held belief of what whom we praise says about who we put our trust in, who we credit with our successes, and put our hope in. in. So when things go well, who do you praise? When things are falling apart, who are you depending on putting your hope in to intervene? A politician, your own strength, or God? The Canaanites put their

hope in the wrong things. They depended on lesser things. They hoped their gods would save them, but their gods were under the rule and reign of the one true God. The people who solve medical mysteries. The scientists who make discoveries, the minds that produce technological advancement, the politicians that do make change, all of them, ultimately, are under the rule and reign of God. Their power, their intellect, their breath, their life is all sustained by God. He deserves your praise. Don't get trapped in hoping in, putting your trust in, or praising the wrong things. You'll find yourself swept away in their failure, put your trust on something stable. Who you praise will reveal where your trust is. So praise God. Deborah begins her song with this, when the princes

and Israel take the lead, when the people willingly offer themselves, praise the Lord. So when the people are worshipping God willingly, when things are flourishing, don't praise them, don't praise the princes, praise the Lord. Praise the Lord for the Lord for the good around you? Did someone make a positive impact in your life? Praise God for his provision. Praise him for bringing that person into your life for moving their heart to work generously in your life. Did a doctor provide relief from pain and burden? Well, praise God for sustaining him during his training for teaching him the necessity of an attentive ear for giving him the knowledge and wisdom he needed to treat you. Did a politician provide justice for you? Praise God. Did a

teacher invest in your child when no one else would, well, praise God. Praise God, sing of his goodness, sing for others to hear so that they can know who's responsible for your joy. They will know that your trust is secure in him, that you look to him to provide to deliver to rescue, that you know even if the doctors, the politicians, the teachers, and systems of this world fail you, you will still praise God because he has not changed. He is still worthy. So today, give your praise to God. Sing out to him like Deborah.

Hear this, you kings. Listen, you rulers. I, even I will sing to the Lord. I will praise the Lord, the God of Israel in song. Let's all do that today.