Coffee With The Lord

Today has been “the Lord’s Day” for Christians and many devoted followers of Jesus have attended something called “a worship service” … and here’s one voice saying I trust that we authentically did precisely that – “worshiped… in Spirit and truth!” (John 4:23-24)

This past week my Bible reading has included the “Hallelujah Psalms” (“Hallelu-Yah” – Praise to the Lord!) Each Psalm in this group – Psalm 146-150 – beginning and ending with “Praise the Lord”). So it only seems appropriate today as we begin this week that I feature their message – a call to praise and worship. Let the following words from these Psalms impact you and form an attitude of praise that saturates and influences your entire week…

Psalm 146
“Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being! … Praise the Lord!”

Psalm 147
“Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting! … Praise the Lord!”

Psalm 148
“Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the LORD! For he commanded and they were created. And he established them forever and ever; he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away. Praise the LORD from the earth … Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty is above earth and heaven… Praise the Lord!”

Psalm 149
“Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly! … Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre! For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation. Let the godly exult in glory… Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two edged swords in their hands… Praise the Lord!”

Psalm 150
“Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!”

Hey, this is just a taste of these wonderful Psalms… a summons to praise the Lord! Why not make them the focus of your worship and reflection this week. I’m gonna do it! Going to make this a week especially dedicated to praise!

As a minister of the Gospel and Bible college and seminary prof who has taught preaching (it’s called “homiletics”) over the years, I’ll tell you something that frightens me… It’s that those who preach, and those who hear preaching would simply begin to view “preaching as a performance!” That both preacher and hearer would just seek to craft inspirational presentations, based loosely on Scripture, targeting contemporary topics, designed to capture the attention of modern hearers, interestingly illustrated, aptly supported with media and drama, and persuasively delivered. But their messages would be absent an authentic “prophetic voice,” fidelity to the clear teaching of God’s word, and the unmistakable “anointing” of the Holy Spirit! It would just be “preaching as a performance!”

There’s a passage of Scripture that addresses my concern…

God spoke to Ezekiel about the issue… Here are His words…
“As for you, son of man, your people talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of their houses – they say to one another, each to his brother, ‘Come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.’ And they come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they will not do it! … Behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you say, but they will not do it!” (From Ezekiel 33:30-32)

Listen! As a minister of the Gospel – a preacher of God’s word – I cannot be satisfied to simply receive compliments at the door of a house of worship after I have preached (“Pastor, that was a wonderful, uplifting message today – what a powerful sermon!”)! The questions I have to wrestle with are… Were lives changed through the proclamation of God’s word? Am I confident that anyone heard from God today through the message I shared? Did anyone come to know the Living Christ in a personal way through the Gospel? Were needs met, lives challenged, and God’s will furthered though what I shared?

Don’t get me wrong, I am NOT advocating slipshod preparation and careless, sloppy presentation! But I am resisting an approach that simply reduces the role of the preacher to “preaching as a performance!”

Seems to me I hear the echo of an old apostle to a young preacher… “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: PREACH THE WORD! … reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths!” (From 2 Timothy 4:1-4)

Believe me when I say, “I want to be sure that those who hear the messages I prepare and preach, above all else, to have heard from God!”

There’s always some kind of situation, circumstance, issue or crisis that needs attention – that demands a remedy!  When those things surface and “raise their ugly head” who… or what… do we depend upon?  Where do we go for help?  Those are the questions I found myself asking (of myself!) this morning during my Bible reading… Oh, I was reading Psalms 146…

Here’s how the Psalm begins…

“Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O MY soul!  I will praise the Lord as long as I live!  I will sing praises to my God while I have my being!  PUT NOT YOUR TRUST IN PRINCES, IN A SON OF MAN, IN WHOM THERE IS NO SALVATION…

But on the other hand, here is Who we should put our trust and confidence in…

“BLESSED IS HE WHOSE HELP IS THE GOD OF JACOB, WHOSE HOPE IS IN THE LORD HIS GOD…  Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, Who keeps faith forever;  Who executes justice for the oppressed, Who gives food to the hungry!

And here are just some of the things He does…

The Lord sets the prisoners free; He opens the eyes of the blind! The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous!  The Lord watches over the sojourners; He upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin!  The Lord will reign forever, Your God, to all generations! Praise the Lord!

I just love Psalm 146!  I don’t know about you, but I’m going to trust the Lord, NOT a mere human “in whom there is no salvation!”