Psalms 8:1 O Jehovah our Lord, / How excellent is Your name / In all the earth, / You who have set Your glory over the heavens!
Psalms 8:2 Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings / You have established strength / Because of Your adversaries, / To stop the enemy and the avenger.
Matt 21:16 And they said to Him, Do You hear what these are saying? And Jesus said to them, Yes. Have you never read, “Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings You have perfected praise”?
Fellowship
The Lord Jesus quoted the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament when He said, “Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings You have perfected praise.” That’s precisely what is happening in our morning time with the Lord. God is perfecting our praise. Let us open to Him, not holding back. He is the worthy One and we are His chosen little ones. No matter how young we are, we can praise Him!
When we praise the Lord, we transcend whatever situation we might be in. In fact, praising Him when all is going well does not glorify God as much as when we, His children, praise Him when things are not going so well. This is why Hebrews 13:15 reminds us: “let us offer up a sacrifice of praise continually to God.” It is a sacrifice because we don’t have to feel so good before we praise. God sees our praise as a sacrifice when we praise Him in the middle of trials. So let us not wait for a better time. Praise the Lord!
The Bible reveals Jesus Christ as our wonderful Savior. One way we can be perfected in our praise is to use the very words of the Bible to praise Him!
Listen to this short example and don’t forget to try it for yourself!
Do you enjoy reading the Psalms in the Bible? We do too! In this Bible study we find many psalms and other scriptures full of praises to our God. Read on to enjoy 1) the deep significance of the praises and why we praise God, and 2) how and when we should praise the Lord. As we open ourselves to God and cover these 7 posts prayerfully, our daily life will start to get filled with praises to God. We will be joyful persons and, even in the midst of the chaotic world around us, God will get all the glory.
“Once the sacrifice of praise ascends to God, the enemy, Satan, is defeated by the praise. The sacrifice of praise is very effective before God. Let your loftiest praises burst forth to God, and you will surely withstand and overcome. When you praise, you will find the way of victory opening wide before your eyes!” (Praising, by Watchman Nee, published by Living Stream Ministry)
Psalms 66:1-3 Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; / 2 Sing forth the glory of His name; / Make glorious His praise. / 3 Say to God, How awesome are Your deeds! / Because of the greatness of Your strength, Your enemies come cringing to You.
Psalms 8:1-2 O Jehovah our Lord, / How excellent is Your name / In all the earth, / You who have set Your glory over the heavens! 2 Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings / You have established strength / Because of Your adversaries, / To stop the enemy and the avenger.
2 Corinthians 8:1-2 Furthermore we make known to you, brothers, the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, 2 That in much proving of affliction the abundance of their joy and the depth of their poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality;
Psalms 113:6 Who humbles Himself to behold / The heavens and the earth Philippians 2:5-6 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider being equal with God a treasure to be grasped,
Psalms 45:3-4 Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O mighty One, / In Your majesty and Your splendor. 4 And in Your splendor ride on victoriously / Because of truth and meekness and righteousness; / And let Your right hand teach You awesome deeds.
Ephesians 2:1 And you, though dead in your offenses and sins, Ephesians 2:5-6 Even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) 6 And raised us up together with Him…
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, what things are true, what things are dignified, what things are righteous, what things are pure, what things are lovely, what things are well spoken of, if there is any virtue and if any praise, take account of these things.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Luke 1:46-47 And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 And my spirit has exulted in God my Savior.
Proverbs 20:27 The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah, / Searching all the innermost parts of the inner being.
John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.
John 5:39-40 You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that testify concerning Me. 40 Yet you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
Fellowship to help us know Christ and pursue Him
The quotation below comes from the book, God’s Plan of Redemption, by Mary E. McDonough
The terms “inner man” and “outer man,” or their equivalents, are employed in modern psychology, but the psychology of the Bible is more analytical inasmuch as it indicates a subdivision of the invisible part of man, thus teaching us that man is not dichotomous but is a trichotomous being. We find this plainly taught in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and indicated in Hebrews 4:12 and Luke 1:46-47.
This tripartite being may be illustrated by a third piece of cardboard containing three circles. Within the inner circle print the word “spirit.” Within the second circle (surrounding the first) place the word “soul,” and within the outer circle the word “body.” (See Figure)
With the spirit we know God and our relation to Him and our relation morally to every created object. With our soul powers—the intellect, sensibilities (affections, emotions) and will—we are able to deal with the intuitions of the spirit, the claims of these various soul faculties and the record of the bodily senses.
“The spirit of man,” not the soul, is said to be “the candle of the Lord” (Prov. 20:27). Caution the class in reference to a careless use of these terms. Do not say “soul” when “spirit” is meant and vice versa. Avoid the phrase “body, soul and spirit,” as it inverts the Divine order of arrangement. In a normal condition the powers of the spirit control the powers of soul and body.
(God’s Plan of Redemption, by Mary E. McDonough, http://marymcdonough.ccws.org/redemption/index.html)
The Recovery Version of the Bible renders 1 Corinthians 2:14-15 with the word “soulish” and we find it most appropriate, especially in its context. “But a soulish man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he is not able to know them because they are discerned spiritually. But the spiritual man discerns all things, but he himself is discerned by no one.” (1 Corinthians 2:14-15)
Instead of soulish, many translations of the Bible use “natural”. In any case, The footnote on “soulish” in the Recovery version goes right along with sister McDonough’s admonition that we distinguish between the spirit of man and the soul of man: “A soulish man is a natural man, one who allows his soul (including the mind, the emotion and the will) to dominate his entire being and who lives by his soul, ignoring his spirit, not using his spirit, and even behaving as if he did not have a spirit (Jude 19).”
We need to pursue Christ with an exercised spirit. Calling on the name of the Lord, crying to Him from our deepest part, “Oh, Lord Jesus”, is one way to exercise our spirit. We can also exercise our spirit by praising the Lord. Praising Him with “Praise the Lord!” and “Hallelujah” is to worship the Lord with our spirit.
If we read the Bible merely with our mind we will be like those who search the scriptures yet are not willing to come to Christ. To exercise the spirit means to contact the Lord Himself. When we come to verses in the Bible we should read and pray, pray and read, always contacting God as we read the scriptures. This is to exercise the spirit. This is why pray-reading is recommended. We don’t advocate pray-reading as a form, but we exhort the believers to continuously contact the Lord in their reading.
If man does not exercise his spirit, no matter how noble his deeds, no matter how deep his thoughts, no matter how scriptural his words, the transmission of God to that man will be absent. Let us make a strong resolution to be the spiritual men, ones who receive the things of the Spirit of God and discern all things. In our personal time with the Lord and in our corporate pursuit with others, let us come in this way, with an exercised spirit.
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, what things are true, what things are dignified, what things are righteous, what things are pure, what things are lovely, what things are well spoken of, if there is any virtue and if any praise, take account of these things.
Ephesians 2:1 And you, though dead in your offenses and sins,
Ephesians 2:5-6 Even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) 6 And raised us up together with Him…
Psalms 45:3-4 Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O mighty One, / In Your majesty and Your splendor. 4 And in Your splendor ride on victoriously / Because of truth and meekness and righteousness; / And let Your right hand teach You awesome deeds.
Psalms 113:6 Who humbles Himself to behold / The heavens and the earth
Philippians 2:5-6 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider being equal with God a treasure to be grasped,
2 Corinthians 8:1-2 Furthermore we make known to you, brothers, the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, 2 That in much proving of affliction the abundance of their joy and the depth of their poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality;
Psalms 8:1-2 O Jehovah our Lord, / How excellent is Your name / In all the earth, / You who have set Your glory over the heavens! 2Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings / You have established strength / Because of Your adversaries, / To stop the enemy and the avenger.
Psalms 66:1-3 Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; / 2 Sing forth the glory of His name; / Make glorious His praise. / 3 Say to God, How awesome are Your deeds! / Because of the greatness of Your strength, Your enemies come cringing to You.
