In our churches today, folk have a wrong view of God as well as the presence of God. This is why there is a sad lack of true conversions. Preachers have taught that plans, prayers, programs, and promise claiming are sufficient to save folk. The presence of God is despised in practice, though few would dare to say out loud that they despise the presence of God. In fact, it may not even be recognized by the individual who despises it. They think they have the presence of God because folk respond to the message. Because great numbers have 'made decisions.' Yet most of the time this is simply due to conscience and worldly sorrow on the part of those responding, which according to II Corinthians 7:10, worketh death. If the response is due to the presence and power of God working in the individual, it is in likely in honor of the truth being preached, and the presence of God leaves as soon as the same old fleshly techniques are applied at the altar.

Some might refer us back to the verse that I quoted earlier, where Jesus said He would be in the midst of those who gather in His name, to refute this. They would argue that it makes no difference whether we despise His presence or not, He will be there. But my reply is that the presence of God may not be manifested though Jesus is there. In fact, God is everywhere, but there is more to it than this, or Jesus' promise would simply be a repetition of a truth we already know. And it certainly would not have had the reassuring affect that He obviously meant it to have. We have all experienced services where we knew Jesus was there, because of the promise, but there was no sense of it among the people. There was not enough manifested presence of God to save anyone. There wasn't even enough to get the ones who were saved stirred up. This is a truth that is foreign to many of our people today.

I would refer the reader to Scriptures where Jesus could do no great miracles due the people's unbelief. Yet it was an unbelief which arose out of despising who He was. He was present with them, but they saw Him as the carpenter's son, etc. The scriptures say He could only heal a few sick folk. When He was allowed to manifest Himself for who He was, people had their sins forgiven, and they got joyful over it!!

One might ask what the difference is, and what is the application to the churches today. I would respond that we have enough presence of God to heal a few sick folk, that is some are coming out of the world, but they are not saved. They have not experienced the forgiveness of sins. They have religion, but no God. God may have moved on them, but the work was not a complete work due to attitudes and practices foreign to God's desired ways. When God shows up in a manifesting manner, folk get the real thing. They become new creations in Christ Jesus. And they know they have been changed. Joy in the heart of an individual is one of the accompanying results of salvation. It is a joy that ought to be of sufficient degree to make that individual want to vocalize it.

When I think back to my two empty professions of faith as a young person, one at twelve, and one at fourteen, I really believe there was more than conscience involved. I believe the presence and power of God moved me due to the truth being preached. The problem lay in the fact that methods and prayers took the place of His presence at the altar, and the work that was begun was short-circuited. When I got real salvation and experienced the forgiveness of sins and the liberty which is in Christ, it was when I loved the truth and allowed God to do the work. I waited on the manifested presence of God to save me with power.

When I say manifested presence, I do not mean that I saw a 200 foot Jesus or some vision, nor did I feel tingling throughout my body, etc. I simply waited until I knew that God was there, and that He was there to save me. I was appreciative of the fact that He had worked throughout my life to get me to where I was. Though I recognized that He did not have to save me, there was no doubt at that moment that He could and would do it. It was what He had been working towards all my life! I knew, even as David knew, that God had His mind on me. He had chosen me before I ever thought about Him. How could He not save me? He didn't have to, but He did have to. God purposed it, so God had to perform it! And when God saved me, people didn't have to tell me what happened, I told them. Salvation, like Paul's gospel, came, '...not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance..,' I Thessalonians 1:5.

Notice, again, that Michal was never referred to as David's wife. She was always referred to as 'Michal Saul's daughter.' We dealt a little with this earlier, when we presented her wrong thinking. Let me say at this point, that, in this, she is a picture of an unbeliever. That is, she is a type of a lost person. Michal is never seen as having had a relationship with David as his wife. She lived in the palace, enjoyed the benefits of being with him, such as talking to him, eating with him, and being cared for by him, yet she never really was a wife to him. She was what her father wanted her to be, and what she was sent there to be. She was a snare to David. Michal is a picture of the tares sown by an enemy of God. The tares are sown by their father, who is the devil. Am I inferring from this that all those who despise praise are lost? Or that those who simply do not praise are not saved? Certainly not. Up to this point, I have presented Michal as a type of the Christian with the wrong attitudes produced by the wrong views. But there is no escaping the fact that she also represents a false believer. Not a lost person outside the church, but one within the household. Look at verse 20 of II Samuel, where we read, "And David returned to bless his household." Those who despise praise are lost religious folk, or they are saved folk with attitude problems. I will leave it to God to tell the critics to which class they belong. I will say that they must be one or the other. There is no neutral position!

Let me point out here, that Michal is a picture of individuals, and also the churches. If an individual despises the praises of God, they will be spiritually barren in their personal life. By this I do not mean necessarily that they will not lead anyone to Christ, though this is likely true.

For some reason when we speak of barrenness or fruit-bearing in the life of a believer, most folk automatically jump to the conclusion it has application to soul-winning. Yet the Scriptures teach far more often that fruit deals with attitudes and inner condition rather than external actions and their results. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. External actions such as tithing, witnessing, church attendance, etc., are second generation fruit produced from the seeds of these first generation fruits, which are produced by salvation and the operation of the Spirit in the believer.

When I say that those who despise praise will be barren, I mean they will have no expressed joy, since praise is the expression of joy. There may be a supposed sense of appreciation for salvation, but it will be merely a mental affirmation of facts seen or heard. It will not be a true appreciation born out of an experiential encounter with a living God. Psalm 22:3 says, "But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel." These folk will have no presence of God in their private lives. They will have no knowledge of what it is like to have God love on them as they go about their daily activities, or what it is like to sense God next to them while they reflect on what God has done for them at salvation. Their knowledge of God will be what they read in the Bible and other books, or what they have heard some preacher say. It will be a factual rather than actual knowledge of God. These people will be critical and cold towards those who praise God and who experience His manifested presence through this means as long as they continue to despise praise.

If a church despises the praises of God, she will be barren and devoid of true converts, and will produce only folk who have come out of the world. There will be constant strife and division and no lively joy. Services will be cold and formal. There may be the same supposed appreciation of salvation as in the case of the individual above. But it is merely a collective mental affirmation rather than an individual one.

One may argue that in the case of a church, which is comprised of many individuals, one cannot apply the type in its strictest sense, and thus we cannot say that the church which does not allow praise will never see anyone truly saved. This is so. There may be an occasional person who gets real salvation in spite of the church's overall attitudes. But this is because if the truth is preached, God will honor it. But even if one does get real salvation in spite of the church's attitude, that individual will not stay. They cannot stay. They must go where the liberty to praise the One who gave them life is granted. That church will thus be ultimately barren.

But even as there is a caution to those who would despise the praise of God, there is a promise to those who appreciate and practice it. Those who joined David in praise, received '...every one, a cake of bread, and a good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine...' Don't you know when the king gave them these gifts, they went home rejoicing all the more! The praise of God is motivational. It moves God. It causes Him to desire to come and meet with His people. Our God is not an impersonal God. He loves to be appreciated in a way worthy of His Being. The angels and all those in heaven recognize this, the old testament saints recognized this, and some folks in the churches recognize this. God has given us a record in the Word of God that this is what He desires. May we respond to this with a genuine praise born out of a genuine appreciation of who God is, and what He has done for us, particularly in salvation.

We also see from Psalm 33:1 that praise is comely, or beautiful for the upright. God thinks we look good praising Him. It's like when we say an outfit on a lady is very becoming. It enhances, or compliments her natural looks. Psalm 147:1 goes further and says it is not only comely, but pleasant. That is, it brings pleasure to the one who praises, and the one being praised. I cannot speak for the reader, but as for me, I want to look good to God, so I'll just praise Him!

In closing, let me leave the reader with one final principle. It was a principle that David lived by, and that he has given to us through his Psalms. It is the 'I will' principle. Thirty-nine times in the book of Psalms, David says, "I will..." when referring to praising God! The reader is free to get a Strong's concordance to find them all, but let us look at just a few now.

Psalm 7:17, says, "I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness..." From this we can see at least two things. First, that David's praise is not something that always comes from God moving on him to do so. Some folk have the idea that one only praises when moved on by God, that is, when they can't help it. If that were so, God would not be honored, because it would be something He initiated. It would be like my wife prodding me to tell her I love her; "Please, tell me you love me." What sense of satisfaction would be derived from that? My telling her that I love her should be out of a sense of my true feelings for her, and out of a desire to let her know it. If my wife did ask me to tell her, it would be a sure sign I wasn't doing it enough on my own! God desires our praise to be spontaneous, and as a result of our true feelings toward Him. If one waits for God to move on him, it likely means there hasn't been enough voluntary praise. God is starving for attention in that person's life!

Let me hasten to add that it is not forced in the sense of the word that Saul's sacrifice was forced, even though it is forced in the sense that one makes himself do it. But it is not done grudgingly, or because we feel obligated to do it, rather with joy, and appreciation of God's person and God's performance. It is because one wants to do it, and has the liberty to do it.

Secondly, we see that David's will is stirred by a worthy motive. David does not just say, "I will praise God merely to be praising God." He seeks to find just cause for praise. This should be easy for a believer to do, even as it was for David. David found his purpose for praise in the righteousness of God. I believe David also found purpose for his praise's intensity here. David says, "I will praise God according to his right-eousness..." In other words, David's praise would be in proportion to God's righteousness. This means it would be intense, for God's righteousness is total righteousness. This is why David danced before the LORD 'with all his might' in II Samuel 6:14!

Let us look at Psalm 9:1, where David says, "I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will show forth all thy marvellous works." Again, David intentionally finds cause to praise God, and again, it is with great intensity that he does it. It is with his whole heart, or as we might say, 'whole-heartedly.' But further, here his praise is meant to inform others of all the things God has done for him, especially regarding his salvation. as seen in verse 14, where David further emphasizes the fact that his praise in this instance is to 'show out,' or 'to be seen.' Let us go back to our illustration of the fans at a sporting event. We all know that one who is loud and boisterous is not likely to go unnoticed, though one might make an attempt to ignore them. Their presence and preference are obvious. They attract attention. They desire to influence either the players, the officials, the other fans, or all of the above. For this same reason, God wants us to be outwardly evident in our praise, and why we should want to be this way. It ought to be our purpose to be seen at times, especially when we want others to know what God has done for us, and what we think about it.

Let us look at Psalm 18:3, where David says three things of importance. The first we have seen, and that is that he wills it. David gets in a position of voluntarily praising God. Secondly, his motivation in this instance is that God is worthy of praise. David praises God because God deserves it. It is an act of obedience as much as it is an act of appreciation. If God deserves praise, it is our duty to do it. God's worth demands praise. Thirdly, we see that there is an attendant benefit to this praise. David says it will bring deliverance from his enemies. The phrase 'so shall I be saved from mine enemies,' shows that it as a result of praise that David expects to be delivered. Is it the praise itself that does this? No; rather it motivates God to respond and protect the one who praises Him. This person is one of God's prized possessions. He will not let that person go and lose His praise.

One final Psalm we ought to look to is Psalm 52:9, where we read, "I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait upon thy name; for it is good before the saints." Here we see that the duration of our praise will be endless. Yet it must have a beginning. Some may wait until they arrive on heaven's shore to begin, but David's admonition would be to begin here, as he said, '...it is good before the saints.' I would add, "It is perfect before God!"

We could look at many more of these Psalms, but space prevents it. The reader should see in the ones we have shown the truth we are attempting to set forth. Look them up for yourself, at your leisure, and you will find they bear witness with one another.

We have shown what the Scriptures teach about praise and the applications of spiritual truths associated with praise. If you were one who despised praise, I trust that you will not 'kick against the pricks,' but will get in line with the truth. I know that you will find it brings satisfaction and the peace that accompanies obedience to God's way of doing things. If you were already one who loves praise and one who practices praise, I hope that you were blessed and reinforced in your confidence that praise is fitting and proper in our lives today.

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