“And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.” (Revelation 5:8)
David was of the tribe of Judah and God promised him that his throne would be everlasting. JUDAH, yada in Hebrew, means PRAISE. The elders in Revelation 5:8 had “harps, and golden vials.” The harp is made for praising God. Many ask if God really needs us to praise Him saying that He is a wonderful God or that He is great and marvelous? No, He doesn’t. That is not praise. You could say “God is marvelous” all day and all night and you would not spend one hour praising Him.
Praise comes from the heart and heals the heart. It is an instrument of God to create the glory of God within the individual. When the angels in heaven praise God, it is like their dinnertime. Did you know that angels feed? Psalm 78:24 and 25 says, “And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven. Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full.” Here in this one expression we can see that ANGELS DO FEED. And they do it when they praise God. When they open their hearts to praise God and glorify Him for the things He has done as well as for Who He is, then the glory of God flows in. Praise is a KEY that opens the hearts of angels as well as men. When we apply the key to the heart, God flows into it. It is not possible for the devil to come in when we are praising God in Spirit and in truth. There is a contact and a flow of energy, which comes from God to man when man opens up his heart to God, and the enemy, Satan, cannot interfere. He has to keep far away. This is why God says we are to pray and praise.
“Praise is comely,” the Bible says. It is not everybody who can praise. Your whole being must be attuned to God and to praise. There is a praise, and there is a Praise, and there is a PRAISE! There is high Praise and glorious PRAISE. We say, “Thank you Jesus for what you have done for me,” and when that thanks goes up, the heart is opened and God pours in some of His blessings, some of His strength, some of His energy. Praising is not when we tell God how beautiful He is and flatter Him, but praising is thanking God. We need to learn to be thankful, to be grateful to God for what He is doing for us and has done for us and will do for us. While we are doing this, our hearts are being opened and the Holy Ghost is pouring the food of heaven into us.
I remember years ago, some brethren brought in what they called “high praise.” It grieved me for it was the lowest form of praise I had ever heard – the kind that takes you emotionally down rather than up. It was something you could see for years and years in some of the churches. People would stomp their feet, “Bam, bam, bam.” Everyone began to go, “Bam, bam, bam.” Drums began to beat together, people began to jump together and there were no words. Brethren, man cannot praise God without words. We must have words to praise God. If we begin to sing a song and we are only going by the beat or by the music, we are shutting God out. The only way to have God join you in your praise is for your heart to respond to God and to His Word. You start singing a song “I thank you Lord, I thank you Jesus,” – a simple song without many words to it. “I thank you Jesus, for you have brought me out a mighty long way, a mighty long way, thank you Lord.” When I begin to sing, I begin to remember the depths of hell I was in and how God reached down and pulled me out.
This thought brings me back to a vision I had in the days just before salvation, when I found myself down in a GREAT PIT. It was hopeless. I could hardly see the sky for the distance from the bottom of the pit. The sides were sheer and straight and I would fight and claw my way up only to reach a certain point and then fall back down. It was hopeless, but I kept fighting. Then suddenly, there was a sound like a wind. It came down into the pit, swooped me up like a whirlwind and threw me way up on the side of the pit. As I clung on, still only half way up, another surge came, took me and carried me right out. I landed in a woodland where great big globs of honeycomb were high in the trees and the honey was dropping down from them.
I remember these things as I sing a song thanking Jesus. It means something to me. It lifts my soul and the energy of God begins to flow into me, because I am praising God. God gave His people not only “the Lion of the tribe of Juda” but also “harps” to praise Him. He gave us cause to praise and He gave us instruments to praise. So let us praise Him at all times!
Sonlight Devotional 