Please find below the notes from the Elder's Prayer this past Sunday.
A Psalm of Praise.
150 Praise the Lord!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty expanse.
2 Praise Him for His mighty deeds;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
3 Praise Him with trumpet sound;
Praise Him with harp and lyre.
4 Praise Him with timbrel and dancing;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe.
5 Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with resounding cymbals.
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord!
Let’s Pray
Heavenly father, you left no room for doubt or uncertainty in our minds. We are to praise you Lord. Thirteen times in this short psalm, we are given that clear command. Praise the Lord, Praise God, and Praise Him. You are indeed worthy of our fervent worship and you created us to do just that – to zealously ascribe worth and value to your name. I pray we would be found faithful in doing just that, both corporately and individually, during this hour when we are gathered together and during many other hours of the week when we are scattered across the community.
Despite my prayer and wishes, I know we do not praise you as we should. Forgive us God when we are tempted to minimize, trivialize or marginalize who you are. Forgive us when our hearts are not captivated at the opportunity to join our voices together in praise to you our God. Forgive us for when we fail to prioritize our corporate gathering in our weekly schedules or become complacent about the unique opportunity we have each Lord’s day to gather and raise our voices together as one when we sing of your attributes and your worthiness. Forgive us when our minds wander towards focusing on our personal preferences instead of marveling at your splendid nature. Our focus should only be on you when we gather to rehearse truth in song, prayer and preaching. I pray you are pleased by how we as a church worship, for it reveals much about what we think and how we view you God.
I pray our church would praise you as we are instructed in this Psalm. I pray we would praise you in your sanctuary and in all the earth. That we would praise your name when the saints are gathered together and when we are dispersed across the city. I pray our worship would unite us in our collective praise of our great God and for your great gift of your son by whom the great gift of salvation is possible. I pray our praise would be continual as we wake, as we work and as we lay down to rest.
I pray our praise is motivated by celebrating your mighty deeds. Help us to rehearse your wonderful work from creation to salvation to holding all things together even today. Thank you for sustaining all things, thank you for delivering believers from death to life. Thank you for redeeming us, protecting us, and providing for us. Thank you for being a promise maker and a promise keeper.
We praise you God for who you are according to your excellent greatness. We praise you for your character, your person, your sovereignty, your immutability, your omnipresence, your almighty power, your grace, your mercy, your long-suffering, your steadfastness, goodness, kindness, holiness, faithfulness, justice, wisdom, and the great love by which you have loved us through your son Jesus Christ.
May we praise you continually and expansively with our lips, with all our might and all possible resources we can muster together. May we praise you with exuberance and excitement that is unparalleled in our lives calling attention to your greatness.
We know that everything that has breath should praise you Lord. That is what is appropriate and deserved but as of yet, is not our reality. I pray that we would not grow weary in our privilege to worship as we praise you each day with great anticipation of Christ’s future return. I pray our praise will be informed by scripture, that it would be growing ever deeper as we increase in our knowledge of you. We look forward to when every created thing in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, are heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” I pray we will fervently praise the Lord until that day and forevermore.