The Power Of Praise And Worship

Psalm 95: 1-7 (NKJV)

¹ Oh come, let us sing to the LORD!
         Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
 ² Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
         Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
 ³ For the LORD is the great God,
         And the great King above all gods.
 ⁴ In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
         The heights of the hills are His also.
 ⁵ The sea is His, for He made it;
         And His hands formed the dry land.  

⁶ Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
         Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
 ⁷ For He is our God,
         And we are the people of His pasture,
         And the sheep of His hand.

As I was praying for the Lord to strengthen me and to deliver me out of the hand of my enemies, I realized that God is with me, and I`ve done enough of praying already about my trials and afflictions; but what I needed to start doing now is praising and worshiping Him. I don`t know if you are aware of the significance of worship, but it`s one of the major hard artilleries that we have against our enemy—satan, and he is extremely afraid of it. The reason why he is afraid of that is because when we worship God, we pledge ourselves to Him and concentrate on His goodness and greatness instead of thinking about fear of the circumstances. By doing that, we avert our attention from all the problems and impossibilities of one`s situation (satan loves to lie to us that God is incapable to deliver us out of whatever problems we have), and instead concentrate on the mightiness of God.

As I was praying and praising Lord for everything that He does in my life, His presence filled me up, and I could feel that lightness and victory. This is something that I cannot describe unless one would sick and experience on your own. God created heaven and earth, and there is nothing in this world that could be out of His reach or impossible for Him to resolve or handle.

 ¹ Thus says the LORD:

      “ Heaven is My throne,
      And earth is My footstool.
      Where is the house that you will build Me?
      And where is the place of My rest?
       ² For all those things My hand has made,
      And all those things exist,”
      Says the LORD.

      “ But on this one will I look:
      On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit,
      And who trembles at My word. (Isaiah 66:1-2 NKJV)

If God created everything by His hand, don`t you think He is capable to deliver you out of whatever impossible problems and circumstance you may experience? When I read these verses, it serves me as a reminder of all the impossible things that He`s done already in my life. He saved me so many times and healed me, and provided for me financially when I had nothing. He is The Almighty, The Only God, Who will deliver me, and He will deliver you from whatever circumstance that you stand, as long as you Praise Him and give Him thanks for everything that He is!

When Joshua led the battle of Jericho, one of the main things the Israelites did was blowing their trumpets and shouting to the Lord most High! They did that once a day for six days, and on the seventh day, they walked around the city seven times with priests walking in front of them with the ark and trumpets blowing them and shouting to the Lord. As soon as they did that, the walls of Jericho fell down and they were able to conquer the city. It was a mighty city, and if Israelites gave in even to the mere hint of fear or doubts, they would have disobeyed the Lord and lost the battle, but they worshiped the Lord, and God fulfilled His promise to give them that piece of land (Joshua 6).

As we look at the story of Gideon, we see the same principle of the victory through the worship of the Lord. There were only 300 of them who stood up with the trumpets and broke their pitchers that had light inside and shouted to praise God:

¹⁷ And he said to them, “Look at me and do likewise; watch, and when I come to the edge of the camp you shall do as I do: ¹⁸ When I blow the trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you also blow the trumpets on every side of the whole camp, and say, ‘The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!’” ¹⁹ So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outpost of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just as they had posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers that were in their hands. ²⁰ Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers—they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing—and they cried, “The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!” ²¹ And every man stood in his place all around the camp; and the whole army ran and cried out and fled. (Judges 7:17-21 NKJV)

God always provides the victory when we thank Him and worship Him putting our trust only in Him. When I praise God for all the things that He is and that He`s done, I feel victory and I get victory regardless of the amount of time it takes. God has His timing for everything, and His time is perfect, have no doubt about that. The important thing to remember is our attitude and our faith during these trials and in our everyday walk.

I am reading the book by W. Phillip Keller called “A Shepherds Look at Psalm 23”, and it blows my mind away realizing some simple facts about shepherds` and sheeps` behavior. One of the things that really captured me was the marking of the sheep that each shepherd has to do in order to distinguish and set aside his herd. The shepherd has to cut a special marking on the ear of the sheep (individual marking that`s unique on each sheep) to distinguish them among all the neighbors` herds or in case the sheep going astray, so it could be easier to find.

God was called a “Good Shepherd” in Psalm 23, and this is so true that He makes this individual marking on each one of His sheep (His children), so that when we go astray, He could still find us. Also, the marking is important, so the enemy (satan) knows to Whom we belong because he would desperately try to capture God`s sheep and kill, steal, and destroy them (John 10:10). That`s why it`s so important to remember that whatever trials one endures, those are most likely are the distinguished markings that make you stand out with our Father to proclaim to everyone else to Whom you and I belong. I am proud to carry those markings because not only do they make me special to Him, but they also make me stand out in this world to testify of my Good Shepherd.

I have seen the power of worship especially in the hardships, and I know how powerful this important weapon is that we have against our enemy; that and the word of God. God created us for His glory, so we would worship Him.

It is said in the Psalm 8:2 (NIV)

² Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.  

How much more important it is for us to make it a point to praise and worship our Lord in hardships to “silence the foe and the avenger” if even the babies and infants do that.

If you never trusted or understood the power of praise and worship, I challenge you today to try it. You will be blown away by the closeness to the Lord that you`ll experience and by the victory because God takes pleasure in those who seek Him. We do just that by taking our time to exalt Him.