The House of the Lord
Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
Serve the LORD with gladness;
Come before his presence with singing.
Know ye that the LORD he is God:
It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves;
We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise:
Be thankful unto him and bless his name.
For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting;
And his truth endureth to all generations. Psalm 100
Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary:
Praise him in the firmament of his power.
Praise him for his mighty acts:
Praise him according to his excellent greatness.
Praise him with the sound of the trumpet; praise him with the psaltery and harp.
Praise him with the timbrel and dance:
Praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
Praise him upon loud cymbals:
Praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
Let everything that hath breath praise the LORD.
Praise ye the LORD. Psalm 150
David the Psalmist knew the power of praise. He knew that praise could raise men up to high states of consciousness, joy, confidence and faith. David did not ask the LORD to bless his soul, but for his soul to bless the LORD. A very different thing. A vastly different thing. Not a spirit of getting, but of giving. Praise and Thanksgiving to GOD is the highest form of prayer and worship. To always be in this high state of consciousness would be where no evil could befall one. Nearly every Psalm begins with a call to everyone to praise the LORD, or starts with actual praise of the LORD. David knew this in all his varying moods. Sometimes his praises would be one of adoration. Other times, thanksgiving. Other times almost a begging and beseeching of the LORD to help him in all the many difficulties in which he found himself.
Praise is one of the surest ways to keep from getting slothful in spiritual life. Isn't this one of easiest things to do? It is so very, very easy and one of the surest ways to keep from getting slothful. It helps to keep an awareness of the need for GOD. GOD does not need us but we need HIM.
Call upon your mind, your body, your character, your affairs, an offending organ, anything that upsets you, to praise the LORD. Not the LORD to praise it, but for the organ to praise the LORD. A vastly different thing!
Everyone responds to praise. Children especially. How their little faces light up when they are praised for some small thing. They will run and do more. They want to help and they want to respond to that praise. But growl at them and it's a vastly different thing. The child's face clouds over and then very often cry and run away and hide. One little fellow who could not bear being growled at would run and hide under the bed; but praise him and his little face would beam.
Praising is the way of victory and overcoming. It calls the Divine Forces to minister us. Yes, praise conquers things. But there is a great difference between praising and just singing. We as followers of FATHER DIVINE, see that perhaps more than any other body of people. We know if we put ourselves fully into our songs, then we are praising GOD and not just singing.
All nature is praise. The birds in their grand chorus at day brake. Is there anything more beautiful than to wake up and hear the concert of the birds? They are praising GOD! And the flowers. The gentle rustling of the trees. The lapping of the water upon the seashore. The constant flow of the river toward the ocean. The clapping of the thunder and the flash of lightening.
Some people are very much afraid of lightening and thunder, but it is one of the most wonderful ways to see the power of the Almighty. Stand where the lightening is and the thunder is. It seems to bring forth the majesty, the power, the dominion, the authority of GOD more than, perhaps, anything else.
The roar of the sea and the babbling of the brook and the pitter patter of the rain and the sighing of the wind. The fury of the gale and the hurricane, all join in a grand paean of prayer and praise to the great Eternal Power of all Good! Praise Is Power
Praise helps to create joy, peace and health. One writer says, "Sing your way to health, freedom, harmony and happiness." Praise and bless all mankind -- our environment, the universe north, south, east and west -- then we will love our neighbor as ourselves.
Praise GOD for blessings produces more blessings. Surely this is true. The LORD'S momentum is set to work. Praise and give thanks for failures, too, for they are stepping stones to higher things. Not so easy? Failures worry us when we dwell on them and on ourselves. But FATHER DIVINE says that "Each failure will help you some victory to win." When we look at it this way, we cast them behind us and go on to higher ground.
Praise HIM for the sunshine and the rain. If we always had the sunshine, we would not fully appreciate it, but when we get the rain, we can appreciate the sunshine. So we must also have the rain, for when it is always sunny we find we need rain for growth.
Praise GOD in the face of an ailment or complaint. Some curse the ache or pain, which only serves to fasten it to them. Praise HIM for all the other ways good health serves you. The way you can laugh and work and run and use your limbs. It is a wonderful thing!
Praise GOD for the enjoyment of food; for all the material as well as spiritual blessings HE bestows. Praise HIM for the joy of knowing that HE is over all and in all. For spiritual awareness, for protection, for His bounty and numberless other things HE gives.
By thanking and praising the LORD and rejoicing in HIM and expressing gratitude to HIM for all the blessings of life, you are brought into relationship with good and abundance even as our LORD promised.
Praising GOD raises your vibrations to harmony and love. It creates energy and releases the life current within. It opens every barred and shut door. It quickens dormant cells. It creates an atmosphere which generates the Spirit within, creating healing of mind and body and spirit. This has been proven in assemblies where followers of FATHER DIVINE gather.
Praise raises the vibrations to meet the CHRIST Consciousness, throwing off poisonous conditions and purging the body of all sorts of contagion. Praise purifies the mind, creating zeal and vigor and enthusiasm, causing inspiration to come forth in expression. Praise creates unity and tranquility and love. It causes the invisible angels to sing and bring forth the Royal Diadem to crown Him LORD of all. To crown our LORD, FATHER DIVINE. To praise HIM. To crown our LORD with this marvelous crown -- this Royal Diadem!
FATHER DIVINE says HE thrives in a hot bed of praises. We have something to praise HIM for every waking moment, in fact, our whole life should be one of praise. Praise Brings Deliverance
Praise is the most important element in religion and in the psychological life of the worshiper. The recognition of GOD'S Glory and His mighty Works among men is necessary for psychological as well as spiritual salvation.
Praise is the highest form of prayer. Not begging and beseeching, but thanksgiving to GOD for all good. Praise GOD momently, in the silence of the heart as well as in every meeting of service.
FATHER DIVINE says that if a person does not physically utter a word, but if his mind is stayed on GOD and he is absorbing food of wisdom, peace and inner guidance, he is praising GOD. If one is physically working, even laboriously all day long, if his mind is tuned to the Infinite, he is praising FATHER DIVINE. If his talk is on the topics of the day and his mind is at rest concerning them, not being fearful or dismayed, he is praising GOD.
FATHER also says: "I AM devising more and more labor-saving inventions for the children of men that they may be free from the chains of drudgery and bondage and be free to praise GOD and rejoice in the glory of His Goodness, for 'A merry heart is a good medicine.'" HE says too, "If you will abide in ME and I in you, you will, through constant praise, create such an atmosphere about you that your words, silent or spoken, would continue to bless and heal and draw all joy, health (et cetera) unto you."
Abraham heard the Voice that stayed his hand when he was about to slay his son. Oh how his heart must have been singing a great song of joy that this did not have to take place, and his loved child could be saved.
As the Israelites came through the first part of their journey through the Red Sea, when everything looked so black for a while, they rejoiced there, on the seashore, and they took their timbrels and they praised GOD. Wonderful! Their first thought was one of praise for this great and mighty deliverance that GOD had given them.
Esther, too, in the wonderful work she did as she went before the king to plead for her people because the Jews by his order were to exterminated (a most unheard of things in those days), must have been singing a song of joy in her heart when she received the golden scepter, (a sign that the king was pleased with her), and when he received her. To think that this work, this great thing that had been accomplished and that she had been brave enough to do, must have created a well spring of praise in her soul to the GOD she trusted in and Who answered her prayer so marvelously.
Daniel, in the lion's den and the boys in the fiery furnace -- how they must have rejoiced that their GOD had not let them down!
And again how wonderful it was when the news came that Jesus was raised from the dead. How these early disciples would be rejoicing that their Lord had risen, that He was not dead, that He had risen. How wonderful it must have been for them.
FATHER DIVINE teaches forgiveness and love for all who might seek to harm. Followers can do this, for in HIM they have the Perfect Example.
And so Paul and Silas, as FATHER so often illustrates, through praise, turned the prison ground into holy ground. Their praise broke the chains that bound them and set then free.
We praise GOD in the way we live, the things we do, the way we think and the thoughts we convey.
It is said that some of the martyrs sang as the flames engulfed them. Hanging side by side at the stakes, one said to his comrade to cheer one not so strong in faith as he, "Cheer up, this night we light the torch that shall never be extinguished." And praise GOD, it never has been extinguished! And they pleaded forgiveness for their enemies -- "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."
The few Pilgrim fathers that were left when they came to their new land, their first thought was one of praise and thanksgiving to GOD. So today, Thanksgiving is still celebrated by example of those early settlers in GOD'S Own Country.
When the War ended, the great rejoicing there was everywhere with people thanking GOD, dancing and singing in the streets and throwing up their hats. It was one day of rejoicing throughout the length and breadth of the whole land.
When we hear of mining tragedies, and the anxious wives and mothers waiting at the pit's head, and how they rejoice to see their loved ones brought to safety. I am sure their first thought is one of thanksgiving to GOD.
The joy of someone you love coming through an illness, the anxious wait for the verdict, for the crisis to be passed and then the news that that one would live. Your heart sings a song of joy to the Giver of all good. Or the joy of another's blessing, of sharing happiness when someone receives a special blessing. Someone going to see FATHER and MOTHER DIVINE. How wonderful it seems and how happy we are for that one. This, also FATHER has taught, that we must give praise and thanks for the blessings of others.
These are just a few of the things that can be mentioned briefly. There are so many that one could go on and on and on. But the first thing that anyone will do in any great extremity very often is to praise or thank GOD.
FATHER DIVINE says, "With this merriness I have established in you, from all of your ailments and complaints you are healed, and repetition of the song gets right down into you -- into your hearts, and lifts you. When you serve the LORD with gladness and enter His courts with thanksgiving and with praise, and keep it up, everything will be all right."
A few lines from the pen of Ella Wheeler Wilcox entitled, "Speech", speaks of praise in a different way:
Talk Happiness! The world is better off without your woe, No place is wholly rough, look for the path that is smooth and clear and speak of that to rest the weary ear of earth, so hurt by one continuous strain on mortal discontent and grief and pain! Talk Faith! The world is better off without your morbid ignorance and doubt. If you have faith in man, or God, or self, say so or else push back upon the shelf of silence all your doubts, till Faith shall come. No one will grieve because your lips are done. Talk Health! The weary, never-ending round of mortal melodies is worn and stale; you cannot charm or interest or please by harping on that minor chord, disease! Say you are well -- are always well -- And God will hear your prayer and make it so!
FATHER DIVINE said in a Message HE delivered in June 27, 1939:
PEACE EVERYONE! Good Health, Good Will and a Good Appetite, with Life, Liberty and the reality of Happiness, for you are happy if you really thank ME.
I thought how marvelous it is when you can thank GOD with the spirit of sincerity. When you say it from the depths of your soul, it will free you from every tie that binds, and from every adverse and undesirable condition it will give you your real emancipation.
Now, you can take it from ME if you wish to. It really works! If you thank GOD from the very depths of your soul, if you are bound in prison, the prison bars will let you go. Real thanks from the soul -- in other words, from the depths of your heart -- will free you from every barred and shut door and from everything that binds and gives you your real emancipation from every angle that is expressible. Oh, it is a privilege to realize, that was the mystery of Paul and Silas, of Peter and John, the same mystery of the prophets of old. When they gave praises to GOD and thanks with the spirit of sincerity, from the depths of their souls, they were lifted and emancipated from every undesirable condition, whatsoever the undesirable condition may have been.
So I was just giving you a little tip. You can speak volitionally, you can move volitionally, you can act and express from all of the diverse angles of expression according to the Spirit of My Actual Presence, by giving thanks and praise continually. If you get stubborn mentally and spiritually you will get rusty -- like a machine when it gets rusty because it has not been run in quite a while. It is stiff! But if you praise GOD, you will get all right!
Now I say, take it from ME, praise GOD and everything will be all right; that is if you praise GOD with your whole heart, with your whole soul and with your whole mind and strength. That will be sufficient. You need not worry about the situation. You need not worry about the prospective consequences, for the Spirit of My Presence will be the actuated words of expression in all of the consequences in the future as well as in the past; for GOD is the same today, yesterday and forever, and if you let GOD be a reality to you, GOD will be the same and will be your real emancipation.
From every undesirable condition you will be lifted and will have joy and peace and pleasure beyond your reason to ask. How good it is to dwell together in unity! Those of My true, faithful and devout followers are getting a foretaste of this Glory. The Ointment that was poured upon One's head, it was sweet!
This is not a supposition. In your supposition through your superstitions you have felt the foretaste of it, but you could not understand it; but you can understand it better since I have brought it into outer expression and into materialization. Through reincarnation you are the personification of that which you have been desiring. Now you no longer merely surmise and even merely personify, but in consciousness you realize that which you have personified. It is a living reality for you and for others. All they must needs do is to dial in on it, be susceptive and receptive to receive it -- the Spirit of My Presence will freely give it and you will be contagionized with it! I thank you.
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