Psalm 47:5-9
God has ascended amid shouts of joy, the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets. Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise. God reigns over the nations; God is seated on his holy throne. The nobles of the nations assemble as the people of the God of Abraham, for the kings of the earth belong to God; he is greatly exalted.
In this passage, we are told me "sing praises to God, sing praises." It emphasizes "praise" twice, and it's also in command form. We need to praise God, not just quietly praise Him, but to loudly praise, shout and praise. We are not so used to speaking loudly, but if you study the Book of Revelations carefully you'd discover that when we are in heaven we'd be praising very loudly, like roar of the ocean! That's why some people said that we better learn to praise loudly while we're on earth, otherwise once we ascend to heaven we will be poorly adjusted and couldn't stay there. Actually, loudly doesn't mean that we actually produce a loud sound, but to wholeheartedly praise and worship. It's obvious when someone is worshipping wholeheartedly; when a person is praising and worshipping wholeheartedly, his expression would be different; he won't be still or have no facial expression.
Each time I went to Korea's prayer mountain, I saw the hills packed with people in prayer caves loudly praising and worshipping. Sometimes I couldn't sleep at night because the sound of prayer was too loud, making it hard for me to fall asleep. Today, believers in Korea are praying, worshipping and crying out to God wholeheartedly, and when Chinese believers saw how Korean believers pray they would pick up their cameras and take pictures. I felt really sad when I saw it; they were praying wholeheartedly but we were taking pictures of how they were praying. May God have mercy on us because we also need to come to Him wholeheartedly, praising and worshipping Him wholeheartedly! May God help us, let us have a breakthrough in our tradition of being quiet and lukewarm, and let us not be indifferent. Why should Chinese believers always sit there quietly? We need to use our loudest voice to praise our God! Loud or not loud is not a cultural issue, but it's a spiritual issue. Are we willing to have a breakthrough spiritually? When we are willing to discipline ourselves, God's grace will come upon us, because the God we believe in is a wonderful and marvelous God, hallelujah! Let us use our loudest voice to praise Him!
Pray with Pastor Tong
Lord, we praise you wholeheartedly because only you are the king who's worthy. May your spirit once again lift us up; teach us to have our strength renew no matter what the circumstance is in our life each and every day, and also proclaim victory against the enemy each and every day. I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!
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