“Praise the Name of the Lord” (Ps 113)

Praise the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD, Praise the name of the LORD! Blessed be the name of the LORD From this time forth and forevermore! (vs1-2)

This text is plain, yet when practiced, it blesses us and secures us for eternal life; it is the BEST and only life now.

First, as servants, we're EXHORTED to praise the Lord (vs1). He says, “Praise the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD, Praise the name of the LORD!” Praise His name that He chose you, for we serve Him because He started the work in us and He keeps it going. He says, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you” (John 15:15). Praise Him because Christ died your redeemer. The Father gave you to Him, and He chose to save you by the blood of His Son, paying your penalties and earning your salvation, delivering you into the new covenant (Heb 9:15). Praise Him that you're actually saved by faith! It is not a lie. You've trusted Christ, and in doing so, you've passed from death to life, from self to service, from sin's slave to leading others to know the Savior (Acts 17:34). You have been changed, so praise Him for doing it!

Secondly, anywhere, everywhere, and at all times, praise the Lord's name (vs2-3)! “Blessed be the name of the LORD From this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its going down the LORD’S name is to be praised.” Praise Him for Who He is, God your Savior, the One who predetermines who is saved and put you in the Lamb's book of life (Eph 1:3-4). Praise His patience to you, how He saves you repeatedly from sins, doesn't condemn, and He gives you power to sin no more, to live uprightly, and to walk humbly and dependently on God (Micah 6:8). Praise Him personally, for what He has done for you. This isn't to be hidden because it is personal salvation, so the gratitude and loyalty is beyond description. Paul says, “I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. So, as much as is me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also” (Rom 1:14). I owe Him, and thereby love others, because of what He has done for me, does, and will be doing.

Thirdly, He saves sinners (vs4-9). “Who is like the LORD our God, Who dwells on high, Who humbles Himself to behold the things that are in the heavens and in the earth? He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap, that He may seat him with princes––with the princes of His people.” He saves by Himself with His power as God (Is 59:16). He asks for no help, but He does the saving, the keeping, the pulling up from the bottom by GRACE alone. He exalts us! Not only does He save, but He makes the beggar into a prince, the whore into the virtuous, and the weak into the mighty by God (1 Sam 2:4). Sin, like the demon possessed men, may rule over you, causing you to yield to wickedness uncontrollably, and then He, by a power you don't have, comes to your defense and commands the evil to depart, to rule you no longer. “And He said to them, 'Go'. So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the hole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water” (Matt 8:32). What grace to take the miserable, and by mercy, to make us holy and happy.

Finally, we have reasons to praise the Lord, and we are commanded and exhorted to do it (2 Cor 1:5). If you practice what is preached, you'll have praise as the end result, and that is better than murmuring and sin.