THE SACRIFICE OF PRAISE
By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. Hebrews 13:15
Our Priestly duty to the Lord is to praise him continually. It is offering gratitude, appreciation, and thanksgiving. We praise and worship God because of who He is and for the great things He has done!
The word sacrifice in Greek is Thysia. Its definition is; The act of making an offering to a deity, or that which is offered to a deity. The sacrifice of praise is any praise offered to God with a grateful heart.
However, there is another side to this. We can also define sacrifice as: “Doing something you don’t necessarily want to do but do it anyway.”
You give up something personally valuable for the benefit of another. For example, parents may live below their means, so their children can have a better education
A father may lose a sale but makes sure he is at his sons’ little league game. A mother gives up a gym membership so her daughter can take piano lessons. You get the picture.
Jesus Sacrificed Praise
When Jesus hung on the cross, he cried out, quoting only the first verse of Psalm 22.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
The meaning of forsaken in this verse is: To be utterly abandoned and left in the lurch. To be left in the lurch implies you are depending on someone else for rescue, but they never show up. For Jesus, it meant, No Cavalry, just Calvary.
Then, in verse three, the Psalmist gives us the most astounding lesson regarding sacrificial praise and worship. For a moment, imagine replacing Jesus as if you were hanging on the cross.
Your body is painfully broken and bleeding. Your tongue parched; gasping for breath; Spikes are piercing your hands and feet; your miserable, and your bones are out of joint.
You are staring in the face of death, and three-days of confinement and suffering in Tartarus. Would you feel like “praising the lord?” The following is what Jesus would have quoted had he continued to Psalm 22:3.
But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
Even during torture and anguish, Jesus gave praise and worship to the living God. Hey, wait for a second, didn’t the living God just forsake him? Leave him in the lurch? Leave him with an angry, cynical mob to mock, scorn, and ridicule him?
Yes!
WHY then would he praise Him?
Because of this truth, this all-important reality that is eternal and remains unchallenged:
GOD INHABITS THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL!!
GOD INHABITS THE PRAISES OF HIS CHURCH!!
I contend that Jesus did in fact praise sacrificially before death because three days later He AROSE FROM THE DEAD! He is now sitting on the right hand of God the Father with complete victory.
He Inhabits Our Praise
As you conscientiously sing heartfelt praise by faith, Jesus is singing praise through you with the aid of the Holy Spirit. He lives in your praise. He manifests in the praise of His people.
As you praise Him by faith, He is inhabiting YOUR PRAISE!!
We all have temptations, tests, and trials of every sort throughout our Christian walk. We inevitably suffer affliction to some degree or another. But, when you sacrifice praise to the Lord, He is inhabiting the sacrifice! The result is hope, encouragement, joy, and deliverance.
Do you praise and thank and worship God while in trouble? It is easy to praise God when things are going great. It is a sacrifice for you to glorify God when you are feeling down and out.
But we have His Word on it. This principal truth is completely reliable:
God positively inhabits our praise, worship, and thanksgiving.
I was born again in 1970 and began attending a church that applied sacrificial praise found in the book of Psalms. I remember many occasions being engulfed with the overwhelming presence of God as we worshiped. We worshiped wholeheartedly, and the presence of God would often manifest.
About a year later, I went to Alaska and began working on a fishing boat harbored out of Kodiak. One night, miles from nowhere, we were caught in a typhoon. Let me tell you how scared I was.
My young life passed before my eyes and I was certain the curtain of my life was closing—quite soon now. I was sitting in the galley as dishes were flying and crashing every which way. I feared the boat was about to capsize.
This was around three o’clock in the morning. Pitch black. Water and waves breaking over the wheelhouse. It was a white-knuckle ride until I had the presence of mind to make my way below deck, to the bow of the boat where my bunk was. As I hung on for dear life, I had a thought. Why don’t I do what they trained me to do in church–sacrifice praise!
Now, I know this may not be easy for you to swallow, but here goes: As I stood next to the bunk, I grabbed hold of the wooden beam above my head for balance but also, that my hands would be raised. Next, I began to sing. My voice was trembling, and I felt foolish, but I sang, “Oh Lord I worship you, I love you, oh Lord I thank and praise you.” This lasted for a few minutes. It seemed like an eternity.
The storm raged on. But something happened to me! No, the storm did not cease, but the agonizing fear of death gripping my heart did cease!
After a few minutes I managed to lay down on the bunk and I curiously drifted off to sleep. The next thing that happened was…I awakened, and the boat was perfectly still. The skipper had managed to motor up the coast with the assist of the on-board radar unit and another fishing boat nearby; we found a protective, sheltered cove. Thank God.
Sacrifice is something we don’t necessarily want to do but we do it anyway. God inhabits our praise.
By Him
By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. Hebrews 13.15
By Him, therefore? By Him, whom? By the living Christ Jesus! Let’s re-read this verse using this paraphrase:
“By him, therefore, with our co-operation and with the help of his empowering Holy Spirit, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.”
He is initiating praise with our co-operation. In other words, when we praise the Lord, we are utilizing the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. The NLT says it this way:
Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name. Hebrews 13:15
Jesus, by His Holy Spirit, initiates, encourages, and sustains continual praise and thanksgiving through us, his church. The result is a manifestation of His Presence in our midst. It is also a continual proclamation of allegiance and Loyalty to Christ Jesus and the Father.
In the Assembly
I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore. Psalm 86:12
Praise ye the LORD. I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation. Psalm 111:1
We also praise God with our whole heart among the congregation. Regardless of how we feel, we praise Him. Regardless of our circumstances in life. We may even be depressed. But we sacrifice praise to our loving Savior, and he fills our hearts and delivers us.
It is called the sacrifice of praise for a reason. It is because we may not feel like praising God, or we may not “feel” there is anything to praise him for.
This is the time we open our mouths and praise. It may not be something we want to do, but we do it anyway.