50_Victory in Praise.pdf

Volume XIII, Issue 4

L EGACY

T HE T EACHING

OF D EREK P RINCE

Victory in Praise

Three concepts found in Scripture are closely related, yet distinct: worship, praise

and thanksgiving. All occur frequently in the Bible so it’s important that we can

distinguish them. Worship is primarily an attitude or posture of the body: bowing the

head, bowing the entire upper part of the body, prostrating yourself on the ground,

or even bowing the human spirit before God. Praise, on the other hand, is an

utterance. The Bible is emphatic that praise must come out of the mouth.

Thanksgiving comes when we thank God for what He has done. In worship, we

relate to God’s holiness. In praise, we relate to God’s greatness. In thanksgiving, we

relate to God’s goodness.

ith that introduction to worship, praise

and thanksgiving, now we will turn to

the theme of praise.

The Hebrew word that means “to live in a place”

is the same word for “to sit.” A settlement, for

instance, is a place of sitting. The New King James

Bible has beautifully translated that verse as: “You are

holy; enthroned in the praises of Israel.” Praise is

God’s throne. Our praise does not make Him a King;

He is a King whether we praise Him or not. But

when we praise Him, we offer Him His throne. We

welcome Him and recognize His Kingship. Praise is

God’s dwelling place and His throne.

2. The Way into His Presence

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His

courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His

name. For the L ORD is good; His mercy is everlasting,

and His truth endures to all generations.

Psalm 100:4–5

Great is the L ORD , and greatly to be praised in the

city of our God, in His holy mountain. Psalm 48:1

The Lord is great, and for that reason He is to be

praised. Praise relates us to God’s greatness. He is to

be praised in proportion to His greatness. Follow-

ing are seven scriptural facts about praise.

1. Praise Is God’s Address

Thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of

Israel.

Psalm 22:3 KJV

Praise is God’s address; it is where He lives. If you

want to be where God lives, you must offer Him praise.

Volume XIII, Issue 4

Praise is the way into God’s

presence; the way into His gates

and courts is with praise and

thanksgiving.

Then the Scripture gives us

three reasons why we ought to

praise God: the Lord is good, His

mercy is everlasting, and His truth

endures to all generations. Each of

those statements is always true no

matter what happens. If you want

to get into God’s presence, that is

the only gate. There is no other.

could look back over similar

things in our lives.

You have turned for me my

mourning into dancing; You have

put off my sackcloth and clothed

me with gladness, to the end that

[this is the purpose] my glory

may sing praise to You and not be

silent. O L ORD my God, I will give

thanks to You forever.

Psalm 30:11–12

the coming of Messiah and says

that He would “console those who

mourn in Zion, to give them

beauty for ashes [the emblem of

mourning], the oil of joy for

mourning [oil being an emblem

of the Holy Spirit], the garment of

praise for the spirit of heaviness”

(verse 3).

In modern English “the spirit

of heaviness” is depression. But

when you wear the garment of

praise, the spirit of heaviness

departs.

Another Scripture says:

“Rejoice in the L ORD , O you

righteous! For praise from the

upright is beautiful” (Psalm 33:1).

When you put on the garment of

praise, in the Spirit you are

looking your best. It suits you. It

adorns you.

5. Salvation and Praise

Praise is a way of deliverance.

God is speaking:

Whoever offers praise glorifies

Me; and to him who orders his

conduct aright I will show the

salvation of God. Psalm 50:23

I believe it would be legitimate

(though somewhat free) to translate

that verse this way: “Whoever offers

praise glorifies Me and prepares a

way that I may show him My

salvation.” Through praising God

we open the way for Him to

intervene supernaturally on our

behalf. There are many examples in

Scripture where the intervention of

God is brought about by praise.

Let’s look at one well-known

example in 2 Chronicles. A strong

alien army was invading Judah,

and King Jehoshaphat realized he

did not have the military re-

Notice that God does these

things that our glory may sing praise

unto Him and not be silent. But

what is our glory ? If we compare the

following two Scriptures, there is no

doubt to the answer.

Violence shall no longer be heard

in your land, neither wasting nor

destruction within your borders;

but you shall call your walls

Salvation, and your gates Praise.

Isaiah 60:18

Therefore my heart is glad, and

my glory rejoices.

God lives in a city surrounded

by walls called Salvation. Scrip-

ture clearly and emphatically

states that the only way through

that wall is by a gate, and every

gate is praise. In other words,

without praise there is no access

to God’s presence and the place

where His people dwell.

3. Praise and God’s Blessing

Save us, O L ORD our God, and

gather us from among the

Gentiles, to give thanks to Your

holy name, to triumph in Your

praise. Psalm 106:47

Praise is God’s reason for bles-

sing us, the interest on what He

invests in us. God saves us and

brings us together to fellowship

with Him and with one another

because He wants us to give

thanks to His name and to

triumph in His praise.

David had been through a long

dark period in his life. Many of us

On the Day of Pentecost, Peter

quotes this verse saying:

Therefore my heart rejoiced, and

my tongue was glad. Acts 2:26

That tells us that “my glory” is

“my tongue.” When the Bible

says, “My glory will give thanks to

You,” it means, “My tongue will

give You thanks.” That is why

David adds “and not be silent.” It

is the organ of the body that

either speaks or is silent.

God’s primary purpose in

giving you a tongue is to praise

Him. It is the one member of the

body with which you may most

perfectly praise and glorify God.

Remember that God blesses you,

delivers you, and takes away your

mourning so that your glory will

praise Him and not be silent.

4. Our Spiritual Garment

Praise is part of our spiritual

clothing. Isaiah 61 speaks about

the teaching legacy of derek prince | dpm archive

Psalm 16:9

Volume XIII, Issue 4

sources to meet this army. So he

resorted to spiritual weapons

instead. Before they marched out

to the battle, in accordance with

God’s instructions, this is what

they did:

earthquake . . . Acts 16:25

All the doors were opened, and

everybody’s bands were loosed.

Praise provoked the earthquake;

God intervened supernaturally.

This is a consistent principle of

Scripture. If you want the

supernatural intervention of God

on your behalf in a difficult or

impossible situation, the key that

will release it is your praise. And

usually it’s at a time when you

would least feel like praising God

in the natural.

6. A Spiritual Weapon

Praise is also a weapon of spiri-

tual warfare. David is speaking to

the Lord here:

When we offer God perfect praise

in the unseen realm that our

natural eyes cannot penetrate, we

silence Satan. We shut him up and

we take from him his great weapon

of accusation. No wonder the devil

doesn’t want you to praise God.

And when he had consulted with the

people, he appointed those who

should sing to the L ORD , and who

should praise the beauty of holiness,

as they went out before the army

and were saying, “Praise the L ORD ,

for His mercy endures forever.”

2 Chronicles 20:21

7. The Sacrifice of Praise

Finally, praise is a sacrifice; it

costs you something. There is a

beautiful Scripture that describes

what is going to happen after

Israel is restored. In place of deso-

lation, misery and mourning, they

are going to have:

As many people have pointed

out, that is a strange battle strategy!

Instead of sending out the tanks

first, they sent out the choir to praise

God. It sounds crazy, but it worked.

When God’s people praised the

Lord, God intervened and dealt

with their enemies.

Now when they began to sing and

to praise, the L ORD set ambushes

against the people of Ammon,

Moab, and Mount Seir, who had

come against Judah; and they were

defeated.

The voice of joy and the voice of

gladness, the voice of the

bridegroom and the voice of the

bride, the voice of those who will

say, “Praise the L ORD of hosts, for

the L ORD is good, for His mercy

endures forever”—and of those

who will bring the sacrifice of

praise into the house of the L ORD .

Jeremiah 33:11

I like that translation because I

believe it brings out the real

meaning. The sacrifice God wants

us to bring into His house is

praise. This is very clearly stated

in Hebrews:

Therefore by Him [Jesus Christ]

let us continually offer the

sacrifice of praise to God, that is,

the fruit of our lips, giving thanks

to His name.

verse 22

Out of the mouth of babes and

nursing infants You have

ordained strength, because of

Your enemies, that You may

silence the enemy and the

avenger. Psalm 8:2

“The enemy and the avenger” is

Satan. We need to silence him

because he is accusing us before

the throne of God day and night.

How? The strength that comes

“out of the mouth” will do it, but

it does not tell us exactly what

that is. Jesus quoted this same

Scripture in Matthew 21:

In the New Testament we read

about Paul and Silas in jail. It’s

midnight. They have been beaten,

their backs covered with blood.

They are in the inner prison in

maximum security with their

hands and feet in stocks. And

what do they do next? They start

to pray and to praise God.

And at midnight Paul and Silas

prayed, and sang praises unto

God: and the prisoners heard

them [the Greek says, “the

prisoners listened attentively”].

And suddenly there was a great

“Yes. Have you never read, ‘Out

of the mouth of babes and nursing

infants You have perfected

praise’?” Matthew 21:16

David said, “You have ordained

strength”; Jesus, by the inspiration

of the Holy Spirit, changed it to

“You have perfected praise.” That

tells us that the ordained strength

of God’s people is perfect praise.

Hebrews 13:15

If you praise God when you

feel happy and everything is going

well, that’s good—but it is not a

sacrifice. When everything is

going wrong and you still praise

God, that is a sacrifice. It costs

you something to praise God

the teaching legacy of derek prince | dpm archive

Volume XIII, Issue 4

when you don’t feel like it, but

that is the time we most need to

praise Him. We should praise

God for three reasons: He is good,

His mercy is everlasting, and His

truth endures to all generations.

Those reasons never change.

you can see no natural reason for

doing it, you still praise the Lord.

How do we praise?

In Psalm 111 the psalmist says,

“I will praise the L ORD with my

whole heart” (verse 1). I think it is

grievous to praise God in a half-

hearted way. Sometimes I see

people in praise services who are

just mouthing the words. He is

worthy to be praised with our

whole heart, so put everything

you’ve got into it.

Psalm 63:4 says: “Thus I

will bless You while I live; I

will lift up my hands in Your

name.” Lift them up all the

way. Forget about the person

behind you! What God thinks

is more important. God says,

“Praise Me with your hands

lifted up.”

says, “Let everything that has

breath praise the L ORD ” (verse 6).

Your breath was given to you, first

and foremost, so you could praise

God. Therefore, you are misusing

your God-given breath if you

don’t praise Him with it.

Is there anybody who doesn’t praise

the Lord?

The answer is yes: “The dead

do not praise the L ORD ” (Psalm

115:17). That is the only group of

people. So if you don’t praise the

Lord, you know your problem!

If you want to come alive, you

must praise the Lord. Hallelujah!

Adapted from a New Wine article

of the same name by Derek Prince.

Questions on Praise

When should we praise God?

Every day I will bless You, and I

will praise Your name forever and

ever. Psalm 145:2

You should praise God every

day, forever and ever. Psalm 34

begins with this explanation: “A

Psalm of David when he pretended

madness before Abimelech, who

drove him away, and he departed.”

David had to flee from his native

land and from King Saul who was

trying to murder him. He had taken

refuge in the court of a Gentile king

named Abimelech. In order to

protect himself, David had to

pretend to be mad. Scripture says

that he slobbered on his beard and

scraped on the doors with his nails

like a madman. King Abimelech

said, “Look, you see the man is

insane. Why have you brought him

to me? Have I need of madmen?”

(1 Samuel 21:14–15).

Now that you understand the

background, let’s look at David’s

reaction to the situation:

I will bless the L ORD at all times;

His praise shall continually be in

my mouth. Psalm 34:1

That is what makes a man or

woman of God. When you’re

down, everything’s against you, and

For further study, we

recommend Derek’s message:

Thanksgiving, Praise and

Worship

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My soul shall be satisfied as with

marrow and fatness, and my

mouth shall praise You with joyful

lips. Psalm 63:5

So the hands, the mouth, and

the lips are all instruments of

praise. Your whole body is involved

in praising God.

Let them praise His name with

the dance. Praise Him with the

timbrel and dance.

Psalm 149:3; 150:4

It is also scriptural to praise

God in dancing. By it, you will

enter into a new level of worship

and joy that you never knew.

Who should praise God?

Psalm 148 lists 29 different

categories of creatures and people

that are exhorted to praise God.

But just in case anybody was left

out, the last verse of Psalm 150

Derek Prince Ministries

P.O. Box 19501

Charlotte, NC 28219

704.357.3556

www.derekprince.org

ContactUs@derekprince.org

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