Date of publication: Friday 1 August 2025
Sunday 13 July 2025
Sing Praises to the Lord
by Rev Daniel Joseph
Let’s pray: Our Father who art in heaven, we hallow Your holy name. Thank You Lord, for Your mercies we receive morning by morning. Thank You Lord for Your favours. Thank You Lord for all the benefits You lavish on us. Lord, we’re grateful. Lord, we love you for being our Lord and Father. Father, bless our devotional lesson of today and we soak Your Word in the blood of Jesus. Thank You Jesus. Amen.
Beloved, our topic today is, Sing Praise unto God. Please read with me 2 Chronicles 20:17-22. “Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the LORD with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the LORD will be with you. 18 And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the LORD, worshipping the LORD.19 And the Levites, of the children of the Kohathites, and of the children of the Korhites, stood up to praise the LORD God of Israel with a loud voice on high. 20 And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. 21 And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever. 22 And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.”
Beloved, the story we have just read gives honour to the Lord, and stresses to us all, the importance of praising God. Praising God is not the activity of the mouth, and body. It is a spiritual activity. Whenever anybody sings to the Lord, and maybe dances in step with the song, it is not bad but true praise to God is a spiritual encounter. God is Spirit and anybody who wants to do something for or with Him must do so in the spirit.
Psalm 96:1-4 exhorts us to praise God with songs, psalms and hymns: O sing unto the LORD a new song: sing unto the LORD, all the earth. 2 Sing unto the LORD, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day. 3 Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people. 4 For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods.
God delights on souls that praise Him with songs, and hymns singing unto His glory. People think, how can I sing when I’m not happy? Answer is that signing praise to God is not an emotional experience. It is spiritual one. The spirit does not respond to emotions like the flesh does. Singing praise involves when you are physically happy, sad, up, down or in between.
Paul and Silas were not jubilant when they sang praises to God in the prison in Philippi (Acts 16:25-31). When you sing praise, you invite God into your situation and circumstance. God will not forsake a heart-felt praise that uplifts and glorifies His holy name. Singing praise will open the door of His mercy and will usher God to take over your battles, your losses, your reproach, the insults of your enemies and the threats to your ministry, faith and well-being.
The battle on your head will cease to be yours but the Lord’s. Do you want God to fight your battles for you? Then make praising Him a habit. Praise Him in the morning, praise Him in the day time and in the evening and night time. Don’t wait to be happy. If you do, then it shows that you’re walking in the flesh. A Christian is a spirit-filled person walking by faith all the time and knows His God and loves to worship Him always. Beloved, remember also that your faith journey and experience involve your children. Please teach them to sing praise to the Lord. It’s on record how the angels of God are activated to deliver children from troubles when they sang the praise of God. I pray that beginning now, you will make praising God your habit. Sing praise to His name always, in Jesus’ name.
Please pray these prayer points:
Powers that want me not to sing praise to my God, hear the word of the Lord, you’re a liar.
Anything assigned to stop me from loving my God, I reject you forever in Jesus’ name.
O God, arise, by Your mercy, and fight my enemies until they are destroyed, in Jesus’ name.
When I cry to the Lord, then shall mine enemies turn back. Lord, let my enemies stumble and fall, in the mighty name of Jesus.
I pray for you: O God, be the wall of fire round about Your children as you were for Jerusalem of old. Continue to shield and protect them. Keep them happy and let them be rejoicing in Your power to deliver and to protect, in Jesus’ name. Amen
May the Lord hear your prayer, supplication and thanksgiving according to His Word. May you be blessed all the time, and throughout this year in Jesus’ name.
It’s me, Daniel-Joseph, your prayer partner. To God be the Glory in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Rev Daniel Joseph, Dip Ed, BSc. Ed, B. Ed, M. Ed is an educator/teacher of science on the high school panel of the local board of education in the Ottawa-Carleton region. He’s a psychology of learning specialist. A scholar, always learning, a writer, teacher and trainer, adviser board of directors and pastor of the Light of the Nations ministry international, a non-denominational ministry with its headquarters in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.