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Psalm 76:1 says: "In Judah God is known."

Judah is of course one of the tribes of Israel, the southern kingdom of Israel where Jerusalem is found, the tribe from which Jesus descended from, but also JUDAH means PRAISE.

We could replace the Hebrew name of Judah with praise in this verse and it would read:

"In PRAISE God is known." (Psalm 76:1)

There are A LOT of parallels between the power of praise and the blessings and heritage of the Tribe of Judah, but we are going to focus today on this: 

We make God known through our praise. 

We testify of His goodness when we sing of what He has done.

In Psalm 78, Asaph composes another song of instruction with the main lesson being this: let's learn from our past sins and positively impact our future by praising God.

"We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done."

Psalm 78:4

So...

In our online Bible study last night, we began to dig into the themes of Book 3: Psalms 73-89. 

This third volume of praise and prayer consists of only 17 psalms, 11 of which are penned by Asaph.

So I thought, who is Asaph? What's his story? 

Asaph is mentioned a few times in 1 and 2 Chronicles, from where we learn a few things:

• Asaph's name means "gatherer" in Hebrew 
• Asaph was a Levite, appointed by David when the Ark was brought into Jerusalem
• Asaph was a singer and a musician with the assignment to "raise the voice with resounding joy" 
• Asaph's assignment grew to Chief Musician, prophetic worshiper in David's army, and seer
• Asaph's sons continued in his legacy 

(References: I Chronicles 15:16-19, I Chronicles 16:4-5,7, I Chronicles 25:1-2,6-7, and II Chronicles 29:30) 

Yet, the high calling and successful ministry did not make Asaph exempt from feeling weak, confused, going through trials, or questioning his life's...

Now, you all know that I love to declare, "Worship is my warfare!".

So in last night's online Bible study Zoom class, we unpacked the purpose and power behind a war song.

A war song is also known as a battle hymn or a warrior's cry. It is a call to arms.

Battle hymns have been used since Biblical times and through our recent era. I asked my husband, who is a history buff, about his thoughts regarding the intention behind war-time songs and military bands and we came up with the following 3 main purposes:

1. War songs raise morale and bolster the spirits of soldiers going into battle. The song reminds them of their purpose and reason for fighting.

2. War songs inspire, comfort, bring confidence, and unify the entire army. 

3. War songs are tactical & strategic. When everyone is marching to the same cadence (rhythmic flow of sounds), the army can advance quickly, effectively, and predictably. 

As it is in the natural, so shall it be in the...

Though situations arise that seem hopeless, overwhelming, oppressive, and fearful, the Psalms remind us that God is our hope in every circumstance.

What is hope?

In general, "Hope" can be defined as: 

• an optimistic state of mind,
• a feeling of expectation, and
• a desire for a certain outcome.

We might casually say, “I hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow, because I’d like to take a walk.” But keep in mind, that kind of hope doesn’t come with any guarantees.

What is Biblical hope?

Biblical Hope is the strong and confident expectation that God *will fulfill* His promises over us.

The strength of our Biblical hope is in God’s faithfulness.

We can be confident in God’s promises because God has always been faithful.

So our hope is secure and steadfast, because we have no reason to believe that His faithfulness will end with us.

"Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For...

While all Scripture is powerful and meaningful, there are quite a few psalms that truly stand out. 

Psalm 51 is definitely one of those.

There are 7 Songs of Confession in the Psalms: 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143.

These psalms all express deep sorrow for sin, 5 of the 7 written by David.

These songs of confession and repentance remind us that we were all born sinners and are in need of a Savior.

These psalms help us to recognize our sinfulness, express our sorrow, and ask for God’s forgiveness so we can be washed, purified, and renewed.

Psalm 51 also reminds us that if we are not careful, it is very easy for even a "Man after God's own heart" to get entangled with sin.

The enemy is always looking for ways to take us down, so we must stay on guard!

But we should also confidently know that if we humbly come back to the LORD with a broken and contrite spirit, God is so merciful to forgive and restore us.

With this week being...

I love to encourage you to MAKE A SOUND! (I think we all know that!)

But I would be wrong if I didn't also make it clear that stillness before the LORD is worship, too.

 

 

 

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Worshipful silence before the presence of God and in obedience to the Holy Spirit is a sign of humility, confident expectation, and submission to God's strategies.

Let's take a look at Jericho!

We often teach about Jericho to encourage the power of worship and praise since the walls came tumbling down after a holy shout from the people of Israel. (And this is still true!)

But before it was time for the shout, there was a lot of walking and waiting in confident silence.

“Now Joshua had commanded the people, saying, “You shall not shout or make any noise with your voice, nor shall a word proceed out of your mouth, until the day I say to you, ‘Shout!’ Then you shall...

Worship through song is a powerful way to experience the liberating, chain-breaking power of Almighty God.

If you know me for any time at all, you know this is a constant theme I speak about and live by - WORSHIP CHANGES THINGS!

While it can be easy to sing praises to God after a victory, we know that David often worshiped before, during, and after the battles that he faced.

Because of David's genuine and constant state of worship through prayer and praise, David experienced God's ground-shaking deliverances time and time again.

David wrote many songs of deliverance and in fact said in Psalm 32:7 that God would surround him with songs of deliverance.

But Psalm 18 is something special.

Psalm 18 is one of the most powerful songs of deliverance sung by King David and is the longest Psalm of Book One.

It is also fully captured in 2 Samuel 22.

When God repeats Himself in Scripture, we ought to pay attention!

We broke down just the first half of this psalm in our online Bible study this...

Wow, what a Bible study we had last night!

As we dissected verse by verse of the second half of Psalm 3, we uncovered so many keys to unlocking the power of God.

The first thing we talked about last night in our Zoom discussion is found in Psalm 3:4 which says:

I cried to the Lord with my voice,

And He heard me from His holy hill.

                                                           Selah

This verse gives us a glimpse into the way that David worshiped God through prayer and praise: DAVID CRIED OUT TO THE LORD WITH HIS VOICE!

This was not a silent prayer or passive song.

David was PASSIONATELY VOCAL!

The MSG translation says, "With all my might I shout up to God..."

David let out a MIGHTY SHOUT!

With ALL HIS MIGHT!

And this moment of worship wasn't an exception.

David always worshiped God with EVERYTHING that he had.

WITH ALL...

I heard you.

You'd like to be able to participate in our online Bible study series on your own time and have everything in one spot.

So from now on, starting with The Psalms Study, The Workshop Online Learning Portal will not only have all of the weekly PDF downloads but also the weekly recap video from the Wednesday Facebook LIVE!

Each class will be loaded in its own lesson and you can even add comments or ask questions on the same page.

Not only will this all load perfectly for you on a desktop computer or laptop, The Workshop is MOBILE FRIENDLY for on-the-go learning!

Go ahead and create a login right now and get the most out of The Workshop!

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THE PSALMS - UNLOCKING THE POWER WITH PRAYER & PRAISE!

Bring about permanent and radical change to your life and daily worship through an intimate, personal relationship with God.

Since they were written, the Psalms have been a powerful source of personal inspiration and spiritual strength.

When we lack the words to say, we can often open up to the Psalms and find that the psalmists seem to relate very well to our emotional pleas and deepest thoughts. 

When we apply a psalm to our lives, often it becomes the first step towards our own deliverance. 

A song of deliverance from the Psalms can bring words that are like honey to our souls. The Holy Spirit inspired words bring comfort, strength, healing, and remind us to keep our eyes up toward our Creator. 

Let's unlock together the Holy Spirit's power through prayer and praise, by studying:

• each of the 5 unique collections that make up The Psalms,
• the anointed songwriters who wrote them
• the common...