We are in, I believe what we can all agree on is an exciting time of the year from our church perspective. We're in what we would traditionally call the Fall Holy Day season.

We were driving to church this morning. We come in, I guess you could call it the back way, we come down Lake Placid Road, and Lake Placid Road is just amazing. Here we are in the heart of Tyler, Texas, but you're driving down a street that's completely undeveloped. It's got trees that reach in the middle, and of course today, or this time of year, the leaves are falling, so the street's just covered with leaves, and the ones that are still in the trees, some of them are, yellow or brown, mostly dying from the Texas heat.

We don't always have the beautiful foliage that you may think of in other parts of the country, but they for sure die and fall off, if not, if for no other reason than from the scorching summer that we normally have. The Fall is always an exciting time of year for me. Growing up on a farm, it's the harvest season. When I read about the feast of harvest before you go to the feast, it means a lot to me, because growing up on the farm, this is the harvest time of the year.

You're harvesting the fruits of your labor, in the area I grew up in, it was mostly corn and beans, so you're out there harvesting your beans and corn, and it's just a very busy time of the year. It's an exciting time of year.

It's starting to cool off.

We know that the Holy Days, the annual High Sabbaths are outlined in Leviticus 23 and Numbers 29. In Deuteronomy 16, and again in Exodus 23, it talks about the three times a year.

These three times of the year are, we would say, the feast in the spring, the feast of weeks, and the feast in the fall.

So the feasts in the fall are the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and leading up to the Last Great Day. Just an exciting time of year, a great opportunity.

In the Psalms, starting in chapter 120, there are 15 consecutive chapters from 120 to 134, and these are collectively known as the Psalms of Ascension. Now in the King James, you'll see at the beginning of every chapter, again, 120 to 134, King James calls it 'The Song of Degrees.'

Some of the other translations, New King James, New International, Revised, Standard Version, will label it as the Songs of Ascents, and interestingly, from the New Living Translation, it labels it as a "Song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem." So, that's why they're called 'The Psalms of Ascent.'

It's believed that these 15 Psalms were read while the people were making their annual trip to Jerusalem to keep the Feast of Tabernacles, and the idea of ascending is because Jerusalem is one of the highest cities in the State of Israel,

Jerusalem is a higher city than most areas, and when they talked about going up to Jerusalem, they literally meant going up to Jerusalem. But anyway, everybody talked about going up to Jerusalem, so that's where the Psalms of Ascents, are realized.

There's 15 chapters, there's basically 15 days from The Feast of Trumpets until the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, inclusive.

You could read one chapter every day between now and the Feast, and most are very short chapters.

I was looking at these, and I came to the last one, Psalm 134, and I want to talk about it today.

Psalm 134, in the King James Version, starts off the Song of Degrees, "Behold, bless you the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, which by night stand in the house of the LORD. {2} Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD, the LORD that made heaven and earth, bless you out of Zion."

Now, I want you to look at this, and what I want you to see, verse 1, "Bless you the LORD, {2}, Bless the LORD, {3} The LORD bless you. Bless the LORD, and the LORD bless you."

Let's look at a couple other versions real quick, the NIV, Song of Ascents, "Praise the LORD, All you servants, {2} Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the LORD, {3} May the LORD bless you."

And then the Amplified Version, I like comparing versions in the event that maybe one, I think my favorite version is the New King James, but I always frequently go back to the King James just because that's what I grew up with. But sometimes it's good to look at other translations to see if maybe they can just put a different angle on it.

So the Amplified Version I thought was really interesting. "The Song of Ascents, Behold, bless and praise the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who stand and serve by night, {2} Lift up your hands to the sanctuary and bless the LORD, and {3} May the LORD bless you, from Zion."

Bless

I want to call out this word 'bless,' I am going back to the King James Version, Psalm 134 verse 1, "The Song of Degrees, Behold, Bless the LORD, all you servants, {2} Bless the LORD, {33} Bless the LORD."

This is the Hebrew word "barak" Strong’s Concordance # H1288, that's used in all three verses. Again, the King James says "Bless the LORD, bless the LORD, {3} the LORD bless you."

This Hebrew word "barak" #H1288, clearly translates 'to bless' God as an act of adoration, and it can vice versa mean, 'for God to bless man. It can mean to kneel', it's in the King James Version over 300 times, and most often it's translated 'bless', but it can be translated 'kneel'. It can also be translated as 'praise'.

Just real quick, Psalm 72 verse 15, "And he shall live, and to him shall be given the gold of Sheba."

"Prayer also shall be made to Him continually, daily shall He be praised." It is the same word.

So I think Psalm 134 shows us the importance of worship, shows us the importance of blessing God, and the reciprocal nature of this word, this word is used when we're to bless God, and when God blesses us. It reminds us to keep our hearts in a continual state of praise, and He who made heaven and earth blesses those who faithfully serve Him.

So my question to you today is how do we bless God? Well, we could list out many number of ways. I think we bless God when we go to Him in prayer, when we meditate on His word, His way of life, the calling that we've received. We bless Him when we worship Him.

We honor Him. We bless Him when we honor Him, when we obey his commandments. A blessing from you or me to God can be a word of heartfelt praise, a word of thanksgiving, an expressed wish to see God's purpose fulfilled.

I'm thinking of Matthew 6 verse 10, "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Do we believe that? Do we truly want that? "Thy kingdom come," I hope so. It's a cheerful and committed cooperation with Him.

Blessing Him, we can bless Him by submitting fully to His will for our lives. God is worthy of honor. He is all powerful. He spoke and the heavens existed. What kind of power and glory is that? He is holy and just. His judgments are fair. He is wise and good and true and faithful. God is worthy of honor and praise because He gives us both life now and in the age to come.

He redeemed us from sin. He sent His Son who lived a perfect life, was crucified and died for my sins, for your sins, for all of mankind. Jesus was raised up after three days and three nights (Matthew 12:40), victorious over death, promising us a future resurrection.

We see that Christ was resurrected so we know that we too can be resurrected. A future resurrection from the dead for all of those who follow Him by faith.

So how do we bless God? We bless God through praise. You can praise God in good times. We should praise God in troubled times. We can praise God through times of struggles and trials.

When we honor God, we praise Him. When we praise God, we honor him. When we praise God with thanksgiving and song, we are showing gratitude for the great things that He has done for us.

When we sing songs of praise, we are expressing our love and admiration of God.

I want to turn to Psalm 145, and I'm going to read the whole thing. I'm not going to tell you how many verses it is. It's not that long.

Psalm 145, I'm going to be reading from the English Standard Version. Verse 1, "I will extol you, my God and King. Bless your name forever and ever. {2} Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. {3} Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised. And his greatness is unsearchable. {4} One generation shall commend your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wondrous works. I will meditate."

Do you need something to meditate about? This is something you can meditate on.

Verse 6, "They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds and I will declare your greatness. {7} They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness. {8} The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. {9} The LORD is good to all and his mercy is over all that He has made."

Do you ever wonder who's receiving God's mercy? There it is. Everything that He made.

Verse 10, "All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, and all your saints shall bless you. {11} They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, {12} To make known to the children of man your mighty deeds and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. {13} Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and your dominion endures through all generations." {14} "The LORD uphold all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down. {15} The eyes of all look to You and You give them their food in due season. {16} You open your hand." "You satisfy the desire of every living thing," {7} 'The LORD is righteous in all His ways, kind in all His works. {18} The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on Him in truth." {19} "He fulfills the desire of those who fear him. He also hears their cry and saves them. {20} The LORD preserves all who love him, but the wicked He will destroy." {21} "My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD. Let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever."

I think one of the ways that we can praise God, one of the ways that we can honor God, praise is honor, honor is praise, is through song when we sing praises.

Sing Praises to God

Psalm 47 verse 6, these are mostly from the N.I.V. version.. "Sing praises to God, sing praises, sing praises to our King, sing praises."

You think maybe we should be singing praises? That's four times in one sentence.

Psalm 66 and verse four, "All the earth bows down to you, they sing praise to you, they sing the praises of your name."

You want to know what to sing about? Sing the praises of his name.

Psalm 75 verse 9, "As for me, I will declare this forever, I will sing praise to the God of Jacob. I will sing praise forever."

This is one of my favorites, all of my favorite verses I have highlighted in my Bible.

Psalms 104 and verse 33, "I will sing to the LORD all my life, I will sing praise to my God as long as I live."

Psalms 105 verse 2, "Sing to Him, sing praises to Him, tell of his wonderful acts."

Psalms 135 verse 3, "Praise the LORD for the LORD is good, sing praise to his name, sing praise to his name for that is pleasant."

Psalms 147 and verse 1, "Praise the LORD, how good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and how fitting to praise him."

Psalm 13 verse 6, "I will sing the LORD's praise for He has been good to me."

Psalm 18 verse 49, "Therefore I will praise you LORD, I will praise you among the nations, I will sing the praises of your name."

Psalm 30 verse 4, "Sing the praise of the LORD and you his faithful people, praise his holy name." {12} "That my heart may sing your praise and not be silent LORD my God, I will praise you forever."

Psalm 96 and verse 2, "Sing to the LORD, praise His name, proclaim his salvation day after day."

Do we share our truth with others? I think there's many ways to do that, the way we live, our examples to others, do we proclaim his salvation day after day? Do we have an answer to those who ask of the hope that lies within us?

Psalm 108 verse 3, "I will praise you LORD among the nations, I will sing of you among the peoples," around the world. We are to proclaim the gospel to the world!.

Psalm 147 verse 7, "Sing to the LORD with grateful praise, make music to our God."

Just a few more.

Isaiah, they're not all in the Psalms, even though most of them are. Isaiah 42 verse 10, "Sing to the LORD a new song, sing His praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea and all that is in it, you islands and all who live in them."

Here is some praise in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 2 verse 12, he says, "I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters, in the assembly I will sing your praises."

We have the opportunity every time we get together, when we assemble, to sing praises to our God!.

And the last verse in this section, James 5 verse 13, "Is anyone among you troubled? Let him pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise."

Singing is present in the Bible from the beginning to the end.

This one, Job 38 verse 4. This is coming up to the end of Job, where Job kind of started explaining things and then God said, "Sit down, pull your pants up, I'm going to tell you how this really is." He says, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? {7}, Where were you when the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?"

That's probably the earliest example I could find of singing in the Bible. It's when the earth was created, and the morning stars sang together. All the way to the end, Revelation 5 and verse 9, it says, "They sang a new song saying, "Thou are worthy to take the scroll." This is nearing the end of the age. We go from the very beginning to the very end.

"You are worthy to take the Scroll to open the seals thereof. You were slain and has redeemed us to God by the blood of our heavenly kindred and tongue and people and nation."

Again, they sang a new song.

In Exodus, the earliest example that I could find where man was singing, Exodus 15 we see where Moses sang a song after their deliverance from Egypt. And this is after all the plagues, after the Passover, they've traveled to the Red Sea from a human military perspective. It looks like they're trapped.

Egypt's ready to sweep down and just wipe them out as a punishment. What did God do? He opened the sea and let them walk out the back door, if you will, while Egypt stood there and watched and then chased them and then God took care of them. So after all of that transpired, in Exodus 15 we see where Moses sang a song.

Deuteronomy 32 is labeled as the ‘Song of Moses’. And in Revelation 15, again, from beginning to the end, Revelation 15, verse 3, "They sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are your works, LORD God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the saints. {4} Who shall not fear you, O LORD, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations shall come and worship before you. All nations for your judgments have been manifested."

I'm not suggesting today that singing is the only way to praise God, but there are many, many examples of praising God through song, through singing.

First Peter 2 verse 9, "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

So we're called to proclaim praises to Him and many scriptures point to singing as a way to praise God.

Ephesians 5 verse 19, "Speaking one to another in psalms and hymns, in spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the LORD."

We glorify God individually every day of our lives. We glorify God collectively when we assemble on the seventh Day Saturday Sabbath.

We glorify God with our acts, with our examples to others, whether it's individually, or in groups.

To me the most inspiring is when you find out that someone's just been quietly going about helping other people. And then there's opportunities to get together and serve God through a collective effort.

A couple weekends ago, we had a work project. I know it was rough. It was not something everybody could do, but I'm sure there'll be other projects. I know we're looking for a project every weekend in November, and I'm hoping all of you, or as many as are able, will be able to participate. And if you have an idea, it'd be great for you to come forward and say, and it doesn't have to be raking leaves and painting houses. Maybe it's putting together care baskets or something that we can share with other people. Many ways to let our light shine.

I know when I was in school, I appreciated when the Holy Days fell on the Sabbath, because that was kind of double duty. Now that I'm older, more mature, I kind of appreciate when they don't fall on the Sabbath, because we get the extra day to study, to praise, to worship, and to honor God.

Soon we will have the Feast of Tabernacles coming up. That's eight days in a row. Eight days in a row where we can assemble, and every feast that I have ever been to, and God has blessed me. I don't think I have missed a feast since I started going a few years ago. So every feast I've been to, music, praise, worship has always been a part of the services that we have.

In the Old Testament, we read many, many examples of how sacrifices were a sweet savor to the Eternal God.

Hebrews 13 verse 15, sacrifices being a sweet savor to God. "Therefore by him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise."

Continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips. What's the fruit of our lips? It's when we verbally praise God.

Does it have to be with song? No. Is song a way to do it? You bet. You bet!

Giving thanks to his name. When we sing praises to God, I believe it is a sweet savor to God just as much as those burnt offerings were in the Old Testament in ancient Israel's time.

I'm always reminded of Psalm 19 and verse 14. This is from the N.I.V. version. "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight."

So I think we need to be careful what we sing, but I think when we sing to God to praise his name, I think it is a sweet savor and I think it's pleasing in his sight.

I want to close with Psalm 150. This is from the King James. Psalm 150. Verse 1, "Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in the firmament of his power.{2} Praise him for his mighty acts. Praise him according to his excellent greatness. {3} Praise him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise him with the psaltery."

I believe a modern psaltery would be what we might call the dulcimer. I could say something about God and bluegrass, but we'll leave that for another time.

"Praise him with the sound of the psaltery. {4} Praise him with the timbrel."

A timbrel is what we would call a tambourine these days.

"Praise Him with stringed instruments, with organs. {5}. Praise him upon the loud cymbals. Praise him with the high sounding cymbals. {6} Let everything that hath breath, Praise the LORD."

Do you have breath? Are you blessed to know God's truth? Are you blessed to have the hope of the resurrection? Are you blessed to be here in church today to learn God's truths from his inspired word? Are you blessed, even though we live in a fallen world, to know that God has a plan of salvation? Not just for you, not just for me, but available to all mankind who will accept His offer.

Are you blessed to know God’s Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior, and soon coming King? Do you have breath? Then praise you the LORD!

Praise God and Bless His Name!

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This article was transcribed with minor editing from the original sermon given by: Karl Wilson who is a minister with the Church of God International. For more sermons type the link: www.cgi.org