I would like to begin today by noting how nice my wife looks. Isn’t she pretty? I don’t always measure up in the praise department. The other day she was wearing a dress that I thought looked nice on her, but I didn’t say anything. Lots of other people thought it looked nice on her and unfortunately told her, which made my omission that much more glaring. Just as unfortunate is our son who never fails to notice the little decorative changes she is constantly making which always seem to escape me. “I’m glad you noticed Jim Bob,” she will say, “your father wouldn’t notice if I painted the room purple.” I am, however, fairly cognizant of her excellent cooking skills, and will rarely let a meal go by without praising her for that.

Everybody likes to be praised, including me. I don’t ask for much, but when I come home from preaching a sermon, I don’t want to hear about how bad the grapes are at the supermarket. I want my wife to bow down in awe of my matchless wisdom and oratory excellence. I want her to chant, “I’m not worthy, I’m not worthy.” That’s all—just a little praise. I guess our egos are such that they need a little reassurance now and again that, yes, we are measuring up.

What are we to make of texts like ours today which call us to praise God? Does God have a frail ego that requires constant stroking so that he will feel good about himself? Or is there another purpose to be served in praising God—one that has more to do with our needs than his? I think we will find that to be the case in our message for today entitled, “The Praise of a People Preserved.” Today we will find that there is a connection between our praise and the power of God to preserve us from all that threatens to undo us in this unpredictable world.

The psalmist begins: Shout with joy to God, all the earth! Sing to the glory of his name; make his praise glorious! Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you. All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing praise to your name” (Verses 1-4). This is the kind of praising I’m talking about when I finish preaching: shouting, singing, bowing down and especially my enemies cringing before me. Oh wait; this is about God not me. Sometimes I get us confused. But this is the kind of praising the psalmist is talking about, and he is talking about all the earth here, not just Israel or Judah. He is talking about you and me, not just those of ancient times.

Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man’s behalf! (Verse 5). Here we come to the content of our praising. We are to praise God for what he has already done on our behalf. As one great hymn of the faith puts it: “Count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.” If we don’t praise God for what he has done, we don’t realize what he has done. That’s a big problem!

If we do not realize what God has done, we don’t realize what he can do. And if we don’t realize what he can do, we don’t avail ourselves of what he can do. Andrew Melville states it well in the quote at the top of our bulletin: “Praise is the best auxiliary to prayer. He who most bears in mind what has been done for him by God will be most emboldened to ask for fresh gifts from above.” Praising God for what he has done in the past reminds us of what he can do in the present.

Just before the people of Israel entered the Promised Land Moses, their leader, had this to say to them. When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God (Deuteronomy 8:10-20). Praise the Lord your God or you will forget the Lord your God. Praise the Lord your God or you will praise other gods and worship them. Praise the Lord your God or you will surely be destroyed.

And so it is that the psalmist in our text reminds his hearers of that saving moment during the Exodus when God parted the Red Sea so that the Israelites could walk across on dry land. He turned the sea into dry land, they passed through the waters on foot—come, let us rejoice in him (Verse 6). Let us rejoice because after the Israelites had crossed over the waves came crashing in upon the mighty Egyptian army that had been pursuing them. If they could be saved by God’s power then, they could be saved by God’s power anytime.

The psalmist continues: He rules forever by his power, his eyes watch the nations—let not the rebellious rise up against him (Verse 7). Sometimes the Israelites were rebellious and God used the surrounding nations to prevail against them, and other times the Israelites remembered the Lord their God and he used them to prevail against the surrounding nations. “The Praise of a People Preserved” is what made the difference between remembering the saving power of the Lord their God and forgetting. Therefore the psalmist concludes: Praise our God, O Peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping (Verses 8-9).

We are a people preserved by the power of God, and we would do well to praise God for it lest we forget his saving power in the face of great and present challenges. Challenges like a hole in the ocean floor that is hemorrhaging millions of gallons of oil a day for months on end, threatening fisheries and marshlands and coastal beaches in an environmental nightmare that won’t go away. Challenges like a war in Afghanistan which has been dealt a serious setback by the shameful sacking of the American Commander—a 4 star general. Challenges like the Great Worldwide Recession, its uncertain recovery, its mounting debt and its toll on the unemployed.

It makes you wonder how we sleep at night, which is why it is so very important for us to remember that God has preserved this nation from much greater challenges than these. The American military death toll in Iraq stands at 4,409 since the war began in 2003. The same figure for Afghanistan stands at 1,149. In the Battle of Gettysburg alone, which took place over a three day period, there were 4,708 Confederate and 3,155 Union soldiers killed. The current unemployment rate stands at 9.5%. During the Great Depression it rose to 24.9%. And while the Deepwater Horizon disaster has yet to be brought under control, the best guess of 140,000,000 gallons spilled still pales next to the Lakeview Gusher in California which spilled 378,840,000 gallons between 1910 and 1911.

I am not diminishing any of the great challenges presently facing us, and certainly not diminishing any losses being suffered (especially by families of those who have paid the supreme sacrifice while serving in our armed forces) but it seems to me that a preferable alternative to all the doom-and-gloom whining we are hearing would be the praise of a people preserved—a people who acknowledge the saving power of God in their past and who seek the same for the present challenges we are facing as a nation and world. The signers of the Declaration of Independence concluded with these words: “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

Of the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence, five were captured and tortured to death; nine others fought and died from wounds; two lost sons in the Revolutionary Army; another two had sons captured; twelve had their homes ransacked and burned; one Thomas Nelson actually called down fire upon his own house that the British General Cornwallis had taken over for his headquarters (the home was destroyed and Nelson died bankrupt); a formerly wealthy Carter Braxton of Virginia watched the British sink his ships (he also died in poverty).

Do you think these brave patriots would be proud of today’s overpriviledged whining about the sacrifices we are called to make today? Would they not say to us, “Firm up your reliance upon the protection of divine Providence. If Almighty God brought the victory to us in our day, he can bring the victory to you in yours. Praise God for what he has already done”? We are a people preserved time and time again. Let this Independence Day find us offering “The Praise of a People Preserved”--of a people who intend to remain preserved by the protective and providential power of God.