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Worship and praise warfare – Part 11

By Austen C. Ukachi
17 September 2017   |   4:02 am
One main purpose of worship is to invite God to fight along side with us in the battles of life. Life is full of battles, and we need God to secure victory over unseen forces.

Austen C. Ukachi

One main purpose of worship is to invite God to fight along side with us in the battles of life. Life is full of battles, and we need God to secure victory over unseen forces. An effective combination of prayer and worship produces supernatural results. We need to do warfare over our families, over lost souls, over our businesses, the people in our neighbourhood and the nation. We need to pray for the Unreached Groups in Nigeria and over the political and economic destiny of our nation.

Joseph Garlington wrote, “Anything God accomplishes on earth is done through spiritual means, using spiritual people…The giving of tithe, offerings, and gifts are acts of war…Praising God is an act of war…Worshiping God is an act of war…Prayer is an act of war…Fasting is an act of war.”

David knew the importance of praise warfare. In many Davidic Psalms, we see the relationship between worship and warfare. In Psalm 22:3, he says God inhabits the praises of His people. Literarily, this means that, when we worship God, we give Him a seat to sit in our midst and fight over our enemies. In Psalm 144:1 he says, “Blessed be the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle.” Again in Psalm 68:1 he said, “Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered; let those also who hate Him flee before Him…so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.” Some of the Davidic Psalms on warfare include Psalms 18 and much more. The writer of Psalm 149, who is an unknown Psalmist, seems to have praise warfare in mind, when he wrote the Psalm.

For convenience, we reproduce the entire chapter below: PRAISE THE LORD! Sing to the Lord a new song, And His praise in the assembly of saints. 2 Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. 3 Let them praise His name with the dance; Let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp. 4 For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation. 5 Let the saints be joyful in glory; Let them sing aloud on their beds. 6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth.

And a two-edged sword in their hand, 7 To execute vengeance on the nations,And punishments on the peoples; 8 To bind their kings with chains,And their nobles with fetters of iron; 9 To execute on them the written judgment—This honour have all His saints. Praise the Lord!

I wish to make the following observations: verse 1 starts with a command, “Praise the Lord! …” Also, verses 2 and 3 are commands to Israel to rejoice and praise God. Then, in verse 4, the Psalmist reveals God’s pleasure, when His people worship and praise Him. Praise and worship brings victory to the humble.

All the commands in verses 1 through 6 are simply a build up to the action we find in verses 7 to 9, which start with active verbs, “To execute…To bind…and “To execute…” The climax of this Psalm is verse 9, which reads thus, “To execute the judgment written against them. This is the glorious privilege of his faithful ones. Praise the Lord” (Verse 9 NLT). In conclusion, the Psalmist says, “These honour have all his saints. Praise the LORD!” Every Christian has the rare privilege of engaging in praise warfare. May we use this privilege as we worship the Lord!
Contact: pastoracukachi@gmail.com

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