“And
ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Ex. 19:6; KJV).
These are the words that God spoke to Moses. One of the responsibilities of the
priests was to minister to the Lord in praise and worship.
As
you know things in the Old Testament are a type and shadow of things in the New
Testament. In 1 Peter 2:5 we read: “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a
spiritual house, an HOLY PRIESTHOOD, to offer up spiritual sacrifices,
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ”. Spiritual sacrifices refer to worship and
praise. In v.9 of the same chapter it tells us that we are a: "royal
priesthood" and that we are to proclaim the praises of God.
The
priests in the Old Testament led the praise and worship as I said but now, WE
are the: “royal priesthood”, so we can do this for ourselves, we can: “sing
unto the Lord a new song” (Ps 96:1), we can be a people: “singing and making
melody in your heart to the Lord” (Eph 5:19). It’s up to us though, we have to
make a decision to do it; our flesh doesn't always feel like it. However, it
says in Hebrews 13:15 that we need to make the: "sacrifice of
praise". I think that means we are supposed to do it whether we feel like
it or not.
In
Psalms 22:3 King David wrote that God: “inhabitest the praises of Israel”. This
has the sense that God comes down, settles down and invades our very presence when
we praise him! I don’t know about you but I surely desire that intimacy with
our heavenly Father.
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