offering the consummate praise to God for the recovery of Christ, the house, the city, and the earth

In the book of Psalms we see a wonderful progression – which represents also the progression of the divine revelation in the Bible – and we also see the advance of the Lord’s recovery. The Lord wants to turn His loving seekers from religion to Christ Himself!

Then this Christ is being enlarged and expanded to be the house of God, the dwelling place of God. This house of God must be strengthened and fortified to become the city of God, the kingdom of God.

Eventually, it is through the church as the city of God that God will recover the whole earth! The Psalms talk about Christ, the house, the city, and the earth!

Offering a consummate praise to God

A consummate praise indicates that this is praise at the highest and fullest level. The last book of Psalms has a section called, The Hallelujah Psalms – the psalmists just praise the Lord and utter one Hallelujah after another! This is the ultimate praise, even the universal praise!

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! This is our service to God – offering a consummate praise to Him! Consummate praise – indicates that there’s praise leading up to this – it’s not just a moment of ecstasy or joy, but there is a process of perfected praise and all the limitations are broken through!

Today we are in a progression in praising the Lord toward the consummate praise! Whenever something of Christ is really recovered in you, with you, and to you, there will be praise!

Whenever you see something new and fresh of Christ, whenever He cares for you in a particular way, you will praise Him!

We should expect to have more and more of Christ recovered to us, in us, and with us, and our new creation being mingled spirit will just praise Him!

Lord, gain a consummate praise through recovering more of Christ in us, to us, and with us!

The recovery of Christ

Especially in the beginning of the book, the Psalms speak strongly about God’s desire to recover His people from the law or outward things to Christ. As God’s loving seekers, we need to enjoy and experience this all-inclusive wonderful Christ.

We need to have a personal relationship with Him, receive His love and care for us so that we may love Him back and love all the saints in the church.

We should all expect Christ to be recovered to us, with us, and in us – and we just praise Him for the Christ we have enjoyed!

The recovery of the house

The Christ we enjoy has an enlargement, a home – we participate in the recovery of the house with the impartial love for all the members of the household, the mutual pursuit of God’s purpose, the joy of meeting, serving, and suffering together!

The experience of Christ is deepened and expanded until we experience Christ in the house of God, the Bethel, and we know God as the God of the house of God! When we know Him as such a One, our praise is uplifted! Praise the God of the house!

The recovery of the city

The Lord will recover the city – a costlier experience, something more solid, something unshakeable, altogether in the resurrection life! Here we sense the reigning presence of the Lord of glory, here we live more and more in the reality of the kingdom of God, under the shining of His face!

In the city we are brought under the headship of Christ, and this is also the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, where there’s no fear or human control! God rules directly in a delightful way in love, light, and life! When we experience Him to such an extent, we will have a deeper, more uplifted, and expanded praise!

The recovery of the earth

The recovery of Christ as everything to us, the recovery of the house of God, and the recovery of the city of God as God’s kingdom are all for the recovery of the earth!

All this is heading toward a glorious day when the Christ we experienced in these stages now knows that the Body of Christ has been sufficiently built up, the Bride has made herself ready, and so – He will return!

The manchild and the firstfruits will be raptured, and they will stand before God in Zion! Then Christ with His overcomers will descend to declare His title over the earth! It is at that point that the praise will be consummate!

The highest work carried out by God’s children

Praise is the highest work that can be carried out by God’s children! The Christian life soars through praises! Even in prison and in stocks in Acts 16, Paul and Silas were praising the Lord – their spirits were soaring!

We need to learn to take the important step from “praising God when we’re in the mood” to transcending everything by praising God!

We should not set our eyes on our circumstances but on the Wonderful Christ – and praise will be rising in our being! Lord, I don’t know what to do in this situation, but my eyes are set on You!

We may start with praising the Lord for what He gives to us – He may give us either material things, spiritual things, a spouse, family, etc. This is one level of praise, from which we need to go on to praising the Lord for what He does!

He works behind the scenes and then something is manifested: wow, praise the Lord! Still more, we need to praise the Lord for WHAT HE IS! He is life, resurrection life, the bread of life, health, joy – He is all we need!

Praise Him for what He is! Still more, the highest level of praise is to praise the Lord THAT HE IS! Lord, I am so thankful and so full of praise that You Are!

Through Him offering a sacrifice of praise!

How can we praise the Lord? It is THROUGH HIM – the complete Christ revealed in the book of Hebrews – that we can offer a sacrifice of praise (Heb. 13:15)!

Christ is the channel, the agent, and the means of our praise – we shouldn’t be unnecessarily disappointed with our inability to offer the sacrifice of praise. What is sweet to the Lord is when the praise is a sacrifice – we don’t feel like it, but we realize that He is, so we praise Him!

And we praise God through Christ – Christ is the Praising One! Praise the Lord!

[sharing inspired from brother Ron Kangas’ sharing in the last message in the 2011 winter training on, Crystallization Study of Psalms (2). The message title is, Offering the consummate praise to God for the recovery of Christ, the house, the city, and the earth. Read more sharing from the second part of the Crystallization-Study of Psalms. Picture source: Praise the Lord!]