But You are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
Our fathers trusted in You;
they trusted, and You rescued them.
They cried to You and were set free;
they trusted in You and were not disgraced.
(Psalm 22:3-5 HCSB)
In the King James version of the Bible, it reads, “thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” I awoke this morning with the phrase, “God inhabits the praises of His people” running in my mind. I ask the Lord what this means.
My mind went back to the Garden of Eden where scripture says God walked with Adam and Eve. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day…(Psalm 3:8 KJV)
God wants to walk with us and talk with us throughout our day. Jesus Christ has made the way for us to walk with God the Father each day. He inhabits the praises of His people. How do we “praise” Him?
With Song
– sing to Him through praise and worship songs
– sing to Him your own song about how awesome He is and how much you love Him
With our Words:
– give praise to Him recounting all the wonderful things He has done in your life (both small and great)
With Obedience
– our obedience is likened to the offerings given in the Old Testament
– simply acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives and making known our desire to walk out each day according to God the Father’s plan for us is the first step.
Scripture tells us to Walk in the Spirit and we will not fulfill the lusts of our flesh.
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I tell you about these things in advance—as I told you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21 HCSB)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. (Galatians 5:22,23 HCSB)
The change from the lust of our flesh to bearing the fruit of the Spirit of God is what salvation is. It is a process / a journey. We yield ourselves each day to the death of the desires of our flesh and the birth of the fruit of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives. We are changed in personality so we can have fellowship with God.
It is not enough to simply believe in God and Jesus Christ. Our belief must move us to obedience, which brings about our change / our bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit of God. God will once again walk in His garden in the cool of the day….