III. IT IS DEPICTED BY A PRAISE THAT IS UPWARD 13, 14
A. THE POWER OF PRAISE 13
Praise here and other places=to speak of the excellency of a person. A loud, overwhelming outporing of praise by the heavenly hosts heavenly armies. Anticipates the eschatological praise, "the mighty thunderings" in Rev 19:6, 7, etc., also surrounding the appearance of the Lamb at His Great Wedding Supper.
B. THE PERSON OF PRAISE 13
praising God and saying
Explication: God is both the Object and the Subject of the praises of His people. As our holy God, He is Subject of our praise: we sing praises about Him. About His attributes, His character and His work, especially His saving work of sinners, justly deserving of death, by the substitutionary sacrifice of His Son Himself, on the tree of Calvary. As Object of praise, we sing these songs to Him.
Ps 22:3 But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel.
Exhortation: Christians, knowing the absolute power and awesome grace of God Who saved them, must be leaders in a continual paean of praise. We praise our saving God on earth as it is in heaven. He is so awesome that even inanimate creation is shown to be praising Him... for His glory, Ps 19:1-4.
And the fitting conclusion of the Psalter
150:1 Praise the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! 2 Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! 3 Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp! 4 Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! 5 Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals!
demonstrates a rich tapestry of praise to Him by His people and finally by all creatures
6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!
In heaven praise to God is perfected, permanent, pervasive and powerful. Its consummate expression is possible because of the fullness of divine revelation given us for we shall see Him like He is!!!
C. THE PERSPECTIVE OF PRAISE 14
Again, the angelic interpretation of the event. Peace among those in whom God is well pleased. Here some textual difficulty concerning the precise translation of goodwill toward men but literally reading=among men of goodwill, supported by the oldest and best MSS. Ultimately, real peace on earth exists only among those who are the recipients of God's peace, who have been granted, by grace, the saving peace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, Rom 5:1, and who continue tis peace in their Christian life.. also by grace, Phi 4:6, 7. These are the subjects of the divine goodwill, who are characterized by goodwill toward God and man. So, among the people whom God has favored, or as the New Geneva Study Bible says, goodwill among men of His pleasure.
Explication: Peace not simply an inner subjective disposition or the absence of war, but evokes a full-orbed, entire order of well-being and prosperity, security and harmony, cf. Pss 29:11; 86:8–10; Isa 26:3; 32:17; etc. It is a peace which comes from God only, from Jesus, the Prince of Peace, the Mighty God, Isa 9:6. We fittingly celebrate the capture of Iraq tyrant Saddam Hussein and we are to use the established national and international mechanisms to seek to attain peace among men. But at the same time we know that real, authentic peace does not come from the pitiful, lame efforts of the U.N., etc; but that it is imparted by God (from the outside) to the hearts and lives of men. True peace comes from the Prince of Peace Who speaks peace to the nations and Whose ".. dominion is from from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth." Zec 9:10
Amplification: We have here a covenantal, relational context with strong hints of the divine priority of action in the realm of election and predestination for by what other means can one be graciously granted the eudokia, goodwill, of God? These are the men of goodwill. Men of God's will. His will is to be faithful to His people by way of His covenant, Gen 12:3; Jer 31:31-34; spoken to us by the Holy Spirit in Heb 10:16, 17. Cf. 8:12.
Conclusion: Christmas is a time of gifts, giving and receiving, but the greatest gift of all cannot be fancily wrapped and placed under a tree. "It" came from heaven more than 2,000 years ago in an awesome visitation of salvation, yet wrapped in swaddling cloths. This gift is a "He", the Lord Jesus Christ, Whom we receive freely by grace alone through faith alone in His Person and Work, His sinless life and sacrificial, substitutionary death on Calvary's tree.
