How Excellent!

Did you know that our God is an overachiever? He doesn't barely make things happen, but He goes beyond our expectations. Join the psalmist, David, in celebrating the excellence of God in Psalm 8 through prayer in praise.

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Transcript

Press means to apply force.

When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation.

He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through. And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us.

Greetings everybody.

Welcome back to the Press Podcast.

Thank you for tuning in.

I missed last week.

Please forgive me.

I was out of the country and I didn't get this podcast edited correctly. And the sound was so bad, I needed to rerecord. So I'm really glad to be here with you today.

I don't take it for granted.

I thank the Lord for all that he's doing, all that he's done. I also want to say that in looking at the plan for the Book of Psalms, my thought is I'm going to pick out a few over the next four to six weeks that we're going to highlight, and then I'm going to move on to the next book. That is partially because when I calculated it, there's over 70 prayers in the Book of Psalms, and it would take me over a year to get through those solely.

I want to come back to them at the end. I don't want to completely skip them. I do want to keep moving forward though in our whole Bible journey.

So, that is my game plan.

I'm going to come back to the Psalms that I don't get to this time at the end of this podcast, not the end of this actual recording, but at the end when we close out and we've gone through the whole rest of the Bible. But I am going to highlight a few over the next four to six weeks, and we're going to tackle them and see what the Lord will say to us about prayer. Today, however, I want to continue as I have started, and I want to pick up in Psalms chapter eight.

This Psalm to me is almost self-explanatory, because it is a Psalm that simply glorifies God. He is so worthy.

And I love that David, the Psalmist, took the time to exalt God and not always just ask for stuff. David, a man after God's own heart, the Bible calls him, is an example for us in so many things.

And one of them is in how to approach and talk to a very living God. So I love Psalms chapter eight, and I want to read it to you.

Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, who has set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings has thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou has ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou has made him a little lower than the angels, and has crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands.

Thou has put all things under his feet.

All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea. Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.

As I said, this Psalm is talking particularly about the greatness of God, the excellence of God.

He literally excels at everything he does.

God is not just an achiever. God is an overachiever.

He's not done until he does the most. He's not done flexing until he shows up greater than everybody else. God is not like anybody else.

When he steps on the stage, so to speak, you know he is the star of the show. He is excellent. He specializes in excelling.

Verse two talks about out of the mouth of babes and sucklings has thou ordered strength.

You've ordained it. You have certified it.

When he talks about ordaining strength, God always has the strength. But what happens with these little ones is when they begin to praise him, it's painting a picture of they begin to talk about how good he is, how great he is, and he endorses what they're saying to the extent that he stills the enemy and the avenger.

I don't know if you've ever seen a little brother or a little sister with their big brother or big sister, and somebody's trying to mess with them.

And they can hide behind the older sibling or behind their parent. And sometimes even in their hiding, they'll talk and say, no, you better not.

He's going to get you or she's going to get you.

And they're talking about the person they know is bigger than them, that is greater than them.

That's what it's saying here when it talks about he has ordained strength out of the mouth of babes and sucklings. The way they talk about him, he shows off. The way his little ones praise him and exalt him, he shows off. He shows off while we're hiding behind him. While we're saying, I can't, but watch what my God does. Watch what he's about to do.

God starts showing off just because we expect him to.

The Psalmist said, when I consider the heavens, when I start to think about how big this God is, it blows my mind. Now that's not the word the Psalmist said, but it does blow my mind. I don't know if you've ever walked outside and looked and thought, that God who created that is the same God that's in me, if you have the Holy Ghost. It is literally the same God. Or look at the earth beneath us, at the moon, the stars, and thought the God who spoke that into existence many, many years ago is the same one speaking to me through this book today.

He is alive. When we think about God in the context of how great he is, how wonderful he is, that he's been before eternity, that he created what we're standing on right now, what we're looking up to, it is almost unfathomable that this God would think of somebody like me. I understand the Psalmist saying, what is man that thou art mindful of him?

How do you even find it in yourself to concern yourself with me, God?

That is the posture of a praiser. That is the posture of a prayer warrior. That is the posture of a servant.

That you think, God, I don't even know why you'd think about me, but thank you. Thank you for thinking of me. Thank you for seeing me. Thank you for looking at me.

I'm like an ant.

I'm smaller than a grasshopper.

I'm like a little ant. I can't name an ant I've actually ever thought about. And I don't mean aunt, like we say, a u n t. I'm talking about an actual little insect, an ant.

I've never thought twice about, oh, I don't want to step on that one, or I wonder if he's had a long day, or I hope he has enough to eat.

In fact, I think of them as nuisances.

I don't want to see the ants.

They only belong outside. They come in my house.

Yeah, I'm that person.

Call the exterminator. But what if God thought about us in the way we think of the smallest little ant?

Thank God, he's chosen to see us. We can't earn his thought, but he's chosen to see us. And he didn't just see us. He gave us dominion. He gave us power over the things that he's put in our hands. And you've put all things, the Bible says, under our feet.

We weren't made to serve the animals. We weren't made to serve the insects.

They are all second to us.

God did that.

He could have chosen it a different way, but he looked at us and saw something worth investing, worth setting up, worth loving.

What is man that thou art mindful of him?

Though he cares about everything, the sheep, the oxen, the beasts, the fowl of the air, the fish of the sea, and all that passes through the seas, he still made us just a little lower than the angels because he loves us.

It's not because we earned his love. It's because he chose to love us.

Deuteronomy 7:6-9 says, for thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you because ye were more in number than any people, for ye were the fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth his covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. This was written to the children of Israel, but we are the New Testament people of God. They're the Old Testament people of God. He brought us into the fold in the New Testament. But the principle still stands.

He did not choose us because we were greater. He didn't choose us because we were more in number. He chose us simply because of love. Today, because of that love, we get the opportunity in prayer to declare with the Psalmist, oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent, how much you overachieve. How excellent is thy name in all the earth.

Today, I challenge you, take time to praise in prayer. Take time to focus on his excellence, on his overachieving, because I guarantee you, no matter what you're praying about, when you do that, you will get God's attention.

Be blessed and do not forget, prayer reaches every single situation.

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Did you know that when you are quiet, your voice is missing to God's ears?

I know some of us have prayed and we're wondering, how long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows?

How will I know God is answering?

And what do I do when it feels like God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice.

It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have.

You have to raise your voice, and God wants to hear from you. It's too quiet, a book about prayer, is designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith.

Visit press to pray.com.