Paul wrote to the church at Rome in Romans 15:4 that “whatever things were written before were written for our learning<\/em>.” In a simple statement like this, the persecutor-turned-apostle explained the reason for the Old Testament. In light of a statement like this, it is prudent to examine some of those things written before and the lessons we can learn from them.<\/p>\n God should not be a mere option to whom we turn in times of trouble. Instead, he is a God worthy of our praise. Throughout the Old Testament’s longest book, God is the focus of continuous praise. David writes that God’s “praise shall continually be in my mouth<\/em>” (Psalm 34:2). The Psalmist later writes that he will praise God among the multitude (Psalm 109:30). Let us all strive to praise God with our words and actions among the multitudes we encounter.<\/p>\n When Abram was told by God to “Get out of your country<\/em>” and, given no explanation as to why, Abram trusted the Lord and “departed as the Lord had spoken to him<\/em>” (Genesis 12:1,4). Abram’s trust in God is indeed evident through this and the many actions he took in his life of service to God. We should all strive to have that simple trust and faith that is so crucial to our pleasing God (Hebrews 11:6).<\/p>\n God demands obedience to his commands.\u00a0Uzzah reminds us of this important lesson. Uzzah, with good intentions in mind, “put forth his hand to that ark of God<\/em>” when he saw it falling (II Samuel 6:6). Of course, had the men of Israel not disobeyed God by putting the ark on the cart in verse three of the same chapter, Uzzah would not have had to worry about this nor would God have taken his life. Obedience to God is critical and it is a lesson of which we must all remind ourselves. One of the best ways to do this is to open God’s book to the pages of the Old Testament.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Leland R. Ping Sentry Magazine, June 2002 Paul wrote to the church at Rome in Romans 15:4 that “whatever things were written before were written for our learning.” In a simple statement like this, the persecutor-turned-apostle explained the reason for the Old Testament. In light of a statement like this, it is prudent to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[54,268,433,129],"class_list":["post-31903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-obedience","tag-old-testament","tag-praise","tag-trust"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":54495,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-difference-between-praise-and-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":31903,"position":0},"title":"What is the difference between praise and worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I need a lesson from you about the difference between praise and worship. What is it that we mean when we say \"let's praise the Lord\" and when we say \"let's worship the Lord\"? Please help me in that area. Answer: Praise \"And she conceived again and bore a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15081,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-god-command-the-use-of-instrumental-music-under-the-old-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":31903,"position":1},"title":"Did God command the use of instrumental music under the Old Law?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 13, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you think there was a time in the old law that God did command the use of instruments in worship to Him? Such as II Chronicles 29:25-28. Seems like there are split thoughts on this idea. Just wondering about your thoughts. There is no doubt that instruments were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14641,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-drums-of-god-or-the-devil\/","url_meta":{"origin":31903,"position":2},"title":"Are drums of God or the devil?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I wanted to know if the drums are of God, or is it from the devil. Did God make drums for one of his instruments? Answer: God tells us that it is men who invented instrumental music, not Satan. \"His brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":44664,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-we-praise-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":31903,"position":3},"title":"How do we praise God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Mr. Hamilton, I hear a lot of people talking about what they do to praise God, so my question is: How do we praise the Father according to His word? Thank you. Answer: In the Old Testament, one common word that is translated as \"praise\" is tehillah, which literally\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86059,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/psalms-hymns-and-spiritual-songs\/","url_meta":{"origin":31903,"position":4},"title":"Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 15 No. 1, January 2015 We know from the New Testament and can infer from later writings of church leaders that Christians of the first century did sing in their worship, but we do not know precisely what songs they sang or exactly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17119,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/cant-instruments-be-an-aid-to-singing\/","url_meta":{"origin":31903,"position":5},"title":"Can’t instruments be an aid to singing?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In one of your articles, you present the question: \"Where in the Bible is instrumental music forbidden?\" I'm pretty sure I understand the meaning behind the question and believe I have an answer. This is all based on King David and his musical worship with the lute. See, David\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31903\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Praise God<\/h2>\n
Trust God<\/h2>\n
Obey God<\/h2>\n