Hallelujah
J. Irons. Psalm 111:1-10 Praise you the LORD. I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation.… "Praise ye the Lord." Just as though the psalmist would say, "Whether you will or no, I will; I will praise Him, if I am alone in doing so; I will praise Him with my whole heart — with all the fervour, spirituality, and sincerity with which I am endowed; I will praise the Lord with all my heart; and, in order that I may not be alone in praising Him, I will get into 'the assembly of the upright,' and probably some of my rustic notes will induce them to praise Him also; and Jehovah shall have the entire revenue of praise and glory that can be sounded forth from all the ransomed souls on earth, and all the ransomed souls in heaven." I. AN EXHORTATION. "Praise ye the Lord." 1. This exhortation is addressed to those who possess a capacity to praise God — a heaven-born life — a quickened nature. It must be the praise of the soul, called into exercise under the immediate operation of the graces of the Holy Spirit. 2. Those persons who have a spiritual capacity — who have been born from above — have many reasons for praising God. Has this mighty God, to whom we sound our hosannahs, put forth His operations of grace, touched your proud, rebellious heart, nay, created a spiritual capacity in you, implanted all His own graces, opened your eyes to your own ruin and the law's terrors, and then opened them to see the light of the glorious Gospel? If so, can you cease to praise the Lord? II. A vow. "I will praise the Lord." I verily believe that we have not paid attention enough to the act of praise, as going forth from the inmost soul. We may have paid more attention to the act of prayer, we may have paid more attention to the act of believing; we may have paid more attention to the act of humiliation before God in deep repentance; all these are very important; but shall we forget to praise Him? shall we forget to acknowledge the infinite debt of gratitude we owe to Him? What should we think of creatures who did this towards each other? How many thousands of providences, of a most momentous description, has He overruled for us, and not received any return of praise? How many thousands of prayers has He answered, and we not given a single tribute of praise? III. EXPERIMENTAL GODLINESS. "With my whole heart." This includes spirituality, simplicity, and earnestness. There seems something of emulation in this expression — "with my whole heart"; and sure I am, that when the Holy Ghost enables us to move upwards in the spirit of praise, troubles, difficulties, temptations, snares, enemies, afflictions, sorrows, death itself, have no power to harm us; the spirit of praise bears us above all, carries us within celestial regions, where we seem to mingle our praises with the hallelujahs of glorified spirits around the throne. "With my whole heart." IV. THE RELATIVE POSITION. "In the assembly of the upright and in the congregation." Where am I to find "the assembly of the upright"? The man that is upright before God has owned or confessed the worst he knows of his case before the footstool of Divine mercy, he has thrown open his books, he has declared his insolvency to the law and justice of God, he adopts the very language of the psalmist, "I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid"; and instead of offering any compromise or making any specious promises, he betakes himself to the Divine Surety, of whom he obtains by faith a perfect obedience, a full satisfaction, a perfect righteousness, and presents them before God as His own. Thus he is accepted before the throne as an upright character. His condemnation is removed — his justification proclaimed — his absolution is enjoyed (without the interference of infidel priests) — his sanctification is given to him, and his glorification waits for him. (J. Irons.) Parallel Verses KJV: Praise ye the LORD. I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, and in the congregation. WEB: Praise Yah! I will give thanks to Yahweh with my whole heart, in the council of the upright, and in the congregation.