PRAISE: Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord (Eph. 5:19: Ps. 50:23).
Thanksgiving: Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 5:20: Ps. 107:22: 116:17).
Rejoicing: Though all things fail, “yet will I rejoice in the Lord; I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Hab. 3:18: Phil. 4:4).
“Ye are built up . . . an holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 2:5).
“Made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:13): “Bind the sacrifice with cords, even to the horns of the altar” (Ps. 118:20-28). Nothing is acceptable to God, nothing well-pleasing, apart from Christ: all must be associated with Him: offered up in His name. “By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifices of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name” (Heb. 13:15).
Also: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise” (Ps. 51:17). “Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity . . . I dwell . . with Him . . . that is of a humble and contrite heart” (Is. 57:15).
E. A. H.