“Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand” (Psalm 149:6). Be ready with praise to God and the Word of God close by in your hands! Sounds like a Christian soldier ready for the enemies that are sure to come in this world today. Two things that seem to be lacking in our lives (in a very general sense) are praise to God, and a good handle on the Word of God. Recently a young man who is searching for answers from his Bible told me that he has been going from church to church looking for Bible answers to some deep questions in his soul, but he has found the churches he has attended to be more like concerts than church.
In my humble opinion, there is a tremendous amount of emphasis on spiritual entertainment in many churches today, and not so much on solid Bible teaching/preaching. It seems that sermons have become sermonettes, and the beginnings of our services have become productions. I was in a church not too long ago and was to be the speaker for the morning services. An assistant pastor met with me to review the schedule prior to the first service. The first thing I noticed was that the schedule was extremely detailed. The second thing I noticed was that the music section of the program was a little longer than the time I was given to preach. I do not mean to over-emphasize the teaching/preaching time in the service, but it seems that there is generally an imbalance in many services.
I also do not want to de-emphasize the importance of the “praise” part of this verse. Again, my concern is that often our praise is what pleases us, without too much regard for what might please our God. God made us to praise Him! He has given us plenty of things to praise Him for … beginning with our salvation and going through all of the beauty we see in nature around us. There is no way we could ever exhaust our praise of all He has done for us. We need to spend more time in simply praising Him for what He means to us. We also need to be able to handle the Word of God correctly. There are many today that are promoting false doctrine and philosophies. It is important for each believer to know what the Bible has to say about these issues, and be well equipped to defend the truths of the Bible. We have been given a Bible that can pierce to the dividing of the soul and spirit. It is able to discern what our motivations are and to guide us in the right paths. We need to open it more. We need to actually handle it more. We need to memorize and obey it. It should be in our hands daily!