Psalm 150:1 Praise Everywhere

Psalm 150:1 Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.

The whole psalter is rounded off by this famous brief and ebullient psalm of praise. The psalm not only begins with hallelujahs but speaks of praise throughout. The word praise appears some 12 times, twice in every verse. After the opening Praise the LORD the call is to Praise God both in his sanctuary and in his mighty heavens. Time is to be set aside to praise God where his people gather but praise is to extend out into the whole world. He is to be praised for his acts of power and his surpassing greatness. The psalmist calls for a variety of instruments to be used in the praise of God. He mentions the sounding of the trumpet ... the harp and lyre ... tambourine and dancing ... strings and flute ... the clash of cymbals ... resounding cymbals. Some want to bring this sort of thing back into worship today. Mostly it is strings and flutes, there is less enthusiasm for trumpets and harps and even less for dancing and loud cymbals. In fact, New Testament worship is to be of a very simple sort and what verses like this teach us today is the continuing need for variety of expression rather than dictating that we use only trumpets, harps and lyres, tambourines, strings and flutes and cymbals but not snare drums or tom toms. It would be very hard to argue for dancing as a New Testament worship practice. His final point is that everything that has breath should praise the LORD. That is how it should be and how it must be and how, one day, it will be.

Psalm 149:6 Praise War

Psalm 149:6 May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands

Psalm 149, the penultimate psalm in the psalter, is very much a psalm of two halves. The first "half" (verses 1-6a) is characterised by praise and is very much the praise band's delight. Beginning with a hallelujah, the psalmist says Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints. He calls on Israel to rejoice in their Maker, the people of Zion to be glad in their King. He urges praise with dancing and the music of "tambourine and harp". The reason for this is, of course, that (4) the LORD takes delight in his people and crowns the humble with salvation. The psalmist wants the saints to rejoice in this honour and sing for joy on their beds. He wants God's praise to be in their mouths. Most people are quite happy with this side of serving God and not too many object. Verse 6, however, is pivotal and there the psalm takes a turn. What we see on the other side of the coin is not so popular. Yes, people are happy about the praise of God being in the mouths of his people but what is that in their hands? A double-edged sword in their hands!? And look what it is for - to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, to carry out the sentence written against them. Yet the psalmist says This is the glory of all his saints and adds a final hallelujah. Part of the problem is the very physical way in which Israel fought against the nations but even when we come to the New Covenant and ruthlessness against the world, the flesh and the devil there is still some reluctance or at least a lack of delight. We need, somehow, to keep this psalm's balance - praise and destruction, rejoicing and defeating, worship and mortification.

Psalm 148:13 Praise Him

Psalm 148:13 Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his splendour is above the earth and the heavens.

Again beginning and ending with hallelujah, Psalm 148 lists those who should prasie praise God and gives reasons for them to praise him. First, the psalmist calls for Praise the LORD from the heavens. he says praise him in the heights above. Secondly, he says Praise the LORD from the earth (7). From the heavens praise should come from all his angels and all his heavenly hosts ... sun and moon ... all you shining stars ... highest heavens (heaven itself) ... waters above the skies. They should praise the name of the LORD, for he commanded and they were created and he set them in place forever. From the earth he mentions you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds ... mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds, and then human beings - kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth, young men and maidens, old men and children. The reason we and all these should praise the LORD is that his name alone is exalted; his splendour is above the earth and the heavens. In other words, there is no-one more worthy of praise. Of all the things he mentions God alone deserves the sort of prasie this psalm gives. Nothing matches his splendour. Verse 14 appears to be an extra reason why God should be praised. He has raised up for his people a horn, the praise of all his saints, of Israel, the people close to his heart. Perhaps it refers firstly to David or some other king but ultimately it refers to the Messiah who was to come and has now come.

Psalm 147:1 Fitting Praise

Psalm 147:1 Praise the LORD. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

Psalm 147 again begins and ends with a hallelujah. It seems to have been written in Jerusalem after the return from exile. The psalmist begins by saying how good it is to sing praises to God. It is pleasant and fitting to praise him! At two later points in the psalm he calls on others to praise the LORD. Verse 7 - Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make music to our God on the harp; verses 10-12 point out that God's pleasure is not in the power of armies (the strength of the horse ... the legs of a man). No, he delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. Therefore Extol the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion. The rest of the psalm gives reasons why it is good and pleasant to praise. First, the fact God has built up Jerusalem and gathered the exiles. He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds. But then he is the God also who determines the number of the stars and names each one. Mighty in power he has an understanding that has no limit. He is also just. He sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground. In the rest of the psalm it is God's power in creation and love to Israel that alternately he focusses on. In creation, he sends clouds that lead to rain, which makes grass grow providing food for the animals. Later, he talks of how God sends his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly and we see snow like wool ... frost like ashes ... hail like pebbles. Who can withstand his icy blast? He also produces the thaw that follows. In the midst of this meditation, however, the psalmist is also reflecting on how God strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within Jerusalem, grants peace to their borders, satisfies you with the finest of wheat. He concludes (19, 20) He has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel something he has done for no other nation. Many are aware of the wonders of creation and all believers must be aware of his salvation. How pleasant and fitting to meditate on these things and to praise him for them.

Psalm 146:2 Lifelong Praise

Psalm 146:2 I will praise the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

Psalm 146, like all five of the psalms found at the very end of the psalter, begins and ends with a hallelujah of praise to the LORD. Following a brief introduction, in verse 3 the writer warns against trusting in men because they are mortal. Men do not last and so cannot be worth trusting in as God is worth trusting in. Real blessing is reserved for the one who relies not on human help first and foremost but (5) whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God. In the rest of the psalm, he reminds us of why this God is the one who deserves all our praise. He is the one who is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them ... the LORD, who remains faithful forever. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry ... sets prisoners free ... gives sight to the blind ... lifts up those who are bowed down ... loves the righteous ... watches over the alien ... sustains the fatherless and ... widow, but ... frustrates the ways of the wicked. He reigns for ever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. It is a brief summary then of God's character emphasising his creating power, his faithfulness, his love and justice and his eternal reign. How ever brief, it is enough to show that the determination expressed in verse 2 - to praise the LORD all my life, to sing praise to my God as long as I live is an appropriate ambition well worth having. Every person on earth ought to have the same ambition. What better way could there be to live than for the praise of such a great God?

Psalm 145:3 Unfathomable Greatness

Psalm 145:3 Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no-one can fathom.

This is A psalm of praise. Of David. It is an acrostic. In verse 3 David says, firstly, Great is the LORD, God is great. Part of God's greatness is explored in this psalm - the glorious splendour of your majesty ... your wonderful works, his awesome works ... his great deeds ... his abundant goodness and ... righteousness. Then there is the fact that (8, 9) The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. The LORD is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made. There are again his mighty acts and the glorious splendour of your kingdom, the fact that he is faithful to all his promises and loving towards all he has made (13) and upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down (14). God truly is great. It is this greatness that makes him, secondly, most worthy of praise. It is seen in David's reaction to God's greatness and in his confidence that others, as it has proved, in generations to come, will want to praise God too. Your saints will extol you says David, but first All you have made will praise you (10). As people speak so all men will know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendour of your kingdom. My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD says David in the final verse but Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever. Of course, the third thing to remember is that his greatness no-one can fathom. The psalm only touches on some of the things that make God great and only mentions them at that. It will take eternity to begin to fully explore all that is great in God. His greatness is unfathomable.

Psalm 144:3, 4 Fleeting Shadow

Psalm 144: 3, 4 O LORD, what is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him? Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow.

In this psalm of David first, David praises the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. The LORD is his loving God his fortress ... stronghold ... deliverer ... shield in whom he takes refuge and who subdues peoples under me. David is amazed at such care when he thinks what nothings we human beings are. He wants the God who has helped in the past, nevetheless, to part his heavens and come down (5) and do the sort of thing he did at Sinai (touch the mountains, so that they smoke; send forth lightning) and give David victory in battle. Deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters he prays from the hands of foreigners (7) who are full of lies. He then anticipates this victory and promises a new song ... on the ten-stringed lyre (9) to the One who gives victory to kings, who delivers David. Verse 11 goes back to praying for this so that there may be a wonderful future - sons in their youth ... like well-nurtured plants ... daughters ... like pillars carved to adorn a palace. There will be abundant provisions and no breaching of walls ... captivity ... nor cry of distress in our streets. He concludes Blessed are the people of whom this is true; blessed are the people whose God is the LORD. It is easy to take such a prayer for granted and not marvel at what is going on but what is man, after all, that God cares for him in such ways, the son of man that God thinks of him? As David says we are like a breath, our days are like fleeting shadows, so quickly they are over. How thankful should we be that in these brief lives God will give us the victory through Jesus Christ if we look to him. Sing it anew.