2 minutes
Praising God – Psalm 150
Praise the Lord! It is what we are called to do. The Bible tells us to do it from the beginning to the end.
Psalm 150 explains to us the glory of praising God. It shows us the What, Why, How and Who of praising Him.
What do we do?
1Praise the Lord!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty expanse.
Psalm 150:1 tells us to praise Him – that is the What. We ought to praise Him as He sits on His throne in Heaven. The Throne Room is His sanctuary. In the time that this Psalm was written, Israel would have known His sanctuary was the Temple, specifically the Holy of Holies. However, the Book of Hebrews tells us that the Temple was just “a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.” (Hebrews 8:5).
His mighty expanse is the Universe He created. Jesus fills all things; there is nothing He does not fill (Ephesians 1:23, 4:10). All Creation is His and all of it praises Him.
Why do we do it?
2 Praise Him for His mighty deeds;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
Psalm 150:2 tells us Why. We praise Him because of what He has done and who He is. He has done mighty deeds.
Think of all that God has done – from the beginning of Creation through to Today. Think about what He has promised to do – from now until Eternity. When we think about all the things He has done, it should cause us to praise Him.
However, not only the things He has done but Who He is, His excellent greatness, should also cause us to praise Him. He is Almighty. He is All-Knowing. He is here, there and everywhere at the same time. He is Righteous, so He never does what is wrong but only what is right. He is Just, so He judges perfectly those who do wrong. He is Good, so we can know that everything He does has value. He is Love, so we can know He cares deeply for everything and everyone He has created. He is Merciful, so even though we have sinned against Him, He has given us a way to forgiveness. Praise Him for all of His attributes. (To know more about some of God’s attributes, click here.)
How do we do it?
3Praise Him with trumpet sound;
Praise Him with harp and lyre.
4 Praise Him with timbrel and dancing;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe.
5 Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with resounding cymbals.
Psalm 150:3-5 shows us How we can praise Him. We can praise Him by song with the playing of musical instruments. All types of instruments can be used to praise Him. Louder ones and softer ones can be used. Stringed instruments and percussion instruments can be used. Anything that makes a noise can be used to praise God for what He has done and who He is (“Make a joyful noise to the LORD!” Psalm 66:1).
Too often we complain about the kind of worship music we hear in our services. Regardless of what kind of music you like and even if the music in your church is the exact opposite of what you like, you can still praise Him in it. Regardless of whether you like the music or not, God can be praised!
Will you do it? Will you praise God in the music regardless of your personal taste? Worship Him!
Who should do it?
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord!
Finally, Psalm 150:6 tells us Who should praise Him – everything that has breath. Every living creature. Every man, woman, and child. If there is breath in a person, they should praise the Lord. Even as we take our last breath, we should praise the Lord.
When you are going through hard times, praise the LORD! James 1:2 tells us to “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,” and Christian joy is expressed through our praise to God.
Are you going through hard times? Praise Him anyway. Are you enjoying the fruit of His blessings? Praise Him!
What is it about God that you want to praise Him for right now? Do it! Now! Let me know in the comments below.
Maranatha!
You are absolutely wrong when you say “Regardless of what kind of music you like and even if the music in your church is the exact opposite of what you like, you can still praise Him in it. Regardless of whether you like the music or not, God can be praised!”
Why would you ever proclaim that if you are a deciple of God? I hope you sincerely research that topic and find the true answer to the what, how and why of worshiping Him through music.
Hi Toby. We’re going to have to agree to disagree on this one.
I’m surprised you would accuse me of not being a disciple of Christ for something such as this, especially since you do not know me. As Christians, we need to be able to disagree with each other without name calling or putting each other down.
As for the actual discussion point, worship does not need music. Worship is done in many forms outside of music. Jesus did not say God is looking for those who will worship in a specific musical form. He said God is looking those who worship in spirit and truth. Music is simply a tool to help us worship but it is not worship in itself. Christians are to worship God, not the music, otherwise we worship the creation rather than the Creator. We need to worship with everything that is within us (Psalm 103:1) even if we don’t like the music.
I’m glad that you can worship God fully using the type of music you enjoy. I hope that we can also worship God fully if we happen to be in a church or a country or culture where they are not using the same kind of music we’re accustomed to. I suspect the music Jesus and the Disciples worshiped to was very different than anything we hear in our American churches. Regardless of the kind of music, we can still praise Him in it. Worship Him! God bless.