Psalm 150
Notes
Transcript
Scripture reading: Psalm 150
Scripture reading: Psalm 150
Psalm 150 (ESV)
Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens!
Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!
Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!
Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens!
The phrase “Praise the Lord” is hallelu-jah. Hallelu comes from the word halal, meaning to praise, to boast, to brag about something. And this whole psalm gives us the what, where, why, how, and who of hallelujah. Praise what? Praise the Lord. Praise Him where?
The usual Hebrew word for sanctuary is miqdash, and it comes from the word qodesh, meaning holiness. But the word here is not miqdash. It’s qodesh. So the psalmist is saying “Praise God in His holiness.”
And what means is that the act of praising God shouldn’t just restricted to the physical temple. God should be praise wherever His holiness is. That includes the temple and the church, but it also includes us.
The Apostle Peter says that we’re a holy nation. That’s in 1 Pet. 2:9.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
And so what that means is that from beginning to end, our lives must be hallelujah. From January 1st to December 31st, it’s all hallelujah. Whether we eat or drink, we do it for the glory of God.
So praise God in His holiness. What about the mighty expanse? It’s talking about the heavenly realm. They’re worshiping God up there. And we can catch a glimpse of this in Revelation 19.
Revelation 19:6 (ESV)
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
This year, we hit a record lowest attendance for TYM gathering. We have 3 people, including myself. But whether we worship God as 3 people or 3000, know that all of heaven joins in on your hallelujah.
In the words of Charles Spurgeon, “Join all ye living things in the eternal song.”
So when we praise God, we’re joining in the mighty chorus that resounds throughout eternity. We’re doing what the heavenly beings do. And that makes it no question about where we’re going when our time on earth is done. Amen?
So the psalmist says to praise God on earth and in heaven.
In verse 2, he goes on to say why.
Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his excellent greatness!
So why should we praise God? For His mighty deeds. For what He has done, for what He does, and what He can do. He is the One who created all things.
If I handed you a thumbdrive that could hold 1 million gigabytes, you wouldn’t believe it.
But a single double stranded molecule of human DNA can store 215 million gigabytes.
And the average human being has about 30 trillion cells. Each of those cells has DNA molecules. How much data is written and encoded into our being? God wrote all that.
And this God takes His stand beside His people. He’s loyal even when they don’t deserve it. He’s the God who sent His one and only Son to die so that we can live.
And so our praise of God musn’t stop at what the Lord does. We must look beyond what He does into who He is. He is mighty and merciful, just and gentle, loyal and loving.
Praise is not about finding God useful, but finding Him beautiful.
So when things don’t go our way, when painful things happen, when suffering visits the family, when our health fails or our wealth crumbles, we can still praise Him for who He is. Our circumstances will not rob us of our hallelujah.
So we’ve got the what, the where, and the why. Praise God, in the sanctuary and the heavenly realms, because He is mighty and His character is beautiful. Now the psalmist moves on to the how.
Psalm 150:3–5 (ESV)
Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
What we see here are seven instruments. The loud cymbals and the resounding cymbals are two different kinds, just like how our drums has a crash cymbal and a ride cymbal.
There are two ways to understand this. The first way is that we should praise God with whatever position He has given us in the church.
The trumpets were played by priests.
Harps, lyres, and cymbals by the Levites.
The other instruments were played by lay people.
So whatever roles we have in the church, all of them coordinate together to bring praise to the Lord.
Another way to see is it that we should worship God with whatever talents we have.
You can just imagine someone who’s hopeless at the trumpet, so they try their hand at the harp. If they were bad at the harp, maybe they could pick up any of the stringed instruments or the pipe. And if they were totally bad at all of them, they could just grab a tambourine. Whether you have been given one talent, or ten talents, all are for hallelujah.
Whatever talents we may have, let us offer them to the Lord as part of our hallelujah. Whatever God has given us, our talents, our time, our availability, all that we have should be offered back to God. Not the leftovers, but the firstfruits.
In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
What was the difference between Cain’s offering and Abel’s offering? Abel gave the firstborn of his flock and of the fat portions. Someone who truly knows who God is and what He has done wouldn’t hold back from worship.
I believe that through the bible studies, the truth of who God is becomes heavier and heavier in our hearts. And that means that we can sacrifice an offering like Abel, giving the firstfruits of our lives.
Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.
And the Bible tells us that God doesn’t forget our worship or our offerings. Each and every worship service is precious to Him, especially if we worship with a heart like Abel. How many TYM worship services did we have this year? How many do you remember? God remembers each and every one of them. All the praises we sang, all the offerings we gave, and all the sacrifices we made to come to church on Saturdays. They are precious to Him.
Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.
For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.
Isaiah 44:21 (ESV)
Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant;
I formed you; you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.
So as conclusion, who should praise the Lord? Everything that has breath.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
This is the final verse in the book of psalms, and it’s radical. Everything that has breath. This goes beyond just the Israelites, but includes all people groups. We can see the seeds of the New Testament being sown, when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Everything that has breath will give a hallelujah.
So I pray that we will close this year with a hallelujah, and enter into 2024 with a hallelujah, knowing that heaven is singing along with us the praises of our Lord, and knowing that our hallelujah is always received by God.