Psalms of Praise; The Joy of the Faithful – 150

Introduction

As a church we have many reasons to praise God.

We are here, we have made a good start, opportunities have opened up.

But above all else we have the priviledge to praise God.

Over the last few months we have been looking at the Psalms of Meaning and today we touch again on a Psalm of Praise.

Psalms 146 to 150 each begins and ends with Hallalujah.

In english it means, "Praise God"

This is our ultimate purpose, to worship God.

And if you remember last week I spoke of the fact that there is a central reason as to why we worship, why we share the Gospel.

Why we do what we do in Christian community.

It is that God deserves our worship because he is God.

As we come to the last and shortest of these Psalms we are struck with this incredibly intense, totally focussed call to praise.

Here there is no turning to the left or the right, there is no secondary line of thought which takes us away from the sole purpose of this Psalm.

In six short verses it takes us on a journey of praise, it identifies the where, the why, the how and the who of praise.

Let's read Psalm 150:1-6 together

Psalm 150:1–6 NLT

Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heaven! Praise him for his mighty works; praise his unequaled greatness! Praise him with a blast of the ram’s horn; praise him with the lyre and harp! Praise him with the tambourine and dancing; praise him with strings and flutes! Praise him with a clash of cymbals; praise him with loud clanging cymbals. Let everything that breathes sing praises to the LORD! Praise the LORD!

The ‘where’ of praise - Psalm 150:1

Verse 1 positions us in the whole scheme of praise.

Where are we to praise God

In the sanctuary - the place of worship here on earth, the place where God dwells.

For the people of Israel this was obviously the temple.

But Israel was never excluded from praising God wherever they were, often the people would praise God in everyday life and especially in the huge community festivals as the pilgims climbed the roads leading into Jerusalem

For us today God does not dwell in a temple in Jerusalem.

Christ dwells in our hearts!

Ephesians 3:14–20 NLT

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.

So we are to praise God here on earth but verse 1 goes on to speak of praising God in his mighty heaven.

Here is a call to the heavenly host, all the angels of heaven to join in his praises.

When we praise God we are not alone, even if we are by ourselves in the remotest desert we never praise God alone, because all of heaven is praising him as well.

His glory fills the universe; his praise must do no less.

Kidner, D. (1975). Psalms 73–150: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 16, p. 528). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

The ‘why’ of praise - Psalm 150:2

The greatest work of God is our salvation.

In our emptyness and loss God reached down from heaven and poured out his love on us.

This mighty deed of salvation, gives us the priviledge of entering into his presence to praise him.

But we do not praise God simply for what he has done.

That would be like reducing God to a mere giver of gifts.

We praise him also for his unequalled greatness.

We praise him for who he is, the creator God, sovereign Lord of the universe.

This is so often forgotten.

We need to get back to the truth of why we worship.

There are so many distractions.

So much good we do that we forget the great.

1000 Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching Where Does God Fit In?

A schoolteacher in England tells a charming story. At Christmastime she supervised the construction of a manger scene in a corner of the classroom. The children participated happily in the project. They also enjoyed casting characters for the drama depicting the Nativity.

The teacher noticed one boy was particularly enamored by it all and was forever going back and forth to the scene. At last she asked him if there was anything bothering him. He said, “No.” She said, “Are there any questions you would like to ask?” “Yes,” he said, “what I’d like to know is—where does God fit in?”

The ‘how’ of praise - Psalm 150:3-5

Verses 3 to 5 are permission giving verses.

The simple answer to how to praise God is and as to where he fits in is this.

We praise God "with everything you have"

While certain instruments are mentioned in the historical context it is worth noting that these include every type of instrument.

The rams horn, used to celebrate the year of jubilee a great national occassion.

Times of worship with the lyre and harp.

Times of great celebration with the tamborine and dancing.

Times of simple everyday life with flutes

Times of loud celebration and declaration with the cymbals.

We have percussion, strings, wind, dancing and obviously that invovles singing.

Don't ever let anyone tell you worship shouldn't be energetic.

The worship of Israel was at times full of joyous celebration.

And it also contained times of quiet reflection.

There is every reason why our worship today should be the same.

Joyous, loud and exhubrant celebration

Quiet, reflective and contemplative presence.

Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations (1867 Legend of Origin of Praise)

There is an old Jewish legend which says that, after God had created the world, He called the angels to Him and asked them what they thought of it; and one of them said, “One thing is lacking: the sound of praise to the Creator.” So God created music, and it was heard in the whisper of the wind, and in the song of the birds; and to man also was given the gift of song. And all down the ages this gift of song has indeed proved a blessing to multitudes of souls.

—Maritime Baptist

The ‘who’ of praise - Psalm 150:6

Who should praise God.

Everything that breaths is the very simple answer

Let's be reminded that humanities ultimate purpose is to praise God and in the midst of our praise; let's commit ourselves again to the urgent task of sharing Christ so that throughout Ripley and beyond his praises will be sung

I dream of the day when this place will be full of poeple singing this Psalm.

Let Everything that has breath praise the Lord - Play Song