Praise The Lord!

Word Partners

Psalm 150 ESV

1 Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! 2 Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! 3 Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! 4 Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! 5 Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! 6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

Introduction

What does a can opener do?

Its purpose is apparent. But the more complex the thing, the more difficult it is to know what exactly it does.

What does a computer do Smartphone? The more complex something is the more difficult it is to determine what exactly it does.

Tension

What is the chief end of man? What is the primary purpose of a person?

Is it to be kind to others? To live life in search of knowledge To leave the world a better place To have a close-knit & loving family To see the Lions win one Super Bowl? Fortunately, the Bible has answers for us.

Read scripture

Psalm 150

Prayer

Outline

Verse 1-2 - Why should we praise God?

Verse 3-6 - How should we praise God?

Truth

To give context This is the last psalm in the Book of Psalms.

Doxology This is the psalm to summarize what Israel should do. It is a way to see the essence of what it means to be a worshipper of God.

Verse 1-2 — Why should we praise God?

The Hebrew word praise here is Hallelujah

In Hebrew liturgical usage the Hallel, or Hymn of Praise, Psalms 113–118, is sung at the three great religious festivals of Passover, Pentecost, and tabernacles. At the Passover, Psalms 113 and 114 are sung before the meal, and Psalms 115–118 are sung after it. This word carries a deep meaning for all Jews who hear it.

Not just because it would remind them of the great religious festivals. Spiritual significance. It means to give a spontaneous and glowing description of who God is and what he has done. This is what we do when we are enamored with something.

Has anyone ever shown you a terrible picture of a sunset? As a pastor, we get this

People love to show us pictures and videos of the things they love most Hunters will show me pictures of deer they saw on their trail cams. When people get a new dog… Pictures of sunsets that took their breath away Don’t get me started - grandparents We understand this idea of “spontaneous and glowing description” because we see this in our congregation. When was the last time you felt this way about God?

When was the last time you couldn’t help but pour yourself out in praise because you tasted and saw that the lord is good?

This is more than a suggestion Its a command And it’s all throughout the Old Testament

Deuteronomy 6 The first half of the Ten Commandments instructs believers on how to love God with all of their heart, mind, and soul. We are to praise God in proportion to his “mighty deeds.”

We should glorify him to the degree that his mighty works throughout history and our own lives demand. What are those mighty deeds? - History

Creating everything from nothing

God judging and saving the world with the flood

God covenanting with Abraham

Saving Israel from the Egyptians

Bringing dry bones back to life

All of that pointing to Jesus

God himself taking on human flesh Living w/o sin Dying in our place Jon Calvin, a 16th-century theologian, says…

“Though our minds can never take in this immensity, the mere taste of it will deeply affect us. And God will not reject such praises as we offer according to our capacity.”

Over and over, the psalmist uses the word praise.

Why say it this much? The psalmist begs us to worship. Why

Because he wants to make sure we won’t forget. Israel’s history of idolatry

Over and over, Israel forgot God and worshiped Idols.

We do the same thing. How many stories do we have of how God was faithful to us

And yet, we are like Dori from Finding Nemo. Why should we worship?

Because our God has done great things Look at your life

Reflect on what God has done. Brothers, we must see the miracles God has done in our lives. Each of us has incredible stories of how God has

Provided for us. Delivered us out of desperation Allowed our wives to still stay attracted to us… Reflect on what God has done. And Praise him accordingly.

But how should we worship?

Verse 3-6 — How should we praise God?

This section lists all kinds of instruments.

Trumpet Lute Harp tambourine Dancing Strings Pipe sounding cymbals Why does it list this? Is it here so we can use it as a weapon against our new worship leader who wants to use a guitar or, heaven forbid, the drums?

No The point isn’t to regulate what musical instruments to use in worship.

Following this question would lead us to the heart of this passage. This psalm shows us that God’s glory is infinite, and no amount of praise can outdo him.

“Oh, great is our God, so we should worship greatly. No song is too loud, no orchestra too stately. To hail the majesty of our King”

There aren’t enough instruments in all of creation that can adequately praise the infinite God of the universe. And if that were not enough, we see the exhortation that everything with breath should praise.

God is a God who will be worshipped. Whether we do it or not, his splendor is great for us to dampen it.

Luke 19:40 “40 He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.””

God is too awesome! The beautiful thing the psalmist is preparing us for is that praise isn’t a temporary thing like evangelism, missions, and thank God student ministry. Praise will be what we do all of eternity.

Revelation 5:13

13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb

be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

What is the chief end of man? What is the primary purpose of a person?

To glorify God and enjoy him forever! The whole story of Psalms is pushing us towards this reality.

We will spend eternity praising

our God. Our savior Our eternal savior

Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.

The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness;

Ps 45:6

A day when God’s law is delighted in for all who hear it. Where we meditate on God’s words day and night because we will be there with God. A time that reverses what happened at the tower of bable where the nations plotted, now we will see every nation and every tounge praise God.

We are made as worshippers Our worship ought to be as grand as we believe our God to be This leads us to our main idea…

Our praise will not exceed the greatness of the God we worship

Because he is worthy This psalm is saying something about our God.

Remember all the ways the Psalms describes God. This psalm asks us to think back to how this book has described his attributes. What do we believe about our God?

Infinite

From everlasting to everlasting Good

Taste and see that the Lord is good Merciful

Slow to anger, Faithful

Great is your faithfulness God is too grand for us to be able to worship above who he is. At the end of every other book it ends with a blessing.

When we praise God like we are commanded in this psalm that is our blessing.

How should we praise God?

With everything in our being.

Our praise will not exceed the greatness of the God we worship

That leads us to…

Application

We must worship the way God wants to be worshiped

There are ways to worship God inappropriately

Nadab and Abihu - Leviticus 10 We cannot be sinful when we worship

Cant incorporate aspects of other religions into our worship How offensive to God would that be?

God, we want to worship you, but there is this demon other people worship, and we’d like to bring ways they worship that demon into how we worship you. God has some boundaries for us in worship, and yet… we should

Our worship should be anything but meager

When we don’t fully worship, it says something about the God we believe in.

Worship=methodical or ordinary

God= ordinary Worship should never be about performing

But - it should always be over the top.

Pulling out everything we have Being creative Doing worship with excellence because we worship an excellent God Do we delight in God? Is Jesus the greatest treasure in your life? Then let that desire to delight in God and tell him how great he is burst out in our worship.

The Psalmist says everything that has breath praise.

Landing

To Jesus, the cross was an act of praise. John 17:4 “I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do.” The one who gave us breath lost his breath.

Our praise will not exceed the greatness of the God we worship

So Let us worship greatly.

End with the doxology