Psalm 150: Everything

 

The Psalms were not written in the order in which we have them, but they were ordered with a purpose. The first word of the first psalm was “blessed”. It’s the Hebrew word ‘eser meaning “happiness”. The book begins by pointing us to the happiness that we were created for, that God desires for us; the happiness that is found in trusting God’s character, obeying His Word and believing in His love. The Psalms then end, 149 chapters later, with a call to praise: thirteen times in this six-verse psalm we are given the command to praise God. We are led from the promise of happiness to the response of praise. In the very first verse the psalmist shows us that God’s heart is to bless us and in the very last verse he tells us to rejoice in the blessing of God’s heart. Everything in between is assurance in conflict, hope in uncertainty, light in darkness, even joy in mourning as the psalmists’ paint for us the picture of God’s abiding presence. 

Psalm 150 is called by some “The Great Hallelujah”. It begins, as the all the psalms from 146-150 do, with the exclamation, “Praise the LORD!” or “Hallelujah!”. The Hebrew word that we translate as “praise” is halal, it’s definition is “to be clear; to shine; hence, to make a show, to boast”. It’s more than lifting our voice, it’s opening our eyes, opening our hearts; it’s believing what God says, trusting who He is and rejoicing in what He does. It’s not just lifting Him up, it’s lifting ourselves up to Him, it’s putting ourselves in His hands and trusting His heart. It’s being confident of God’s character even if we don’t understand our circumstances. 

The psalm tells us to “Praise God in his sanctuary” and to “praise him in his mighty heavens!” It then says to praise God “for his mighty deeds” and then to praise Him “according to his excellent greatness!” Wherever you are give God praise, whatever He’s done is deserving of praise, because everything about His is praiseworthy. 

Then, verses 3 through 5, give us a list of all the instruments that we should use to praise God: the trumpet, the lute and harp, the tambourine and dance, strings and pipe, sounding and loud clashing cymbals. God is deserving a symphony of praise, but this is more than a call to gather the musicians, the psalmist is telling us to strike up the band of our lives. He is deserving of every part of us. We give Him praise not just with our mouths or our songs, but with our thoughts and our conversations, with our relationships and our beliefs, with our jobs and our finances, with our bodies and with our possessions. Every part of our lives is meant to be an instrument of praise. Every season is an opportunity to praise because in everything there is a reason to praise. 

Hasn’t that been what we’ve learned in the Psalms? When David was hiding in a cave, he ended up being surrounded by those who became his most mighty men. When Israel was suffering in slavery in Egypt God came and delivered them. When hope seemed lost reminders of God’s care flooded in. When sin was great the abundance of God’s mercy was supplied. Laments burst into praise, rebellion became repentance, mourning turned to dancing, disappointment was transformed into satisfaction, in everything there is a reason to praise because in every season of life and every place that we go, God is there with us. 

What more could we ask? Even in asking that question, I’m aware that we all have lists of things we are asking for and that we are invited to come to God with all our prayers and petitions. We do right by asking God to provide for our needs, but in all of our asking are we remembering that we have been given so much more than we could ever ask for? In Matthew 19:29 Jesus said that there would be people that would leave houses and brothers, sisters and fathers, mothers, children and lands for His sake. Isn’t it interesting that some of the very things that some of us are asking God to give others are leaving for Him? Those things or requests for them are not wrong, but at the same time, do we realize just how much we have been given? 

The last verse of the Psalms says, “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!” Let every one of us praise God with every part of us! The Psalms have taught us to sing in our sorrow, to praise in our pain and to trust in our trials. The authors have pointed us to the character of God when all we and they wanted was to stare at our disappointments. They have taught us to be honest, to tell the truth in the deepest parts of our hearts, to hide and sugarcoat nothing, but also to be ready to be corrected, be willing to be changed, to accept that we don’t know everything and to learn to believe in the goodness of God in every moment of our lives. What the Psalms might teach us more than anything else, is that in all that we have received from God and in all that we are still asking God to give, our greatest gift is that He has given us Himself. 

John 3:16 tells us, you can probably quote it, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” In Luke 11:13 Jesus declared, “how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” At every turn, in every age, to every people, God has given Himself. He created us in His image, He filled us with His breath, He gave His own Son to redeem us and filled us with His Spirit. He has given us, all of us and each of us, Himself. 

I believe this was the truth that David was realizing when he wrote, “The LORD is my Shepherd”. You see, the sheep’s greatest comfort does not come from what the shepherd does but from where the shepherd is. Where was David when Samuel came to Jesse’s house to anoint the next king of Israel? I Samuel 16 says that he was with the sheep. The shepherd’s job is to protect and provide for the sheep by being with them, to lead them by being among them, their greatest need is his presence. 

David, in many ways summed up the entirety of the Psalms, the promise of blessing and the call to respond with praise, in Psalm 23:1, “The LORD is my Shepherd” was the promise, and the response of praise was, “I shall not want.” As we end our journey together, I remind us that what we have is greater than anything we will ever need, the LORD is our Shepherd, we are the sheep of His pasture, He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love, He is good and His hesed endures forever, He is our God and we belong to Him. We all hope for the green pastures and the still waters, but what if the most beautiful parts of life are only found in the valley of the shadow of death? What if we don’t realize that our cups are overflowing until we are seated at a table in the presence of our enemies? What if the greatest gift is the one, we’ve already received? What if everything we are waiting for is waiting on us to find our joy in the truth that God is with us? What if everything changes when we choose to simply look up and declare over our lives, “Thou art with me”?