Praising Scripture - Dec 31

Introduction...

12/31 Psalm 150:1-6 The Hallelujah Psalms
（Memorization Scripture: vv. 1-2）

1 Praise the Lord!

Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty firmament!
2 Praise Him for His mighty acts;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!
3 Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet;
Praise Him with the lute and harp!
4 Praise Him with the timbrel and dance;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
5 Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with clashing cymbals!
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord!



[Sharing]
The last five chapters in Psalms (146-150) focus on praising God. There is no sorrowful begging, as in Laments, nor grieved fretting, as in psalms of cursing, or even the confusion over long periods of unanswered prayers. There are only praises inviting the children of God to offer sacrifices of praise from all angles. It seems that there are endless praises and the psalmists do no know how to start and don’t want it to end. So they begin and end the psalms with “Hallel” ( praise the Lord)!

In this last psalm of the Book of Psalms, the psalmist expresses even more that God is worthy to be praised with all my heart, all my soul, and all I can offer. Praise the Lord (the mighty acts, the great virtues) with every form (drumming, playing timbrel, dancing), every instrument (trumpet, harp, lute, cymbals), and everywhere (His sanctuary, His mighty firmament)! Who shall praise Him? Not only the children of God but everything that hath breath.

When you read this short and powerful psalm, you cannot help but stand up and praise the Lord! It may also remind you of the time when Solomon’s temple was built and the priests carried the ark of God into the sanctuary. All the people stood by the altar praising the Lord. “The trumpeters and musicians joined in unison to give praise and thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the singers raised their voices in praise to the Lord and sang: ‘He is good; his love endures forever.’ ” (2 Chronicles 5: 13a)

Next time, when we gather together in the presence of God, can we praise Him wholeheartedly with everything we can because we know who He is? And when we do, may we also experience that “then the temple of the Lord was filled with the cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.” (2 Chronicles 5: 13b-14)