Praise Ye the LORD

2012-06-09

The last several psalms in the Bible both start and end with “Praise ye the LORD.” I find it tempting to read something like this and quickly rush past this refrain to get to the heart of what the psalm is saying. This would be a big mistake. This refrain is an imperative in these psalms; the Spirit commands us to “praise ye the LORD.” Here I want to examine Psalm 150.

Where to Praise the LORD

Psalm 150:1: “Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.”

After the Spirit’s imperative to us, we see where we should praise the Lord. First, we ought to praise the LORD in his sanctuary. This originally would have been the Temple, which does not exist at the current time. Since his sanctuary was where God dwelt and where his people gathered for worship, festivals, and sacrifice, the modern correlation would be our congregations. We should praise him in our local churches. I do not think this is an all inclusive statement, because we can very well praise him in our daily lives, minute by minute. But the primary place of worship is in our churches.

We also ought to praise him in the “firmament of his power.” Where is this? This very well also could refer to the congregation, because of the use of parallelism in this chapter. However, I think it is a little deeper than that. The greater sanctuary of the LORD is in heaven, and I believe that this is what ultimately is referred to here. When examining a word in the Bible, it is often critical to look at the first time the word is used for its definition. The first few times is in Genesis 1:6-8:

“And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”

I believe we should praise God in heaven. Not the heaven that refers to the sky, but the Heaven that is the throne of God. When we die and are with him, this is what we will primarily be doing. It is not the admiration of the streets of gold and catching up with those who have passed on before us, though this will be a part of our experience. We will be praising the LORD in heaven for all eternity.

Why We Praise the LORD

Psalm 150:2: “Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.”

We should praise the LORD because of the great things he has done. He created us and the world in which we live. He saved us by the power of his Son Jesus Christ. He provides for our needs. If there is anything good, it is from the LORD.

Secondly, we should praise the LORD because of who he is. This is more important, because he only does great things because he is excellently great. Being the creator of all that there is, he is in the position of greatness, and is worthy of the utmost respect and honor that we can possibly bestow. Thank God because he is both amazing and does amazing things.

How to Praise the LORD

Psalm 150:3-5: “Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.”

Interestingly enough, how we are to praise the LORD is three out of the six verses of this psalm. We should be praising him with trumpets, and other musical instruments. We should dance in worship. Now what does this mean for us? Sure, we can praise him with these types of things. But the emphasis, I believe, is that we should praise God with enthusiasm, excitement, and celebration. I am guilty of burying my nose in the hymnal and going through the motions, and many others are as well. But we are commanded to festively and joyously praise God, for he desires fresh praise, not stale monotony.

Who Should Praise the LORD

Psalm 150:6: “Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.”

Everybody should praise the LORD. Every single person. We have no excuse; we need to praise the LORD in the manner and for the reasons described in the previous verses. We also need to be able to get other people to praise the LORD. The unsaved need to get saved. The weak brother needs to be encouraged. We have an instrumental part in that, if we are willing.

So, we return to our refrain that acts as bookends to our psalm of interest: “Praise ye the LORD.” Let our lives praise the LORD with everything we’ve got.