Web Theologian

>150:1 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!

If you haven’t gotten this from the Psalms yet, let’s hear it one more time. God is worthy of our praise always and everywhere. You cannot be creative enough to come up with ways to praise him. Use your voice, instrument, but most importantly your life. If you have breath go and do what you were created to do which is praise God. For me that clearly means to love others, there is no greater way I feel more of who I was created to be then when I am doing that whether it is my family or anyone else around me.

>149:1 Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the godly!
2 Let Israel be glad in his Maker;
let the children of Zion rejoice in their King!
3 Let them praise his name with dancing,
making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!
4 For the Lord takes pleasure in his people;
he adorns the humble with salvation.
5 Let the godly exult in glory;
let them sing for joy on their beds.
6 Let the high praises of God be in their throats
and two-edged swords in their hands,
7 to execute vengeance on the nations
and punishments on the peoples,
8 to bind their kings with chains
and their nobles with fetters of iron,
9 to execute on them the judgment written!
This is honor for all his godly ones.
Praise the Lord!

Let your song ring out. I have vivid memories in my house of my mom walking around often on Saturdays while cleaning singing at the top of her lungs. That is something I also do. When you are happy, doing what you are supposed to be doing you let it out in song.

Dance break out the instruments, let the party begin, for God finds leasure with us and raises up the humble. It takes humilty to set aside all that there is to do and dance, what you are struggling with often can be set aside so that you can realize that it is God who is most important. He is God and to be prasied.

>148:1 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights!
2 Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his hosts!

3 Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, all you shining stars!
4 Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens!

5 Let them praise the name of the Lord!
For he commanded and they were created.
6 And he established them forever and ever;
he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away.

7 Praise the Lord from the earth,
you great sea creatures and all deeps,
8 fire and hail, snow and mist,
stormy wind fulfilling his word!

9 Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars!
10 Beasts and all livestock,
creeping things and flying birds!

11 Kings of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all rulers of the earth!
12 Young men and maidens together,
old men and children!

13 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his majesty is above earth and heaven.
14 He has raised up a horn for his people,
praise for all his saints,
for the people of Israel who are near to him.
Praise the Lord!

There is not a place in this world that should not praise the Lord! All people all things give glory to God for what he has done and who he is! His word is powerful speaking things into creation. Those systems that allow life, sun, move, stars he put into being. All of it is his.

The horn for his people is so that we can call upon him, think The Lion the witch and the wardrobe where the one girl has a horn to blow only when you are in terrible trouble. We can also praise him with such a horn, for he is God.

>147:1 Praise the Lord!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.
2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
4 He determines the number of the stars;
he gives to all of them their names.
5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
his understanding is beyond measure.
6 The Lord lifts up the humble;
he casts the wicked to the ground.

7 Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
make melody to our God on the lyre!
8 He covers the heavens with clouds;
he prepares rain for the earth;
he makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He gives to the beasts their food,
and to the young ravens that cry.
10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
11 but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who hope in his steadfast love.

12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
Praise your God, O Zion!
13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
he blesses your children within you.
14 He makes peace in your borders;
he fills you with the finest of the wheat.
15 He sends out his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
16 He gives snow like wool;
he scatters hoarfrost like ashes.
17 He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;
who can stand before his cold?
18 He sends out his word, and melts them;
he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.
19 He declares his word to Jacob,
his statutes and rules to Israel.
20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation;
they do not know his rules.
Praise the Lord!

How many of the Psalms have to do with God being in control? A large majority of them do. You find that theme central in the theological background I come from and I would make the case that it is essential in prayer. Our life is often our of control and prayer is the place where we come and see that God is and we can rest. We understand our humble position more clearly and that leads us into praise.

Praise for how he protects us. As we start this new year, with resolutions or goals or whatever you call you hopes for this next year, I find it essential to trust and look to a God who will protect me when I risk. When I really go for the things that are in our heart. He will build up the city and protect it, He will protect against the elements. There is great encouragement in this message.

>This one is a little different We broke it up in our family devotion to reflect on this Psalm…

146:1 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

3 Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
4 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.

5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
6 who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
7 who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

10 The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord!

Mike- We are too always give praise to God. Don’t trust in leaders they and their plans disappear when they die. We are to give praise to God until we die.

Aidyn- I kinda think the first part actually talks about creation and God helping people like the hungry, the earth didn’t just get shaken he made the it all. It is actually talking about how God made the heavens and earth too. He keeps faith forever which means he will never give up.

Karin- The prisoners and the blind give us hope, for those who feel imprisoned we can count on the lord to not leave us in that place. The bowed down and the righteous are connected sorrow and humility. He loves us and doesn’t leave us hurting. He takes care of the sojourner, fatherless, widow. and brings to ruin the wicked. The seeker who is always traveling in a world that is not as it should be and can be unfamiliar in it’s difficulty. We all can feel the loneliness of fatherless and widows, God is hope in that. God is there forever to all generations.