Praise the Lord, O my soul!

“Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.” (Psalms 150:6)

Our church New Year's motto is "Praise the Lord, O my soul!  And the New Year’s motto verse is Psalms 150:6 – “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.”  Our goal this year is threefold: (1) to praise and worship God every Sunday, (2) to have once a month family worship and (3) to sing praise every day alone.  Based on Psalms 150:6, let us consider four things under the heading, “Praise the Lord, O my soul!”:

The first thing I want to think about is “’Where’ do we praise God?”

Look at Psalms 150:1 – “Praise the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty expanse.”  The Bible tells us to praise God “in His sanctuary” and “in His mighty expanse.”  We must go up to the temple of God and praise Him.  And we must go up to the house of God and praise Him with the hope that we will praise Him forever in His expanse that is in Heaven.  We must praise God as we fully mobilize places to praise (Ps. 148) (Park Yun-sun).  In other words, we must praise God everywhere.

The second thing I want to think about is “’Why’ should we praise God?”

There are two reasons for this: (1) The first reason is because of God's mighty deeds.  Look at Psalms 150:2a – “Praise Him for His mighty deeds  ….”  What, then, are the mighty deeds God has done for us?  For example, God’s mighty deeds are God holding us, leading us, protecting us and so on.  Especially when we talk about God's mighty deeds, what we cannot miss is the power of God's salvation.  (2) The second reason is because God’s excellent greatness.  Look at Psalms 150:2b – “…  Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.”  Our God is the great God.  We must praise God for His excellent greatness.  Especially when we think of the grace of salvation that this great God who loves us with great love and saved us with His great power, we should praise God.  We must praise God for His mighty deeds and for His excellent greatness.

The third thing I want to think about is “’How’ do we praise God?”

Look at Psalms 150: 3-5: “Praise Him with trumpet sound; Praise Him with harp and lyre.  Praise Him with timbrel and dancing; Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe.  Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with resounding cymbals.”  The Bible encourages us to praise God with trumpet, harp, lyre, tambourine, dancing, stringed instruments, pipe and cymbals.  What does it mean?  It means to praise God with all the instruments that we can fully mobilize (Park).

The fourth and last thing I want to think about is “’Who’ should praise God?”

Look at Psalms 150:6 – “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!”  This means that we should fully mobilize everybody who can praise God and praise Him (Park).

In the New Year, let's praise and worship God with thanksgiving in our hearts for God is worthy to be praised.  Let’s praise God wherever we are.  And let’s praise God with all the instruments we can fully mobilize.  Let’s fully mobilize everybody who is willing to praise Him.  Let’s praise God until we have last breath. 

Longing to praise the Lord until my last breath,

Pastor James Kim