“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord”
[Psalms 150]
Today, I finally started to meditate on the words of Psalms 150, the last chapter of the Book of Psalms. On Wednesday, September 21, 2005, after I started meditating on the words of Psalms chapter 1, 4 years and 9 days later (September 30, 2009), I am finally meditating on Psalms 150. About 3-4 weeks ago during the Saturday morning prayer, a thought came into my mind that these meditations of the Book of Psalms may be published in future. So I started to edit them from Psalms chapter 1 and I am still editing them these days too. Personally, I am very grateful to God. I am just grateful to God for allowing me to meditate on the words of the Psalms for about four years so that I can become a little bit like a psalmist without even me knowing. In particular, as I meditate on the psalms, I am grateful for the grace that God has made to imitate the psalmist's prayers. Among those prayers, I praised God's goodness as I start my personal prayer after I preached word of God at the morning prayer meeting yesterday. The Lord enabled me to praise the gospel song “God is so good” , “Heart and soul/ I never want anything” and who God is. Like the psalmist, and just as Paul and Silas prayed and praised in prison in Acts 16, I also enjoyed the time of praying and praising God. And I personally thank all of you. I am sure it wasn’t easy for you to continue listening to my sermons and meditations from Psalms 1 to 150 through such lacking servant like me for 4 years. That’s why I am grateful to all of you for having the time to faithfully listen to the messages of Psalms until the end.
Today I would like to meditate on Psalms 150, the last Psalms. Psalms 150 is the last Hallelujah psalms among the words of Psalms 146 to 150, which are “Hallelujah” psalms, and is the climax of Hallelujah (Park). In particular, in verse 6, the last verse of Psalms 150, the climax of Hallelujah was reached, and the psalmist said: “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.” Today, I would like to meditate on four things about praise under the heading, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord” (note: based on Pastor MacArthur's commentary).
The first thing I want to think about is the question of where should those who have breath praise God?
Look at Psalms 150:1 – “Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.” The psalmist says that we should praise God “in his sanctuary” and “in his mighty heavens”. What does it mean? Here, “his sanctuary” refers to the temple in Jerusalem and “his might heavens” refers to heaven. In a word, it means that those who have breath should praise God on the earth and in the heavens (148:1, 7) (MacArthur). In short, we must praise God by mobilizing all places to praise (Park). We must praise God everywhere. We must praise God forever, not only while we live on this earth, but also when we go to heaven.
The second thing I want to think about is the question of why should those who have breath praise God?
Why is the psalmist encouraging everyone who has breath to praise the Lord? What are the reasons? There are two reasons:
(1) The first reason is because of what God has done.
Look at Psalms 150:2a – “Praise him for his acts of power ….” What are God's acts of power? For example, God's acts of power are sustain us, guiding us, and protecting us and so on. Especially when we talk about God's acts of power, the power of God's salvation cannot be left out. At the time of the Exodus, God revealed His power when He delivered the Israelites out of Egypt. He also revealed His power both in the wilderness and in the land of Canaan. We must praise God for His acts of power because we already experienced this power of God, we are experiencing it, and will experience it in the future as well.
(2) The second reason is because of who He is.
Look at Psalms 150:2b – “… praise him for his surpassing greatness.” Our God is great God. We must praise this great God. Especially when we consider the saving grace that our great God has shown us who are very little because He loves us with His great love, we must praise our great God. We must praise Him for His mighty actions and His greatness.
The third thing I want to think about is the question of how should those who have breath praise God?
Look at Psalms 150:3-5: “Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.” The psalmist urges us to praise God with trumpets, harp, lyre, tambourine, strings, flute and cymbals. What does it mean? In a word, it means to to praise God by mobilizing all instruments that can be use to praise Him (Park).
The last and fourth thing I want to think about is the question of who should praise God.
Look at Psalms 150:6 – “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.” This mean, in short, to praise God by mobilizing all those who will sing praises (Park). Not only we should praise God by mobilizing all the places and all instruments, we should also mobilize all those who will sing praise to Him. Everything in the heavens and on the earth must praise God. Not only the angels in the heavens, but all the breathing creatures on earth must praise Him.
At this time, let us stand and sing “Bless the Lord, Oh my soul” to our Lord.
“Bless the Lord, oh! my soul, Bless the Lord, oh! my soul,
And all that is within me, Bless His holy Name.
Worship the Lord, oh! my soul, Worship the Lord, oh! my soul,
And all that is within me, Bless His holy Name.”
As I desire to praise the Lord until my last breath on this earth,
James Kim
(With gratitude for God's grace given through meditation on the words of the Psalms)