Psalm 150:1 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!
The Book of Psalms concludes with nothing but praise. 6 straight psalms of praise conclude the compilation of 150 songs. Is this accidental – or a circumstantial happenstance? Absolutely not!
Methinks it has something to do with our nature, and the nature of God.
We are so prone to be inwardly focused, and everything about praise is outward. So the Book of Psalms concludes with us being forced to focus outside of ourselves. Each of these psalms, from 145 to 150 begin and end with the phrase, “Praise the Lord!” (Or as we also know it, “Hallelujah!”)
If you think back to the happiest times of your life, what moments would you list? May I suggest they are moments that are outwardly-focused? Your marriage, the birth of a child…some great victory at your school, or perhaps in the office?
You see, it is very rare when we have any happiness at all that is internally-derived. The things that bring the most joy into our lives come from the outside.
Indeed, the more inwardly-focused we become, the more likely we are to become depressed – about our situation, or about our condition. We cloister ourselves away in darkened rooms to contemplate our “sorrows.” We develop a ‘woe is me’ mindset really quickly because the more we look inside ourselves the less we find. A sense of ‘emptiness’ ensues…
But the Lord knows our frame, and He has just the thing we need. We are designed to PRAISE - just as we are designed to worship - to take our eyes off ourselves, and to place our eyes upon our God, our King, our Creator. And it is only in the final arrival we make of praising the Lord that this sense of completion takes place. Praising a winning touchdown doesn’t do it, or does praising our favorite musician or actor in a performance setting. We need to be about praising God – and Lord knows we need it!
We are made to hunger and thirst for that which satisfies. The True and Living God is the Only One who can! Praise the Lord! The promise of praise is fulfillment. Richness. Blessing. And a very true connection to eternal life.
- Pastor Bill
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