Merry Christmas Sowers! I will be taking a few days off from the Daily Text. Welcome Dr. Timothy Tennent (my boss) for the next few days with reflections from several celebratory Psalms fitting for the season. I’ll be back January 1 with a reprise of our most popular series ever: First Word. Last Word. God’s Word.—to take us through January. Speaking of which, I have a New Year’s Sowing Challenge with a REWARD for you to consider.
Psalm 150 (NIV)
1 Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
Sing this psalm with the Seedbed Psalter today! Visit the resource here.
CONSIDER THIS
Psalm 150 is a fitting conclusion to the book of Psalms. It is a veritable explosion of praise and worship. Psalm 1 began the journey by setting forth the two ways; the way of the righteous and the way of the wicked. The book of Psalms closes without any mention of the wicked or those who have rejected the Lord. Everything is engulfed in praise and adoration!
Just as Psalm 148 brings forth the whole of creation to praise the Lord, so this final psalm calls upon all kinds of instruments of the time, asking each one to give its voice of praise. In this psalm, we meet trumpets, harps, lyres, tambourines, strings, flutes, and loud clashing cymbals. Today we could add dozens more, including drums, organs, sitars, harmoniums, keyboards, xylophones, saxophones, guitars, and tubas! (Notice that the listing of instruments in Psalm 150 includes all four families of instruments: brass, percussion, strings, and woodwinds!)
The real message of the psalm is not merely that all instruments can be used to worship the Lord, but that the most important instrument should not be left out. That instrument is the human voice, sometimes known as the “sacred harp.” Undoubtedly, the human voice is the most important instrument in worship. The psalm ends with the great cry, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord” (v. 6). Let our voices, whether it be in a song of worship or when we are talking with our coworkers or friends, be voices that always give glory to God. He alone is worthy of all our worship and praise. Hallelujah!
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