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Thursday, January 6, 2011

"Let Everything That Hath Breath Praise the LORD!"

Amy and I laughed yesterday when we were talking about losing phone service in the middle of a call  without realizing it. I told her that my last 2 minutes of my "mini-sermon" to her was not even heard when I realized "Failed Call" was appearing on my phone screen. My humorous remark to her that I had wasted my breath led to a serious reflection on how much we really do that exact thing, using our ability to breathe air and articulate words to do everything but praise the LORD.

I love reading through the Psalms and this year I started in the back of that packed book and from chapters 145-150, I discovered again how we can use our breath that God has allotted us to glorify Him, which is our chief aim. John MacArthur says this about these last Psalms penned in the Holy Scriptures:  "Psalm 145 begins the great crescendo of praise that completes the psalter and might be called the Final Hallel."  These chapters are filled with the admonition to praise the LORD- the Hebrew word being Hallelujah! Some things in Scripture are difficult for our minds- this one, we can all understand and so I ask myself- "Deborah, is your life consistently obeying this command?" In chapter 150 alone, we are told to praise the LORD 13 times. (I don't know what those who don't like musical instruments do with this passage.) As I have meditated on this portion of Scripture for a few days, let me try to be brief and also encourage you to read them and see things that God will show you concerning this facet of the Christian life that may be too rarely seen in our day to day lives.

I praise Him this morning because of Who He is! David said that He is my God and my King and that every day he will bless His Name forever. We, too, Christian Brother and Sister, can say that along with the sweet Psalmist. We cannot praise Him enough because His greatness is unsearchable so we should get started today, shouldn't we?  In these few chapters, we read of His greatness, His goodness, His righteousness, His mercy, His kindness, His faithfulness, His nearness, His provision, His liberty, His enlightenment, His healing of broken hearts, His Words, His works, and His power, and that is just to name a few. HALLELUJAH!!!  We need to praise Him for Who He is and for what He has done. I love chapter 148 as all His creation, even the heavenly bodies and weather elements speak of Him and obey His Word. I fail with this pen as I try to write of His power and His majesty and then especially as I remember that He, the Sovereign Creator and Sustainer of all, has time for me- little ole me. Who am I that He should give a fleeting thought to today?  Yet, my Bible assures me that His thoughts and concerns for me today are too numerous to count. Surely that should prompt me to praise and bless His Name forever and ever!

Saints, our children need to see our lives praising Him. In chapter 145, the psalmist says "One generation shall commend Your works to another and shall declare Your mighty acts."  King Hezekiah, in Isaiah 38:19, after he was recovered from his deathly illness, writes: "The living, the living, he shall praise Thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known Thy truth."  Sometimes, our children are too filled with the "mumbly-grumblies" (sounds like a word out of Pooh-land- :)  )  and maybe we, the parents, should check to see if they caught the disease from us. We should tell them how great our God is- we should purposely make note of and rejoice with them when a prayer is answered.  In essence, our words and lives should make much of our great God! It will benefit the generation coming behind us, a generation who seems to be entitlement oriented and ungrateful for what they have.

I praise Him today, dear one, because His kingdom is everlasting and one day, He will put down the wicked, once and for all. Aren't you weary with me of the injustices, the oppressions, the refusal of the good and the exaltation of the evil in this present world system?  Well, praise the LORD, He has it all in control and one day and I believe soon, we who are blood-bought and have bowed ourselves to His Lordship, will gather around the throne and just imagining the beautiful sound that will reverberate as all believers- O.T. and N.T. and the church praise perfectly the Perfect Lamb of God, brings a thrill to my heart and soul!

So, in closing, let's get to practicing what we will be doing for all eternity and use the breaths that we have left and none of us know the number thereof. "Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise ye the LORD!"

Tuning up, Deborah

1 comment:

  1. Good word Deb...Tom Elliff just spoke to us at Spiritual Focus on Friday about "redeeming the time"...we need to be busy Praising God...The chief end of man is to Glorify God and enjoy HIM forever!!! Oh and then he challenged us with "how thristy are you for more of God?"

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