Psalm 148: Praise Him, All Creatures

When I was growing up, we often sang Thomas Ken’s “Doxology” as a hymn:

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow

Praise Him, all creatures here below

Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts,

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

As the book of Psalms draws to a close, we have been reminded that our God is imminently worthy of praise for His steadfast faithfulness and for His kindness.  Now, in Psalm 148, every creature in heaven and under the heavens is summoned to add its voice of praise.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts (v. 1-6).  In a world where most people worshiped the sun, moon, and stars as gods, in a world that saw the heavens as shaping one’s destiny, the psalmist reminds us that these creatures, vast and majestic as they are, bow the knee to their Creator.  Galaxies and nebula, cherubim and seraphim, meteors and comets, all praise their Maker, whether by voices as the angels or by their mere being (and might there be other ways of communicating of which we have no way of knowing?).  They praise the name of the LORD because He has made them and keeps them by His everlasting word.

Praise Him, all creatures here below (v. 7-12).  And as the heavens ring with God’s praise, an answering song rises from the earth and its inhabitants.  Great sea creatures—whales and narwhals, squids and coelacanths, strange glowing fish in the black deeps—bear witness to the power and wisdom of their Maker.  The weather, with its fire and ice, lightning and wind, gives pyrotechnic testimony to the glory of the God whose every command it fulfills.  It is an impoverished person indeed who hasn’t felt praise welling up at the sight of great mountains and rolling hills, fruitful orchards and massive cedars and redwoods—and their very existence is a kind of praise, honoring one who forms such wonders by the power of His word.  Animals—whether great elephants and rhinoceros, useful livestock like cattle or horses, or creeping and skittering squirrels and lizards, flying birds and bats—all reflect the astonishing wisdom of a God who would think of such things.

And as the psalmist turns his attention to our praise, we see the full range of humanity represented: kings and their people, princes and rulers, men and women, young and old.  As Kidner notes, “in these few lines there emerges…the only potential bond between the extremes of mankind: a joyful preoccupation with God.”[1]  People of every rank, every station of life, every age and experience will find their greatest joy and fullest humanity as they sing praise to the Lord of glory.  Where the stars and planets, cattle and trees bring praise simply by existing, we have the privilege of being made in God’s image, able to think and to express our love and gratitude with words and obedient acts.  Make the most of it!

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (yes, in the Old Testament, too) (v. 13-14).  The God whom Jesus has revealed to be triune is united in His excellence, His unique claim to be worshiped, and His unparalleled glory (v. 13).  Father, Son, and Spirit are one in goodness, power, and wisdom, one in their intention to create a world filled with creatures on whom to bestow their love, and one in their intention to rescue sinners and make them beloved saints.  The members of the Trinity have different roles in this project—the Father has sent the Son to be the powerful Rescuer, the Horn of His people (v. 14a; see Luke 1:69), and the Son has sent the Spirit to be with us always and to be the means by which Jesus is with us always, even to the end of the world (v. 14c; see John 16:7-15, Matt. 28:18-20).  Well might we praise the LORD, who has not only made us, but has rescued us by remaking us and by being Immanuel, God with us, forever.

Grace and peace, Mike Yates

 

For further thought and discussion: When have you recently seen God’s glory reflected in His creation?  Take time today to praise God for His rescuing power and for His constant nearness to us through His Holy Spirit.

 

 

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[1] Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150 (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1973), 488.

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Psalm 147: Praise Him for His Kindness

It is indeed good to sing praises to our God (Psalm 147:1), and Psalm 146 already reminded us that our trustworthy God merits every song we could sing.  As the Psalms’ concluding call to worship continues in Psalm 147, we’re reminded of another reason to praise God: He has been kind to us in countless ways—rescuing us, feeding us, protecting us, and directing our steps.  Let’s listen and remember:

The LORD rescues (v. 1-6).  He gathers His people, building up Jerusalem by collecting the broken and the outcast—messed-up people like us—and healing and fixing them (v. 2-3).  In His infinite knowledge, power, and wisdom, the LORD not only counts the stars, but calls them by name (v. 4-5)—and if He knows the stars by name, how much more can we be sure that He knows us and is able to rescue us!  He lifts up the humble and weak, but crushes the wicked who insist on standing against Him (v. 6).  Will we fight Him, trying to rescue ourselves, or will we humble ourselves under His unfailing care?

The LORD protects (v. 7-11).  Not only is it beautiful to praise the LORD who rescues, but it is fitting to sing in thankfulness to the LORD who prepares rain and makes grass grow.  He provides for plants and animals (v. 8-9); will He not meet all of our needs, too (see Job 38:39-41, Luke 12:22-28)?  And because He is powerful enough to care for us, He is not impressed with the strength or beauty of His creatures; God isn’t in awe of fast horses or strong men (v. 10).  Instead, God is delighted when His creatures see Him for who He is and respond by obeying and counting on Him (v. 11).  And again we hear the question—will we foolishly try to be strong enough to protect ourselves, or will we humbly rely on His mercy?

The LORD directs (v. 12-20).  And all of God’s people can join in the song, because we have a shared experience of God’s providential care, as He has given us safety, families, peace, and food (v. 13-14).[1]  In light of the rest of the passage’s focus on God’s creating and commanding words, we see here how God’s perfect authority is on display even when He uses the activities of people (building walls, bearing children, pursuing peace with neighbors, planting and harvesting) to accomplish His kind purposes.  In any endeavor, the results of our faithful efforts depend on the LORD (Ps. 127:1-3; Mark 4:26-29; 1 Cor. 3:5-9; James 4:15, 5:7), and any success we enjoy is an occasion to give thanks.

In the meantime, God rules over His creation.  Snow and frost, hail and wind come at His bidding (v. 15-18).  As in the preceding verses, He works through physical means that we may observe and study, but it is the LORD who ordains those means.  As Kidner notes, “The cold is his cold, [and] the wind which thaws it is also his;”[2] they come and go at His word (v. 18).  No natural phenomenon is beyond His wise and kind kingship.[3]

And in a shocking turn, God has spoken in another way.  Where His word before has simply acted—“Let there be light,” and there was light, snow and hail appearing on command—God has declared His word to Israel, setting them apart from all other nations by telling them how to live in order to please Him (v. 19-20).  Rather than simply commanding and us acting as automatons, He has granted us the privilege of actively obeying—or disobeying.  And though all people everywhere have a deep-down, carefully suppressed knowledge that there is a God to whom they owe allegiance (Rom. 1:18ff.), no other group of people had been entrusted with God’s saving word, the Scriptures through which those who believe are made wise unto salvation (2 Tim. 3:15).  People sometimes think of God’s Law in the Old Covenant as hard or oppressive, but this is God’s gracious gift, showing His people His character and His ways so that they are moved to imitate Him, and this gift was given only to one nation at this point (see also Deut. 4:7-8, 33-36).  And again the question rings out: the hailstones obey His every word; will we be as wise as a humble lump of ice?

And we have been given a still greater gift: a final Word from God, God Himself entering time and space in flesh to perfectly and fully reveal Himself to us (John 1:14-18, Heb. 1:1-4).  If the psalmist stood (rightly) in awe of the Maker and King of the universe making Himself known, how much more reason we have to praise the God who by the blood of His own Son has rescued us, has withheld no good thing from us for the sake of His Son, and has shown us how to live by the example and the commands of His Son!  Today, let’s praise the LORD for His great, His infinite kindness.

Grace and peace, Mike Yates

 

For further thought and discussion: Where have you seen God’s kindness in your life lately?  Take some time today to reflect on the ways He has rescued you, provided for you, and directed you (and especially by His Word).

 

 

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[1] All of these continue the theme of v. 7-11, and so v. 12-14 could be seen as part of that stanza. However, the psalm seems to introduce each stanza with a renewed call to praise, as we find in v. 12.

[2] Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150 (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1973), 486.

[3] This doesn’t mean that natural disasters are somehow good things; we are in a broken, sin-twisted, post-Fall world (see Rom. 8:19-24).  It does mean that no disaster strikes apart from God’s knowledge and permission.  We do not know enough to say why any given event happens.  Scripture gives examples of disasters coming as judgments for specific sins, but we are not wise or powerful enough to read God’s mind when He has not spoken.  Any would-be divine press agent who publicly announces that a hurricane, blizzard, or plane crash came because of such-and-such sin ought forever to be ignored as a false prophet, speaking when God has not.

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Psalm 135: Reasons to Praise

Why do we praise the LORD?  It sounds like a terrible question to ask, and perhaps the instinctive—and correct, as far as it goes—answer is, “Because He is the Lord; He deserves to be praised just because of who He is!”  But Psalm 135 doesn’t stop with that answer.  In an astonishing medley of quotes and paraphrases from all over the Old Testament,[1] the psalmist calls us to worship the LORD, the Almighty Creator, the Invincible Protector, the Irreplaceable Giver of Life.

Praise the LORD!  A Call to Worship (v. 1-4).  The opening verses call us, those who serve God, to praise Him.  And, not content to simply call us to praise and refer us to verses 5 and following to see why, here in the psalm’s introduction the writer gives us three reasons right from the start:

1. Because the LORD is good (v. 3a).  He does what is right.  His actions are made for the right reasons.  He loves what is good and hates what is evil.  His every word and deed shows Him to be worthy of praise.[2]

2. Because His name is delightful[3] (v. 3b).  When verse 3 says to sing praises to His name, for it is pleasant, the psalmist isn’t simply saying it’s fun to sing hymns (though it can be).  The name of the LORD, reflecting His character and His nature, brings us pleasure when we rightly understand Him.  There’s something in us that delights to speak or write the name of our beloved (have you noticed how many times a newly engaged couple can work each others’ names into a conversation?), and Christ has truly shown Himself to be our Beloved as He takes us to be His bride.

3. Because He has chosen to love us (v. 4).  God didn’t get stuck with us, obligated to take care of us as if He had found us lying on the doorstep.  No, He chose Israel to be His special treasure, intentionally identifying Himself with a specific people and actually declaring them to be His delight!  And He didn’t choose this people because He needed their strength, resources, or moral support; the psalmist quotes from Deuteronomy 7, where Moses reminds Israel that

the LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage (Deut. 7:6-8).

Not only that, but He has expanded Israel, bringing all sorts of people—former outsiders like us—into one new nation, one new people (Rom. 11:11-18, Eph. 2:11-22).  He has taken proud, hateful, hopeless outsiders and has decided to love us into His family forever.  Praise the LORD!

Praise the Almighty Creator (v. 5-7).  This God who is good and delightful, this one who has loved us, isn’t just any god.  He is not only good, but great; He is unstoppable as He rules over every part of heaven and earth and sea.  He isn’t one among many competing deities, each with his or her own sphere; He stands above all of creation, ordering every part of nature, shaping lightning and permitting or forbidding winds to blow.  Every storm is a testimony to the vast power of the God who is sovereign even in a troubled, broken world; every calm when a storm passes is a testimony to the promise of a God who will one day restore perfect peace.  When we see this incomparable God on His throne, we bow in silence—and praise Him in awe-struck admiration.

Praise the Invincible Protector (v. 8-14).  This good and unstoppable God who does as He pleases doesn’t merely sit above the fray and watch.  He is not only the Creator, but the Protector of those on whom He has set His love.  His destruction of Egypt, Sihon, Og, and the Canaanites was not a fit of caprice; it was a mark of His love for the Israelites they had sought to destroy.  God wreaks havoc and upends empires for the sake of His beloved; He puts down Middle Eastern superpowers for the sake of a few Hebrew slaves whom He has determined to make His sons and daughters, and drives child-sacrificing idolaters from the Land to keep promises to His long-dead followers (v. 8-12).  In doing so, He preserves a people who will tell of His character and His mighty acts forever (v. 13) in a song ringing from the banks of the Red Sea, to the time of the psalmists, to the eternal banqueting hall of the New Jerusalem.  He will show compassion by bringing His people justice (v. 14), and we will have eons to praise Him for rescuing us from enemies and from ourselves.

Praise the LORD, and Accept No Substitutes (v. 15-18)!  And because no other so-called god has loved an undeserving people, made the heavens and earth, and brought justice to the weak and oppressed like the LORD, only a fool will turn away from the true and living God to serve idols.  Here the psalmist turns to one of the classic statements of the pointlessness of idols, Psalm 115, to remind us that nothing created rises above its creator; gods made by men remain helpless, unable to speak or to act to rescue their makers.  In the end, those who count on dead idols end up dead (v. 18); only the living God who first breathed life into Adam can save lives!  Don’t waste your time counting on things that cannot save—whether officially named false gods, or security, or a sense of control in an out-of-control world, or a person or place that seems to make you safe.  None of these made heaven and earth, and none of these can deliver us in the end.

Bless the LORD!  A Concluding Call to Worship (v. 19-21).  And so the psalmist finishes where he began, inviting us to lift our voices to the LORD who has gathered His people and has come to live among them.  He begins with all Israel, the entire people of God, then zooms in to the house of Aaron, and then expands again to include all those who are set apart for the Lord’s service and finally to all who fear the LORD, regardless of their origins.  Kidner observes that, while the parallel passage in Psalm 115 calls us to honor God by fully trusting Him, the blessing commanded here is an “outward display of gratitude and praise.”[4]  Yet genuine outward praise will stem from a heart that is resting on the LORD as our help and shield.  And it is fitting for that praise to begin in Zion (v. 21), beginning with those who have already experienced the presence and the abiding nearness of our King, our Maker and Protector.

It’s not enough to tell others (or ourselves) to praise the LORD; we will end up simply going through the motions.  But when we see afresh who He is and what He has done, then our lives will overflow into praise.

Grace and peace, Mike Yates

 

For further thought and discussion:  Where have you seen God’s almighty rule and protection at work lately?

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[1] Every verse in this psalm either repeats or echoes other Scripture. Derek Kidner’s commentary draws out the parallels and their significance beautifully; see Kidner, Psalms 73-150 (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1973), 455-457.

[2] For further thoughts about what God’s goodness means, see https://mikedyates.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/psalm-105-god-is-good-part-1/

[3] Kidner’s excellent rendering of the word the NKJV translates as “pleasant.” Psalms, 455.

[4] Kidner, Psalms, 456.

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