Dear Church Family, (A special guest devotion)
Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary; praise Him in His might heavens.
Praise Him for His acts of power; praise Him for His surpassing greatness.
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.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. (Psalm 150)
I like Psalm 150 because it talks about praising God, how often we should be praising Him and where we praise Him. We are to praise in His sanctuary and in His heavens. Right now I along with you cannot come to our church and worship (but I really wish we could). Right now I am reminded that I can praise God anywhere we are even though we are not worshiping in His house. That cannot stop us from magnifying His name wherever we are. I am glad that we can worship virtually during this time – though being on-line is not the same as being there in person. This psalm speaks to what we are to do day by day and moment by moment – that is, to praise the Lord!
Verse two tells us we have good reason to give Him praise. God has given us so much. We must appreciate all that He has given us. We get to thank Him for all the things that we sometimes take for granted in our daily lives like food, housing and so much more. Of course, we value most of all the greatest gift of His only Son Jesus who died for our sins and has given us eternal life. Every day of our lives we praise Him for how powerful He is. In this time of panic, God remains all-powerful over the virus and over all other evil. This fact allows me to sleep well at night knowing that my Heavenly Father is watching over me. He will protect me and will take care of all things.
If I could I could play a musical instrument, I would want to play the piano. I hope I could play as well as Sarah, though I know that is only a dream. (By the way I am so glad that God has brought her to minister with cheer and excellence at our church.) Verses three and four have a list of a whole bunch of instruments that can be played in praise to God. It shows us some of the various ways that we should be praising God. Even just singing His praise, whether you can keep on key or not, is what we get to do as Christians.
The Psalm ends with calling us again to praise Him whether we have a musical instrument or not. So if you have breath, it is your privilege to praise God. It is what you and I were made to do.
Praising God with you,
Richie Olsen