“Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty 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 timbrel and dancing,
praise him with the strings and pipe,
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)
As we bring 2019 to a close, I’m also bringing to a close my study on the Psalms. As I started with Psalm 1 at the beginning of January, I’m ending with the last psalm here at the end of the year.
It is fitting for this marvelous and majestic book to end with a psalm that is totally and completely made up of praising God! I kept the psalm in the format I did above so you can see how basically every phrase starts with the word “praise.” It’s the same in the original Hebrew text; each phrase begins with a form of the verb for praise. Many begin with halleluhu which specifically means “praise him.”
We can break down the structure of this psalm further than just being praise. It starts with telling us who we should praise, then why we should praise Him, then how we should praise Him, then who should do the praising.
We find out who we are commanded to praise in verse 1: we are to praise God. Even though He is in His mighty heavens and we are on earth, we are to praise Him. There is no one else even remotely worthy of the praise that God deserves.
Why should we praise God? Verse 2 tells us that He has done mighty acts, and He is amazingly great. The Bible is full of stories of what God has done for His people throughout history, and even today we still see God doing amazing things in our lives and the lives of those around us. God is still working in the entire world today. He is the epitome of greatness; we don’t even have the words to describe Him. He is ever-deserving of all our praise!
How should we praise God? Verses 3-5 of this psalm gives us lots of ways. You may notice that the ways listed are musical in nature - playing instruments and dancing. Thankfully, we don’t have to be musically skilled to praise God. We can enjoy others using these skills and praise God along with them, or we can make a joyful noise to God even if it may not sound great in others’ ears! God knows our hearts, and any method that we use to praise Him with a right heart is good in His sight.
Who should do the praising of God? We see in verse 6 that it’s not limited to those who are musically skilled. The psalm calls for “everything that has breath” to praise God! That doesn’t even limit it to just humans. All living things were created by God, so all living things should praise God with the breath that He has given us.
As we look back on 2019, this journey through the psalms has gone through times of praise, times of lament, times of joy, and times of sorrow. The psalms are full of all of these emotions and more. Some of them have been a struggle for me to write, but overall it has been a journey led by God. God has given us emotions and free will so that we can better praise Him. He has given us language to express these emotions, whether it was a psalmist writing in Hebrew a few thousand years ago or a blogger writing in 2019.
The whole purpose of this book of psalms is to praise God, just as Psalm 150 tells us. What is the purpose of your life? Does your life line up with God’s Word and praising Him as He calls us to do? Maybe 2019 was a spectacular year for you, or maybe you’re happy it’s finally over. Either way, every day God gives us a new chance to praise Him and follow Him with our lives. Every day we can make the choice to praise God with our lives, whether we’re in a season of joy or a season of lament. I pray that all of us would make the choice to praise God today, and all throughout the upcoming year!
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Unlike the lament we saw last week in Psalm 142, in today’s psalm (Psalm 144), we see King David’s confidence in God as a warrior. In this psalm, David both praises God and prays for His involvement with the nation of Israel.
As they often do, this psalm begins in verses 1-2 with praising God. The language and some of the imagery are similar to that of Psalm 18. There is definitely a feeling of being a warrior in this psalm, with these verses containing words like rock, war, battle, fortress, stronghold, deliverer, shield, etc. Battle was a big part of David’s life, and he knows that his obedience to God is the only reason why he has had success in that area. God promised David that He would protect him, and we see that God has kept that promise by giving David military victories over surrounding nations. David knows who God is and therefore comes to Him with boldness.
Knowing who God is leads David to knowing who mankind is. Verses 3-4 show that David is still humble in approaching God, in spite of the boldness we saw in the previous verses. David knows that mankind is nowhere near being worthy of God’s love and protection. We are simply God’s creation. He is all strength and we are weak. He is eternal and we are simply a breath or a fleeting shadow. But in spite of that, God still cares for us and still thinks of us. For more on that, check out Psalm 139.
In verses 5-8, the psalm moves to David asking for God’s involvement in the lives of Israel. David asks for God to come down as He did on Mt. Sinai, with smoke and lightning. David brings up warrior imagery, referring to God as the greatest warrior, who is always able to defeat David’s enemies. We know that God has power over His entire creation, and David is asking God to use that power in Israel’s favor to help them defeat their enemies.
After that battle imagery, David again turns to a hymn of praise in verses 9-10. David has such confidence in God’s deliverance that he is already singing a new song of praise to God because of it. He is confident that God will deliver him and give him victory.
Verse 11 is a repetition of verses 7-8. Its purpose is likely for emphasis that God will help David and the nation of Israel defeat the enemies that are around them.
The psalm ends in verses 12-15 praying for God’s blessing to come on the people. David isn’t just praying for blessings on himself and his own family but for God to bless all of Israel. He prays that God would bless their children, their crops, and their livestock, and also for their safety as a nation. All of this is summed up in the last line of verse 15: “Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.”
That line still rings true for us today - we will be blessed when our God is the Lord. We as sinful humans have a tendency to put many other people and things in the place of God in our lives. But when our God is the Lord, the one true God who saves us, then we will truly be blessed. That blessing doesn’t necessarily mean that we will have all the material things and possessions that we want; it means that God will bless us in His way and in His timing.
The difficulties that face our lives today are different than what David faced, but our God is the same. Most people who are reading this are not commanding armed forces or ruling over a kingdom, but we still need God to guide us in the battles that we do face. We face battles every day in all of the choices we make. We have constant internal battles of choosing God over choosing sin. God will help us be victorious in those battles, but we need to rely on Him and on His power in our lives.
As David says, who are we that God is mindful of us? The answer is that we are God’s creation and He loves us. He wants to fight our battles for us so that we will always be victorious. Put your trust in Him as David did, praise God for who He is, and you will be blessed.
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As we enter this week where we celebrate Thanksgiving, it’s quite appropriate that our psalm to dig into is one that focuses on being thankful to God. When I put together the list of psalms to write on this year, I didn’t intentionally put this psalm on this date with that in mind, so it still amazes me how God works in little things like this!
Psalm 136 is the last of the Hallel psalms (read more about those here) which focus on praise, from the Hebrew verb meaning praise, hallel. From a literary perspective, this psalm is clearly in the form of a hymn. It has a beautiful symmetry to it as well. It starts with an introduction, then moves to a creation hymn, then has two sections of a redemption hymn, then back to a creation hymn, then a conclusion. It focuses on how God continued to be involved in the lives of Israel, and how thankful they are because of that.
One of the great things about this psalm is the repetition throughout. After each phrase, it repeats, “His love endures forever” in the NIV. How’s that for emphasis! The phrasing of this repeated line is different in other English versions, however, In the NASB, it’s “For His lovingkindness is everlasting.” In the ESV, it’s “For his steadfast love endures forever.” In the NLT, it’s “His faithful love endures forever.” While these all have generally the same meaning, why is there such a difference in wording?
The reason, of course, is that this psalm (like all of them) was originally written in Hebrew, not English. The Hebrew phrase is literally, “ki leolam chasdo.” The ki is a preposition usually meaning for. The le on the next word is a preposition mean to or for, and olam is a noun meaning a long time, future, or eternity. These two words together gives the idea of “to the future” or “eternity.” The last noun is from the root chesed, which we don’t have a good English word for, but it conveys the idea of unconditional love, mercy, kindness, and goodness all wrapped up into one. The o on the end simply is a pronominal suffix meaning “his.” So all that to say, there’s some ambiguity when translating. All of our English translations are correct, even though they differ.
The psalm opens with an introduction of thankfulness in verses 1-3. In this introduction, we see that God is good, He is the God of gods, and He is the Lord of lords. While we as humans may think that there are other gods, or may place things in the position of God in our lives, He is truly the only one. He is the only one we should truly be thankful to!
In verses 4-9, we see the first hymn of creation. God is the only one who has done “great wonders” (verse 4). It then gives us a recap of the first 4 days of the creation narrative in Genesis 1, how God made the heavens, the earth, and the great lights. All the while discussing what God made, it keeps repeating that phrase - His love endures forever. He created everything out of love for us, His created people.
Verses 10-22 move on to the first redemption hymn. It starts out in verses 10-15 recounting some of the events of the Exodus, where God rescued and redeemed Israel from slavery in Egypt. It then moves on in verses 16-20 to discuss God leading Israel through the wilderness and striking down the kings of foreign peoples who stood in their way of the Promised Land. In verses 21-22, we see how that conquered land became Israel’s inheritance, their gift from God for being His people.
The psalm goes on to have another short redemption hymn in verses 23-24. Whenever Israel strayed from God, God remembered them and continued to redeem them. The Lord’s continually remembered Israel as a result of the covenant that He made with Abraham back in Genesis 15. God didn’t break His promise to them, even when they were continually disobedient to Him.
Verse 25 is another short creation hymn, sharing that God provides for His people. The psalm concludes with thanksgiving in verse 26 by saying, “Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.”
While those of us reading this psalm today did not experience the mighty works of God in the Exodus and are likely not biologically a part of the nation of Israel, this psalm helps us remember what God has done in our lives as well. What has God rescued you from in your life, like how He rescued Israel from slavery? Or, what are you praying for God to rescue you from? We need to remember that Israel was enslaved for many years before their rescue came, so God will not always rescue us in what we think is good timing.
This psalm also helps us remember that God is the one who created the whole world, including humans. He created us out of love, so we could live to worship, thank, and praise Him in all things. He gave us this world to live in and enjoy.
Most importantly, this psalm helps remind us that God’s love, His steadfast and faithful love, endures forever. His lovingkindness is everlasting. His love will never fail! Even when our lives may seem difficult (and maybe difficult is an understatement), remember that the writer of this psalm repeated that phrase about God’s love in every single verse. That’s how important it is to remember. Can you imagine telling a story, but every other sentence is reminding your listener of God’s love? That’s exactly what this psalmist did because everything that he wrote about God points to His love because God is love.
If you remember nothing else from this blog post, remember this one important thing all the days of your life: God’s love endures forever. We should always be thankful for that above all else.
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“I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” (Psalm 121)
After writing on the very length Psalm 119 over the last two weeks, a short psalm is a nice change! Psalm 121 is only 8 verses, compared to the 22 sets of 8 verses we saw in Psalm 119.
Psalm 121 has the title of “a song of ascents,” and it is one of the 15 psalms with this title (Psalms 120-134). The Mishnah, essentially an early Jewish commentary, suggests that these psalms correspond with the 15 steps of the temple, that they would be said or sung one for each step as the worshiper ascended the steps to go up to the temple. They may not have originally been composed for this purpose, but they were used this way at the second temple in Jerusalem.
The content of this psalm also feels like an ascension. It starts with identifying God as creator, then as our guardian, then a blessing for all time. It is an encouraging psalm and can “ascend” the reader’s mood into one of feeling blessed and encouraged in our walk with God, even if we’re not literally ascending the steps of the temple while reading or reciting it.
This psalm starts in verse 1 with the psalmist lifting his eyes to the hills. Anyone who has visited a mountainous region, especially if they live in a flat area, is generally impressed by the beauty of mountains or even hills. I live in northwest Ohio where everything is super flat, so on the occasions that I’ve been able to travel to Colorado, I just love looking at the mountains! The terrain is so different and so much more beautiful, though I suppose flat farming fields have their own beauty as well.
The psalmist questions where his help comes from. We, too, can ask that same question in our own lives. When we’re discouraged, where do we turn? Do we turn to God, or do we turn to the ways of this world? God does give us people and things in this world that will help us through difficult times, but the most important place to turn is to Him - the one who created this world and all of us.
The psalmist’s answer to this question is found in verse 2. His help comes from God the creator. The one who made this world is the one who is sovereign over it and is fully capable of helping with any difficulty we encounter. God as the creator has unlimited power!
What exactly does God do for us? That answer can be found in the rest of the psalm (verses 3-8). God keeps us from slipping. God does not take naps where He’s not paying attention, but He constantly watches over us. We see this phrase of God watching over is 5 times in these verses - clearly, this is an important idea that the psalmist is emphasizing. The pagans would consider their gods to be sleeping at times, so this is in direct contrast to their ideas. The one true God never sleeps!
God shades us from the extreme heat of the sun, meaning that He will protect us from dangers. While that doesn’t mean that nothing bad will ever happen to us, it does mean that He is always with us to help us through anything we experience. There be many things in life that God has protected us from that we don’t even know about. He is a good God who loves His people, though we are still sinful and often cause negative things to happen in our own lives. But God is always there with us, watching over us, no matter what.
The climax of this psalm occurs in verses 7-8: “The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” The psalmist has built up to this point, and this is his emphatic conclusion. The Lord will continue to watch over us in the future, even until eternity!
The God that the psalmist was writing to so many centuries ago is the same God that we worship today. He does not change. He continues to watch over His people in all things. He is still the God who created all things, and He still has power over all of His creation.
What are you going through today that feels like it may be bigger than God? Whatever it is, God is walking through it with you and He has power over the situation. Put your trust fully in Him and lift up your eyes to the hills - God is where your help comes from.
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Are you ready for some Bible trivia? The shortest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 117 with just 2 verses, and the longest chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119 with 176 verses. Psalm 118, which we’re looking at today, is the chapter that most consider to be the exact center of the Bible (though there is some dispute on that depending on which version you’re using).
Again depending on your Bible version, if you count verses, the exact center verse of the Bible falls in this psalm as well, Psalm 118:8. It says, “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humans.” What a great truth to keep at the center of not only our Bibles but our lives!
But this psalm isn’t just a placekeeper for some nifty Biblical trivia. It is also one of thanksgiving and praise to God for His eternal love, which is way more significant than simply its place in this great book. It is the last in the collection of Egyptian Hallel psalms, the ones used in the Passover celebration, praising God for His deliverance of Israel from Egypt.
The psalm starts out in verse 1 with a familiar refrain: “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” We’ve seen this wording or variations of it a few times throughout the psalms. The word “good” here is the same one that God uses to describe Creation multiple times in Genesis 1. The word translated as “love” is a Hebrew word that we really don’t have a good English translation for. It means a combination of mercy, kindness, and love all wrapped up into one. This same word and phrasing are repeated in verses 2-4 for emphasis and so that everyone knows and agrees that God’s perfect love will endure forever!
Because of this belief that God’s love will endure forever, we see what that means in the following verses. In verse 5, we see that God has delivered the psalmist. In verses 6-7, we see the psalmist’s conviction that God is always with him and because of that, he doesn’t need to worry about anything, even his enemies. In verses 8-9, we see the psalmist’s confidence in God over mankind.
In verses 10-12, the psalmist explains how bad things were with his enemies so that his praise of God is even more significant. He emphasizes that “in the name of the Lord” he was able to defeat his enemies. It was only through God’s power that he persevered, which is why he returns to thanksgiving to God in verses 13-14. Verse 14 is another key verse that we can remember for our lives: “The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.” We only have strength in our lives because of God, and He is the one to truly defend us from any enemies we may face. God is the only one who can truly save us.
The works the Lord has done are great causing for rejoicing, as we see in verses 15-16. We see the repetition of the phrase, “The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things,” which again is for emphasis and to drive that point home to the people reciting this psalm.
In verses 17-18, the psalm changes from one of more communal praise and thanksgiving to focus on the individual. After all, a community of people cannot be praising God if the individuals who make up that community are not focused on that praise. We see the psalmist emphasizing that although bad things may happen in his life, God has continued to let him live so that he can proclaim the good that God is doing.
Verses 19-21 show us that a person must be righteous to be in God’s presence, and the symbolism of entering through a gate is used. The psalmist is considered righteous because of his trust in God and His deliverance, but we know that today we can be considered righteous because of our faith in God and what He has done through Jesus to bring us true salvation from the enemy of sin and death, not just deliverance in a battle from earthly enemies. Our focus is not on doing good things but on living out the faith that we have in Jesus’ saving work, which results in actions that praise God.
Verse 22 says, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” This verse shows us that just because some people reject what we’re doing or who we are, God can still use us for great things (verses 23-24). When building a stone building, there needs to be a cornerstone, a foundational piece where the stone walls begin. In modern times, the cornerstone is more of a symbolic thing, but back then it was an essential piece of the building’s foundation. The builders may reject a certain stone for use in a wall because it doesn’t fit what they need it for, but God can use that for His glory and even make it a foundational piece. Think about that in your own life; have you ever been rejected from something, and then God has turned that situation around and used it in an amazing way?
In verse 25, the people ask God to continue the mighty works that He has already done. In verse 26, the people are assured that they will be blessed if they truly approach God in His name and for the right reasons. The people respond to this blessing in verse 27 with continued praise of God.
Verses 28-29 conclude the psalm with praise of God, including repetition of verse 1: “You are my God, and I will praise you; you are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.”
What can we learn from this psalm for our lives today? Our confidence should be in God rather than in our fellow humans because God is the one who delivers us. He will use us for His purposes when we follow Him with our lives and approach Him with the praise that He is due. He may discipline us as needed while on this earth, but His love for us truly does endure forever. He is the only one who is truly good, and He is the one who always deserves our praise!
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“When Israel came out of Egypt, Jacob from a people of foreign tongue, Judah became God’s sanctuary, Israel his dominion.
Psalm 114 is one of the 6 psalms (113-118) that are called the Egyptian Hallel psalms. Hallel is the Hebrew verb for praise, and it’s where we get our word “hallelujah” from. (Adding the “-jah” at the end makes it more emphatic in Hebrew.) Additionally, Psalms 120-136 are called the Great Hallel, and Psalms 146-150 are called the Concluding Hallel psalms. The Egyptian Hallel psalms are called such because they feature prominently in the Passover celebration. Traditionally, Psalms 113-114 were read before the meal and 115-118 were read after it. So, these psalms praise God for His leading Israel out of Egypt.
Psalm 114 starts out retelling the event of the exodus from Egypt in verses 1-2. The idea that they were delivered from a “foreign tongue” implies that they were in slavery in that land. They lived as foreigners, not as people who were accepted as citizens. God chose Israel to be His “sanctuary” and “dominion.” Even though the nation was later divided into two kingdoms (Judah in the south and Israel in the north), they were all still God’s chosen nation. God made a covenant promise to dwell among the whole people, all twelve tribes, and he brought all of them out of slavery in Egypt.
Verses 3-6 are interesting because they tell us of nature’s reaction to Israel as God’s chosen people. “The sea looked and fled” is clearly a reference to God parting the waters of the Red Sea so that the people of Israel could cross it on dry land (Exodus 14). Similarly, “the Jordan turned back” refers to Israel crossing the Jordan River on dry land (Joshua 3). The references to mountains and hills likely refer to God giving His commandments to the people on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19-20).
The questions we see in verses 5-6 seem to indicate that the psalmist is calling on nature to bear witness to the mighty power of God. The Red Sea, the Jordan River, and Mt Sinai were all witness to spectacular events of God in our world. The answer to all of these “why” questions is, of course, because God has power and dominion over all His creation.
This answer is echoed in verse 7, where the earth is called to tremble in God’s presence. The phrase “at the presence of” is repeated, which shows that this is the climax of the psalm: everything else builds up to the mighty power of God! The Lord is the mighty God over all creation, and He identifies Himself as the God of Jacob, the God of His people of Israel.
The psalmist concludes in verse 8 with one more example of God using nature to fulfill His purposes and show His power: getting water from the rock (Exodus 17:1-7). This may also reference the prophecy in Isaiah 41:18.
So what does all this mean for us today? It’s great that God led Israel out of Egypt, but how does that affect us living in the modern world of 2019? Well, God is the same God today as He was back at the time of Exodus. God never changes. Since God did miracles like that for the people of Israel, how much more will He continue to pour out blessings and miracles for us today! He is the same God, and now His chosen people are everyone who has faith in the sacrificial death and resurrection of His Son Jesus. All of us who follow Jesus are God’s chosen people, regardless of nationality. Nature still bears witness to the power of God today. Are you watching for God’s almighty power in your life?
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Why was it, sea, that you fled? Why, Jordan, did you turn back? Why, mountains, did you leap like rams, you hills, like lambs?
Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs of water.” (Psalm 114)
“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” (Psalm 107:1)
If that verse sounds familiar, it could be because it’s also the first verse of Psalm 106 that I wrote about last week. But after that verse, this psalm differs somewhat from the previous one.
Psalm 107 begins the fifth and final book within the book of Psalms. These “books” are just groups of psalms to divide up the book. Some scholars believe that this was to mimic the 5 books of the Torah (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). This psalm is known as a thanksgiving-wisdom psalm because it starts out urging its reader to give thanks and it ends with encouraging its reader to have wisdom.
Verses 1-3 say, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.” Notice the focus on “the redeemed of the Lord” in these verses. It’s a common misconception that those who follow God live lives that are free of trouble; on the contrary, here we see that God has redeemed His people from adversity. God continues to redeem His people from whatever adversity we face, though not always in the way we might want.
While the reference to God gathering His people may have been a bit unusual for the nation of Israel since they were generally all living in the same place, this is especially relevant today in the context of following Jesus. Today, followers of Jesus are found all around the world, and God gathers all of us to Him as a part of His family.
Now, before we move on in this psalm, I want you to take a moment and start thinking of reasons that you have to be thankful in your life. You can probably come up with quite a long list, right? Well, verses 4-32 of this psalm are Israel’s list of reasons to be thankful! I encourage you to read it, but I’ll give you the highlights here.
Verses 4-9 speak of them being wanderers in the desert. While that doesn’t sound like a reason to be thankful, it is because God delivered them when they needed Him to. They were hungry and they were thirsty, and God gave them food and drink. They had no place to call their home, but God led them to a city where they could settle.
Verses 10-16 speak of them being prisoners, in chains and subjected to forced hard labor. Again while that doesn’t sound like something that would make people thankful, again God saved them from that. He broke away their chains and freed them from their captivity.
Verses 17-22 speak of them being a sick people. They were so sick they nearly died - a perfect time to be thankful for your life, right? But again, when they cried out to God, He healed them and delivered them from their physical illnesses.
Verses 23-32 speak of them being sailors on the sea. That doesn’t sound so bad, but the sea was a very dangerous place where one storm could end the lives of many. But God calmed the stormy seas and delivered them safely back to land.
When you started making your list of thing you were thankful for, did you include all the seemingly bad things that have happened in your life? Are you thankful for a loved one with cancer? Are you thankful for natural disasters? I’m guessing you’re generally not thankful for those things.
But here’s the thing. If you read that whole passage, you may have noticed that each one of these sections has a verse that says, “Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind.” Each and every time that God’s people went through difficult times, when they called out to God He delivered them. In spite of all that seemed so negative, they were called to give thanks to God for that! No matter what’s happening in life, God’s love will never fail and He will continue to do wonderful deeds for mankind, even if it doesn’t seem like it from our perspective.
The psalm continues in verses 33-42, giving reasons to praise God. Even though the people went through all this bad stuff, God was still working good for them. God has the authority to make bad things good, to make water flow in the desert, and to provide food for the hungry, just to name a few. He is always worthy of our praise, even if we don’t feel like He’s doing what we want Him to. Fortunately, He is God and we are not! We don’t know what’s best for us as humankind, but God does. He is always worthy of our praise for continuing to love and guide us through whatever happens in life.
The psalm closes in verse 43 with this: “Let the one who is wise heed these things and ponder the loving deeds of the Lord.” If we are unwise, then we’ll just get angry or depressed when bad things happen to us. But if we’re wise, we’ll take to heart the things listed in this psalm. Even when it feels like we’re going through the worst time of our lives, God still loves us! His love will never fail. When we call out to Him, He will deliver us! It may not be the way we want or expect Him to, but we can always count on His unfailing love. We can always give thanks to God because His love truly will endure forever.
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I attended a Lutheran high school, and each school year we would have a Bible passage as the year’s theme. One of the years (I honestly don’t remember which), our theme passage for the year was Psalm 103, I believe verses 1-5 specifically. I decided to memorize that passage because memorization is a great way to keep Scripture close to your heart. I know I did memorize those verses pretty well (I still remember them), but somewhere around verse 7 or 8 I fizzled out on my memorization. But even without having memorized the whole 22 verses of this psalm, it’s still a great one to read through and take a deeper look at!
This psalm is one of general thanksgiving and praise to God for the blessings that God has given to us. While much of it does have to do with Israel specifically, we as followers of Jesus Christ today can still relate this psalm to our lives.
It starts out full of praise in verses 1-5: “Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
When we praise God, it begins with our self and our attitude. When the psalmist talks about praising God with his “soul” and all his “inmost being” (verse 1), that’s his whole person - there’s no part of him that is not praising God! I can only imagine what it would be like to be so lost in praising God that we may praise Him that fully with our entire selves. It’ll be awesome when we finally get to experience that in heaven someday.
Praising God focuses first on His “holy name.” Remember God’s name, which is linked very closely to His reputation in Hebrew culture, causes us to remember all the things that God has done for us and the benefits that we have received by being His people (verse 2). He forgives our sins, He heals our diseases, He redeems us, He gives us love and compassion, and He satisfies our desires (verses 3-5). Now, all that doesn’t mean we’ll get everything we ask for since our desires are often rooted in our sinful nature; but it does mean that when our desires are aligned with God’s will, He will give them to us.
The next section of this psalm (verses 6-19) is a little more specifically geared toward God being the King over Israel. Verse 6 introduces this section by saying, “The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed.” God’s focus is on righteousness (right living) and justice. God desires to right what is wrong with this world by judging the oppressors.
In verses 7-12, the psalmist discusses God’s character as revealed to Moses. Through Israel’s sins in Moses’ day such as the people making the golden calf, God revealed that He will be gracious and forgive them. God does not give us the punishment we deserve either but instead He continues to love us with His great love and give us His grace.
The psalm goes on in verses 13-19 to explain God’s compassion on His children because He is our Creator and our Father. God’s love will be with us forever because our identity is in Him! We should never take His grace and forgiveness for granted, because we will keep messing up and He will continue to be perfect and loving toward us. Verse 19 concludes this section: “The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.” God created us and this world that we live in, so He is in charge over it. We should praise Him because His Kingdom is one of love, grace, and forgiveness when we are His followers, instead of one of harsh judgment for our continual sins.
The last few verses of this psalm return to praising God: “Praise the Lord, you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, who obey his word. Praise the Lord, all his heavenly hosts, you his servants who do his will. Praise the Lord, all his works everywhere in his dominion. Praise the Lord, my soul” (verses 20-22). It’s not just us as created people who praise God but all of the angelic hosts praise Him too! All creatures, whether in heaven or on earth, are called to praise God because He reigns over us all.
What has God done in your life to deserve your praise? If you can’t think of anything, remember the fact that you are a living human being; that only happened because God wants YOU in this world. You are part of HIs plan to redeem this world back to that perfect state where all of creation will be praising Him forever. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, God will forgive all your sins - praise Him for that. He will satisfy our desires with good things that line up with His will - praise Him for that. Praise Him for the life that He has given you and what is yet to come.
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“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations” (Psalm 100).
After 8 months of writing on the psalms, we made it to triple digits! I haven’t been writing on every psalm of course, but getting to #100 still feels like a great milestone. We still have 4 more months of psalms to go, so we’re not done yet!
We have seen a number of psalms of praise in our look through this book, but each one has its own character and feel, just as each of our modern songs has a unique feel to it. This one is short, only 6 verses, and it follows a repeating pattern of calling us to be thankful, remembering God’s promises, calling us to be thankful again, and again remembering God’s promises.
Verses 1-2 are the first call to thankfulness in this short psalm. “All the earth” is commanded to come before God to praise Him. Everyone is to worship Him with “gladness” and “joyful songs.” The Hebrew word in verse 2 that we see translated as “worship” also means to work or to serve. It’s our occupation and our obligation to praise God, but we should not simply praise Him out of a sense of duty but because we desire to.
Verse 3 tells us to “know that the Lord is God.” This verb for knowing is the most intimate way that someone can be known; don’t just know that God exists, but really get to know who He is. He made us, so as our creator He knows us intimately. We have the opportunity to get to know Him as well. He’s not some far off, distant God, but He promises to us that we are His people. He wants to be in relationship with us. The image of a shepherd and his sheep would be a common one for the era when this psalm was written. It depicts how God truly does take care of us and care for us, and how much greater His knowledge is than our own.
Verse 4 is another call to thanksgiving in this psalm. While verse 2 said “come before” and verse 4 says “enter,” those are actually the same root word in Hebrew, and these sections of the psalm have similar verbs to each other. Thanksgiving and praise go together. When we are truly thankful for what God has done, we naturally want to praise Him.
Verse 5 gives us more reasons to praise God for who He is. He is good, and He promises that His love and faithfulness will continue forever. The word translated as “love” here is a Hebrew word that we really don’t have a good English equivalent for. It’s like a combination of mercy, kindness, love, and loyalty all wrapped up into one. God is all of those things, and we should praise Him simply because that is His character and He will never stray from it.
Have you pondered God’s character and your relationship with Him lately? Perhaps today would be a good time to take a few moments and do that. Pray Psalm 100 to God and remember that He made us and will always love us. There’s nothing we can do to make God love us any less, and there’s nothing we can do to make Him love us any more. We are His people, and He loves us because of that relationship we have as His family. He will always be loving, merciful, faithful, and good to us.
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The title of Psalm 92 is “A psalm. A song. For the Sabbath day.” While we often find that multiple psalms share these titles, this is the only one with this particular title. That is significant because it specifically says it’s for the Sabbath day. For Jews, the Sabbath day was not only a day of rest and refraining from work, but it was also their day to focus on worshiping God. This psalm helps bring words to that focus.
“It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, proclaiming your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night, to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp” (Psalm 92:1-3).
We see right at the start of this psalm that “it is good to praise the Lord.” It’s a simple statement, but it also has deep meaning. Why is it good to praise and worship the Lord? He is a good God. He has created us. He loves us. When we continually turn away from Him, He continually reaches out to us and provides a way to restore our relationship. He sent His Son to die and be raised for us that we may live with Him eternally. The list could go on and on of all the reasons that it is good to praise the Lord!
In case you don’t know how to praise the Lord, the psalm goes on with some suggestions: proclaim His love and faithfulness throughout the day, and you can even use music. We often associate praising God with music; in fact, I’ve heard it says many times in congregational services where the “worship time” is equated to the music and singing time. The reality is that we should be in constant worship of the Lord with our entire lives. Our worship of God should not be limited to singing songs on a Sunday morning, though that is one way we can praise the Lord.
Other reasons to praise God are found in verses 4-5: “For you make me glad by your deeds, Lord; I sing for joy at what your hands have done. How great are your works, Lord, how profound your thoughts!” While not everything God does will make us happy all the time, He does have our good as His ultimate focus when we’re following Him (see Romans 8:28). We can look at all the things God has done in our own lives, the lives of those around us, and His deeds recorded in the Bible and we can see how great He is. We cannot understand His thoughts, but we know they are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).
In verses 6-8, we see two responses to God: the wicked don’t understand and will be destroyed, but those who follow God will forever exalt and praise Him. Verse 6 uses the phrase, “Senseless people do not know.” The word in Hebrew for “senseless” has the connotation of behavior like animals, who don’t necessarily have common sense. The wicked are like animals in that they are focused on themselves and not on God. The Godly, however, will exalt and praise the Lord forever.
Because of the wicked people’s response (or lack thereof) to God, they will be judged and perish. That is described in more detail in verses 9-11 of this psalm. Enemies will perish and evildoers will be scattered. In contrast, verses 12-14 tell how the righteous ones will flourish. While the wicked are swept away, the righteous are planted like a tree - which, interestingly, is the same metaphorical ideas as Psalm 1.
This psalm closes in verse 15 by giving words that the righteous proclaim: “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.” This psalm started with saying that it is good to praise the Lord, and the psalm closes with that same idea. We know that the Lord is always good and faithful, and for that He deserves our constant praise. He is the only one who is truly reliable and always perfectly good, all the time!
What part of your life reflects God’s goodness? Where are you witnessing God’s goodness and praising Him for it? Or, if you don’t feel like your life is going very well right now, can you identify with the wicked and need to turn your life back toward one that honors and praises God? How do you praise God, other than singing some songs on a Sunday morning? I encourage you this week to think about praising God with your whole life, because He is always good to His people!
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