Verse Text: Psalm 150: 1 Praise the LORD! Praise God in his heavenly dwelling; praise him in his mighty heaven! 2 Praise him for his mighty works; praise his unequaled greatness! 3 Praise him with a blast of the trumpet; praise him with the lyre and harp! 4 Praise him with the tambourine and dancing; praise him with stringed instruments and flutes! 5 Praise him with a clash of cymbals; praise him with loud clanging cymbals. 6 Let everything that lives sing praises to the LORD! Praise the LORD!
The final shout of the Psalter is the imperative: “Praise the Lord!” Throughout this vast body of literature, we have been called to this again and again. The study of the psalms would be a futile exercise if we failed to hear and heed this exhortation. The greatest truth of God is that He is worthy of our worship, and the deepest truth about ourselves is that we have been created to worship Him. When we actually do this, we find the real and eternal end or telos of our existence. Why is it that so many people are hard, cold, loveless, fearful, introverted, sad, scared, empty, angry, violent, cunning, self-centered, self-consumed? The answer, bottom line, is that they have never really worshiped God. They have never bowed to Him, submitted to Him, seen Him in His glory and love, and risen up to praise Him, to make joyful noises and shouts before Him. They have never known this release, or if they have known it for a moment, they have refused to stay there, wedded to worship, dwelling in the presence and receiving the power of almighty God granted to us through His Son in His Spirit. As the end of this age draws near, the issues are increasingly clear. The battle lines are drawn. We either worship the living God, or we worship the devil with all his masks and disguises. But how shall we worship? Where will we learn to worship Him? The first answer is Biblical. The psalms will teach us and reform our worship, if we will hear them. They will lead us to God-centered worship, rather than to human-centered aesthetics or theatrics. They will teach us that worship is surrender to the great King who reigns, and we will make that surrender. They will show us how to praise Him, recounting His character and His works, which make Him worthy of our praise and evoke our joy. We will also learn to wait upon Him, to sit in the silence, to listen for His voice. We will grow in the expectancy that we will hear His living word addressed to us. We will also learn to petition Him as our King, and expect to receive His answers and see Him prove that He is the living God who is active in our midst once again. We will expect to see His salvation, healing, deliverance, peace, and comfort as we hear His word and see His work. All of this will result in greater and greater surges of praise ascending to His throne, until that day when we are caught up to be with Him forever.
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Psalm 150 ends the Psalter with a call to praise. The word praise is repeated thirteen times in six verses. This psalm is a little introduction to and summary of what real worship is: expressing joyful delight in the presence of God. Commentators identify this psalm as a hymn. Its author and date are unknown; it is timeless. The thought moves from what to do before God and where to do it (v. 1) to why to do it (v. 2) and concludes with how to do it (vv. 3-6). What and Where? v. 1 Praise the Lord!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty firmament! Verse 1 opens with the common exhortation: “Praise the Lord!” Written in the plural, it addresses all of us together. It answers the question of what we are to do when we come into the presence of the mighty King. We come offering Him our cries and shouts of glory to His name. We come expressing our love, our delight, and our adoration to Him. But where are we to do this? First, we are to praise God “in His sanctuary.” This, of course, is His temple or palace in Jerusalem. Down through the generations, the Jews went up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord as long as the temple stood. With the coming of Jesus, however, the veil of the temple, which separated the people from the holy presence of God, was removed, and the temple itself was later destroyed in judgment. Now we worship God through the temple of the risen body of Jesus Himself (John 2:13ff), and as believers, we are all incorporated into that body. Also our individual bodies (in reflection of His) have become little temples where God chooses to dwell by His Spirit (I Cor. 6:19). Today, as we gather in corporate worship, we are the living temple of God, and we are the body of Christ in ministry together. We also worship God “in his mighty firmament!” He is to be worshiped across the vast expanse of heaven. Heaven and earth are to join together and become one in praising Him (see Psalm 148).
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