Category Archives: Psalm of praise
Psalm 134
What does it look like to live a life praising God? The psalmist calls us once again to praise the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. In other words, praise the sovereign God of the universe.
We praise God in many ways. We praise God by offering of our times, our talents and our finances to God. We also praise God by spending time with God and by worshiping God. We worship through song, through prayer and through meditation on Scripture. (Like this one, for example.)
How do we position our bodies when we praise God? There are many ways, one way is not “right”. But there certainly is evidence in this psalm that one way is to lift our hands in praise to God. Lifting our hands to God is one way of surrendering to our sovereign God. It is one way of saying, not my way, but your way Lord. Try it sometime! At first it might seem awkward, especially if you are the only one raising your hands in praise during a worship service, but as you try this more and more it becomes a natural way of reaching out to God and giving your life over to your maker.
This psalm might have been a benediction due to the final words, may the Lord bless you……Amen.
Psalm 126
Read Psalm 126 here in the New Living Translation
This is a powerful psalm of praise and renewal of life. It was written to celebrate the return of the Hebrew people from exile in Babylon. This event was a dream come true. They couldn’t believe the good news that they could return home to Jerusalem. They were so happy that they were singing and shouting for joy. Most importantly, they gave all the credit and glory to God.
How many times in our lives has the amazing thing that we dreamed about come true? This could be a wedding, a good job, a baby, a good grade, a new friend, whatever seemed to be the impossible. Did we shout for joy? Did we dance? Did we give the credit and glory to God?
This was true renewal of life itself. The writer tries to describe this renewal as best as possible. Then the writer begs for more. Lord, now restore our fortunes like a stream flowing and giving life in the desert.
We are reminded that the people of God live “by both memory and hope.”(Clinton McCann’s words) Even if you are in a time of tears now, new possibilities await. God is the author of all good things. You might be planting in tears now, but the harvest will come. Be patient and continue to make your request to God in faith that through God, all things are possible.
Psalm 125
The psalms we are currently reading continue to be psalms of ascent, psalms that were sung as the pilgrims made their way to Jerusalem. It is no wonder that the pilgrims sang of Mount Zion, as that was, at the time, synonymous with the Temple. The Temple of course was the Holy place, and the Israelites understood that God was in residence in the temple. The temple housed the Ark of The Covenant, which was the most holy relic for the Israelites. It was often said that the Ark of The Covenant was the footstool of God. So, it is no wonder that the people sang of what they were about to see as they approached Jerusalem; they spoke of the places they were going to see in relation to their God. (Note, they would not have seen the Arc itself, as that was in the most holy place within the temple.)
Notice that the closing statement is, “Peace be upon Israel”. This is no ordinary peace, this is the Shalom that is full wholeness–completeness for all people and all lands. The Hebrew word is Shalom, and this Shalom refers to the final reign of God. This is the Shalom that existed in the Garden of Eden prior to what we call The Fall, when human disobedience ushered in Sin which destroyed the Shalom.
Christians see this ultimate Shalom in the fulfillment of the second coming of Jesus. Jesus’ ministry brought in the beginning of the Kingdom of God, the spark that was the beginning of what will come. Ultimately Jesus is the one that offers peace to all followers (See John 20.) Christians understand that the final peace will come when Jesus comes again and a new heaven and earth will be ushered in where the “lion and the lamb” will lie down one with another.
May peace reign in your home and in your land.
Psalm 118
Psalm 118 is the last of the Hallel collection, the psalms that are used during the Passover Feast. We see the continued themes of thanksgiving for deliverance. We see the continued theme of God’s chesed (steadfast love) which endures forever.
What makes this psalm unique is the way it moves back from the first person to the plural; we see a shift from “I” to “us”. This psalm is partly the prayer of one person and partly communal. For this reason there are some scholars who think the one who wrote the psalm might have been the king.
It is also interesting that this psalm moves from giving thanks to God for deliverance, and then calls upon God for deliverance from the current situation. (Lord, save us.)
It is easy for Christians to see how this psalm can easily apply to Messiah. There are some who identify the speaker as Jesus. In the Gospels, we see the crowds greeting Jesus as described in this psalm on Palm Sunday, right as Jesus entered Jerusalem. Christians see the “Stone the builder rejected that has become the capstone” as Jesus. We see these same words used in the synoptic gospels, in the book of Acts and in 1 Peter, all brought forward from this psalm.
So how about you? Which verse speaks to your soul from this psalm?
Psalm 117; Extra Lectio Divina
1 Praise the Lord, all you nations;
extol him, all you peoples.
2 For great is his love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Praise the Lord. (NIV)
Since psalm 117 is the shortest psalm we are offering a different opportunity for us in reading this psalm. You are invited to practice a little lectio divina with this psalm. Lectio divina is an ancient monastic practice of reading a short passages of scripture and letting the words reverberate into the very depth of your soul. The idea is that your read this psalm. Let it sit for a minute, then read it again. Read it again in another translation. Here it is in the translation called The Message:
Praise God, everybody! Applaud God, all people!
His love has taken over our lives;
God’s faithful ways are eternal.
Hallelujah!
Now read this psalm out loud. What jumps out at you? Read that verse several times. Take time to meditate on this verse itself.
For me, the words that jump out are, “Great is his love for us.” That love is not just for me, but for all the nations-for everyone.
Read this psalm one more time in the King James version:
O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord.
If you ever thought of memorizing scripture, this would be a perfect place to start.
How have you experienced God’s faithfulness in your life?
Psalm 117
Psalm 117 is a short Psalm with only two verses, yet its power and beauty is far greater. This Psalm is a Psalm of praise; it’s a universal call to worship. All nations and all people are invited to sing praise to our creator God.
Why should we praise God? The Psalmist gives us some direction in reminding us that God has a great unwavering love for us. AND the faithfulness of God is always present and God continues to be faithful even when we are not for God cannot deny who He is (2 Tim. 2:13).
There are many reasons to offer praise to God from the continued blessings and grace we receive everyday, to God’s presence with us in the great times and the dark times, to a life that can be filled with purpose and life, to so many more things in which God has graced us with. Yet all these blessings from God can be wrapped up in the truth that we are truly loved by God. We are the beloved of God and that steadfast loves endures forever! What are you thankful for today?
My Bible has a lot of exclamation points in this chapter, which is beautiful. Praise is springing forth from an overflowing heart of joy and thankfulness! God is love and God is faithful. Love is the very nature of who God is and our response to God’s continued love and faithfulness is a response of praise.
How far should our praise go? How should we praise? Through song, prayer, or attending worship? All these and so much more! Our way to praise is a response with offering our entire lives to God and allowing God to mold, shape, and use us. Let us praise God with our lives and always remember even in the times we fail that God is love and God’s faithfulness is always present. We are covered in grace, let us respond joyfully!
Psalm 115
What a great psalm. This psalm writer has a sense of humor. The writer begins by giving glory to the One true God of Israel, and then mocks the other nations who worship idols who are mocking the one true God. Perhaps our human nature likes this because it totally makes fun of the idols.
Can you picture this scene of rhetoric? Your idols are only made of human hands, what good can that do? Our God is the One who made the humans! They cannot walk, they cannot hear and those who made them will be just like them. In short, is something made out of human hands worth putting your entire trust in?
We ask the same question a few thousand years later. Is something made out of human ingenuity worth putting the trust of your life in? Is something that is inanimate worth putting all your hopes in? We can say a resounding no to that question.
The psalmist reminds us, it is the LORD (remember all caps means the proper name of God), who blesses you and who created you. The highest of the heavens belong to God, but he has given the earth to humans.
What are we to do with this earth that God the creator of the universe has given to us? We are to be good stewards of it. Back in the story of creation, in Genesis we see how we are to care for the earth. How can you care for what God has entrusted us with?
In closing, this psalm reminds us that we are a community set apart. A community with a common understanding that we are different because we put our trust in God and others put their trust in idols. To put our trust in God means that we intend to live first and foremost to the glory of God. That becomes a huge statement of our faith.
Click here for a great worship song about not worshiping idols and using our hands for God’s glory. Give Us Clean Hands, by Chris Tomlin
Psalm 113
Read Psalm 113 here in the message version. (To change this to NIV just click the drop down box on version.)
What a great psalm! This is a testimony to who God is and to the very character of God. From the rising sun to the place where it sets, let the name of the Lord be praised! Have you ever watched the sun rise? Sitting on the beach this summer watching the sun rise reminded me, once again that God, is the one who set the world in motion, but is also the one who continues to allow the rhythm of creation to work on a daily basis. Watching the sunrise was a reverent event. There was a hush over the beach as the sun once again rose to take its position in the sky. It was a daily reminder of the power of our God, who “causes the sun to rise on the just and the unjust on a daily basis.”
Verse 9 reminds us that God not only makes the created rhythms of the world, but also cares about the individuals–about all the people, even the woman who is barren. Remember that the psalm writer lived in a time when the purpose of women was to bear children, and they were to bear sons. The barren woman was a disgrace to her family and to her husband. The writer is reminding us that the God of all creation is also active in our personal lives. So much so that God cares about the woman who has been shamed and lost her honor. Yes, that same God cares about you and me. Let the name of the Lord be praised!
Psalm 111
Praise God for his constant flowing love.
One of the reasons the psalms are so powerful is that they represent the common everyday person’s experiences in daily life. So we see joy, we see anger, we see thanksgiving and we see laments.
This is a psalm of praise and goes hand in hand with the next psalm, psalm 112. They are each acrostic psalms, that is each Hebrew poetic line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. That poetry is lost in the English translation.
Never the less, we have an invitation to praise God: We praise God for God’s mighty works; we praise God for graciousness and compassion; we praise God for the works of his hands are faithful, we praise God for his steadfast love.
So what have you praised God for this day? What would your acrostic poem of praise to God our Creator look like? Maybe this is the day to write your own psalm of praise. Try it, write down the first letter of the alphabet under each other, and go ahead and praise the Lord!
I praise God for…..
A- Always being with me.
B- Birthday of my friend
C- Children that God has blessed me with…….
What does your acrostic praise to God look like? You are welcome to post it in the comments, or just post one of the things for which you praise God.
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