Let’s PRAISE GOD everyday WHILE we are yet ALIVE!
June 28
Bible Reading: Psalms Chapters 143-150
Let’s PRAISE GOD everyday WHILE we are yet ALIVE!
"Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my
soul! While I live I will praise the Lord; I will sing praises to my God while
I have my being." (Psalms 146:1-2)
Psalm 146, a
psalm of descriptive praise, is part of the grand pinnacle of praise in this
book of praises. Each of the last five psalms begins and ends with the Hebrew
word “Hallelujah!”, however, Psalm 146 is the only one of the five containing
the personal pronoun “I” (v. 2). The call to praise (vv. 1, 2) is addressed by
the psalmist to himself as he makes a vow to praise God for the rest of his
life!
This psalm
can be divided into three parts: praise
to God (vv. 1–4); power of God (vv.
5–6) and preservation by God (vv. 7–10).
The psalmist, in his ecstatic joy in the Lord, urged any who heard him to sing
praise to God alone, for human rulers, no matter how powerful, are mere
mortals, unworthy of such adulation. Only God, the Creator of all things, gives
hope and exercises righteous rule in the earth. Only God provides for the
hungry, the confined, the blind, the oppressed, the righteous, the stranger,
the orphan, and the widow.
What the
psalmist preached, he practiced. He would not dare call upon us to praise God
without himself having first done so and he resolves to praise God all the days
while he is alive. Let us understand that our life will not go on forever. It
is our moral duty to praise God while we have life, for no man shall praise Him
from the grave. "The dead do not praise the
Lord, nor any who go down into silence. But we will bless the Lord from this
time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord!" (Psalms 115:17-18)
Bible
scholar Warren W. Wiersbe in his classic “With
the Word Bible Commentary” has divided this psalm by four different faucets of praise, as listed below:
- Praise is an evidence of life (vv. 1–2), not just physical life,
but the life of God in our hearts.
- Praise is an encouragement to faith (vv. 3–4). When our faith is low,
our praise will gradually subside, but when we praise God, our faith will grow.
- Praise is an encouragement to hope (vv. 5–7). When our hope is in God, we
can praise Him no matter what the circumstances may be. Faith is the upward
look, and hope is the forward look.
- Praise is an encouragement to love (vv. 8–10), our love for God and
others, and God’s love for us. When we love someone, we trust that person, and
greater trust brings greater love.
So, our life,
faith, hope, and love—all are bound up in our experience of praise. As we
praise God for saving us from sin, we should remember also to thank Him for
creating us in the first place. This gives us more than enough reason for praising
Him every day of our lives. Let us praise
God everyday while we are yet alive on this earth!
"Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name" (Heb 13:15). "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!" (Psalms 150:6)
