Psalm 150: Praise Him!

by Peter Roxburgh

Psalm 150 (NIV)

Praise the Lord; Praise God; Praise Him (vs1)

Praise Him; Praise Him (vs2, 3, 4, 5)

Praise the Lord; Praise the Lord (vs 6)

Do you get a feeling the Psalmist was making a point?

As we have blogged through the Psalms, we've covered so many different topics, opened up about personal situations and struggles, we've been challenged and encouraged in so many different ways and heard lots of stories. We've learnt about God's character, our characters, how to respond in different situations and so on.

One thing that is clear is that regardless of life's troubles, circumstances, our imperfect understanding of God, our own limitations and everything that we go through, one thing is true - God is worthy and deserving of our praise.

May we be a people who continue to live out a lifestyle of praise.

Psalm 149: Worshipping warriors

by Chantalle Wookey

Psalm 149 (NIV)

I was so excited to realise that this is the Psalm I end my blogging journey with, as I love it! It is a challenge and an encouragement for us to seek something new from God.

We are encouraged to sing a new song to our maker and King, to abandon ourselves in dance as we praise His name, to experience Him afresh and not be satisfied with what God has done in our lives in the past.

I love music, I love to study what makes it up and it is a wonderful gift to us that never ceases to amaze me. Every unique combination of its elements (pitch, rhythm, tempo, etc.) contains a world of exciting possibilities. There are effectively an infinite number of combinations to form inexhaustible possibilities of musical sound.

When we are encouraged to "Sing to the Lord and new song” I am struck that in each of us God has put a unique sound that can be offered in praise of his name. Your song and my song are new songs in all of history!

Your new song must be sung. It must be heard. Your voice, your life, they matter. They tell a story no one else gets to tell and sharing it is a way to bring God glory that only you can bring.

Verse 5 says, “Let the saints rejoice in this honour and sing for joy on their beds.” It struck me that the training for what God has for us needs to happen in the depths of our hearts when we are unseen. It is here that our unique songs are formed and matured. When we are left with God, alone, at the end of the day, being abandoned to God in midst of whatever life brings he is fashioning the sound we are called to make. Whatever season we are in God uses it to prepare us for the warfare that is to come by taking us lower so God is rightfully higher.

Humbled, having sought God in the secret place and with his praise firmly on our lips we are the called to action as warriors, not just worshipers. “Let the praises of God be in their mouths, and a sharp sword in their hands.” (v6)

We are at war. Jesus told us that the enemy seeks to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). Paul tells us to equip ourselves with the armor of God, to resist the enemy and to stand firm (Ephesians 3:16).

We are called to praise and fight, to fight our spiritual enemy with the word of God and the power of faith in God. To shine a light that is sharing the rescue plan of God on spoils of the spiritual war that rage all over this earth, marriages destroyed, children rebelling, people addicted to all kinds of destructive things. There are people dying at the hands of the enemy all around us, people being destroyed by his lies, and we have the means to rescue them. We so desperately need to be worshipping warriors. Warriors full of unique songs of praise to God, ready for action.

One day Jesus is going to return on a white horse. This time He is not coming as a baby in a manger. He is coming as the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is coming in might and power and He is bringing the army of heaven with Him. We fight for the side that is going to win in the end! Now that is worth singing about (Rev 19:11).

Being a warrior of worship involves the high praises of God being in our mouths, the two-edged sword of his word readily available in our hands and action, movement into God’s promises, into all that he has for us. Action to see a hurting world changed by the power of the spirit and to usher in the return of the King

Spend time with God. Don't be satisfied with past experiences of him. Expect God to do something new in your life, God delights in you and he is doing more in you than you even realize. We have everything we need to accept this challenge, the promises of God’s Word, the presence of the Holy Spirit and the reality of our ultimate salvation and victory over the enemy through Jesus.

Sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord the unique sound he has given you to sing through all you do with a life abandoned to him! Experience him in a fresh way, consciously join the battle and do not be satisfied with anything less than an adventure that will culminate in the most epic event history has ever seen, the return of King Jesus.

Psalm 148: Giver of Life

by Andi Norton

Psalm 148 (NIV)

Take a quick look at this:

It's a brilliant film, but imagine it, a world where all creation (the trees, the rocks, the creatures of the deep, the sun, moon, bright shining stars, the weather, the Wolf and the lamb, all in unison singing one song).

Crazy right?
Well not really!

God says all of heaven and earth is to praise Him.
In today's psalm it describes all of creation, not just the living creations and mankind, but the weather, the planets all that came from His hands everything we see is to praise Him.

He is the giver and the sustainer of life, by His hands all things were made to bring Him glory.

We have understood through meditating on these words that our very purpose is to do just this, bring glory to Him through fulfilling what He created us for, to bring Him great pleasure through a life of abandonment to Him. This is our act of worship.

As we awake on a beautiful morning like these we have been having this past week, we can hear creations songs, whether the bird song of the morning (or the seagull call in our case), the silent waves tossing, the air breathing between the branches of the trees, all of creation is singing it's song.

All of creation is singing aloud longing for His return, this is my longing too. All of creation one day will be very much like this illustration we see in the famous 'Roger Rabbit' Movie (maybe less cheesy) but it describes that creation will be united in one song, "the wolf will romp with the lamb" is one of many illustrations picture in this chapter, (Isaiah 11).

But until that day, we continue in our Love song to Him, we continue to become further abandoned to Him, we long to go deeper into Him, all through our life of worship, but the question is why?

Verses 13-14 sum it perfectly:

Let them praise the name of God—
it's the only Name worth praising.
His radiance exceeds anything in earth and sky;
he's built a monument—his very own people!


Simply it's our purpose, and in coming into that purpose we find complete wholeness, complete satisfaction, a greater longing for more, hope, sustainment.

Lord, I thank you that you chose me, you created and moulded me, You called me, I long to know You more. Lord as i abandon myself to You in a life of Worship would You let me meet with heaven and all creations song, and see You glorified.

Psalm 147: He thunders and whispers

by Sean Theunissen

Psalm 147 (NIV)

I'm so glad to be finishing my last psalm blog with this one, it's incredible. It describes the wonders of God, switching from universality (the big stuff) to particularity (the small, seemingly insignificant us). 

Here's the particular:

• He gathers the outcast
• Heals the heartbroken, bandages their wounds
• Puts the fallen on their feet again and pushes the wicked into the ditch
• He's not impressed with horsepower and mans' muscles
• Those who fear God get God's attention
• Jerusalem, he makes your city secure, blesses your children, keeps peace at your borders
• Puts the best on your table
• Launches his promises earthward
• He hand picked us for relationship

Here's the universal:

• Counts the stars, assigns each a name
• He is great with limitless strength, we'll never comprehend
• Fills the sky with clouds, preparing rain for the earth
• Then turns the mountains green with grass
• Feeding cattle and crows
• He spreads snow like a white fleece, frost like ashes, hail like birdseed
• Who can survive his winter, yet he breaths on it and it melts.

A lot of people only believe God is capable of the first lot of actions: He meets us on a human level; sympathises with our weakness; He's a friend; a confidant, but possibly lacks power to really change a situation, maybe He's not in full control against the powers of evil all around us.

Others only believe Him to be a powerful force, stronger and bigger than anyone can comprehend, creator of all things, but aloof from the micro. Angry at times and striking out randomly against His creation.

Here we get a reminder of the fulness of our God: He reveals and conceals, invites and hides, confounds and confides, He thunders and whispers, terrifies and befriends, God of the smallest detail and the grandest design, called in to being the tree He later hung on.

We have the ultimate God, he used His power to save us and now gently sanctifies us, making us ready for an eternity in his pure and holy presence. 

Lord thank you for showing yourself through these psalms, I've so enjoyed getting to know You or be reminded of your awesome attributes. Be glorified and honoured as we offer our lives in praise to You.

Psalm 146: A Grand Hallelujah

by Priscilla

Psalm 146 (NIV) 


I don’t know about you, but I have recently, more than ever, been reading our newspapers in utter despair! Despair over laws that are being pushed through, despair for ridiculous policies that are being implemented and then over in my home country - India – despair over the relentless waves of corruption that are destroying the country from within!

Reading the news is not a great way to start the day for sure.

How pleased I am then to read a Psalm like 146 that reminds us it is seriously not worth our time or effort to put our “trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save,” (vs 3) because when they die, that’s the end of the line for them. Their plans come to nothing from that day on (vs 4).

How much better it is then to put our hope in God who:

1. Is all powerful (He is the maker of heaven and earth, the sea and everything in it – vs 6)
   
2. Is our protector (He upholds the cause of the oppressed – vs 7)
   
3. Is our provider (Gives food to the hungry – vs 7)
4. Is our deliverer (sets the prisoners free – vs 7)
5. Is our healer (gives sight to the blind – vs 8)
6. Is our encourager (Lifts up those who are bowed down – vs 8)
7. Looks out for those on the fringe (The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow – vs 9)
8. Loves righteousness and hates wickedness (vs 8/9) 

Someone recently tweeted a quote by Rick Warrren, that said: "If God was small enough for you to completely understand Him, He wouldn’t be big enough for you to completely trust Him."

I definitely want to be subject of this King who I can trust! It is such a joy to read His newspaper (The Bible) everyday – where His words are like a soothing balm to the soul, they bring joy and vigour for the day!

There is a reason this Psalm is called The Grand Hallelujah because after reading all that God does for us – what can we not do but shout out a big, grand Hallelujah to our all-powerful, wonder-working King!

Psalm 145: There are no boundaries to His greatness

by Andy Flood

Psalm 145 (MSG)

God is magnificent; he can never be praised enough. There are no boundaries to His greatness. (Psalm 145:3 MSG)

What a statement!

As you read this psalm there's only one conclusion you can come to. Our God is AMAZING! You can't read it and think what a great psalmist, what a great songwriter, the psalm does its job and points you to the One who inspired it, who breathed it out.

I just love those moments in God's presence when you wish you could shout louder and bow lower. Those moments when His presence is so tangible you can feel Him actively humbling you, shaping you, making you more like Himself.

I long for those encounters, I can't wait to meet Him next and be moulded a little more.

I love the song 'Cielo' by Phil Wickham the song describes our entry into heaven, and worshipping God forever, the song captures a heart yearning for God, a heart that says I just want to shout louder and bow lower. Not to earn greater acceptance from God, but a heart response to all that God is.

My prayer is that we will continue to go deeper in God, that our encounters with Him will change us, and that we will follow hard after Him.

DO IT LORD!

Psalm 144: The best thing to do during a time of difficulty is.....

by Peter Roxburgh

Psalm 144 (NIV) 

I had the privilege of going to boarding school at the age of 11. As you can imagine, a boy who had a strong Bombay accent, spoke through his rather large nose and wore second-hand clothes got teased quite a bit. To be fair, I think only about one per cent of a boarding school population doesn't get teased.

Being teased about my accent doesn't come anywhere close to the persecution, hatred and pressures that David faced and describes in this Psalm.

I don't remember asking God to 'send forth lightning to scatter my enemies' or 'shoot arrows at them to rout them' (v6).

One thing that David and I did do the same though is found in verse 9. Well, the first half of verse 9 because, as you can imagine, I didn't have a 10-stringed lyre with me.

l sing a new song to you, O God; on the 10-stringed lyre I will make music to you. 

I used to go to deep into the woods by my dormitory, take my Bible and spend time just worshipping and talking to God. Those were very precious times for me. I learnt to turn to God for help as my sisters lived elsewhere and I wasn't anywhere near my parents. But most of my time was spent just singing to God in my own words. Thinking about those times brings back emotion because they were times of such intimacy. I've said it numerous times in these posts, and I say it again, the praise of a broken heart is the sweetest song of all.

A few years later, I was having a difficult time again at school and my roommate knew full well of it. A number of mornings, he would come back from his shower to find me laughing. He wasn't a Christian and obviously thought I was having a proper psychological breakdown. But it was simply just the joy of coming before God in praise and worship.

Unfortunately it seems that as we get older we foolishly think we can handle things ourselves. In recent years, I have often chosen to find escape from the pressures of the world in TV or computer games. We all have our own little escapes, which aren't necessarily wrong, but the best we can do is turn to God with a new song.

With a family and lots of commitments it is a whole lot more difficult to find time to just worship than when I was 11 at boarding school. But it is also therefore so much more important to steal time away to worship. A little tip for the very busy - I often find that the times when I can be at home and worship without being interrupted are when I am washing up or cleaning the bathrooms. But nothing beats a nice long walk or an early morning on my knees, or indeed meeting to pray and worship with friends on a Friday morning.

Through times of difficulty (and I am not referring to washing up or cleaning bathrooms!) singing songs of praise and worship may be one of the hardest things to do, but I am sure most of us can testify that it is the best thing to do.