Whole Life Commitment

Recently I was asked to film a short reflection on a Psalm of my choosing. Provided is that reflection on Psalm 150 - is there more to Psalm 150 than a great worship service?

Praise the Lord!

Praise God in his sanctuary;

praise him in his mighty heavens!

Praise him for his mighty deeds;

praise him according to his excellent greatness!

Praise him with trumpet sound;

praise him with lute and harp!

Praise him with tambourine and dance;

praise him with strings and pipe!

Praise him with sounding cymbals;

praise him with loud clashing cymbals!

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord!

The two previous Psalms speak of praising the Lord and Singing new songs to the Lord, they both then build to this crescendo in Psalm 150. In this Psalm we have the Doxology, by which we mean a closing praise, for not just the final section of the Psalms, but the entire collection. Psalm 150 contains no argument, no real teaching, no real explanation. It is an eloquent, passionate cry to all creation to give the Lord praise that is due to Him.

The word Praise is listed 13 teams, and in all occurrences, it refers to the created being, that being you and I, sending praise in the direction of the creator, referred to as the LORD. Let’s just break this Psalm down:

Verse 1 – We are to Praise God in the sanctuary and in his mighty heavens. Simply put, we are to Praise God wherever we are, for He is in all places.

Verse 2 – We are to Praise God for he has done mighty things. When we apply that to the New Testament, we Praise God for Jesus, for the excellent greatness of Jesus that lifts us out of the mire of sin and raises us as children of God.

Verse 3 to 5 – Praise the Lord with all kinds of instruments. There is no instrument that cannot be turned into a moment of praise, for the praise doesn’t come from the instrument but the one who plays.

Verse 6 – Let everything that has breath. This breath is the ruah, the breath of God, that was breathed into Adam and which sustains all mankind. Let all mankind, Praise the Lord.

On the surface, this seems like a Psalm describing the best worship service this side of eternity. However, while on holiday a year ago, I heard a Pastor called J.T English preach on this passage. He took the application in a direction I had never heard before, an application I would like to encourage you with now.

In Romans 12:1 we read “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Our act of worship, or our act of praise is to present God with our bodies. Now this verse is often taken out of context and used in reference to dieting or healthy living, in some respect you can see why you get to that conclusion. Yet, we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Meaning we are to give over to the Lord our whole being, in complete surrender, for His purposes. Our Spiritual worship is to live in and through Jesus, being wholly and completely committed to the will of the Heavenly Father. Romans 12 basically talks about a whole life surrendering.

Now take Romans 12:1 and apply it to Psalm 150. We are to Praise the Lord, why? For He is great. How are we to Praise the Lord? Well in reference to the worship band, with every instrument possible. Or, with reference to our lives, with every skill, every ability, every gift, every thought, every word, every action and act we are to Praise the Lord. You see, Psalm 150 isn’t just referencing instruments, it’s referencing the skill sets of the people.

So, some in church might be great at admin, or evangelism, or encouragement. Some might be fantastic web designers or sound engineers. Others might be crafty and great designers. Still others might be great cooks or fantastic decorators. God has uniquely gifted each one of us, and like the list of instruments in Psalm 150, we are to use every skill and every gift we have to praise the Lord.

Being typically Scottish, I tend to look at the negative rather than the positive. Yet I find in the negative we are driven to see the beauty in the passage. What’s the negative? We could either be wasting our gifts, by simply ignoring them, or worse, we could be dishonouring with our gifts by doing them for someone other than God. With the negative comes a challenge, Colossians 3:23-24 says “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.”

From the negative came the challenge, from the challenge comes an unbelievable joy– we get to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, what a privilege. The one who created all things, the one who is worthy of all praise, the one who has authority over all things finds joy in your service.

So, my reflection of Psalm 150 is this – wherever you are, whenever it is, and with whatever you have or can do, Praise the Lord, for he finds pleasure when His people submit themselves in a whole life surrender.

I close with this quote from John Wesley - “Do all the good you can by all the means you can in all the places you can at all the times you can to all the people you can as long as ever you can.”

Pastor Ross Ferguson