Key Verse:
Psalm 150:6a NKJV
6
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
. God gave us breath. Let us give it back to Him in praise!
Where to begin?
` The lesson standard informs us that Psalm 146 through Psalm 150 were written by the Hebrews who returned from the Babylonian exile in 536 BC. The building of the second Temple in Jerusalem started 18 536 BC and was completed in 516 BC. In the twenty-year interim, synagogue worship served as the construct around which Jewish worship centered. It is believed that synagogue worship began while the Jews were in captivity in Babylon. Whether it morphed from a Babylonian construct or was an entirely Jewish concept resulting from Babylonian captivity, synagogues provided the Jews a local outlet for assembly, prayer, and worship for individual communities.
Synagogue worship is mentioned prominently in the Gospels, so we know that they had a place, alongside Temple worship, in Israel during Jesus’ day. Additionally, synagogue worship serves as a precursor to the way that the modern-day church assembles today. Synagogue worship also remains a staple of Jewish worship today in Israel.
It appears that the style of worship that developed after the Jews returned from exile focused on a congregational style of worship with a focus toward the goodness of God and His great power and majesty, in that He had, once again shown great mercy and love towards His people; Israel and that He had demonstrated His great power by returning them to the place that they called home: Jerusalem.
No individual author is attributed to Psalm 145 through Psalm 150. Rather, it is believed that these psalms were written by worship leaders throughout the individual communities after the return. They would have become popular in the twenty years prior to the completion and dedication of the second temple. Because of their celebratory nature, they would have been easily integrated into the celebrations at the temple in Jerusalem once it became operational.
The Lesson
Psalm 149:1a NKJV
1a
Praise the Lord!
The call to worship. The worship leader of any local synagogue would have issued a similar command, “On your feet! Give it up! Praise the Lord everybody! Praise the Lord!” Whether the call is to a few or to a multitude, The call to praise God is fitting for any situation, for any time of day, for any audience. For the believer, the call to praise is a call of encouragement. For the individual, it is a proclamation of praise to God, directed to God in worship. Every one of us should proclaim the Lord’s goodness, His greatness, His grace, His mercy. We have so much to be thankful for. Praise the Lord!
Psalm 149:1b NKJV
1b
Sing to the Lord a new song,
And His praise in the assembly of saints.
Verse one continues with a command by the worship leader: “Sing a new song!” Why? Because a new song tells ‘their story’; the story of the Jews return from captivity in Babylon to their home in Israel. It was not the Exodus of Moses’ day, it was theirs, it was now, it was fresh. God was with them!
Beloved, the same is available to us today. God’s mercies toward us are new every morning. Each of us has a song to sing! Every test we have endured has resulted in a testimony that we can share in the congregation; a new song to be sung in the assembly of believers. Go ahead. Tell the story! He is worthy!
Psalm 149:2 NKJV
2
Let Israel rejoice in their Maker;
Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
The exhortation here is for Israel to rejoice in their creator and maker: God! The worship leader doubles down on the exhortation in a slightly different way, exhorting the ‘children of Zion’ to be joyful in their King. So as to provide a bit of background, no king of Israel returned from captivity. Zerubbabel led the first group of Jews from exile and served as the first governor of the Jews in the region. Israel would not have another king of Israeli descent until Jesus.
I can hear you thinking, “But what about Herod?”
Glad you asked. Herod was not a descendant of Jacob (Israel) rather, he was a descendant of Esau and as such, he was an interloper, an intruder who sought to usurp, for himself, the throne promised to the heir of David, the coming King: Jesus Christ.
Why point this out here? Because, as we transition to the next part of the lesson, I’d like to make a distinction between a ‘maker’ and a ‘king’. There have been many earthly kings, but all of them were ‘made’. Their authority was ‘imputed by their particular governmental or societal circumstance. And all their authority is imputed by God.
Acts 17:26 NKJV
26 And He has made from one [j]blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,
Only Jesus was ‘born’ King. Only Christ is worthy of our worship. It was he to whom the psalter (psalmist) referred when he exhorted the children of Zion to find joy in their King, to be ‘joyful’ or rather, ‘joy full’ in their King. We too, as believers are invited into a place of joyfulness in the Presence of the Lord, our King: Jesus Christ.
Psalm 149:3 NKJV
3
Let them praise His name with the dance;
Let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp.
Then the praise and worship leader instructs, “Come with dancing, with timbrels and harps (probably the kinnor of last week’s lesson). Notice that in referencing the instruments to be played, the inference is many instruments. That’s right, everybody participates. Everybody dances. Anybody can play the tambourine. Everybody grab one. Let’s work! Praise Him! Praise the Lord!
Psalms 149:4 NKJV
4
For the Lord takes pleasure in His people;
He will beautify the humble with salvation.
For the Lord so takes pleasure in the presence of His children. He does. And here is where the praise of God by His children begins to bring about the ascension of His children into the Holiest of Holy spaces: the space immediately before His throne. Yes, as we humble ourselves before Him in praise, He invades the assembly by the power of the Holy Ghost. He embraces us in His love as we succumb to His great grace, humbly bowing ourselves in worship. Praise, then, has lifted us into worship; the place where we abandon ourselves in complete obeisance and reverence to the Majesty and Glory of the Lord on High. In the congregation, we’ve moved from glory… to… glory! Hallelujah!
Psalm 149:5 NKJV
5
Let the saints be joyful in glory;
Let them sing aloud on their beds.
And it is in this glorious place that we find Rest, whether we are in the temple, the assembly, or even in our homes, in our beds. His presence: THE PRESENCE is within our reach if we will but let go and let God! Praise is the mechanism God has provided us for entry into His glorious Presence. That the psalter suggests that God’s presence can be attained, even in our bedroom encourages us that praise must be a vital part of our devotional time and our prayer time. Amen!
Psalm 150:1 NKJV
1a
Praise the Lord!
But we’re in a different place now. Praise Him in this place too. This is what true worship has wrought…
Psalm 150:1b NKJV
1b
Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty firmament!
We transitioned. There is a point in worship where the worshipper slips away from the ‘surly bonds of earth’ and mounts up on wings of eagles to enter, by way of the Most Holy place to the Most High place. From earth to the sky! Lord we lift your name on High! Praise Him in His Sanctuary! Praise Him in His mighty firmament! A place so Holy that the Glory of the Lord fills the temple.
Psalm 150:2 NKJV
2
Praise Him for His mighty acts;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!
In His presence, we now have a more revealing view of the vastness of His creation. From earth, our scope is limited by the very atmosphere that protects us, that guards our life. But from this spiritual vantage point, we are overwhelmed by all that we now clearly perceive. How majestic is thy Name, O Lord! How beautiful is your dwelling!
Psalm 150:3--5 NKJV
3
Praise Him with the sound of the [c]trumpet;
Praise Him with the lute and harp!
4
Praise Him with the timbrel and dance;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
5
Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with clashing cymbals!
And now the entire hosts of Heaven join the moment. Worship, in its purest form, has an involuntary component. At some point, tears well up, hands are raised, lost in the moment, we are suddenly alone before Him. In these moments, He looks upon you, just you, and He loves you. Just you. In this moment of intimacy (into-me-see), we are fully transparent before Him, aware of our insufficiencies, and even more aware of His great grace. Oh! How He loves us!
Psalm 150:6a NKJV
6a
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
And now the thought comes to mind: “When God breathed into Adam, the very breath that Adam exhaled returned to God in praise!” Adam literally went from lifelessness to life by the Breath of God. How Holy then, is that breath? Beloved, with every breath, we too, can thank God for that very breath…with that very breath. A life of breathed gratitude and thankfulness and worship will yield a life rewarded the Blessing of His abiding Presence.
Psalm 150:6b NKJV
6b
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 150 (and the entire Book of Psalms) ends with an exhortation to return to the beginning. To remain. To continually maintain... a life of praise. Praise ye the Lord!
Selah,
wb
ps. In writing this lesson, I was reminded of a performance that I witnessed of the late Whitney Houston performing the hymn, “I go to the Rock”. I won’t take time to describe it here, except to say that, during this performance, Whitney entered into a place with God where it was only her and God. In that moment, she was entirely ‘caught up’ and we were all witnesses. Many may not have understood the depth of the moment, at best, I can only guess, comparing it to moments, when I have been arrested, entirely, by God. What I witnessed was very personal, in a very public way. Also, I’ve looked for a copy of that video, but the owners of the video, NBC, apparently have archived it, not knowing exactly how to explain it.
I have witnessed a similar example of a very public display of a very private moment with God that included Steve Harvey, the entertainer. He seems to have been MC’ing a Gospelfest in Atlanta. At some point during the festivities, Steve gave the audience his ‘take’ on how he would ‘introduce’ Jesus to a live audience. He goes through a long, sometimes funny, heartfelt introduction that closes with resonance the reverberates through the crowd. During, then immediately following the close, you see Steve enter a place of worship, the place where God has shown up and made His presence known to Steve in such a way that Steve could do nothing but surrender into the outstretched arms of His loving Father.
Such are the moments I’ve sought to describe in the lesson above. Below is the link to Mr. Harvey’s moment described above. Blessings!
(I do not own the rights to the link above, nor the poem below:
High Flight
by John Gillespie Magee
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air…
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew –
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
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