Praise the Lord

Psalm 148-150 

Show Notes

Psalms 148–150 (Listen)

Praise the Name of the Lord

148:1   Praise the LORD!
  Praise the LORD from the heavens;
    praise him in the heights!
2   Praise him, all his angels;
    praise him, all his hosts!
3   Praise him, sun and moon,
    praise him, all you shining stars!
4   Praise him, you highest heavens,
    and you waters above the heavens!
5   Let them praise the name of the LORD!
    For he commanded and they were created.
6   And he established them forever and ever;
    he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away.¹
7   Praise the LORD from the earth,
    you great sea creatures and all deeps,
8   fire and hail, snow and mist,
    stormy wind fulfilling his word!
9   Mountains and all hills,
    fruit trees and all cedars!
10   Beasts and all livestock,
    creeping things and flying birds!
11   Kings of the earth and all peoples,
    princes and all rulers of the earth!
12   Young men and maidens together,
    old men and children!
13   Let them praise the name of the LORD,
    for his name alone is exalted;
    his majesty is above earth and heaven.
14   He has raised up a horn for his people,
    praise for all his saints,
    for the people of Israel who are near to him.
  Praise the LORD!

Sing to the Lord a New Song

149:1   Praise the LORD!
  Sing to the LORD a new song,
    his praise in the assembly of the godly!
2   Let Israel be glad in his Maker;
    let the children of Zion rejoice in their King!
3   Let them praise his name with dancing,
    making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!
4   For the LORD takes pleasure in his people;
    he adorns the humble with salvation.
5   Let the godly exult in glory;
    let them sing for joy on their beds.
6   Let the high praises of God be in their throats
    and two-edged swords in their hands,
7   to execute vengeance on the nations
    and punishments on the peoples,
8   to bind their kings with chains
    and their nobles with fetters of iron,
9   to execute on them the judgment written!
    This is honor for all his godly ones.
  Praise the LORD!

Let Everything Praise the Lord

150:1   Praise the LORD!
  Praise God in his sanctuary;
    praise him in his mighty heavens!²
2   Praise him for his mighty deeds;
    praise him according to his excellent greatness!
3   Praise him with trumpet sound;
    praise him with lute and harp!
4   Praise him with tambourine and dance;
    praise him with strings and pipe!
5   Praise him with sounding cymbals;
    praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
6   Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!
  Praise the LORD!

Footnotes

[1] 148:6 Or it shall not be transgressed
[2] 150:1 Hebrew expanse (compare Genesis 1:6–8)

(ESV)

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Speaker 1: 00:00

Praise the lord from the heavens. Praise him in the heights. Praise him, all his angels. Praise him, all his hosts. Praise him, sun and moon.

Speaker 1: 00:09

Praise him, all you shining stars. Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created, and he established them forever and ever. He gave a decree, and it shall not pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word, mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds, kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth, young men and maidens together, old men and children, let them praise the name of the lord for his name alone is exalted.

Speaker 1: 01:00

His majesty is above earth and heaven. He has raised up a horn for his people. Praise for all his saints, for the people of Israel who are near to him. Praise the Lord.

Speaker 2: 01:14

Now from Psalm 149. Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly. Let Israel be glad in his maker. Let the children of Zion rejoice in their king.

Speaker 2: 01:29

Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre. For the Lord takes pleasure in his people. He adorns the humble with salvation. Let the godly exalt in glory. Let them sing for joy on their beds.

Speaker 2: 01:45

Let the high praises of God be on their throats and 2 edged swords in their hands, to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the judgment written. This is honor for all his godly ones. Praise the Lord.

Joel Brooks: 02:08

And finally, from Psalm 150. Praise the lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in his heavenly in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his mighty deeds.

Joel Brooks: 02:23

Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with trumpet sound. Praise Him with a lute and harp. Praise him with tambourine and dance. Praise him with strings and pipe.

Joel Brooks: 02:38

Praise him with sounding cymbals. Praise him with loud clashing cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. This is the word of the lord.

Joel Brooks: 02:51

Praise to God. Pray with me. Our father, we do ask that you would come and speak to us now in this moment. Lord, I ask that through your spirit you would honor the very reading of your word, and that, even now it is working its way into our hearts and our minds and is transforming us to look like Jesus, your son. In this moment, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore.

Joel Brooks: 03:27

But, Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. This is our last Psalm Sunday. For the last year, the last Sunday of every month of the year, we've taken a look at a different Psalm.

Joel Brooks: 03:48

We're not gonna do that for December. And so, this is our last one. And so, this past year, we've looked at Psalms of Repentance and Confession, Psalms of Sorrow and Lament, Psalms of Total Despair, Psalms of Remembrance, Psalms of, of sovereignty and supremacy, Psalms of of crying out. And here at the the end of the the Psalter, the last 5 Psalms are what we call the Hallel Psalms. They're the Psalms of praise.

Joel Brooks: 04:29

Pure, unadulterated praise. And the entire psalter has has been leading up to this. And these last few Psalms, we we see the end to which God made us. He he made us to worship him forever, and this has been the trajectory of of all the Psalms. And so, here, we don't find any more confusion.

Joel Brooks: 04:53

There is no more struggles. There's no more doubt. There's no more crying out without an answer. There's there's no more, God, where are you? God, why am I in this situation?

Joel Brooks: 05:04

God, why can I not feel you? There's there's none of that in these Psalms. Here, it is absolute praise. This is what we were made for. It's where the the book of Psalms has been leading us.

Joel Brooks: 05:21

It actually, you can see the the whole psalter is kind of the gospel or redemption history in which you see our fallenness. You see, our confession. You see our need for a savior. You see our redemption. And finally, we come to the end, and you see what should be and will be our final state.

Joel Brooks: 05:41

Praise before our maker. This is God's passion. He wants to bring us to a place to where we have unhindered worship before him. God is passionate about our worship. And one of the places you can look a lot of places in scripture.

Joel Brooks: 06:04

One place is I think you see this so clearly, is the story of the Samaritan woman at the well and Jesus in John 4. If you remember the story, it, it says that Jesus had to go to Samaria. He was actually traveling from Judea to Galilee and he said he had to go to Samaria. He really didn't have to go there. That was just John's way of writing to clue you into something that's happening, because most people went around Samaria.

Joel Brooks: 06:32

Most Jews didn't go through Samaria, but says Jesus had to go there because he was on a mission. And his mission was to meet with this woman. And Jesus has been traveling a long way. He is tired. He is wore out physically.

Joel Brooks: 06:47

He is wore out emotionally, but then Jesus engages this woman even in his condition. And and he walks through just, you know, her sinfulness. He walks through who he is, how how he can give her living water. And then, we all know the phrase when he tells her, you have to worship God in spirit and in truth. But right before that, he says, you know what?

Joel Brooks: 07:13

My father is seeking for people who will worship him. He's seeking for it. And that's why Jesus, even though he is so tired, he is so drained, he is gonna go there because what he wants to do above anything else is find people to worship him, find people who will give him praise. That's his heart's desire above all else. And I realized that, for some people that kind of rubs you the wrong way.

Joel Brooks: 07:50

That Jesus would want that so much, that God would want that so much. He he just he needs people to always be praising him. Isaiah 428 says, I am the Lord. That is my name. My glory, I give to no other.

Joel Brooks: 08:07

Isaiah 4811, For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it. For how should my name be profaned? My glory, I will not give to another. Even the forgiveness of our sins is all about god, and god wanting glory for himself and not for us. Isaiah 4325 says, I I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake.

Joel Brooks: 08:34

God forgives you of your sins for His own sake, so He will receive glory. And perhaps this rubs you the wrong way, and if so, you are in good company. I recently read that Oprah Winfrey, Brad Pitt, both have rejected Orthodox Christianity based on this grounds right here. They both have said that worshiping a God who is always telling people, please, come on, you gotta tell me how great I am. Alright?

Joel Brooks: 09:09

No, you can't tell anybody, nope. I need you to always tell me how great I am. They said, that God sounds like an egomaniac. Sounds pretty pathetic and we won't worship that God. Just so you know, that is the last bit of celebrity news I will probably ever give you, might be the first and last.

Joel Brooks: 09:30

And it will also be the only time I ever mentioned Oprah Winfrey, Brad Pitt, and CS Lewis in the same sentence. CS Lewis believed the same thing. When he was an atheist, this is this is a problem for him. It's what held him back from becoming a believer. He actually said, you know what?

Joel Brooks: 09:53

God sounds like a vain woman, always needing compliments. I'm not going to worship a God like that. One of the most influential books to me on the Psalms is actually CS Lewis's reflection on the Psalms. And in this book, he says that one of the biggest hindrances to him becoming a Christian is the notion of a God who keeps asking people to praise him. He said, a God who's just always asking for our compliments?

Joel Brooks: 10:28

No way. But make no mistake, God does ask for our praise. The 3 Psalms we just read are not God suggesting we praise the Lord. They are commands. Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him.

Joel Brooks: 10:47

We're commanded to do this. And CS Lewis was very bothered by this and he said that the Psalms and he actually highlighted Psalm 148, he said, are especially troublesome to him. He said this. He goes, it is hideously like saying, what I want most is to be told I am good, and that I am great. And Lewis said, the problem with that is even if God is good, and even as even if he is great, why would he need our praise, who he calls the lowest of rational creatures to gratify his appetite for praise.

Joel Brooks: 11:28

Let me read you just an extended quote of Lewis thinking through this. But the most obvious fact about praise, whether of God or of anything, strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise, unless shyness or a fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it. The world rings with praise, Lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game, praise of weather, wine, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars.

Joel Brooks: 12:32

I had not noticed how the humblest and at the same time, the most balanced and capacious minds praised most. While the cranks, the misfits, the malcontents praised least. I have not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise what they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it. Isn't she lovely? Wasn't it glorious?

Joel Brooks: 13:05

Don't you think that is magnificent? The psalmist in telling everyone to praise God are doing what men do when they speak of what they care about. My whole more general difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us as regards to supremely valuable what we delight to do, what indeed we can't help doing about everything else we value. I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses, but completes the enjoyment. It is its appointed consummation.

Joel Brooks: 13:50

It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are. The delight is incomplete until it is expressed. So the penny dropped for Lewis when he realized that God's command for us to praise him is a command that we settle for nothing less than to be the happiest we can be. Those 2 commands are 2 in the same or 1 in the same. Perhaps some of you are familiar with, John Piper.

Joel Brooks: 14:30

He has put it this way. In demanding our praise, God is demanding our pleasure. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. Now, this this quote from Lewis has, it's been ringing in my head for a number of summers now. I, during the summers, I try to take vacation time to go to Montana and go hiking.

Joel Brooks: 14:57

And Lauren usually goes with me and leaves a few days early, so I could go hiking by myself. And, there's one hike that I love to do. It's called Sundance Pass. It's through the Beartooth Mountains. It's 12 grueling miles up.

Joel Brooks: 15:14

But the payoff is worth it. You get up there and there's, you're 10,000 feet high. There's a gorgeous basin before you, snow capped mountains all around, glacier river running through this. And you just feel like I'm in God's country. I mean, this it's so beautiful.

Joel Brooks: 15:36

And what I found myself doing this past time I was there, and I'm taking this in, is I just kept saying, this is incredible. This is beautiful. And there was nobody around to hear me. I I was just I had to verbalize it. And if, if you know me, I'm an introvert.

Joel Brooks: 15:55

I'm an introvert forced into an extroverted role. I have to get up here and I have to speak, but it doesn't come naturally to me. I I don't like larger crowds of people. If I could just be my myself, I love it. And so when I'm in Montana by myself, I don't speak to anyone for days.

Joel Brooks: 16:13

I I don't say a word and I love it. And yet I find myself when being confronted with such beauty, I had to verbalize it. I simply had to say, this is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. It completed my joy.

Joel Brooks: 16:37

And this spontaneous praise that that erupts in front of such beauty can in no way be described as as duty. Worship is not ever a duty. It's not just something that we do because we're we're good people. We know we're supposed to. So, we're going to give give God worship.

Joel Brooks: 16:59

It's always a delight. If I tell my wife, she is beautiful. And she says, oh, you don't you didn't have to say that. And I'd say, I I know I didn't, but I, you know, I've been reading a book about being a good husband. And it said that a good husband regularly compliments his wife.

Joel Brooks: 17:28

And, you know, so while I'm at it, I mean, I like your hair, and I love your blue eyes. It's my duty to compliment you. Now, I, how is she going to take that? And yet that's how many, so many of us approach worship, like it's our duty, But if I praise my wife like that, you know who receives the glory? Me.

Joel Brooks: 17:58

I'm being a dutiful husband. I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, but in no way does it glorify her when I praise her that way. It cheapens her. The way that she is honored is when I say, You are beautiful. I I know I've told you that a 1000 times, but I can't help myself.

Joel Brooks: 18:18

And she sees this out of pure delight, and it's completing my joy when I tell her that. My joy gives her honor. My duty gives me honor. And so, God who wants praise, it is his best interest to give you as much joy as possible in order for him to get the most praise possible. We joyfully come before him, not out of duty.

Joel Brooks: 18:53

This is what Psalm 1611 is about. And it says, in his presence is fullness of joy, in his right hand are pleasures forevermore. God's command for us to praise him is a command for us to be as happy as we possibly can. Another thing I've learned in Montana, is that my happiest moments are when I'm not thinking about myself. My happiest moments are when I'm not thinking about myself, when I'm at the top of this mountain, you know, and there's just this splendor before me, I don't get up there and say, you know what?

Joel Brooks: 19:36

I am awesome. Yeah. And, you know, you, nobody goes to, to the Grand Canyon and stands at the cliffs and looks at it and says, man, I am an amazing person. Or or sees the sun set down, you know, maybe over the waters at the beach and think, man, I am wonderful. You you don't think of yourself when you're confronted with such beauty.

Joel Brooks: 20:03

Worship is when you forget about yourself completely and you're drawn into that beauty and you can praise it. You you don't wanna waste a single brain cell thinking about yourself because the moment you think about yourself, you're robbing yourself of the joy of being caught up in such glory. And let me tell you, that's what, that's what, when we, when we get to revelation or in Isaiah 6, in revelation, when you have the creatures calling back and forth to one another, holy, holy, holy is the lord of hosts. Your whole earth is full of his glory. And there's holy, holy, holy is the lord of hosts.

Joel Brooks: 20:42

All whole earth is full of his glory. What you're seeing there is a beautiful picture of worship. And what's happening is they're saying the same thing over and over for all of eternity, but they can't help themselves. They're not even thinking about theirselves. They're like in such beauty.

Joel Brooks: 21:04

It's like, holy, holy, holy. And and and the Over here, they're calling back. I know. Look, holy, holy, holy. I I know.

Joel Brooks: 21:13

And they're just pointing back for all of eternity. Holy, holy, holy. Being caught up in such beauty. There's not a hint in Psalm 148, 49, or 50. There's not a hint.

Joel Brooks: 21:31

And, all of these praise hymns that this is being forced on people out of duty. I mean, you're looking through this and you can feel the utter joy. And when the psalmist is asking people to join him, you know, praise him trees, praise him mountains, praise him peoples, doing what all of us do when confronted with beauty. We're like, look at that. And if we don't ask the person next to us to look at it, we are robbing them of joy.

Joel Brooks: 22:00

And by not telling them about it, our joy is incomplete. And you see that in these Psalms. All right. That's about a 25 or 30 minute introduction to reading through these Psalms. That's the foundation.

Joel Brooks: 22:20

I probably, I probably should walk through at least a few verses. Look at Psalm 148. Now that we have the foundation, I'm just going to hit a few things and then we're going to take some time to praise and to worship. Let me look at some particulars of these 3 Psalms in front of us. Psalm 148, praise the Lord or praise Yahweh.

Joel Brooks: 22:47

Praise the Lord from the heavens. Praise him in the heights. Praise him all his angels. Praise him all his hosts. Right there, he's the psalmist is starting with with all the heavenly hosts way out there in heaven, you're to praise him.

Joel Brooks: 23:03

And then he moves to the heavenly bodies. Praise him sun and moon. Praise him all you shining stars. Praise him you highest heavens and you waters above the earth. And then he moves down, look at verse 7, to to the earth.

Joel Brooks: 23:16

Praise the lord from the earth. Then he goes through sea creatures and fire and hell, and so he's starting out really wide. The lens is really wide, and then he's starting to narrow it in. Starting in heaven, moving to earth. What you're seeing is, the completion of Jesus' prayer, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Joel Brooks: 23:35

And so the the chorus that is now ringing in the heavens is now moving into earth here. And earth is now celebrating mountains, and hills, and fruit trees, and beasts, and livestock, flying birds, they're all praising the lord. And then he gets to verse 11. Now he narrows it down to to specific people, kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth, young men and maidens together, old men and children, let them praise the name of the Lord. Now the reason that the psalmist can command this is verse 5.

Joel Brooks: 24:22

Let them praise the name of the Lord for he commanded and they were created, and he established them forever and ever. He gave a decree and it shall not pass away. Everything in the entire universe, all of creation, owes its existence to its creator, God. The Psalmist says, therefore you owe your praise. Matter of fact, your very next breath comes from God.

Joel Brooks: 25:01

So praise him with

Connor Coskery: 25:04

it.

Joel Brooks: 25:08

Do you mind if I divert here for just one second to to talk about evangelism and how evangelism relates to this? And the and the only reason I'm not gonna go here is for 1, it popped my head, and 2, I think our churches weaken evangelism. We've been praying that God would raise up people in here with a gift of evangelism and sharing their faith. But one of the mistakes I think our generation has, has made, it's it's evolved into an evangelism that is based purely on momentary felt needs. And so, we begin to share our faith by saying, you know what, God can help you through your depression.

Joel Brooks: 25:47

God can help you through your marriage. That financial crisis you're going through, god can help you. And so, we start with these light momentary afflictions, these momentary felt needs. And you know what? We need to start with people's huge real needs.

Joel Brooks: 26:09

You know what? God created you to praise him. That's what that's what you're on this earth for. That's what he designed and he made you for, was for the joy of praising him. Jonathan Edwards said that, the thing that we have in common most with an unbeliever is that we are all, we were all created by our creator, and we all need him.

Joel Brooks: 26:40

It says, and that, that's where we have to start when we share our faith. And so I encourage you to start there with a big, huge need that every human heart has and is crying out. They know that you were made to praise God and to enjoy him forever. So much here. Few more minutes.

Joel Brooks: 27:06

Look at verse 14. Verse 14 tells us how this is all possible. How can we, as sinners, praise the lord in such fashion? How do we deserve such joy? In 14, it says, he has raised up a horn for his people.

Joel Brooks: 27:28

Praise for all his saints, for the people of Israel who are near him. Praise the Lord. First off here, you see the, the goal of it all is that there will be a people near the Lord that that we would bask in his presence. That's the goal. That's our final state that we would be near him.

Joel Brooks: 27:49

And it's made possible because he has raised up a horn of salvation. Some of your bibles might actually put that in a prophetic sense. May he raise up a horn of salvation? You can translate it either way. What is this horn of salvation?

Joel Brooks: 28:07

If you wanna flip over to Luke 1, it's appropriate as we enter this Advent season. Zechariah prophesies concerning this. Zechariah verse 60 7. Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied saying, blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he has visited, he has come near and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant, David. Zechariah is talking about the birth of Jesus born the next chapter.

Joel Brooks: 29:00

Jesus Christ is the one who makes this available for us. We remember this, this advent season, his birth, this is pointing straight to that. He has raised up a horn for his people. Jesus Christ is the way that we get to enter into the presence of God. Look at Psalm 149 verse 1, praise the Lord.

Joel Brooks: 29:24

Sing to the Lord a new song. By the way, a new song doesn't have to be a new song. The Psalmist isn't like promoting, you know, his, his next big hit, you know, and saying like, Hey, I've got a new song coming out. You know, you got to sing it. A new song could be an old song.

Joel Brooks: 29:41

Old songs about Jesus never ever tire me. They should never tire any of you because worship is when God reveals himself and then you respond. And you're like, you you have to say, that's that's incredible. That's that's beautiful. What we've said, he's incredible.

Joel Brooks: 29:57

We've said he's beautiful a 1000 times, But it's new to us every time there's a new revelation, every time we see a a new facet of the diamond turning, every time we see just a new part of God, that is a new song in our hearts. If your worship is stale in church, it's not because you're singing the same songs. It's because a new song hasn't been put in your heart. It's It's because you're not going to the word, you're not going in prayer, and you're not seeing God's not revealing something new to you, and it becomes stale. Some of the best new songs are the old songs that we sing about God, and we see him in new ways.

Joel Brooks: 30:43

Look at verse 23. It says, let Israel be glad in his maker. Let the children of Zion rejoice in their king. Let them praise him with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre. Can you just see the joy?

Joel Brooks: 30:57

Can you feel the joy here? We've talked about this before. Some of times we confuse reverence with being reserved and we think that we're supposed to revere god. Therefore, we're supposed to be quiet and we're post, we're supposed to be very reserved but nowhere in scripture do you see that? The best way to revere God, to hold him into reverence, is to in no way be reserved, but to gush in your praise.

Joel Brooks: 31:27

And you see that here. Verse 5, let the godly exalt in glory. Let them sing for joy on their beds. What the heck is that talking about? My best bet on that is it's an illusion to rest.

Joel Brooks: 31:52

Not only do we have the exuberant singing, do we have the dancing, but we finally have rest. And we will sing in our rest. Psalm 150 kinda kinda fill up building, praise him, praise him, praise him. It's the crescendo of all the Psalms. And it ends simply with verse 6 saying, let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Joel Brooks: 32:20

And that word breath is actually a very rare word in the Hebrew scriptures. It's not used often at all. It's, it's used, of course, in Genesis when God put breath in Adam, And it's alluding back to Genesis, actually. Once again, god created everything, But in some things, he gave breath. And the reason he gave you that breath is that it might proclaim the and praise to God.

Joel Brooks: 32:54

That's why you were put here on this earth. Praise the Lord. Pray with me. Lord Jesus, I know there's probably some people who, you might not understand the words that have been said, might actually only be feeling sorrow when we've been talking about joyful praise. Lord, encourage them even in their sorrow because the only reason they would feel sorrow is if they knew you had infinite value and they are not responding appropriately.

Joel Brooks: 33:33

So at least they know their value. And so where there needs to be a godly sorrow, bring it. Where there needs to be untethered praise, bring it. May your people not hold back in the way that we worship you God. Because your command for your own praise and glory is our command to be as joyful as we can.

Joel Brooks: 34:05

We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.