Praise the Lord

Praise the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp! Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes! Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD! – Psalm 150

Psalm 150 is the perfect way to wrap up the book of psalms. Almost all of Psalms is about praise. It deals with praise in good times and bad. It deals when praise when we can see God working and when we cannot. It deals with praising God even when we cannot see Him or understand what He is doing.

So we wrap up the book with Psalm 150. Praise the Lord. Praise Him in church and out in nature. Praise Him for His mighty acts and praise Him for His greatness. Praise Him with trumpet, lute, harp, timbrel and dance, stringed instruments, flutes, and with loud and clashing cymbals! Whatever has breath praise the Lord!

There is a lot about modern ‘praise and worship’ that doesn’t suit my taste. Like anything else in church, not all that is done in the name of praise and worship is done with the right heart or right motivation, but we can all be guilty of similar hypocrisy. But it seems like God will accept a wide variety of praise styles.

What can we take from the psalm? It seems pretty general in its call for praise. I may not prefer some of what I see, but it seems to me that if the heart and attitude behind the praise are right, it is hard to see God being angry at genuine praise.

So, dare we say it? PRAISE THE LORD!