PSALMS 146-150
Part 20
Psalms 146-150 are the last psalms of this great book. What better way to end this grand book than with Psalms that praise God. Each psalm starts and ends with the phrase, Praise the Lord! Since the Hebrew word praise means hallelujah, some call these last five Psalms the hallelujah psalms.
Speaking of these Psalms, McCaw noted that:
They have no word of
petition or any suggestion of personal need; and there is a minimum of
historical allusion. All is focused upon God who alone is worthy to be
praised. Each of the five brings to light some particular aspect of the
praise of God; and Ps. 146 strikes the characteristic note of individualism.
`If I do not praise God, then the praise of God is incomplete.'"
Psalm 146 stresses how God is the helper of His people and will always be there for us as opposed to men and human rulers. The message of this psalm is to respect God as being the ultimate ruler of our life and to put our trust in Him.
Psalm 146:1 Praise
the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul! 2
While I live I will praise the LORD; I will sing praises to my God while I have
my being.
God is certainly worthy of our praise. As the writer said, we should be willing to praise God for the rest of our lives with the understanding that our praise to God will never end because when we get to heaven, what do you think we will be doing there? We will be praising God.
Psalm 146:3 Do not
put your trust in princes, Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no
help. 4 His spirit departs,
he returns to his earth; In that very day his plans perish. 5 Happy is he who has the
God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in the LORD his God, 6 Who made heaven and earth, The
sea, and all that is in them; Who keeps truth forever, 7 Who executes justice for the
oppressed, Who gives food to the hungry.
The writer tells us not
put our trust in princes that is people in power or people of influence. We
should not put our trust in man only because man can and does fail us. Even
those who are trustworthy cannot offer us salvation because only God can offer
that.
As the Psalm says, we
must put our trust and hope in God because He will never fail us. He had the
power to create the heavens and the earth and everything on the earth, so we
should never doubt His ability to help us and be there for us. We have seen
many time throughout the Bible where God helps the oppressed from their enemies
and provided food for the hungry. Since we a have God we can trust in, we
should praise Him. The writer continues to praise God for other things He does
as we read in:
Psalm 146:7 The
LORD gives freedom to the prisoners. 8
The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; The LORD raises those who are
bowed down; The LORD loves the righteous.
9 The LORD watches over the strangers; He relieves the
fatherless and widow; But the way of the wicked He turns upside down. 10 The LORD shall reign forever --
Your God, O
There are many examples
of God doing all of these things throughout the Bible. God has rescued his
people from prison a number times, and we read of several occasion in the NT
where Jesus literally opened the eyes of the blind that could not see. Of
course, many today that are spiritually blind still have their eyes opened by
Jesus when they allow God’s Word to penetrate their heart and convert them.
We have seen how God has
provided for the fatherless and widows on numerous occasion in Scripture. We
have also seen how the wicked have faced God’s wrath on many occasions as well.
When we read about how helpful our God has been in the past and how we see His
providence at work in our lives and in the lives of those around us, it should
cause to praise the Lord as well.
In Psalm 147, we find a
special call for us to praise God. This Psalm relates to the time of
The overall message of
the psalm is that we should always praise God for His love and concern for us
and for who He is, what He has done for us and what He will do for us.
Psalm 147:1 Praise
the LORD! For it is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant,
and praise is beautiful. 2
The LORD builds up
Sometimes when you hear
Christians sing, your left wondering if they really care because they have no
enthusiasm when they sing, but that should not be the case. When we think about
who we are praising in song and how God considers it as a sacrifice of praise
Him with the fruit of our lips (Heb. 13:15), it should light a fire in our soul
and want us to make our singing of praise come from our heart. At the writer
said, our praise to God is beautiful and pleasant.
When the children of
Knowing how powerful and
all knowing our God is should never cause us to doubt in His ability to lift up
the humble and to cast the wicked to the ground.
Psalm 147:7 Sing to
the LORD with thanksgiving; Sing praises on the harp to our God, 8 Who covers the heavens with
clouds, Who prepares rain for the earth, Who makes grass to grow on the
mountains. 9 He gives to the
beast its food, And to the young ravens that cry. 10 He does not delight in the
strength of the horse; He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. 11 The LORD takes pleasure in
those who fear Him, In those who hope in His mercy.
When you read through the
Psalms that mention using musical instruments, we need to keep in mind that the
instruments were used under the Law of Moses, but like many things associated
with the Law of Moses, they were nailed to the cross and do not apply to us
today. Using musical instruments for worshiping God is not command by word or
example under the new covenant we are under. This section of our Psalm praised
God for how He provides for His creation both physically and spiritually.
Jesus, used the thought found in these verses to teach us not to worry because
God provides:
Matthew 6:25 "
Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what
you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more
than food and the body more than clothing?
26 "Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow
nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you
not of more value than they? 27
"Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? 28 "So why do you worry about
clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil
nor spin; 29 "and yet I
say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of
these. 30 "Now if God so
clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the
oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 "Therefore do not worry,
saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we
wear?' 32 "For after all
these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need
all these things. 33
"But seek first the
Jesus came to same
conclusion this Psalm does. God provides for His creation. God is not
interested in how strong you are or how well you can provide for yourself.
Instead, He takes pleasure in those who fear Him, hope in His mercy, and put
His kingdom first.
Psalm 147:12 Praise
the LORD, O
At this time, the
children of
Not much has changed
during the time of Christianity. While some wicked nations have prospered for a
season, something bad usually happens to them. Those nations that make God a
big part of their nation have prospered. Our nation, is a good example of that.
However, it has really gone down hill since the beginning of our nation.
Knowing God will bless a nation that follows Him, should cause us all to want
to praise God.
In our next Psalm, the
writer calls on everything in heaven and on earth to praise God.
Psalm 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 stars of light! 4 Praise Him, you heavens of
heavens, And you waters above the heavens!
5 Let them praise the name of the LORD, For He commanded and
they were created. 6 He also
established them forever and ever; He made a decree which shall not pass away.
In these first 6 verses,
everything God created that dwells in the heavens are told to praise their
Creator. They certainly should be because without God they would not exist. The
remaining of the Psalm focuses on those the earth that should praise God.
Psalm 148:7 Praise
the LORD from the earth, You great sea creatures and all the depths; 8 Fire and hail, snow and clouds;
Stormy wind, fulfilling His word; 9
Mountains and all hills; Fruitful trees and all cedars; 10 Beasts and all cattle; Creeping
things and flying fowl; 11
Kings of the earth and all peoples; Princes and all judges of the earth; 12 Both young men and maidens; Old
men and children. 13 Let them
praise the name of the LORD, For His name alone is exalted; His glory is above
the earth and heaven. 14 And
He has exalted the horn of His people, The praise of all His saints -- Of the
children of
While this Psalm had an
immediate application to the children of Israel, it certainly applies to all of
us today because all of God’s creation in heaven and on earth should praise God
for creating us and continuing to care for us and offering us salvation through
His Son. This Psalm was made into song that we are all familiar with “Hallelujah,
Praise Jehovah” on page 3 of our songs books. I would like for us to sing all 3
verses of this song and please pay attention to the words.
While Psalm 148 called on
all of creation in heaven and earth, our next Psalm calls on the children of
Psalm 149:1 Praise
the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song, And His praise in the assembly of
saints. 2 Let
God loves it when His
people praise Him in everyway that they can. Under the Law of Moses it was ok
for them to praise God with a dance and a musical instrument. In fact, we find
several occasions of this happening in the OT time.
Exodus 15:20 Then
Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took the timbrel in her hand; and
all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. 21 And Miriam answered them:
"Sing to the LORD, For He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its
rider He has thrown into the sea!"
Judges 11:34 When
Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, there was his daughter, coming out to
meet him with timbrels and dancing; and she was his only child.
1 Chronicles 15:28 Thus all Israel brought up the ark
of the covenant of the LORD with shouting and with the sound of the horn, with
trumpets and with cymbals, making music
with stringed instruments and harps. 29 And it happened, as the
ark of the covenant of the LORD came to the City of David, that Michal, Saul's
daughter, looked through a window and saw King David whirling and playing
music; and she despised him in her heart.
Again, we must keep in
mind that during the Law of Moses these things were acceptable to God. There
were many things that were acceptable under the Law of Moses such as stoning
those who committed adultery, animal sacrifices, burning incense and many other
things that we do not do today under the new covenant because we do not have
the authority to do them. The idea of the Psalm is to praise God in every way
that is permissible.
I really like verse 4. For the LORD takes pleasure in His people;
He will beautify the humble with salvation.
James tells us that God gives His grace to the humble (James 4:6).
Before anyone can become a Christian and receive salvation, they must humble
themselves before God. If they want continue to please God, they must continue
to be humble. I also find it comforting to know that God takes pleasure in His
people especially when they are being humble. I also like the idea of God
beautifying us when we become Christian because this means we are no longer
stained with the ugliness of sin and our soul is as beautiful as it can
possible be.
Psalm 149:6 Let the high
praises of God be in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their
hand, 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 written judgment -- This honor have all His saints. Praise the
LORD!
Though God could kill
anyone He wanted to by Himself, He usually used a few faithful men that were
willing to trust Him to destroy their enemies. All you have to do is read
through the O.T. and you will find example after example where God did this for
the children of
Romans 8:31 If God is for us, who can be against
us?
Isaiah understood this.
Isaiah 50:7 "
For the Lord GOD will help Me; Therefore I will not be disgraced; Therefore I
have set My face like a flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed. 8 He
is near who justifies Me; Who will contend with Me? Let us stand together.
Who is My adversary? Let him come near
So, let us never grow
weary of praising God for what He has done for us and let us continue to praise
Him for He is going to do for us. Let us never stop carrying out His will even
when we face our enemy the devil and all that try to hinder us from spreading
the good news of Jesus. We must continue to put our armor on and use the sword
of the Spirit to cut to the heart of the wicked so they might be saved by
humbling themselves before God and obey His plan of salvation.
Our last Psalm has the
phrase “praise Him” in every single verse. Once again, we are going to see the writer
calling on the people to praise God in everyway that permissible under the Low
of Moses. What we should take from this last Psalm that closes out the book of
Psalms is that you and I should never stop praising God in every way that is
permissible for us under the law of Christ. We must never let ourselves forget
how wonderful God is all that He has done for us and will do for us and how He
has given us the opportunity to spend eternity in heaven. So, I will close our
twentieth lesson from the Psalms by reading Psalm 150
Psalm 150:1 Praise
the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament! 2 Praise Him for His mighty acts;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness! 3 Praise Him with the sound of the
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! 6 Let everything that has breath
praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!