"Praise the Lord."
Psalm 146:1, 147:1, 148:1, 149:1, 150:1
Five out of the six psalms we read today started with the same three words: praise the Lord. The first, psalm 136 commanded us to give thanks and reminded us that His faithful love endures forever. After today's reading, who could not shout "Praise the Lord"!
I wanted to focus on two words, joyful and delight. Joyful is translated as blessed. It is a masculine noun and Hebrew word esher (eh'sher) which means happiness; happy. Personally, I like the to use the word joyful instead of blessed. I see expression and have a warm feeling when I hear or say joyful. It paints an entirely different picture than blessed.
We are joyful if we have the God of Israel (Jacob) as our helper and hope is in Him. Oh, I love the ways the God of Israel is described in 146:6-10.
- He made, He gives, He frees, He opens
- He lifts, He loves, He protects, He cares
- He frustrates the plans of the wicked
- He will reign forever
Psalm 147:11 and 149:4 taught us what delights the Lord. The word pleasure is used in the ESV and KJV. The Hebrew transliteration is ratsah (raw-tsaw) which means to be pleased with, to be favorable, to accept favorably. The Lord is pleased with:
- Those who fear Him
- His people
We are His people and He is pleased with us, accepts us favorably when we show a reverent fear of the Lord. This means to respect and submit to Him as Lord of our life. A life with respect and submission to the Lord experiences great joy. You might call this person "joyful." All this is enough to Praise the Lord!
11 Comments:
Thanks for sharing the Psalms of praise with us. God certainly is good. I love how you lay out all God does for us in Psalm 146. He does all that and yet at times we forget He surrounds us with His authority.
Yes, thank you so much Wendy for leading us through this. I learn something every day from my own reading, your comments and everyone elses comments. This is so exciting to know that God's word is penetrating my heart.
The verse that stood out to me was also from Ps. 146:8, "The Lord lifts up those who are weighed down" I am asking myself, what is weighing me down right now?? From the verse I get a mental image of God coming up behind me and picking me up and helping me walk. Hope that sticks with me! Jeanni
Sometimes it's hard living up to a name! :) I love the verse from the Psalms that says, "In His presence is fulness of joy." (Psalm 16:11 NASB)
I too was captured by that phrase today. "Praise the Lord". What spoke to me was that the Psalms you mentioned both started and ended with those words. I was thinking how my day needs to start and end with praise. I know I sometimes lose track in the middle and allow people or situations to pull me down, but if I could even begin to focus on starting and ending my day in praise, maybe it could really spread until it became a lifestyle.
I decided to do something different today as the Psalms are coming to a close. Captured by the pattern of Psalm 136, I decided to write my own Psalm on my blog today. I'm no Psalmists, but it is my feeble attempt at praising Him.
Joyfully His,
Joy
Ever notice that when you start counting your blessings, the problems seem to diminish?
Love it! I've always said Have a blessed day or blessings - but in light of today's post - Have a Joyful day.
Lynn
How do I desire to begin my quiet time with the Lord? The last verse today sums it it perfectly:
"Let everything that breathes sing praises to the LORD!" Psalm 150:6
Praise the LORD!
Enjoy today, sisters, we have so much to be joyful for! And, yes, that leaves me with such a very warm feeling!
Catch my love and prayers coming your way from the sunny state of AZ! Lori - AZ
Some days(it seems on those days when I am going through a particularly hard situation)I find myself praising God continually throughout the day. In fact, on those days it becomes such a habit that it seems I am doing it without even realizing it. This occured a couple of weeks ago and when I realized I was doing it, I stopped and wondered if God was thinking that I was giving Him empty praises. But after today's reading I realize that in those times I am not only praising Him, but I am also am using praise as my best weapon against Satan and showing him that my God is worthy of praise no matter what my circumstances.I should praise Him continually everyday-not just when my circumstances are difficult!
Have a JOYful Day!
Carmen
Carmen, I agree with you. This has happened to me too, praising God semi-consciously in a really stressful time. I think that instead of half-hearted praise, you are really experiencing the Spirit praying for you.
Romans 8:26 -
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
Okay, so praise is not groaning, but the Spirit is helping in our weakness, to take our eyes off our troubles and turn them upwards to God.
Joy, you do a pretty darn good job of living up to the name. I am anxious to read your Psalm!
Indeed, have a joyful day everyone!
Karen, CA
Still Praising Him!!
Morgen - MN
Hey Wendy,
I love these Psalms!
He is worthy of our praise!
Can't wait to see you in a couple weeks. Hope we can share a few minutes together.
Love ya
Pamela
Well said Carmen,
Two nights ago as I was driving to a car accident which my son was in due to him blacking out, I was singing and crying Blessed Assurance Jesus is Mine. I was comforted in singing to our Father not knowing how I was going to react to seeing my son. "Praise the Lord" he was not hurt! God's Mighty hand of protection was there with my son.
Praising the Lord with my
Sweet Sisters-in-Christ,
Deborah
Giving praise and thanks to the Lord this day. Thank You for the last two days of comments everyone. I feel so "joyful" to be in this group of wonderful ladies.
Wendy your truly a inspiring teacher!
Love,
Debra Z. Ca
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