Praise the LORD! How good to sing praises to our God! How delightful and how fitting! Psalm 147: 1, NLT.
Merciful Father, it is with grateful hearts that we come into Your presence! We await a Word from You as we begin this week; for only a Word from You will provide what we need to see us through. Thank You for coming close and blessing us with Your presence, in the mighty name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
Today we are looking at Psalm 147 for our devotional thought. In this psalm we find different components that are conducive to us praising God. For the next few moments let us praise Him, for He is worthy of our praise! We will praise Him because He is:
Creator (4, 5). “He counts the stars and calls them all by name” (4)! Isn’t it a mind-boggling thought that when God created the heavens and the earth, He gave names to the stars? I do not believe that this is merely metaphoric language. When He responded to Job, and questioned him about the constellations, did You notice how He called them by their name? “…The Pleiades!” “…Orion!” “…The Mazzaroth!” “…The Bear” (Job 38: 31, 32, NRSV). He is such a personal God; and, “His power is absolute” (Psalm 147: 5, NRSV)!
Sustainer (2, 3, 8, 9, 14, 16-18). God not only creates, but He rebuilds and He restores. In the same way that He rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and brought back those who had been in exile (2); in the Twenty-first Century, He is rebuilding those institutions that have been broken down by our lack of faithful stewardship. He is also restoring our children, and the members of His flock, that sin had exiled in the far country of degradation.
As our Healer, He is putting broken hearts back together again, and applying His balm to the wounds that our insensitivities have caused (3). He brings about the seasons (8, 16-18); and provides food for His creatures, the “finest of wheat. ” And it is only because He is our Protector that we still enjoy a measure of “peace within our borders” (9, 14, NRSV)
Just (6, 19, 20). He looks out for those who have been beaten down by life, and the unfair systems that have been set in place by the wickedness of human beings. He still intervenes and “casts the wicked to the ground” (6, NIV). There was a time when only one nation could call themselves the “people of God.” But because He is perfectly just, His mercy has been extended to those who are Abraham’s seed by faith (Romans 4: 16-18). Now, men and women, boys and girls, everywhere, can truly say, “He has revealed His word to [us];” and we “know His laws” (Psalm 147: 19, 20)!
Worthy of our praise, and delights in it (1, 7, 11, 12, 20 last part)! Our Scripture for today begins and ends with the exhortation to, “Praise the Lord.” I never get tired of responding to that, by saying, For He is worthy of our praise! I delight in praising Him! He has done so much for Me, that my heart’s delight is to praise Him! The first reason given for praising Him is because, “He is gracious” (1). I am not sure what the psalmist meant by this statement, but I am applying my own sentiment by saying, that God has extended much grace to me, therefore, I will praise Him!
We can indeed, “Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving” (7)! There is so much for which to be thankful! It is only because He keeps us breathing, and our hearts beating while we sleep, that many of us woke up this morning; we could have died like so many others, in our sleep! We are in our sound minds! We live in a country where we can still worship God according to the dictates of our hearts! We take these great blessings for granted, but many do not have them. Unlike earthly rulers who “take pleasure in a horse, or in human might” (10), verse 11 says that, “the LORD’s delight is in those who fear Him, those who put their trust in His unfailing love” (11)!
Therefore, “Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion (12)!