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Good morning my dear “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Today is THANKSGIVING EVE 2019 in America, and we’re spending our entire week Praising God!!
Let’s open our Bibles to Psalm 148 today and prepare for a trip around the universe and all over our planet, watching for evidence that ALL God has created, is always praising HIM! Now my friends, please remember this was written about 3000 years ago. Think about All that scientists have discovered in the past 3 millennia!
This is another evidence that the writings of the Bible are Holy Spirit inspired. People wrote, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, what they sometimes did not fully understand themselves! Listen to 2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness…”
As with all five of the “Hallelujah Psalms”, we begin and end with the powerful three word invitation “PRAISE the LORD”! In Psalm 148, you’ll see three segments of our Universe are called to Praise God! First is “Praise The LORD from the heavens, praise Him in the heights above.”
The author of this Psalm begins far beyond what their naked eye can see… but a place he is convinced exists, because God has spoken of it often, and visitors have come from there frequently, as found through the Old Testament. “Praise Him, all His angels, praise Him, all His heavenly hosts.” (vs 2) One of the great names of God is “Jehovah Sabaoth” which means the LORD of the heavenly hosts.
We find this name for God in Isaiah chapter 6:1-8, where the prophet Isaiah has a life changing encounter while worshiping God, and he sees a vision of angelic beings around God’s throne. The Bible does not tell us how many angels God created, but when we consider all Scripture which speaks of angels, we conclude they are a very, very large army of holy, heavenly beings. Jesus, who created them, is their Commander in Chief (Col. 1:15-17). Their purpose is to PRAISE God and serve as His messengers to earth, or any other part of our universe. You’ll remember the Christmas story is filled with angelic visits, right?
Do you see in vs. 3, the Psalmist calls the sun, moon and stars to “Praise the LORD” because He created them for His glory! Remember Psalm 19:1-4 “The heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech, night after night they display His knowledge.”
Scientific research tells us, our Milky Way Galaxy has about 100 billion stars, and there are about 10 billion galaxies in our ‘observable universe’! Can you wrap your mind around that? Do the math. That would put the total number of stars at 1 followed by 21 ZERO’s!!
This NASA web site will stretch your mind to consider what the Psalmist could not possibly have imagined when he wrote this Psalm 148: https://www.nasa.gov/
Do you see verse 5 calls us to praise God for the manner in which He created all that scientific telescopes are now discovering: “He commanded and they were created.” That’s an accurate reflection of Genesis 1 isn’t it? No evolution over billions of years. No big bang theory. What the telescopes are discovering, the Psalmist was led by God to write about, 3000 years ago, even though he had no possible way of imagining the pictures we now see!
Verse 6 is important also, for it says “He set them in place for ever and ever; He gave a decree that will never pass away.” Don’t you love how the prophet Isaiah wrote about this: “Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” (Is. 40:26)
However in Revelation 6, at the end of this age of God’s grace, we find a description that the universe will experience judgement from God: “There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth…the moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth… the sky receded like a scroll rolling up…” (Rev. 6:12-14). Eventually, Revelation 21 tells us, there will be a new heaven and a new earth. For now, however, the universe praises God as everywhere we look the majesty and creative genius of God is evident by all we see in the skies above. Do you agree??
The Psalmist next turns his attention to our planet in verse 7-10 of Psalm 148. “Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lighting and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do His bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds…”
In recent years TV channels like the National Geographic or Discovery channel have been producing amazing documentaries of this remarkable planet earth which God has created and daily sustains by His great power. The BBC productions “Blue Planet”, initially released in 2001 has recently released a second edition which is simply breathtaking, as all that the Psalmist describes here in Psalm 148 is filmed and explored all over our remarkable, God created, planet earth.
So what amazes you most about our planet my friends… the underwater world? The majesty of the mountains, the grandeur of the great forests, the mighty winding rivers, the endless deserts, the myriad of animals all so different one from another, the eco-system which keeps this planet watered and vegetation growing and animals feeding? Does it all call you to PRAISE the LORD?
And then what about us. . . humanity? The author of Psalm 148 finally turns our focus to us: “…kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth, young men and maidens, old men and children…” There are now about 7.7 Billion people, and rapidly growing. Here’s a link to understand the pace of our global population growth: https://www.
Now remember Psalm 139, and God’s unlimited understanding of each person, from the moment of their conception! Consider God’s direct involvement in the development of every fetus in the womb, every living person after birth.
Consider God’s sustaining work keeping all of us alive and responding to our desperate cries for help! And then consider no two human beings have ever been entirely identical! Each of us is a unique and wonderful creation of God, with whom God desires a loving relationship, and for whom Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for their sin and make a reconciled relationship with God possible! Now if that doesn’t awaken praise to God from deep in your soul, nothing will!
I can imagine the author of Psalm 148 is standing, with arms uplifted in praise and song, by the time he writes vs. 13 & 14: “Let them praise the name of the LORD, for His name alone is exalted; His splendor is above the earth and the heavens. He has raised up for His people a horn [a leader] the praise of all His saints, of Israel, the people close to His heart.”
Did you see the use of a New Testament word there? One of Paul’s favorite words as we saw in his letters. “Saints”! Already, 3000 years ago, the Psalmist was celebrating the work of God in the lives of sinful people, which we now understand to be the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit in response to the repentance of sinners, the redemption of Jesus Christ from our sin and the forgiveness of our sin by God the Father! It’s the Gospel isn’t it…tucked here in Psalm 148!
The word “horn” in vs. 14 means ‘strong leader’, ‘warrior’, ‘rescuer’. Like the horn on some of the great animals of God’s creation, is their primary weapon. So do you see Jesus is the ‘horn’ of our salvation? Our rescuer, our deliverer, our defender against the darkness of evil in our world and our lives.
Oh my friends I hope, on this Thanksgiving Eve, it is easy for you to read through Psalm 148 and “Praise the LORD”! Perhaps you might even want to add another stanza or two for this Psalm, as you look all around our universe and world, even as you look at the human beings you will see today… and simply be awed by the creative majesty, the sustaining power, and the love of God!
Oh Lord Jesus. . .
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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