Praise Him on His Terms

Praise the LORD
Praise God in his sanctuary
praise him in his mighty heavens
Praise him for his acts of power
praise him for his surpassing greatness
Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet
praise him with the harp and lyre
Praise him with tambourine and dancing
praise him with the strings and flute
Praise him with the clash of cymbals
praise him with resounding cymbals
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD
Praise the LORD
-Psalm 150

Psalm 150 is a beautiful poem filled with the imagery of worship. It gives us some incredible advice for where, why, and how to worship our God. The main point is clearly stated in the first and last lines of the poem. “Praise the Lord.” Everything between those lines supports that exhortation.

HIS sanctuary, HIS mighty heavens
How many times do I find myself asking God to come near to me? God desires to be near us, but sometimes when we find ourselves most in need of God, it's not because He's gone anywhere at all, it has much more to do with where we are. We know that Jesus came, not only to die for us, but also to know us and be near us. He bore our sins so that we could have unhindered access to the Father as a result of Christ's righteousness. So if we have free access to the Father, why do we find ourselves asking Him to come to us? This first verse of Psalm 150 encourages that if we want to be in God's presence we don't need to ask him to come to us, He's already done that; we need to go to him.

Acts of power,surpassing greatness
These two things: “acts of power,” and “surpassing greatness,” are just another way of saying, praise God for what he's done, and who He is. There is always something that we can praise God about. Sometimes our circumstances will naturally cause us to praise Him. At other times we’ll struggle to see God anywhere in our lives, but we can always praise God for who He is because his character never changes. No matter how difficult our circumstances, there’s something to praise God about.

Praise Him LOUD!
I love this part of the poem. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of instruments that we can use to praise God, but it does give us some great ideas of what worship can be like. The first thing I notice is that worship is active. David speaks here of playing musical instruments and dancing. Praising the Lord was not just an exercise of the mind; it was an exercise of the body and spirit as well. The work and nature of God should drive us to action. In verse 5, he not only encourages us to use cymbals, but resounding cymbals! Have you ever heard quiet cymbals? Maybe I'm letting my cultural bias interfere with my interpretation of scripture, but I'm getting the distinct impression that David liked his worship loud!

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. That is an amazing thought when I consider the state of our world right now. Some day everything will praise God. Someday everything will declare his mighty acts of power in the universe and his greatness that blows away our wildest imaginings. He's worthy to be praised by every living, breathing thing, but there will still remain a sense that it's still not big enough. It's not loud enough. It's not yet intense enough. It couldn't happen long enough. I don’t see anyone checking their watches wondering when worship is over. No one will be waiting for song that they like, and no one will be concerned with what anyone else thinks—except, of course, God himself.
That will be the truest worship ever experienced. Until then let’s strive to live our lives so they honor the one who will someday be honored by everything. Let our lives begin and end with one thought and let everything in between support this exhortation:

Praise the Lord!