A PRIMER FOR PRAISE

The Biblical book of Psalms is the hymnbook of the Old Testament. It 150 songs address every sentiment and encompass a vast awry of events. It is the longest and most diverse of all the books of the Bible, culminating in Psalm 150, a primer (an an elementary and fundamental explanation) about the art of praise.

Psalm 150 begins with the exhortation, Praise the LORD! The first word declares the purpose of the Psalm: praise! Then it declares the Person worthy of our praise, the LORD! We are to praise Him in His sanctuary (on earth) and in the firmament of His power (in heaven), in other words praise Him everywhere. We praise Him for His mighty acts, giving thanks for all that He has done. We praise Him according to His excellent greatness, the quality of our praise.

We praise Him for all that He is, His attributes, character and essence. It also addresses the quantity of our praise: we praise according to how great we think He is! We praise Him with musical instruments that we have created to amplify our praise, wind instruments, percussion instruments, stringed instruments. We even praise Him in our dance!​

The final verse proclaims, Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Humans are uniquely gifted with intellect, reason, will and choice. Our praise is made more precious to God because we offer it from our free will and choice. Praise the LORD!