This is the concluding psalm to the book of Psalms in the Bible. And there is only one conclusion. God is so great and good that He deserves all our praises.
1 Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.
2 Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre,
4 praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute,
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.
6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.
That made me reflect: Do I always praise God? When things are going well, I'm quite sure I praise God. But when things look yucky (like today), I found it not easy to praise God.
Like what Pastor Wes Richards shared today, we need to surrender our pains and disappointments to the Lord. Only then, we can praise God when we encounter disappointments.
When we praise God with all our heart, the demons and powers of darkness flee away from us. That's because we have a great and mighty God! Hallelujah!
Lord, teach me to surrender to you my hurts, disappointments, pains and finally, my whole heart.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Psalm 149 "Warriors of Light"
After almost a month, I finally have the movtivation to post my thoughts on the last two psalms.
From Psalm 149, I really believe that we, Christians are called to be warriors of light. Look at the following verses:
6 May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands,
7 to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,
8 to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron,
9 to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of all his saints. Praise the LORD.
But at this time and age, the things that we're fighting against are not people. The wars that we wage are not supposed to be physical wars. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 gives us some insight on this.
3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.
4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
We're fighting against the devil. We're fighting against the prince of the world. We're fighting against his influence in many areas. Ephesians 6:12 reminds us this:
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
For instance, for so long, the devil's foothold in the media had been deeply entrenched. Pastor Khong is giving his best in wrestling the media world from the devil. That is the kind of fight that I'm talking about. Reclaiming what that has been lost.
However, we're not to do this alone. It is only possible, with the help and grace of God. And the people of God.
May the Lord grant you a desire to fight for Him.
From Psalm 149, I really believe that we, Christians are called to be warriors of light. Look at the following verses:
6 May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands,
7 to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,
8 to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron,
9 to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of all his saints. Praise the LORD.
But at this time and age, the things that we're fighting against are not people. The wars that we wage are not supposed to be physical wars. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 gives us some insight on this.
3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.
4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
We're fighting against the devil. We're fighting against the prince of the world. We're fighting against his influence in many areas. Ephesians 6:12 reminds us this:
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
For instance, for so long, the devil's foothold in the media had been deeply entrenched. Pastor Khong is giving his best in wrestling the media world from the devil. That is the kind of fight that I'm talking about. Reclaiming what that has been lost.
However, we're not to do this alone. It is only possible, with the help and grace of God. And the people of God.
May the Lord grant you a desire to fight for Him.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Psalm 148 "Praise the Lord"
1 Praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD from the heavens, praise him in the heights above.
2 Praise him, all his angels,praise him, all his heavenly hosts.
3 Praise him, sun and moon,praise him, all you shining stars.
4 Praise him, you highest heavensand you waters above the skies.
5 Let them praise the name of the LORD, for he commanded and they were created.
6 He set them in place for ever and ever; he gave a decree that will never pass away.
7 Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,8 lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding,
9 you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars,
10 wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds,
11 kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth,
12 young men and maidens, old men and children.
13 Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.
14 He has raised up for his people a horn, the praise of all his saints, of Israel, the people close to his heart.
Praise the LORD.
This psalm is another one of those 'praise' psalm. It's all about praising the Lord. Let everything - really everything, including things that are inanimate, praise the Lord!And one key reason why we can praise the Lord is the fact that He gave us His one and only son, Jesus (v14) - who walked on the earth and went to the cross for our sins.
Let's recite this psalm once again, as an act of worship to the Lord. Let's NOT be tired of praising the Lord!
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