Mighty Worship for Our Mighty God

Psalm 147
1Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.
2The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
3He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
4He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.
5Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.
6The Lord lifts up the humble; he casts the wicked to the ground.
7Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre!
8He covers the heavens with clouds; he prepares rain for the earth; he makes grass grow on the hills.
9He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry.
10His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
11but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.
12Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!
13For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your children within you.
14He makes peace in your borders; he fills you with the finest of the wheat.
15He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.
16He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes.
17He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs; who can stand before his cold?
18He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.
19He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and rules to Israel.
20He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his rules. Praise the Lord!

Psalm 147 hands us 20 declarative statements about our Mighty God. Each of these statements is clear and bold, just like God. When I read this psalm, I can honestly say, I don’t see much of this type of worship in our churches today. We tend to spend more time telling God what to do and how to do it rather than declaring His divine power to take care of us because He is our loving Creator. In this entire psalm there is not one request or word of instruction for God.

It is said that the Psalms are the prayer book of the Bible and that is most certainly true. If that is the case, then we could take a lesson from psalms like this and give some of our devotional / worship time over to meditation upon the greatness of God. I am challenged by that notion, for I know that the bulk of my prayer / praise life is not dedicated to the greatness of God but to my own needs and wants.

Does God need me to remind Him of His wonderful power, creative ability, or sustaining love? No. He’s fully aware of who He is. I’m the one who needs to be reminded and so time spent thinking about all that He has done is time well spent. One must also truly enjoy the poetic descriptions of God’s control of something as mundane as the weather in this psalm. Fortunately, my musings about God’s power and greatness do not have to be poetic. And so, declarative statements about our Mighty God belong in my devotional and worship life.

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