Psalm 150
Praise the LORD!
6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD!
· “Praise is the consummation of all religion.”
· As we should never begin a work without prayer to God, so we should never close our labors in any enterprise without thanking him who has sustained us.
Psalm 149
Sing to the LORD!
1 Praise the LORD!
Sing to the LORD a new song,
And His praise in the congregation of the godly ones.
· Let us learn not to rejoice so much in the gift, as in the Giver, in the blessings received as in the Source of all comfort, in the good things enjoyed as in our King himself.
· In nothing but his own infinite nature does God take such pleasure as in his people, the meek of the earth. He has done more for them and promised more to them, than to and for even angels, who never sinned against him.
Psalm 147
God Is Pleased When I Hope in Him
11 The LORD favors those who fear Him
Those who wait for His lovingkindness.
· There is such a thing as fitness and adaptedness in means and instruments, and God in his wisdom often selects such and teaches man to do the same; but whenever we trust in these and not in the living God, we are guilty of great folly. “Before man will want an idol, he will idolize his own strength, or the strength of a horse, and put confidence therein.” (Dickson)
· “Our fear must save our hope from swelling into presumption, and our hope must save our fear from sinking into despair.” (Henry)
· There are no wounds like those of the spirit (Prov 18:14).
· Infinite and glorious as is the Lord, yet he is amazing in his condescension.
Psalm 146
My Trust Is in God Alone
3 Do not trust in princes,
In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.
· There is no act of worship that may not fitly begin and end with his praise.
· We have more to fear than to hope for from the best man living, if we put him in the place of God.
· Art thou a child of sorrow, borne down with the weight of thy grief? Cast thy burden on the Lord. Trust in him. He can raise thee out of the depths up to the heights of glory.
· “Perpetuity is the distinguishing character of the divine government.” (Morison)
Psalm 145
God’s Greatness Is Unsearchable
3 Great is the LORD, and highly to be praised,
And His greatness is unsearchable.
· “Human virtue and greatness have their limits, where spots appear and poverty begins; but the greatness of God is unsearchable and inexpressible.” (Tholuck)
· Unless we have great thoughts of God, our thoughts of sin will be low, our sense of obligation feeble, and our praises dull.
· If we would be wise, and so act as not to cover us with confusion, we must put time and eternity together. Our connection with an endless future is as close and as certain as our connection with time, and much more lasting.
Psalm 144
God Is My Rock
1 Blessed be the LORD, my rock,
Who trains my hands for war,
And my fingers for battle.
2 My lovingkindness and my fortress,
My stronghold and my deliverer,
My shield and He in whom I take refuge,
Who subdues my people under me.
· God has richer mercies and stronger consolations than are found in all temporal possessions.
Psalm 143
My Deliverance Comes from God Alone
6 I stretch out my hands to You;
My soul longs for You, as a parched land.
· In true piety there is always a just and strong sense of accountability.
· Afflictions stir up a world of thought; sanctified, afflictions, a world of useful thought.
· In the court of heaven our names are worthless.
Psalm 142
I Cry to God
1 I cry aloud with my voice to the LORD;
I make supplication with my voice to the LORD.
2 I pour out my complaint before Him;
I declare my trouble before Him.
· The final victory of one believer is well suited to give joy to all who know it; but the victory of the Crucified settles a thousand difficulties in minds that are not given over to unbelief.
Psalm 141
My Eyes Are Toward You, O God
8 For my eyes are toward You, O GOD, the Lord;
In You I take refuge; do not leave me defenseless.
· We cannot too carefully remember that prayer is a spiritual sacrifice demanding the heart and soul.
· The more the righteous knows of himself, the more earnestly does he desire and seek the grace of God to restrain, guard and sanctify him.
· True Christian heroism does not proceed from strong nerves, or brute courage, but from a faith, which against hope believes in hope.
Psalm 139
God Knows All Hearts
1 O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
· It is God’s plan and our interest to have our hearts and ways subjected to the scrutiny of omniscience, which is thorough, infallible and infinitely holy in all its examinations.
· How great is human ignorance when brought into comparison with divine knowledge.
· It is a small thing to be seen of man’s eye, or judged of man’s judgment; but to live and act under the scrutiny of God is well suited to make us solemn and cautious. Yet God’s Holy Spirit must change and renew the heart, or it will never turn from wickedness. Men cannot be frightened out of their iniquities.
· But in our hatred of sin we should carefully guard against all malice, all private pique, all personal enmity, and abhor the characters of the wicked only as they are abhorrent to God.
Psalm 137
Lamentation (community) / Imprecatory
God’s Chastening and Judgment are Awful
8 O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one,
How blessed will be the one who repays you
With the recompense with which you have repaid us.
· “They who will not esteem the privileges of Zion when they have them, will be forced to acknowledge the worth thereof with sorrow when they want them.” (Dickson)
· We may not sing songs, or do anything else in God’s worship, at the bidding or for the gratification of carnal men. . . . We have better work than to teach and learn the fear of God by the behests of men.
Psalm 135
God Rules Over All
5 For I know that the LORD is great
And that our Lord is above all gods.
6 Whatever the LORD pleases, He does,
In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.
· Our praises to Jehovah should be such as we offer to none others.
· “The whole world is a theatre for the display of the divine goodness, wisdom, justice and power, but the church is the orchestra, as it were, the most conspicuous part of it.” (Calvin)
Psalm 134
Praise the Lord
1 Behold, bless the LORD, all servants of the LORD,
Who serve by night in the house of the LORD!
· “If our hearts were filled with the love of God, as his holy law commands, our mouths would be filled with his praises: and though our frail bodies would need rest, yet our souls would never be weary of his pleasant service.” (Scott)
Psalm 133
God’s Presence Brings Peace
1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!
· We are no more at liberty to be schismatics than we are to be heretics.
· It would be a great matter if we could lay out our strength on weighty things of doctrine and morals, and not be over zealous concerning small matters.
Psalm 132
Christ is the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Son of David
11 The LORD has sworn to David
A truth from which He will not turn back;
“Of the fruit of your body I will set upon your throne.”
· “The greater our care and concern for promoting the worship and glory of God, the greater is the stability and consolation of our faith.” (Amesius)
· The very moment a Christian doubts the omnipotence of God, he has begun to fall into a snare.
· The garments of the ancient priesthood were indeed beautiful, but they were worn by many a heartless hypocrite.
· There are no keener miseries than those brought upon men, when by their sins they forfeit the covenant blessings enjoyed by their ancestors.