Friday April 26
The Place of Worship
Psalm 150:1-6
1 Praise the LORD! Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament!
2 Praise Him for His mighty acts; Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!
3 Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet; Praise Him with the lute and harp!
4 Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
5 Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with clashing cymbals!
6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!
Psalm 150 is last of the five “Hallelujah Psalms” that conclude the Book of Psalms. The Book of Psalms teaches us to worship and seek the LORD in spirit and in truth. It opens our mind, heart, and soul to have communion with our great God. It is a book of prayers and pleas to the LORD for strength and deliverance from our enemies. But most of all it is a book of praise as we enjoy intimacy in our fellowship in the presence of Jehovah!
The Psalms give us the opportunity to vent our emotions of hurt, pain, suffering, rejection, anger, worry and fear to the LORD instead of taking them out on people and things around us! I trust you will make it a regular habit of reading, memorizing, and meditating on the Psalms as part of your daily walk with the LORD!
Psalm 150 gives us some final instructions on what our praise to the LORD should be like. First, our focus of praise should always be on the LORD and our great God! The word "praise" is used thirteen times in this psalm, and each of these “praise” is connected to “Praise the LORD”, “Praise God”, or “Praise Him”.
Next, we learn about the place of worship which is both Heaven and Earth. “Praise God in His sanctuary; Praise Him in His mighty firmament!” (v. 1b). The "firmament" is the great expanse of heaven (Psalms 11:4; 148:1; Gen. 1:6) where the angels and "spirits of just men made perfect" (Psalm 148:1-7; Heb. 12:23) worship the Lord. Heaven is and always will be a place of continuous praise to the LORD (Isaiah 6:1-3; Revelation 4).
The "sanctuary" was the Jewish tabernacle or temple where the priests and Levites led the people in praising God. We know that the Lord does not live in the structures that we design and build (Acts 7:48-50; 17:24-25), but there is nothing sinful about setting aside a place totally dedicated to worshiping the Lord. The early church met in the temple, in upper rooms, in private homes, and even in synagogues, and when persecution began, they met in caves and underground burial chambers.
People who excuse themselves from public worship because they "worship God in nature" need to be reminded that the God of nature has revealed Himself in Jesus Christ and commanded us to gather together with other believers (Heb. 10:25).
We can lift our hearts to the Lord from any geographic location, for our God fills heaven and earth. True worship begins in our hearts initiated by the Holy Spirit and should take place in our personal and private closet time with the LORD and His Word. Our public and corporate worship with other believers should be an overflow of our private praise and worship. We shouldn’t go to church to worship, we should to church bringing our worship with us!
We should seek the LORD each day with our whole heart, and we are promised that we will find Him (Deuteronomy 4:29)! Remember the place of worship and praise should be everywhere!
God bless!