“Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.”
Psalm 150:6 (NIV)
I was with a friend - who had worked on the ambulances for a long time - when someone collapsed onto the floor. We went over to help and I watched my friend pull out a mirror, hold it in front of the collapsed person’s mouth for a while and then it put it back in his pocket and then inform us that the fellow was still living. How could a mirror tell him that? Well - although the person was completely still - even looked dead - his breath steamed the mirror.
We can look at this psalm and identify instruments and decide that those instruments are the only ones to be used in corporate praise times - but that would be missing the point of the psalm. The point of this last psalm is that if we have breath we can praise - actually we NEED to praise God. Praise the God who is seated in the highest, praise Him for what He has done, grab an instrument, any instrument, every instrument and praise Him, while we still have breath - for it is the living who NEED to praise Him. Psalm 6:5, Psalm 88:10, and Psalm 115:17 all explore the concept that it is the living who praise God. It is true that when we who are alive in Christ enter into His Presence after leaving our body, that we will enter into a praise service like we have never seen before- yet it is also true that those of us who haven’t praised the LORD while drawing breath on this earth will never enter that wonderful place of heavenly praise.
We NEED to praise the LORD now while we have breath. We can and we NEED to – so let's do it!
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