Finding Yourself in the Psalms

Psalm 150
Thanksgiving Praise Service

Read Psalm 150

Last 5 Psalms are “Hallelujah Psalms”

Begin and end with “Praise the Lord” (Hallelujah)

The Great Crescendo to the book of Praise

 The canon fireworks at the end of a fireworks display

 In the opera, the equivalent of the “fat lady” singing

 Great crescendo at the end of a symphony

It is fitting that the Psalms end this way.

We have studied Psalms about every aspect of human emotions.

 sorrow, loss, affliction

 persecution, captivity, death

 sickness, confession, disaster

The end of all this? PRAISE the LORD!

Psalm 150

22 different words in Hebrew. Same as # of letters in Heb alphabet

 Who should be praised. (1) “Praise God”

 Where He should be praised. (1)“In his sanctuary, His mighty heavens”

 Why He should be praise. (2) “His acts of power, his surpassing greatness”

 How He should be praised. (3)

 WIND instruments (trumpet or shofar, flued (4)

 STRING instruments (harp, lyre)

 PERCUSSION instruments (tambourine, cymbals)

 These were ALL THE INSTRUMENTS known to the Hebrews!

 If it PLAYS, use it for the Lord!

 If we were down South… your juice harp, saw and bow, 5 gallon jug!

 By WHOM should he be praised….. Everything, everyone!

 This is partially prophetic!

PRAISING GOD in DIFFICULT TIMES

some of the Psalms were written in captivity

Some were written when the Psalmist felt that God was silent

YET GOD is always to be praised!

It’s easy to praise when things are good

It is harder when things are bad

Current financial and moral crisis in America…..

Makes me think about TWO PARTICULAR THANKSGIVINGS:

the Pilgrim’s SECOND Thanksgiving.

A DROUGHT threatened their second season of crops

Their rations were limited to 5 kernels of corn!

Governor Bradford called the colony to prayer and fasting to seek the Lord’s assistance.

SHORTLY AFTER, the rain came! Their crops were saved. They gave Thanks once again!

Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation. Made Thanksgiving Day a national day of Praise and Thanksgiving to God.

• Written just 3 months after Lincoln toured Gettysburg

• “When I left Springfield, I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian.

Whey I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and was the graces of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ.”

Proclamation Establishing Thanksgiving Day, October 3, 1863

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all
nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of
freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.