January 24th, 2016
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

A Collage of Praise

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Opening Prayer

Eternal God, I thank You for the gift of another day. As I wait before You, speak Your Word to me.

Read PSALM 147:1-20

[1] Praise the LORD. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him! [2] The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel. [3] He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. [4] He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. [5] Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. [6] The LORD sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground. [7] Sing to the LORD with grateful praise; make music to our God on the harp. [8] He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills. [9] He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call. [10] His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior; [11] the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love. [12] Extol the LORD, Jerusalem; praise your God, Zion. [13] He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses your people within you. [14] He grants peace to your borders and satisfies you with the finest of wheat. [15] He sends his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. [16] He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes. [17] He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can withstand his icy blast? [18] He sends his word and melts them; he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow. [19] He has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel. [20] He has done this for no other nation; they do not know his laws. Praise the LORD.

Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Meditate

“Surely Your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psa. 23:6).

Think Further

This psalm is replete with echoes and quotations from other parts of the Old Testament (e.g., Deut. 4; Job 37-39; Psa. 33, Psa. 104), and seems to have been written to celebrate Israel’s return from exile. The Lord “builds up Jerusalem” as he gathers the exiles (2). In verse 12 the people of Jerusalem sing his praises. God has fulfilled his promises. By the waters of Babylon his people had wept at the sheer difficulty of singing the Lord’s praises in exile (Psa. 137:4). For the Jew, the Temple was the place where God dwelt on earth. Pilgrimages to the Temple were the means by which the Jews maintained and celebrated the presence of God in their midst. In exile all that was taken away–but now they have returned. They are rebuilding. They celebrate with a collage of praises from their Scriptures.

In particular, they rejoice that it’s not military might that the Lord delights in but the reverent fear of those who put their hope in his lovingkindness–his covenant love, faithfulness and goodness (11). The trust we put in human leaders is bound to fail. Faith in God is secure, whatever disasters–deserved or undeserved–we may suffer. His laws are a source of joy.

Christians read this psalm with a heightened appreciation of who God is and what he has done. He has brought us back from the exile of a life outside him into the fellowship of his church. We no longer need a Temple now that the Holy Spirit is poured into our lives. Individually and communally, we experience and celebrate his dynamic work in our midst. We have not only the laws and decrees of the Old Testament but also the living words of the New Testament. Above all, we delight in Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, alive in our midst!

Apply

Spend some time making a collage of all the things you can praise and thank God for, blending Scriptural verses with your own life experiences.

Closing prayer

Great and Mighty God, You are worthy of all my praise. With all my being I exalt and glorify Your great name.

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