Praising the LORD is not optional! It is not “praise ” for “praise sake,” but the OBJECT of Praise is “the LORD God.” {v 1-2}
Thirteen times in six verses in Psalm 150 is the command to Praise the LORD. In verse 1 it is not just a command but a verb, this is to be continuous and in verse 2 the Psalmist gives two general reasons, praise Him for His “Mighty deeds” and according to His “Excellent greatness!” The word hallelujah means “Praise the LORD,” and the word, “Praise,” means to “Boast,” to shower Him with sincere gratitude for Who He is and what He has and is doing. We see the word “God” which is used in Psalm 150:2 is the Hebrew word “El,” which speaks of the “God of power,” the “Mighty God” the “Sovereign God of power,” is to be praised! And we see in Israels history as they look back, of reasons, events and people who experienced the “Mighty Deeds,” of the All powerful God… and …He is to be praised Accordingly and PROPORTIONALLY such as Moses and the people…
A. Moses Recalls and Celebrates God’s Mighty Deed at the Red Sea -{Exodus 15:1-27}. Here we have the first Song recorded in Scripture. They sang of God’s Mighty Deeds and His Exceeding GREATNESS as a Person!
The Song of Moses and Israel
“Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and spoke, saying:“I will sing to the LORD,
For He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea! The LORD is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will exalt Him. The LORD is a man of war; The LORD is His name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has cast into the sea; His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them; They sank to the bottom like a stone. “Your right hand, O LORD, has become glorious in power; Your right hand, O LORD, has dashed the enemy in pieces.And in the greatness of Your excellence You have overthrown those who rose against You; You sent forth Your wrath; It consumed them like stubble. And with the blast of Your nostrils The waters were gathered together;The floods stood upright like a heap;The depths congealed in the heart of the sea.The enemy said, ‘I will pursue,I will overtake,I will divide the spoil; My desire shall be satisfied on them.I will draw my sword,My hand shall destroy them.’You blew with Your wind,The sea covered them;They sank like lead in the mighty waters. “Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders? You stretched out Your right hand;The earth swallowed them.You in Your mercy have led forth The people whom You have redeemed;You have guided them in Your strength To Your holy habitation. The people will hear and be afraid; Sorrow will take hold of the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the chiefs of Edom will be dismayed; The mighty men of Moab, Trembling will take hold of them;All the inhabitants of Canaan will melt away. Fear and dread will fall on them; By the greatness of Your arm They will be as still as a stone,
Till Your people pass over, O LORD, Till the people pass over Whom You have purchased. You will bring them in and plant them In the mountain of Your inheritance, In the place, O LORD, which You have made For Your own dwelling, The sanctuary, O LORD, which Your hands have established. The LORD shall reign forever and ever.”-{v 1-18}
MIRIAM AND ALL THE WOMEN, PRAISE THE LORD;
“For the horses of Pharaoh went with his chariots and his horsemen into the sea, and the LORD brought back the waters of the sea upon them. But the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea. Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took the timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them:
“Sing to the LORD,
For He has triumphed gloriously!
The horse and its rider
He has thrown into the sea!” – { v 19-21}
She specifically sings His praises for a SPECIFIC intervention, events. It is not a song of wishing or desiring with no fulfiLlment, but of a HISTORICAL event with real people and the contemplation of God’s Mighty Deeds and the Greatness of His mercy and power to deliver causes the song to sing and dancing using instruments to aid in His praise! She bases her song and praise on TRUTH! The truth about Him!
HE MAKES THE BITTER SWEET;
“So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” So he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made a statute and an ordinance for them. “-{v22-25}.
First, they find “no water, and then when they do, it is “bitter,” undrinkable. The people turned on Moses and “complained against Moses saying’What shall we drink?” They had just seen the LORD God do a might deed in deliverance and like us…. how quickly we forget. They TURNED ON MOSES rather than TURNING TO The LORD! He did not TURN ON THEM, But he TURNED to the LORD, and “he cried out to the LORD…” and the LORD showed him what to do. How quickly, approachable, accommodating He was and is! Despite their forgetting Him, He had not forgot them… and in the next moment of test as it was for Moses, he had learned a valuable lesson, “TURN TO THE LORD” and speak and trust Him! And He again met and showed Himself through another “Mighty Deed,” so they could learn to trust Him who is trust worthy! In time of testing, Don’t FORGET To REMEMBER His past faithfulness! And one way we can do so, is to recall His past faithfulness, and meditate upon His intervention, the event and what He did and continue to PRAISE THE LORD… So, when the test comes again, you have your mind, focus and faith fixed on Him with whom you have been communicating regularly with! PRAISE HIM, GLORY IN HIM CONTINUALLY!
The LORD God makes Himself known to these people through “MIGHTY DEEDS” of mercy, power, graciousness and the response of both Moses and all the people is to celebrate Him with song, and praise and proportionally as was worthy of Him for His great Deliverance for them. They praised, celebrated the GOD,, the POWERFUL God for His personal, powerful Intervention in their lives! Praise Him, and we too as His people on this side of the Cross can PRAISE Him and ought to continually for our great deliverance from the power and penalty of sin, the rule of satan over our lives and deliverance from the wrath of God through the blood of the LORD Jesus we are freed to love Him and serve others for His sake! Surely, by asking Him to remind us as we are prone to forget of our great Exodus through the Mighty Power of God, who broke the shackles of sin , satan and delivered us spiritually, is cause to contemplate, celebrate, praise Him appropriately and proportionally of such wondrous love through The LORD Jesus who bore all of our sin, once for all, the Just for the Unjust to bring us to God! Hallelujah!
B. Deborah– Judges 5:1-31
C. David danced before the LORD
In each case the Praise is Proportional to the event and it is Personal… and is a call for others to REMEMBER and celebrate the LORD God who did these things!
“Praise Him acceding to his excellent greatness. There is required special understanding and knowledge of the nature and worth of the mercy for which the duty of praise is undertaken; for God will not be praised confusedly, but distinctly and proportionably to his dispensation:
Praise him according to his wondrous works; which is to be the prime and proper matter of their high praises, even his more proper and peculiar high acts, then to be remembered, as is largely expressed in Moses’ praise for the particular mercy of coming safe through the Red Sea ( Exodus 15:1-27 ); and Deborah’s high praise for deliverance from the host of Sisera ( Judges 5:1-31 ); where the chiefest and highest part of the celebration and exaltation of God in his praise consists in the declaration and commemoration of the particulars of God’s special goodness in their present deliverance. Thus, you see the first thing that God looks for is proportionable praise, great praise for a great God, doing great things, and high praises for a high God, doing high things. — Samuel Fairclough.
Verse 2. Praise him according to his excellent greatness, or, as the words may bear, “according to his muchness of greatness”; for when the Scripture saith, “God is great”, this positive is to be taken as a superlative. “God is great”, that is, He is greatest, He is greater than all; so great that all persons and all things are little, yea, nothing before him. Isaiah 40:15 : “Behold, the nations are (to him but) as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, He taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity.” How great is God, in comparison of whom the greatest things are little things, yea, the greatest things are nothing!”- Joseph Caryl.
“Verse 2. Praise him according to his excellent greatness.
- Reverently, according to the greatness of His being.
- Gratefully, according to the greatness of His love.
- Retrospectively, according to the greatness of His gifts.
- Prospectively, according to the greatness of His promises. –W.J.
Verse 2. What the exhortation requires.
- That men should study God’s works, and observe the glory of God in them.
- That they should meditate on His greatness till they realize its excellence.
- That they should openly proclaim the honour due to Him.
- That they should not contradict in their life the praise they speak. –J.F.