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In Order. Lifting Our Spirits

June 15, 2017. Psalm 134, 146-150.

 

 

Today’s passages could be summed up, “readings that will lift the spirits of, or encourage, anyone who is a saint – one of God’s people.”

Where do you fit in the list of Psalm 146:5-9?

  • Do you have God as your help and hope?
    • You are happy.
  • Are you oppressed?
    • He executes justice for you.
  • Are you hungry?
    • He gives you food.
  • Are you a “prisoner?”
    • He gives you freedom
  • Are you “blind?”
    • He opens your eyes.
  • Are you bent down or beat down?
    • He will raise you up.
  • Are you righteous?
    • He loves you.
  • Are you a stranger?
    • He watches over you.
  • Are you fatherless or a widow?
    • He relieves and restores you.

You see, these things are true for God’s people because of the awesome and wonderful truth….

The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him, In those who hope in His mercy. Psalm 147:11

Or simply….

            The LORD takes pleasure in His people. Psalm 149:4

Pretty much everything else that we read revolves around our response to this “pleasure” He has in us:

WE PRAISE HIM

To guide us in our praise, we find in these Psalms a list of….

  • Encouragements and exhortations to praise.
  • Reasons why to praise.
  • Ways to praise.

Too often the Lord’s people only praise when things are good.  God enables us to praise in the good and the bad because whether good or bad, He takes pleasure in His people and for that reason alone, we can always “Praise the Lord!”

Robert McClendon

Bob McClendon grew up in Pennsylvania, spent most of his adulthood in Colorado, and is now ready to learn how to be a Texan. He married his high school sweetheart, Tracy, in 1975. They have two...more