1 Give praise to the Lord, call on his name;
make known among the nations what he has done.
2 Sing of him, sing his praises;
tell of all his wonderful acts.
3 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
4 Look to the Lord and his strength;
seek his face always.
5 Remember the wonders he has done,
his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,
6 you his servants, the descendants of Abraham,
his chosen ones, the children of Jacob.
7 He is the Lord our God;
his judgments are in all the earth.
8 He remembers his covenant forever,
the promise he made, for a thousand generations,
9 the covenant he made with Abraham,
the oath he swore to Isaac.
10 He confirmed it to Jacob as a decree,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant:
11 “To you I will give the land of Canaan
as the portion you will inherit.”
12 When they were but few in number,
few indeed, and strangers in it,
13 they wandered from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another.
14 He allowed no one to oppress them;
for their sake he rebuked kings:
15 “Do not touch my anointed ones;
do my prophets no harm.”
16 He called down famine on the land
and destroyed all their supplies of food;
17 and he sent a man before them—
Joseph, sold as a slave.
18 They bruised his feet with shackles,
his neck was put in irons,
19 till what he foretold came to pass,
till the word of the Lord proved him true.
20 The king sent and released him,
the ruler of peoples set him free.
21 He made him master of his household,
ruler over all he possessed,
22 to instruct his princes as he pleased
and teach his elders wisdom.
23 Then Israel entered Egypt;
Jacob resided as a foreigner in the land of Ham.
24 The Lord made his people very fruitful;
he made them too numerous for their foes,
25 whose hearts he turned to hate his people,
to conspire against his servants.
26 He sent Moses his servant,
and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
27 They performed his signs among them,
his wonders in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness and made the land dark—
for had they not rebelled against his words?
29 He turned their waters into blood,
causing their fish to die.
30 Their land teemed with frogs,
which went up into the bedrooms of their rulers.
31 He spoke, and there came swarms of flies,
and gnats throughout their country.
32 He turned their rain into hail,
with lightning throughout their land;
33 he struck down their vines and fig trees
and shattered the trees of their country.
34 He spoke, and the locusts came,
grasshoppers without number;
35 they ate up every green thing in their land,
ate up the produce of their soil.
36 Then he struck down all the firstborn in their land,
the firstfruits of all their manhood.
37 He brought out Israel, laden with silver and gold,
and from among their tribes no one faltered.
38 Egypt was glad when they left,
because dread of Israel had fallen on them.
39 He spread out a cloud as a covering,
and a fire to give light at night.
40 They asked, and he brought them quail;
he fed them well with the bread of heaven.
41 He opened the rock, and water gushed out;
it flowed like a river in the desert.
42 For he remembered his holy promise
given to his servant Abraham.
43 He brought out his people with rejoicing,
his chosen ones with shouts of joy;
44 he gave them the lands of the nations,
and they fell heir to what others had toiled for—
45 that they might keep his precepts
and observe his laws.
Praise the Lord.
My thoughts -
I love this Psalm. First because, and you'll hear me say this a lot, it opens with a command to sing. I'm big about singing and big about scripture that commands me to do what I was going to do anyway. It doesn't demand much from me, right? Sing? Okay, I can do that. I love to sing. So we're called to sing God's praises? I love to sing God's praises! This is easy, right? I love this Psalm!
Now where does the Psalmist go from there? He tells of God's wonders, of God's power, of God's mighty acts. We get the story of God holding up his end of the covenant with God's chosen people. We get a list of all of the stuff that God did and how powerful and faithful God is. It's an impressive list, too. And a little terrifying at that. But when we read things like this we like to read ourselves into the role of Israel. We like to think that we've taken on the role of the chosen and we're in the covenant now. We read these terrible things that have happened to liberate the chosen people and we din't think to much of it. Bad things happened to the bad guys for the good of the good guys. God is powerful and God is looking out for us, his people.
There's some comfort in that, but the story doesn't end there. If we're the good guys, if we're God's people what's our role? What are we to do? Take a look at how the Psalmist closes this again:
He brought out his people with rejoicing, his chosen ones with shouts of joy; he gave them the lands of the nations, and they fell heir to what others had toiled for— that they might keep his precepts and observe his laws. Praise the Lord.
God did all of this stuff for the chosen ones and God is to be praised for this. We praise God for all that God has done. We bow down and worship God because God is what we are not. God is good. God is righteous. God is holy. God is powerful. God is awesome. We've got these stories all through the Psalm pointing to this. But it demands more than a song from us. We are to "keep his precepts and observe his laws".
As we prepare for worship this morning let us prepare to sing God's praises this morning. Let us prepare to tell of God's wondrous deeds and to give thanks for all that God has done for us. But it doesn't stop there. We don't leave it at that. Let us go and do God's will in everything that we do.
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