Psalm 150 When You're Not Feeling It

Psalm 150

Praise the Lord!

Praise God in his sanctuary;

praise him in his mighty firmament! 

Praise him for his mighty deeds;

praise him according to his surpassing greatness! 

Praise him with trumpet sound;

praise him with lute and harp! 

Praise him with tambourine and dance;

praise him with strings and pipe! 

Praise him with clanging cymbals;

praise him with loud clashing cymbals! 

Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord!

Observation: The book of psalms closes with a praise song. "Alleluia" is a Hebrew imperative that means "Praise the Lord". In the original language this psalm would be full of Alleluias, echoing out through the world. 

Application: Psalms like this rarely seem to come up on days when I'm feeling like a million bucks. More often they come up on the grumpy days where I'm already sleep deprived and Laura and I have to go through World War III, like most mornings but more so, just to get our children to eat breakfast, get dressed, brush their teeth, get on their snow gear (IN LATE APRIL) and get in the car. I'll be honest...it's hard to praise the Lord on mornings like this. Even if I had some clanging cymbals, even if I had a tambourine and knew how to dance, even if my guitar was here instead of sitting in my office at church. 

The fact is, God's goodness does not depend on our mood, nor should our praise to God. God has given us life, both in this world through creation, and in the next through resurrection, and that's true on our worst day as well as our best. If we can only see or praise God when things are going smoothly, we give ourselves the mistaken impression that God isn't there when they aren't. 

I had a buddy once who would open up to me about a lot of hard stuff that was going on in his life, then say "Eh, life is good." It was only after several years of this that I realized that this wasn't based on his mood, but rather because he was really struggling and trying to remind himself to hang in there. I wish I could have been more perceptive, and offered him the space to lament, even while acknowledging the gift of life. Lament can be a holy thing, too. 

The verse that closes out this psalm, and all the psalms, is a universal imperative, crying out to all life: "Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!" Anything that lives, simply by living, can give praise to our God of life. And on the days when that's all we've got, maybe taking a long, deep breath, and remembering that life is a gift, is the best Alleluia we can manage. 

Prayer: God, help me to praise you on my worst day, and not forget you on my best. Let my breath, and the breath of all creatures, be a song of praise. Amen.