A lot has happened since I last wrote a post. I finished my thesis, I graduated college, I moved to Birmingham, I started a new job, my sister got married, I went through training/orientation for Honduras, I have began support raising/partnership building for Honduras, and I moved again. Life has finally slowed down enough for me to write; unfortunately, however, there are so many things I'd like to write about that have happened in the last 10 weeks, I have quite a bit of catching up to do. God has taught me so much and begun to open my eyes to so many new things about Himself, that I really don't know where to begin. Eventually, I'll get around to talking about Honduras and preparation and partnership formation and the like, but for now, I want to share three chapters of Psalm that God has revealed to me that have dominated my thoughts for the last month.
Prior to about 6 weeks ago, I had never read the last three chapters of Psalm (148, 149, 150). I had heard the phrase "let everything that has breath praise the Lord," but I had never bothered to look up its source. I'm so grateful to have found these chapters, because they have literally reformed the way I think about the purpose of life. To sum it up, the psalmist commands everything on earth, all creatures, all humans, all plants, all creation, to praise the Lord. The concept is simple, and its exhaustive. It starts out by commanding all of creation to praise the Lord. All his angles, all his heavenly hosts, the sun and the moon, all shining stars, the highest heavens and the waters above the skies are all commanded to praise the Lord. Then all of earth is commanded to praise the Lord. Great sea creatures, all ocean depths, the weather, mountains and hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and cattle, small creatures and birds, kings and princes and rulers, young men and maidens, old men and children are all commanded to praise the name of the Lord because His name alone is exalted. Then the people of earth are told to praise the Lord. With dancing and instruments and joy they are to rejoice in their maker and praise Him for His greatness. The last 11 words of Psalm sum it all up: "let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord."
If these chapters don't already make it clear enough, the destiny of every creature on earth is to praise the Lord. This is the heartbeat of God--for every creature to praise His name. Every human being WILL praise the Lord in one of two situations: as we enter the gates of heaven where we will sing "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty" for eternity, or as we descend into the depths of hell where we will suffer for eternity. These two options make clear the distinction of God's grace versus his wrath. It shows the haunting reality of God's unquenchable wrath for those who deny him, and the unwavering hope received from God's unending grace for those who embrace Him.
These chapters have so greatly reinforced in my life the ultimate reason why we exist-- to praise the Lord. It seems to me that the God of the universe is powerful enough to make this happen. It gives me hope to know that His name will one day be thoroughly praised by all. This hope is no reason to back off on sharing this good news, but is all the reason more to spread it so that God's glory is more famous today than it was yesterday.
"May the praise of God be in their mouths...let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord."
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