TESTIFY: A 5-Day Devotional With Rock City WorshipSample

Praise the Lord

Let everything that has breath,

Let everything that has breath,

Let everything that has breath,

Praise the Lord!

Why were you created? What is your purpose? How can you live a fulfilling and satisfying life?

These are questions all of us ask and desperately need to know the answer to. Thankfully, our Designer has provided much of the answer to us in His Word.

Isaiah 43:7 tells us that we were created for the glory of God. That is, we were made to display and proclaim the greatness and majesty of God.

Our salvation is meant to serve the same end. We were saved by God in Christ so that we could proclaim the glory of God who saved us. We are meant to tell the world what God has done for us in Christ! (1 Peter 2:9)

The fact of the matter is, one of the reasons we still have breath in our lungs is so that we can use that breath to praise God.

When Psalm 150:6 says, “Let everything that has breath, praise the LORD!” a couple different things are being communicated. The first is an allowance or permission. Don’t let anything or anyone hold you back from praising God! We see an example of this in Luke 19 when Jesus is entering Jerusalem and the people begin to joyfully praise God, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!”

The Pharisees, likely judging this type of praise to be blasphemous, ask Jesus to rebuke his disciples. Jesus responds by saying that if they were to be quiet, even the rocks would cry out.

Jesus was giving permission for everyone to praise Him despite the refutation of the religious Pharisees. Even the rocks know it is appropriate to praise Jesus as King, so how much more appropriate is it for those made in God’s image to joyfully praise Him? Never be ashamed to enthusiastically praise God. Even the rocks would, and you have far more to be grateful for than rocks do!

However, Psalm 150 is more than just encouragement and permission to praise God. It has within it the tone of a command. We are not only allowed to praise God with noisy instruments and shouts of praise, but we ought to praise God with enthusiastic, joyful praise.

It is only right for the Creator of the Universe, who put breath in our lungs, to receive that same breath back in the form of worship and praise. Beyond that, it is what we were created to do and what we will be doing forever. When we praise God, we are getting a small taste of our eternal inheritance – the gift of bringing glory to God and enjoying His presence forever. The more we praise, the more we are fulfilling our purpose and becoming who we were always destined to be.

Reflection:

• Take a deep breath. Now, take another. Thank God for the gift of breath and ask Him to show you how you can use that breath to praise Him and point others to His greatness. It doesn’t have to be singing 24/7. It could be something as simple as sharing the gospel at school or giving your testimony to a coworker.
• What is holding you back from joyfully praising God? Ask the Lord to help you work through whatever it is and to give you the courage to praise Him no matter what.