Not long ago we had a big family gathering on our front lawn. We came together after the memorial services honoring my mother who had gone to be with the Lord, and there were four generations represented around the table laden with cake and muffins, fresh garden produce and hot coffee. Great grandchildren played on a swing and teenagers threw a football in the street. Around the yard clusters of siblings and cousins sat on folding chairs, chatting and catching up with each other.

In the center of it all was Dad, smiling and enjoying the family. He knew everyone there, and he loved all of them. He and Mom built a family on steadfast love that lasted more than seventy years and every person on the lawn that day knew how special they are to Mom and Dad. Each person is known by name, prayed for, and appreciated for who they are.

What held this couple together for more than seventy years, through hard times and good times? Enduring love was the key; love was the reason for every decision and every course of action they took.

Psalm 136

Psalm 136 tells that love is also the reason for everything God has done. The chorus “His love endures forever” is the background for every statement about God in this beautiful Psalm.

Every year that I was in high school I spent a week at summer camp beside a lovely mountain lake. One evening during the week we campers divided into two groups and stood on opposite sides of the lake to sing to each other. The water carried our voices and magnified them so we sounded amazing. It was fun to send a song across the water, but it was really lovely to hear the response.

Psalm 136 is a call and response Psalm. Imagine a strong voice announcing a great truth about God and the congregation responding, “His love endures forever.”

After a while everyone would begin to see that love is the reason for everything God has ever done.

God’s love motivated him to create the universe. His love was behind everything he did for his people. And because the Lord loves, he reaches out to every person on earth, no matter how lost they are.

“He remembered us in our low estate – His love endures forever – and freed us from our enemies – His love endures forever.” Psalm 136:23-24

This Psalm deserves to be read slowly and thoughtfully. Use your imagination to hear the voices that praise God, and the voices that respond with joyful declarations of his everlasting love.

Psalm 146

Here is a Psalm with contrasts. It contrasts “human beings, who cannot save” with “the Maker of heaven and earth” who reigns forever, and points out that relying on people is a losing proposition.

“Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.” Psalm 146:3-4

People come and go, but God remains.

“The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord.” Psalm 146:10

And God is the best help we can ever have. He’s full of compassion and good will toward people.

“He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them – he remains faithful forever. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.” Psalm 146:6-9

Who may approach the Lord of the universe for help?

God welcomes oppressed, hungry, imprisoned, blind, discouraged, displaced, orphaned, and widowed people. He gathers them into his arms like favorite children.

But whom does God oppose?

The Lord frustrates the schemes of wicked people, the very ones who oppress, imprison, discourage and displace the people he loves and helps. When we come to God with our troubles, he comforts us and then deals with the source of our suffering. Once we are under his wing he takes care of everything out there in the world. We can trust him.

Psalm 148

It’s obvious from reading the Psalms that God is constantly paying attention to people, but Psalm 148 tells us that the Lord is also in relationship with everything else in his creation. The Psalmist calls upon the myriad things God has made to praise him.

It starts in the skies above, beyond what we can see from the earth. The angels and heavenly hosts constantly sing God’s praises way up there.

“Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights above. Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his heavenly hosts.” Psalm 148:1-2

There are heavenly bodies we can see, however, and they also glorify God. The lights that fill the sky when we look up are full of praise for their Maker.

“Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars. Praise him you highest heavens and you waters above the skies. Let them praise the name of the Lord, for at his command they were created, and he established them for ever and ever – he issued a decree that will never pass away.” Psalm 148:3-6

When we come back down to earth we find that it, too, is full of things that give God glory. Creatures on land and sea praise the Lord, as do the mountains, hills and trees. All kinds of people from powerful kings to little children tell of his greatness.

“Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.” Psalm 148:13

People may refuse to acknowledge the Lord, but that doesn’t change who he is or that he is worthy of all praise. And the benefits of loving and praising the Almighty greatly outweigh the burdens of obedience in this area. As it says in Psalm 149:4-5

“For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory. Let his faithful people rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds.”

The Final Psalm

The book of Psalms ends with a resounding invitation to exalt the Lord. It calls for trumpet, harp and lyre, timbrel, strings, pipe and cymbals. People are invited to dance before the Lord, in the sanctuary and under the heavens, praising him for his acts of power and surpassing greatness.

In the most fundamental acknowledgment that God is the giver of life, the Psalmist issues this command:

“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.” Psalm 150:6

Back in January, when we started our journey through the Bible, we read in Genesis 2:7 “The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

Now, in Psalms, we find that the best use of the breath God gives us is to praise him.

The most sacred name for God in the Jewish faith is YHWH, an unpronounceable set of consonants that are breathed, not spoken.

The first syllable “YH” mimics the sound of an inhalation of breath, the second “WH” is the exhalation. If we understand that God gave us breath for the sake of prayer, we see that our first inhalation and cry at birth was our first prayer and the last breath we exhale at death is our final prayer on earth. The Psalmist can call upon everything that has breath to praise the Lord because God made them able to do that.

As you sit with your Bible and think about what you have learned from the Psalms, may you be increasingly conscious of the breath God has given you and that it can be used to praise the Author of Life.