This Is Big – Psalm 150

A text – Psalm 150

¹ Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
    praise him in his mighty firmament!
² Praise him for his mighty deeds;
    praise him according to his surpassing greatness!

³ Praise him with trumpet sound;
    praise him with lute and harp!
⁴ Praise him with tambourine and dance;
    praise him with strings and pipe!
⁵ Praise him with clanging cymbals;
    praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
⁶ Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!

A reflection:

If you found out that a big heavy thing hanging over you had suddenly been removed (or lessened so much as to be merely a bother rather than a death sentence), the emotions in this psalm would be what you would be feeling – like jumping for joy! After all the lamentation and worry and horrible apprehensions, you would find yourself free. You would feel like dancing and yelling and singing.

I could imagine that, on the evening of Easter, in that locked room, once they got over the shock of seeing Jesus walking around in there with them, the disciples must have felt some of this joy coming upon them, maybe slowly dawning on them that their friend and Lord had returned to them after certain death. The recovery of their friend, his being there with them once agin, would be the first layer of reality dawning… but slowly slowly, later on, the second layer of awareness that Jesus had escaped death! That he had broken death even for us!  That is why we have the last psalm in the Book of Psalms for this week after Easter, when all the layers of truth of Jesus’s resurrection are finally coming home to his friends and followers.

If I were Peter, I would be thumping the side of my head, saying, “Duh! Now I get it. THIS is what he has been talking about in metaphors and parables and even directly for three years. I get it now.

Maybe. Wait, I think I get it…

Fishing was easier. But this…this is big.”

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for defeating death for us so that we could jump for joy and praise you for this great gift. Help us to remember this great gift every day and praise you. Amen.