Psalm Meditation 1118 ¶Reign of Christ ¶November 21, 2021 ¶Psalm 148 1 Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights! 2 Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his host! 3 Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars! 4 Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! 5 Let them praise the name of the Lord, for he commanded and they were created. 6 He established them forever and ever; he fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed. 7 Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps, 8 fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling his command! 9 Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! 10 Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds! 11 Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth! 12 Young men and women alike, old and young together! 13 Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven. 14 He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his faithful, for the people of Israel who are close to him. Praise the Lord! (NRSV) ¶I was taught that the difference between thanks and praise is the difference between doing and being. Thanks is what we offer for all the things God does. The act of creation, the gifts that we receive, and the answers to prayer are a few of the reasons we thank God. Praise is for who God is. For being a loving God who enjoys being present among us, we offer our praise. In day to day usage praise is giving someone positive feedback for using skill and energy in an extra special way. ¶We praise our pets for learning and following a new command. Sometimes the praise is because we love how they love us; for being the goodest girl or the bestest boy. We praise our children for being on their best behavior in a stressful situation, for getting good grades for the full grading period, or for giving it their all no matter the outcome. We each other for making something difficult seem easy. The folks who use their gifts and skills in such a way that we think we could do what they just did, only to discover how hard it really is are offered high praise for their skill. ¶The psalmist runs through a list of objects and creatures who do well to offer praise to God. The psalmist does not confine the list to ‘nice’ and ‘pretty’ things. The psalmist calls on chaotic things like monsters and deeps to praise God, potentially destructive things like fire, hail, snow, frost, and wind, and crawly things that can give us the creeps. Everything that is gets the call to give praise to God, for no other reason than that God is. ¶November 17, 2021 ¶LCM