"Praising the Almighty"

PSALMS 147
"Praise ye the LORD: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely." (Psalms 147:1)

  Without changing the subject, we move forward to another dimension and layer of what appears to be a crescendo and intensity in these final chapters; each and every one of them, as Matthew Henry says, "begin and end with Hallelujah!" Just so you know, I did not run out of time yesterday, but I had one more aspect to the point; it just so happens, this particular Psalm will clarify more on what that point might have been. Not to leave you in suspense, it is the point about what a generation actually means; because in the case of yesterday's verse and Peter's inspirational use of the word, it means a certain group of people, not a particular period of time that people lived, or particular people that live in a certain time; unless you my be referring to those that are given eternal life! Matthew Henry has this Psalm divided into two different sections: one that declares that we should praise, and the second that declares all of the reasons to praise. Those reasons are the demonstrations of what God has done and why it is that He deserves our praise; but I would like to admonish us to pay close attention to the benefits of simply praising God for who He is, regardless of what it is He will do, but for what He has already done! There are three reasons that are given here within this verse; all of which speak to the beauty of praise, each to a certain degree and character. When it comes to the worship of God in spirit and in truth, the most important thing to be present in that sitting, wherever it might be, is you! Every part of you, without hesitation or reservation; you come to Him just as you are! The first word to inspect, is, "Good," which is, for the sake of discussion, the opposite of bad. I know this Psalm might be mentioning singing, as if it is talking about singing songs; but for the sake of argument, let's just pretend it is meaning to prepare our hearts to get plucked or pruned. If we can agree on that, then we can actually see why "good" has the ability to be more about beauty and less about being good. The second, which is, "Pleasant," is much to do with agreement or delight; in other words, you are delighted to be in agreement with God, no matter what the topic or subject might be; and no matter how pressed you might feel, it has got to feel good! The third is a little more the reason why, and more the result you really want: becoming one with your Creator, The Almighty. It simply does not get any more beautiful than that...

"All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family be bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son." (Ephesians 1:3-6) NLT