Every breath is a gift, giving hope of a new day to live for Him, even if life is hard.
Read Psalm 150:1–6
‘Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.’ (v6)
It can be difficult sometimes to feel like praising God, particularly if life’s circumstances are challenging, with prolonged seasons of suffering or unanswered prayer.
It is much easier to give thanks when things are going well, when we feel at ease and in a good place generally.
To the Thessalonian church, the apostle Paul could say, ‘give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus’ (1 Thess. 5:18).
This was particularly difficult for the believers in Thessalonica who were under great persecution and who had lost dear brothers and sisters.
Yet in our reading today, the psalmist exhorts everyone to ‘praise the Lord’, indeed the whole psalm is sandwiched by this exhortation in verses 1 and 6. This truly is a ‘praise sandwich’!
The psalmist gives us several reasons to praise God. We are encouraged to praise Him for the ways in which we have seen Him powerfully work before (v2a).
Additionally, we are called to praise Him simply for the fact that He alone is ‘great’ (v2b). Indeed, even as we have breath in our body, we are called to praise Him (v6).
As long as the Lord gives us each breath, we can use it to praise Him with all we have. ‘Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.’
Even if life is tough, facing challenge after challenge at the moment, every breath is a gift, giving the hope of a new day that has never been lived before – an opportunity to live for Him.
A PRAYER TO MAKE:
‘Lord, thank You that You see our challenges and difficulties, yet call us to give thanks to You in the midst of them. Thank You that it is in You that we
“live and move and have our being”. Amen.’
AN ACTION TO TAKE:
Whatever our circumstances, we can give thanks to God – even for the
breath in our body. Make a list of things you can give thanks for today.
SCRIPTURE TO CONSIDER:
Psalm 9:1–20; Psalm 100:1–5; 1 Thess. 5:12–28; James 1:1–18
