Holy Power

Looking down at the dash board of a 2011 Dodge Grand Caravan during a driving test today I see 3 buttons. In the middle was one with a triangle symbol indicating the hazard lights. To the left was a button with a green gas tank symbol and 4 large letters spelling ECON. And then glancing at the button to the right I thought I saw - holy power. After a second and then third look I realized that it actually said - 110V power, which made more sense but certainly wasn't as cool.

In the last few months I have been getting a lot of inspiration from the Psalms but my favorite section has always been the last grouping of 5 that I'm in now that all begin with the phrase, "Praise the Lord!".  There have been many times when I felt I needed a quick jolt of encouragement from the Word and would open my bible to that section, stand up and then read aloud one of those Psalms.

Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord from the heavens:

Praise Him from the heights!

Praise Him all His angles:

Praise Him all His hosts!

So begins Psalm 148. Try it sometime. When it is read aloud, proclaimed, exclaimed, it is a form of worship where we are doing exactly what we have been designed to do. I present it here as the holy power button that gives us spiritual energy to change the dynamics of our attitude but really, praising the Lord is not about us or what we can get by doing it.

The power comes because it puts our focus on Him. As we surrender our mind and our voice and our posture to freely proclaim praise to the One who is our Lord we are making His Lordship over us evident. This is proclaimed not just to us, body, soul and spirit, and not just to the physical world around us, but also to the spiritual world that surrounds us.

These Psalms also proclaim reasons why praise to the Lord should be proclaimed. He is the Creator. He is the One in whom there is salvation. He is the One who never forgets us, who provides all we need and who sets the captives free.  In the section below we are reminded that the time to worship and praise Him, to press the holy power button, is now.

Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord oh my soul!

I will praise the Lord while I live;

I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

Do not trust in princes, in mortal man in whom there is no salvation.

His spirit departs, he returns to the earth;

In that very day his thoughts perish.

How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,

whose hope is in the Lord his God,

Who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them;

Who keeps faith forever;

Who executes justice for the oppressed;

Who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free.

Psalm 146: 1-7