Today’s reading is Psalm 150:

Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.

Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness.

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre,

praise him with timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe,

praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.

Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.

The 2 times we should praise God

I don’t think I need to write much today, the message of this psalm is pretty clear isn’t it?

I remember my vicar from my home church, David Ella, saying once:

‘There are only 2 times we should praise God: when we feel like it and when we don’t’

I have always remembered this. Just as yesterday we thought of ‘counting our blessings’, doing this can often lead us to a spontaneous burst of praise. It doesn’t always though. We don’t always feel like it. That’s why I love the psalms and liturgy. I used to think that when saying them you had to be thinking really carefully about the words all the time, making sure you ‘mean it’. Most of the time we can do this but not all the time and I don’t think God minds. When we don’t feel like it we can let the psalmist say what we can’t say. We can let other Christians around us say what we can’t say.

Here is a great song by Matt Redman all about praising the Lord through good times and bad. Perhaps this can be your prayer today?: