Daily Devotional

The simple message of Psalm 148 is: Everything and everyone in heaven and on earth should praise the Lord.
Praise is both rational and emotional. With our minds, we seek to understand who God is, as revealed in His Word. But when we understand who God is and what He has done for us, it affects our hearts. It fills us with joy and thanksgiving. It humbles us to realize that it was in response to our need for salvation that God moved on our behalf. It motivates us to follow God.
There is a call to praise the Lord from the heavens—angels and inanimate things. The implication is that all these things call attention to the glory of their Creator, whose infinite understanding spoke them into existence. As Psalm 19:1 declares, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.”
Celestial bodies are called to praise God by the fact of their existence. But we are encouraged to praise God consciously, since He has revealed Himself by His name. The Lord’s name refers to all that He is in the perfection of His being. God’s glory is redemptive love, making us intimate friends. God is both the subject and the object of our praise.
Praising God is not optional. It’s not something nice to do whenever we feel like it. Rather, praising God is our highest calling. If we are not continually filled with praise to God, then we are not yet fulfilling the purpose for which we were created.

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