a life of what?

Kandinsky, "Improvisation 7"

Second Sunday of Easter (April 15, 2007) Psalm 150

When I read a Psalm like this I’m tempted to say to myself dismissively, “Yes, yes, yes, praise the Lord… I know…. Trumpet, harp, lyre, and tambourine, strings, and flute. Praise praise praise… can we get on to the sermon now?”

Yet to think this way is to miss the profound opportunity presented here. What if someone looked at your life, and had to complete this sentence: “This person lives a life of ________________.” What would go in the blank?

Contemporary culture offers words like this: self-fulfillment, comfort, personal peace, affluence, or even quiet desparation. The gospel fills the blank with a very different word: PRAISE. This person lives a life of praise.

We are designed to praise our Creator in all we think, say, and do. We will only find ourselves as we begin living for Him: “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Cor. 5:15).

What might a life of praise look like for you? How would your priorities change? How would your thoughts and attitudes change? How would your family life change? How would your approach to your work change? Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.