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Psalm 135:19-21 Bless the Lord, O house of Israel: bless the Lord, O house of Aaron. bless the Lord, O house of Levi: ye that fear the Lord, bless the Lord. Blessed be the Lord out of Zion, which dwelleth at Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord.

instead of building and worshipping man-made idols, all the priests and people of God are called upon to bless the Lord and praise Him alone above all gods. There is no other God but the Lord alone, so we worship and bless Him as the only God, the source of all good.

Blessing is to say good things about God to the Lord. He is always all good, He does good to us, and His mercy endures forever. Therefore, our weekly and daily response is to thank and praise, worship and bless Him with our words and deeds. Our sinful response to perceived bad things is to curse God, like Job, or to use His name to curse things.

God has given us our tongue, which we can use to either bless or to curse. It is obvious to us what we are to do with it. James 3:9-10: “With it (the tongue) we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.” How different life would be if we always used the tongue to bless God and other people. The Gospel is the power of God moving us to always give a blessing to God in every circumstance.

Psalm 135:15 The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work men’s hands.

The unbelieving heathen make idols with their own hands, and then worship them as gods. This is the response of the unbelieving world to the beautiful Creation and the wonderful Redemption of God. In spite of the good and great works of the Creator of the earth and the Redeemer of mankind, people, natural-born sinners, make up their own gods and worship them as their God.

This egregious sin against the first commandment leads to all other sins against God and people. This makes the true, loving, and faithful God rightly jealous and offends His Holiness and Love.

Even in the redeemed believer sin remains, and we are still ready to trust in “silver and gold” and man-made things for our happiness and wellbeing. For this kind of selfish idolatry we repent daily and receive Jesus’ forgiveness.

Psalm 135:1-3 Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the name of the Lord; praise him, O ye servants of the Lord. Ye that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God, Praise the Lord; for the Lord is good: sing praises unto his name, for it is pleasant.

God is good; and his name is pleasant. We receive the blessings and benefits of God’s goodness and good pleasure. Therefore, we respond with praise. We who believe in Jesus are the beneficiaries of His great goodness and grace. We gather together as the church; we praise the Lord in the assembly of God’s redeemed people in the sanctuary of the Lord; we worship in the great congregation.

After hearing and receiving the wonderful gospel promises it is right and proper to praise the Lord and His Name. And we praise Him with our whole heart every day throughout the day, for God is always good and His name (presence) is always pleasant.

We need constant reminders of His goodness and mercy that follows me daily, for it is too easy to forget God and be distracted by the world, the devil, and our own selfish desires. So we spend time with God in our daily Bible and prayer time, prompting us the live lives of thanks and praise.

Psalm 112:7 He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.

The amazing good news for the believer is that he does not have to be afraid of bad news when he hears it. This is because his heart is fixed on the Lord, who is always good. He looks to God for all good, and trusts Him, even in the presence of evil all around. Bad news doesn’t faze him, for he knows the Lord is good all the time. His heart is fixed on a good God, who does not disappoint.

The Good News is always better than bad news, and stronger. The evil tidings is that we are lost and condemned creatures, doomed to death. The good tidings is that we are found, forgiven, saved, and given new life in Christ. That is the news that we hang our hat on and find hope, peace and joy. Colossians 2:1, “Set your minds on things that are above.”

In any circumstance, we can always find comfort, hope, peace and joy by turning to God our Savior and fixing our hearts there where Jesus is. It is easy to get distracted by the world and its problems, but we daily return to Him, where our heart is fixed. This focus and attention drives out fear, doubt and worry. “Seek ye first the kingdom…”

Psalm 112:1 Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.

Praise the Lord, for He is good, and His mercy endures forever. Because the Lord is always good and His mercy lasts forever, we can respond with constant praise on our lips and in our hearts.

Blessings in abundance comes to the person who fears (trusts, believes with a whole heart) the Lord. Out of such Spirit-given deep faith in the Lord comes a delight in His Law. Inner joy, deep and lasting, comes from enjoying God and His ways. Life is full, happy, and satisfying when we happily and eagerly keep His commands and receive forgiveness when we fail.

This is a simple recipe for a blessed and joyful life: believe God and delight yourself in His ways of love and grace. Then praise Him every day. Blessed is that man.

Psalm 111:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.

This saying is often quoted in Proverbs, meaning that true belief in the One True God brings about wisdom and understanding. It is both knowing what to do and actually desiring to do it. Keeping God’s Rules for Living according to His Law makes for a good and happy life. A good life arises out of a deep and confident faith (fear) of God and His character of holiness and love. God reveals Himself in His Word of Law and Gospel. We hear it, believe it, and become wise and understanding.

All this is revealed most clearly in the Son of God, who is the Way to walk, the Truth to live by, and the Life to enjoy forever. This kind of fear (faith) that produces good works is created by the Spirit through the Gospel. We expose ourselves to this life-producing fear by hearing the Word of Law and Gospel, attending regular Bible study, and being in the Word daily. The final response in us is praise that lasts forever and ever. Praise endures to and through eternity.

Psalm 111:1 Praise ye the Lord. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, in the congregation.

This is the first in a series of Hallelujah Psalms. Praise ye the Lord. Praise is the natural response to the Lord for His character, His words and His actions toward us. In Himself He is worthy to be praised, but all the more so when we recount all the blessings of salvation He has done for us, which are called wonderful works.

We take time out every week to praise the Lord in the congregation, in the assembly of the redeemed. This corporate worship kickstarts our week of daily praise and prayer. Every day we praise the Lord with our whole heart, all of our body, soul, mind and spirit. Our thoughts and feelings are always poised toward the Lord in trust, love, and humble gratitude for His wondrous works and promises. God is big, but He gets bigger in our faith and understanding when our whole heart is full of praise. God is bigger than our problems, and praise helps us believe that truth.

Psalm 110:3 Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.

Psalm 110 prophesies the Ascension of Jesus Christ to Sit on the throne at the right hand of the Father (“The Lord said to my Lord, sit…”). Jesus earned glory and the right to rule through His suffering, death and resurrection. And what’s more, we are seated with Him in the heavenly places, and we rule with Him by exercising His authority over all the evil powers against us through faith and prayer. We pray “in Jesus’ name.”

When Jesus is exalted, as He is now, the believer gladly and willingly worships Him as Lord. Philippians 2:10: “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow.” Every knee will one day bow, some unwillingly and grudgingly acknowledging that He is Lord, and others willingly and without force bending the knee and confessing the Lord. We will be so overwhelmingly humbled by His radiant love that we willingly kneel. The unbeliever who rejected Christ as Lord will be forced to admit that Jesus is the rightful Lord and that he is in the wrong.

We who bend the knee and confess Jesus as Lord now in this life will be willing in the Day of His appearing, and we will joyfully worship Him forever.

Psalm 109:30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yes, I will praise him among the multitude.

Because the Lord is good, and He is kind to me with deliverance and protection from my enemies, I will praise the Lord. I respond with daily praise in private and with weekly praise in public worship. God in Christ has saved us from our spiritual enemies and stands with us as a rock of defense for the poor and weak.

God has saved us once for all time in the life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God. We hear it in the Gospel and we react with praise and thanksgiving every time we are reminded. God continues to faithfully serve and save us through the Word and the indwelling Spirit, for He is always present with us to hear our prayers and meet our needs. Sin, Death, and Satan definitively defeated at the cross, and that victory is applied to our lives on an ongoing basis by the Spirit through the Gospel. When I become aware of God’s saving grace, my heart and mouth is filled with praise and thanksgiving every day. He has done it all and finished the work, and there is nothing left for me to do but to give Him praise.

Psalm 109:21, 22, 26 But do thou for me, O God the Lord,, for thy name’s sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me….Help me, O Lord my God, O save me according to thy mercy.

”I am weak, but He is strong.” When I am poor, needy, and wounded, I turn to the Lord and ask for help. I expect Him to help, save and deliver me because of His mercy, not because I deserve it, but simply because of God’s mercy, which is shown to us in the person and work of the Son of God.

First, I admit that I am poor, needy, wounded, and I need help and salvation. Then I trust in the mercy of God, Jesus. And for Jesus’ sake He helps and delivers and saves. God does not help just because I ask, but because of Jesus. God is merciful and kind; He sent mercy to us in His Son. We need, we ask, we receive. All because “God so loved the world that he gave…”