Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
Psalm 148 calls all the created order to praise the Lord, something which could startle us if we paid enough attention to it. After all, we normally think of praise as something that sentient beings do. Is the Psalmist here saying that the sun, moon, stars, and sky are thinking beings, as some of the folk religions would claim? No, the Bible rejects those ideas in no uncertain terms. What the Psalm is doing, however, is to observe that all creation has its role and that it all brings praise to God. The more we explore nature, the more we realize that its complexity is so great it really couldn’t have happened bit by bit, even given any amount of time.
All nature sings praise to God, and, as the Psalm continues, so do all those who dwell on the earth. The Lord is the one who is worthy of praise, particularly as, in verse 14, he has “raised up a horn for his people (ESV). This is the God who created and sustains everything and who, when trouble has come upon the world, rescues it. This, the great message of the season of EAster, is the word of salvation. Nothing can separate God’s people from His love. He who created it all is able to redeem it as well.
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