Look Up And Praise God

 Praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord from the heavens.  Praise him in the heavens above.  Praise him, all his angels.  Praise him, all his angels in heaven.  Praise him, sun and moon.  Praise him, all you shining stars.  Praise him, you highest heavens.  Praise him, you waters above the skies.  Let all of them praise the name of the Lord, because at his command they were created.  He established them for ever and ever.  He gave them laws they will always have to obey.  Psalm 148: 1-6

The person who wrote this Psalm was so amazed by all that he saw in the heavens above that he called out for everything to praise the Lord.  Why should the heavens praise the Lord?  The Psalmist says because they were created at God’s command and are established forever. 

Another incredible thing is that God gave them laws to follow which they will always obey.  The sun circles the earth and the moon reflects the light of the sun.  The stars light up the heavens.  That’s  been going on and that will continue to go on.

God in His wisdom gave us a book containing His laws for life, it is called the Bible.  He also put within humankind a moral code to live by. 

Nature teaches us that great lesson that if we obey God’s laws our lives will be much better than if we try to arrange things on our own?  Who knows best, the creator or the created?

Loving God, You really are an amazing creator.  You have made this earth, the universe that stretches far beyond what any human instruments are yet able to see and measure.  The great detail we see in all of creation and the delicate balance it all is hinged on is an amazing testimony of Your creativity, Your power, and Your involvement at the macro and the micro levels of life.

Help us today, on this “Lord’s Day” to honour You as the Lord of the heaven and the earth and the Lord of our lives.  Thank You for the great gift of your Word which gives us laws to know and observe so we can live well all the days of our lives. 

Lord, we confess that we sometimes see these laws as suggestions that we can follow or not out of personal choice.  At other times we see them as a menu from which we can choose what we’d like and what we don’t want to bother with.  We know that things don’t operate that way.

We need Your will, Your organization, Your running of things in order for disaster not to strike us and harm us in ways we cannot even begin to imagine right now. 

So, today, along with all of nature we want to praise You for Your greatness and commit, once again, to living within Your sure and solid principles.  Forgive us when we stray.  Help us back to the path of focused living with You.  Strengthen us for the journey, we pray.  Amen