Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!
– Psalm 150:6
This is how these 150 Psalms, songs of praise and trust in God end with this exhortation. “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”
Psalm 150:6 reminds us that God is worthy of every breath being lifted in praise to him.
Do you have breath today? I remember specifically hearing Dr. Chuck Kelly when I was in seminary talking about this verse, and he said, what if it was switched around? What if, instead of saying, let everything that has breath, praise the Lord, what if it said, let everything that praises the Lord have breath? What if your every breath was dependent on it being lifted in praise to God? And the reality is God is worthy of nothing less than every breath lifted in praise to him. For his glory and his greatness. And his grace and his mercy and his justice. And his power and his love.
We could just go on and on for all of his names. You just think about all that the Psalms reveal the mercy and goodness and grander and majesty and holiness of God. In such a way that we are to live our lives centered around him in worship. Everything revolves around God. And our every breath comes from God.
So we live to praise his name today. From the rising of the sun to the setting of the same the name of the Lord is to be praised. And is being praised in all creation around us. All creation is shouting the glory of God. Just look around you today, and tomorrow at Creation. Realize it’s all declaring his glory in a Romans 1 kind of way. In a Psalm 19 kind of way. It’s declaring his eternal power and divine nature. It’s all clearly seen through what he has made.
Psalm 150:6 challenges us to live a life of worship.
So let’s live our lives. Let’s spend our breath praising his name, yes, and very concentrated intentional time from the morning to the evening and all throughout the day just looking to God and praising him for who he is. Yes, let’s gather together in churches. Let’s gather together with brothers and sisters in Christ, and let’s lift our voices and our hands and praise his name. Let’s fall on our faces alone and when we get together and praise his name.
And then with every thought we have, every desire, every word, every action, everything we do, every breath we breathe, let’s live it all in praise to God. Oh God, we pray for this kind of life. For our every breath to be centered around praising you. You are worthy, oh God, of all praise, glory, honor, blessing, forever and ever. We praise you for who you are, for your holiness, for all your perfections. For your love, your justice.
God, we praise you for your mercy. We praise you for your kindness. We praise you for sending your Son to die on a cross for our sins, that we might have life with you. And we praise you for the hope we have in you. Lord, we praise you for your joy, for your strength, for your peace, for your comfort, for your help, for your hope, for all the good things that flow from you. We have nothing good apart from you.
This verse reminds us to worship God with our thoughts, desires, and actions.
Oh God, you are worthy of our praise. So help us to live in praise of you all day today with our every breath. And God if at any point we give into the temptation to turn aside from the praise of you with our thoughts or desires or words or actions, and we go our own way… God, please help us to be quick to conviction for sin, to confession of sin, to turn back around and praise to you, to repent of sin.
Lord, help us to live lives that are centered around praising you and declaring your praise to others around us. God, help us to point others around us today to you who are praiseworthy. Help us to encourage brothers and sisters in Christ with who you are.
Prayer for the Kulobi People
And God, help us to point people who don’t know you today to who you are. God, we pray specifically for the Kulobi people of Tajikistan. For almost a million of them who don’t know your glory, your worth in Jesus who aren’t in relationship with you, and no known followers of Jesus among the Kulobi people. God, we pray for the praise of your name to spread among the Kulobi people of Tajikistan, among all the people, groups of Tajikistan, among all the people groups of the world. Let all the earth, all breath, praise your name. We pray all of this in the name of Jesus, our Lord, our Savior, our King. The one who is worthy of all praise. In his name, we pray according to Psalm 150:6. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
