Full-Time Praise?

Psalm 148
From the looks of it, praising God is a full-creation job. It is clearly the intent of Psalm 148 to invite all of creation to share in giving glory to its Creator. There are two sections to the psalm: each begins with a call to praise the Lord addressed to certain elements of the created order, followed by a rationale for that praise. So the sun, moon, stars, angels, hosts, waters, and the highest heavens are called on to praise the Lord because it is the Lord who has created them and who has established them (vs. 1-6). Sea monsters, fire, hail, snow, frost, winds, mountains, hills, fruit trees and cedars, wild animals and cattle, things that creep and things that fly, kings and peoples, princes and rulers, men and women, the young and the old are also told to praise the Lord because God’s glory rises above earth and heaven (vs. 7-14). Praising God is a full-creation job.

But praising God is also a full-time job. Clearly the community of faith cannot limit the glorifying of God’s name to just one hour on Sunday mornings. But for a moment let’s assume that a person does attend a worship service each week. That service might average about 60 minutes depending on the place of worship. Then let’s assume this person also attends a mid-week service that lasts about half an hour. That’s 90 minutes a week of praising God. Next lets add an informal prayer time that this person might attend, and let’s say it lasts about 15 minutes, bringing the total to about 105 minutes. Three meals a day begun with a blessing would mean 21 blessings a week at about 1 minute each bringing the total to 126 minutes a week. Bedtime prayers, seven a week at about two minutes each, would add another 14 minutes for a total of 140 minutes. Some folks make a habit of praying in the morning as well, which might add an additional 35 minutes of praise each week for a total of 175 minutes. When it is all added together and some allowance is made for random acts of praise—say, 15 minutes worth a week––we might come up with about 190 minutes.

Wow! 190 minutes a week used to praise God. Pretty good, huh? The problem is, this leaves 9,890 minutes a week spent NOT praising God. In other words, even with all the worship and prayer opportunities that we listed, we are left praising God for about 1.9% of our time. Wow! That doesn’t sound very good, does it? Psalm 148 reminds us that praising God is a full-time, full-creation activity that demands our ongoing and constant attention. Otherwise we are reducing God to a minor aspect in our lives instead of recognizing God’s place as Sovereign Lord of all.

Prayer: Almighty and everlasting God, you alone deserve our praise and our adoration. Forgive us when we fail to honor you in our lives, for it is in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.