This week we continue to look at Psalm 150, the “hallelujah psalm.” Its opening verse identifies two places where praise is appropriate and expected.
The first one is part of an appeal, namely, to praise God in His sanctuary. The designation sanctuary describes a holy place, one sanctified by the presence of a Holy God. Such a place is where God meets with His people and gives His people access to Himself.
The Garden of Eden was the original earthly sanctuary, a perfect place where the first pair of people met with God and He with them. Then a stone altar between Bethel and Ai was a sanctuary for Abraham where he met with God and God spoke to him (Gen. 12:7–8; 13:1–4).
Later, a burning bush was such a place for Moses. Still later, a portable tent called the tabernacle became Israel’s sanctuary for centuries. Finally, Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem became the permanent sanctuary for Israel.
Sanctuaries
After Christ came, house churches served as sanctuaries for the early church. By the third century, church buildings emerged as sanctuaries for the expanding church. All of these served as places where God chose to meet with His people of faith. Now it is somewhat commonplace to refer to our worship centers as sanctuaries where bodies of believers approach God and experience His presence and receive His instructions.
In addition, since God’s outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon Christian believers, He has sought to make our hearts individual sanctuaries where He indwells us, inspires us and informs us.
Prayer
As believers, we have the privilege of coming before God in prayer to say, “Here is my heart — make it Your sanctuary.” Thus we may conclude that we are to praise the Lord both as the gathered people of God when we come together in a building and privately in our hearts when we are scattered to our individual places.
Back to the opening verse of Psalm 150, we also read that God is to be praised in His mighty firmament. God has His heavenly abode. Its visible part is where the heavens declare His glory and display His handiwork — the sun, moon and stars that He formed and flung into space. Then there is the invisible part of God’s heavenly abode, where angels and the spirits of just men made perfect join in His praise.
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