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Praise the Lord!

Isaiah Combs · Sunday, 9 August 2026 · 28:40 · 4,045 words

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The message explores Psalm 150, showing that the Hebrew word halal means to celebrate, boast in, and publicly honor God. It answers four questions: where to praise (anywhere, because the temple curtain was torn), what to praise (God’s mighty deeds and excellent character), what instruments to use (everything from trumpets to dancing), and who is called (everyone with breath). The sermon calls listeners to offer their breath as a sacrifice of praise, not just hearing the word but putting it into practice.

What this sermon is about

Ranked by keyness against every other sermon in the corpus. Each one is a word this sermon actually said — nothing here was written by a model.

praise 78 breath 25 dance 16 worship 27 sing 19 everything 28 writer 12 curtain 10 halal 5 let 25 symbol 6 temple 9

Topics

Sin 2 Atonement & Sacrifice 2 Grace 1 Salvation 1

Scripture referenced 24

Verified against the transcript. A reference the recording does not support is never listed here.

Psalms 150 1:17 Psalms 150 1:20 Psalms 150 2:09 Psalms 150 4:02 Psalms 150 4:28 Psalms 150 5:07 Psalms 150:1 5:24 Matthew 27 6:48 Matthew 27:51 6:48 1 Corinthians 3:16 9:14 Revelation 4:8 10:26 Psalms 150 11:27 Revelation 4:11 15:05 Colossians 1 15:15 Romans 11 15:26 Psalms 150 15:36 Psalms 98:4 17:20 2 Samuel 6:14 18:59 Psalms 150 20:47 Genesis 2:7 22:11 Hebrews 13:15 24:04 Ephesians 2:10 24:44 Psalms 150 25:40 Psalms 150 26:58

Transcript

Every word, as spoken, with the second it was said. Each word links to its own entry in the index.

Pre-service announcement — 13 lines, 0:41. Excluded from every count and search on this site, kept here so nothing is hidden.

Hey everyone, my name is Pastor Phil.

Thanks for checking out one of our sermons today.

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to learn more about us and what we have going on as a church.

Thanks again for joining us.

We hope that you're blessed by today's message.

My name is Isaiah and I am the Next Gen

and Connections Director here at the River Goodrich.

And I'm so thankful to see your faces this morning.

I missed you last week, a chance to get away with the family.

And you truthfully have become our church family.

We love seeing you, love seeing your smiling faces,

shaking your hand.

Giving you hugs.

And it's just, the River Goodrich is a very caring place to be.

And we love you.

We're thankful for you.

If you have your Bible with you this morning,

we're going to be in Psalm chapter 150.

Psalm chapter 150 is the last psalm.

It's also our last psalm of the summer.

I don't know about you, but I have really, really enjoyed

our walk through the psalms this summer.

I've loved it.

And learning about the lamentations

and learning about the songs that people sing

to the Lord.

And it's just been a great time together.

There's going to be a word that you hear this morning

that you have heard before.

It's a word that if you've been in church one time

or a hundred times or a thousand times,

you've heard this word and it's this word, praise.

We've all heard it, right?

We sing it in songs.

You just sang it a couple of minutes ago.

We sing this word, praise.

We say this word, praise.

And the writer of Psalm 150 says,

it's kind of a theme.

He's telling us, hey, this word, praise, is important.

Also, the word, praise, is used over 200 times

in the rest of the Bible.

And there are seven Hebrew words

for our English word, praise.

You say, Isaiah, I don't know any Hebrew

and why are you telling me about Hebrew?

The reason why is that the Old Testament,

Old Testament, the majority,

the majority of it was written in this language, Hebrew.

And so when we translate into English,

we took seven words and we shrunk them down into one word

and the one word is praise.

And so the seven Hebrew words are this.

The first one is yada,

to worship or give thanks with extended or lifted hands.

This is why we lift our hands in praise,

in submission to God, because the Bible tells us to.

Barak, to bless God by kneeling or kneeling,

or bowing in reverence.

This is getting on your knees and praising God for who he is.

The word zamar, to make music, sing or play musical instruments.

We do this every Sunday.

Tehillah, to sing a spontaneous or corporate song of adoration.

Tawdah, a sacrifice of thanksgiving,

often for things not yet seen.

This is thanking God, even though he didn't answer your prayer.

That's probably the hardest way to worship.

Shabbak, to address in a loud tone,

shouting or triumphantly proclaiming.

This is my favorite one, because I enjoy shouting!

And that's what this is talking about.

But the Hebrew word that the writer of Psalm 150 uses 13 times

is this word halal.

And the word halal means this,

to celebrate God's greatness,

to boast in God,

to sing joyful songs of worship,

to exalt and honor God publicly,

to express admiration with enthusiasm and joy.

And the writer of Psalm 150, he gives us a title.

If you look right up at the top, it says this.

Let everything praise the Lord.

So replace that word praise with the word halal.

Let everything halal the Lord.

Let everything celebrate God's greatness.

Let everything boast in God rather than oneself.

Let everything sing joyful songs of worship.

Let everything exalt and honor God publicly.

Let everything express admiration with enthusiasm.

Let everything praise the Lord.

And the writer of Psalm 150,

he's going to answer four questions for us this morning

about this word praise.

And the first word he answers, or the first question he asks,

it says this.

Where do we praise?

Verse 1 says this.

Praise the Lord.

Praise God in His sanctuary.

Praise Him in His mighty heavens.

This word sanctuary here can be translated to the word

See, the writer of this psalm would have lived in a temple culture,

meaning he had to go someplace to make sacrifices,

to pray and worship the Lord in a singular position.

And we believe that the writer of this would have been talking about Jerusalem,

where they would go to the temple.

And inside of the temple would be this place called the Holy of Holies,

where God would live in the temple.

And one person,

one time a year,

was allowed in the Holy of Holies to make a sacrifice to God.

And they would tie a rope around his waist and send him in there to make a sacrifice,

because if he died in there,

they wouldn't be able to get him back out unless they pulled him out.

It was a very serious place where God dwelled in the temple.

And what surrounded the Holy of Holies was this giant curtain.

Exodus talks about this giant curtain,

and it says that it was a foot thick.

Not a foot tall, not a foot wide, a foot thick.

I don't know about you, but I don't know about you, but I don't know about you.

I don't know about you, but that sounds like the heaviest curtain ever made.

And it was massive.

And in the book of Matthew, in chapter 27, verse 51,

they talk about this curtain that was a foot thick.

It says this,

You're asking, what happened to the curtain?

What happened to this foot thick curtain?

You see, this is what's happening in Matthew.

Jesus has just died.

He died on the cross for our sins.

And the Bible says that everything goes black,

and the earth begins to shake.

And it says that as the earth is shaking,

the curtain splits from top to bottom.

I don't know about you, I'm not super smart,

and I don't know much about earthquakes,

but wouldn't you think that the curtain would rip from the bottom to the top

if the ground is shaking?

Like, it's down here, so wouldn't it rip up?

No, no, it's like God reached down and took this foot thick curtain,

and he goes, and he rips it in half.

And the reason for that is,

when Jesus died on the cross,

he is saying that we no longer have to go to a place to worship.

We can worship anywhere.

Here, let me unpack it a little more for you.

You ready?

So the gospel of Jesus Christ,

Jesus comes to this earth,

he lives 33 perfect years,

willingly sacrifices himself on the cross for our sins.

And the Bible tells us that our sin makes us enemies of God.

Our sin separates us from God.

And the wages of our sin is what?

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Meaning all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And the wages of our sin, the cost of our sin, is death.

But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

What's that mean?

That means Jesus came, died on the cross for your sins and my sins,

stayed in the grave three days, and rose again.

And Romans tells us that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord,

and believe in your heart that Jesus died and rose again,

you will be saved.

And then it tells us this,

that the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit, God himself comes to live inside of you.

And you become the temple of God.

I didn't say it, the Bible tells us it.

Here it is in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 16.

Do you not know that you are God's temple,

and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

What's that say to me?

That means I don't have to go to a place to worship.

I can worship God anywhere.

And everywhere.

Meaning I can worship God in the car.

I can worship God at home.

I can worship God at school.

I can worship God at the gym as I'm singing and crying on the treadmill.

Maybe that's just me.

Because that curtain was ripped in half from top to bottom.

The Holy Spirit doesn't dwell in one place.

It dwells in those who have confessed, believed, and received.

You are the temple of God, and you can worship God anywhere.

But there's a second part to that verse.

It says,

Let me tell you this.

The heavens are already in endless praise of God.

Revelations 4, verse 8 says this.

And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings,

are full of eyes all around and within.

And day and night they never cease to say,

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,

who was and is to come.

And one day you and I will join in this endless praise.

We are called to worship God.

We are called to worship God.

We are called to worship God anywhere and everywhere.

So that's the first question.

Where do we praise?

Here's the second question.

What specifically about God do we praise?

Praise Him for His mighty deeds.

Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.

So there's two things we're called to praise God about.

Number one, His mighty deeds.

So we're called to praise God for what He has done,

what He is doing, and what He's going to do.

Think about this in the context of the writer of Psalm 150.

He's in this Old Testament context.

So he's talking about all the mighty deeds

that God did in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,

Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth.

He's talking about all those things.

Look what God has done.

Look where God has brought us out of,

and look where He's taken us.

That's what the writer is talking about.

But I like to think about it this way.

He's also talking about creation here.

He's talking about all the incredible things

that God created, what He has done.

I was sitting outside yesterday,

and I was reading my Bible,

and I was looking out across this pond,

and it was beautiful yesterday.

It was like the perfect Michigan weather.

I was out there sitting under a shade tree,

and then there's this pond, and there's birds,

and there's butterflies flying around.

I don't know about you.

I know men aren't supposed to say this,

but I like butterflies.

They're pretty great.

And then there was these weeping willows

on the other side of the pond.

I don't know about you, but that's my favorite tree.

They are awesome.

There's something about them

as they're weeping over the water,

and they're blowing in the wind.

And there was the birds, and the butterflies,

and there was the wind, and there was the sunshine.

And I was like, God created that.

And that's only a small ecosystem.

It was like 50 yards by 50 yards, and that was it.

He created the whole earth,

every detail from the mountains to the valleys,

the rivers, and the lakes, and the oceans.

Every creature, He created them on purpose for a purpose.

He's in God for what He has done.

And maybe you're like, Isaiah, I have trouble

praising God for creation.

Well, let me tell you this.

You have a reason to praise, and let me start here.

Let's praise God for what He's done.

Have you been saved by an amazing grace?

Oh, you can answer back.

Have you been saved by an amazing grace?

Is God sanctifying you through the power of the Holy Spirit?

Do you have the promise of glorification of heaven one day?

So we can praise God for what He has done,

what He is doing, and what He's going to do.

He's doing incredible things in all of our lives.

We have a baptismal that's up here every week.

It's nothing special.

I think a cow was drank out of it one time,

and we can praise God because people are getting baptized,

and lives are being changed,

and families are coming here worshiping God together.

That's an incredible thing to praise.

We are called to be a people who allow the Lord

anywhere and everywhere.

And we're called to be a people who praise God

for what He has done, what He's doing,

and what He's going to do.

But there's a second part.

It says, praise Him according to His excellent greatness.

Praise Him for who He is because He's

sovereign and providential.

He's omnipresent.

He's all-knowing.

He's all-powerful.

He's unchanging in His character.

He's holy.

He's loving.

He's just.

He's our Savior.

He's our Lord.

We are called to be a people who praise the Lord.

Revelations 4.11,

Worthy are you, O Lord and God,

to receive glory and honor and power.

For you created all things,

and by your will they exist and were created.

16.

For by Him all things were created in heaven and earth,

visible and invisible,

whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

All things were created through Him and for Him.

36.

For from Him and through Him and to Him

were all things to God be the glory forever.

Praise the Lord.

So the writer of Psalm 150,

where do we praise?

He answers the question,

what specifically about God do we praise?

And then the third question he answers is,

what do we use to praise?

Go to verse 3.

Praise Him with trumpet sounds.

Praise Him with sound.

Praise Him with lute and harp.

Praise Him with tambourine and dance.

Praise Him with strings and pipe.

Praise Him with sounding symbols.

Praise Him with loud clashing symbols.

Here's the simple answer.

What do we use to praise?

Anything and everything.

But I don't know about you,

verse 3 through 5 really sounds like a band.

I'm not saying you have to have a band,

but he's saying that a band is an awesome thing.

And read verse 5 with me.

Praise Him with sounding symbols

and praise Him with loud clashing.

Meaning, there's drums, baby.

They're there.

I know some of us are like,

man, those drums are loud.

But guess what?

It doesn't just say symbols.

It says clashing symbols.

Meaning, as loud as you can get them.

And God has blessed people

with the ability to play these instruments,

to lead us in worship,

to sing and to lead us.

And here's a little note.

Now, I didn't say this at the last gathering,

but I'm going to say it to you.

If God has given you this ability,

you're called to give it back to Him

and use it to lead us in worship.

I'm going to leave that there

and walk away for a second.

Like Psalm 98, 4 tells us

to make a joyful noise to the Lord

with a band and with singing

and lifting our voices

and symbols that are way too loud.

And I feel like I have to put earplugs in sometimes.

But there's a word I want to point at.

It's in verse 4.

Praise Him with tambourine.

I just like that noise.

That's not the word.

And dance.

And dance.

I know some of you heard me say that

and you were hoping I was going to skip over that word.

But we're called to dance.

Why?

Because God gave us this body

to be used for His work.

For Him.

For His glory.

There's a story in the Bible

about David.

And everybody heard of David.

David and Goliath.

That guy.

And he was the second king of Israel.

And let me tell you,

he was a manly man.

As manly a man as they come.

He killed Goliath.

He had killed lions and bears as a kid.

People sang songs about how many men

that he killed in battle.

He was a guy.

He had 30 men underneath him

that were called the mighty men.

And they could kill people with both hands.

His bodyguard went into a pit on a snowy day

and killed a lion.

That's just this guy named David.

And the Bible tells a story about David.

It says this.

In 2 Samuel 6.14.

It says,

And David danced before the Lord

with all his might.

I'm not sure what that means.

With all his might?

For me, in my brain that means

with everything that he had

this manly man was saying

I'm dancing for the Lord.

I'm going to give it everything I have.

And then I was thinking about some of the songs we sing.

And there's a lot of times we're singing

even myself, we look over words.

And I do it too.

But there's a song we sing that says this.

Dance because I'm free

because I got no chains on me.

He turns mourning into dancing.

I'm dancing on the grave

that I once lived in.

Why do I dance?

Because I've been brought from death to life.

Why do I dance?

Because I'm not dead anymore.

I get eternal life with Jesus.

And let me tell you, in heaven,

we're going to be dancing forever.

Giving it everything that we have.

And like David, we're called to praise and dance

with everything that we have.

Not caring what anybody else around us is doing.

We're dancing because of what Jesus has done for us.

And we bring God glory through it.

Whether you eat or drink

or whatever you do, glorify the Lord.

We are to be a people

who worship the Lord

with anything and everything.

With all our might.

The writer of Psalm 150 answers that first question.

Where do we praise?

Second question, what specifically about God

do we praise?

The third question, what do we use to praise?

And the last question he's going to answer for us is

who is called praise?

Let everything that has breath

praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

There's an exclamation point so I get to yell it.

Praise the Lord! That's what it means.

I wish it was in all caps. I'd be even louder.

Let everything that has breath

praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

I'm going to ask you a question this morning. It's a little test.

And I hope you pass.

Who in here is breathing?

If someone next to you didn't raise their hand,

either give them a come on or check their pulse, okay?

Just help somebody out.

Everything that has breath.

Every person with breath in their lungs is called to praise the Lord.

That means you are

called to praise the Lord.

Here, let me take it a step further.

If you have your Bibles, you can turn there or just listen to me.

Genesis 2, verse 7 says this.

This is right at the beginning of the Bible.

During creation.

It says this.

Then the Lord God

formed the man of dust from the ground

and breathed into his nostrils

the breath of life.

And the man became

a living creature.

God gives us breath.

And every person that's ever breathed

is breathing the very breath of God.

I didn't say it. The Bible

says it. Meaning, as you're singing,

as you're breathing, you're breathing out what God

gave you. And so when we're praising,

you know what we're doing? We're giving our breath

back to God. Hey, God, you gave us breath.

I'm going to give it back to you. It's like playing catch

rhythm. Hey, thank you, God,

for this breath. I'm going to praise you with all that I have.

I'm going to give it back to you. And then I'm going to dance and get

out of breath. And I'm going to give that to you, too.

Here's the crazy thing about worship.

This is crazy to me. Worship

is 100%

about glorifying God. It is.

It's 100% about glorifying God.

But guess what? There's benefits I get

from it. I glorify God. I give

him my breath. And you know what he does?

He encourages me. And he stirs

me up to love and good works.

He gives me joy. And sometimes

I come into worship, and I just

don't feel like singing that day.

Anybody else been like that before?

But you know what happens when we start singing together?

You get encouraged, and you build up, and then

you're glorifying God. You're giving him your breath,

and then he's blessing you back.

It's an incredible thing. I don't

deserve anything from him, but yet he still

is like, hey, thank you for

that sacrifice of praise.

Hebrews 13, 15 tells us this.

Through him, then let us

continually offer up a sacrifice

of praise to God.

That is the fruit of the lips that

acknowledges his name.

God, it's your breath. I'm going to give it back to you.

Thank you, God, for this breath. I'm going to give it

back to you, and I'm going to sing your praises.

I'm going to dance because I'm free, because I've got

no chains on me. All

creation was made to glorify

God. It was made by God to

glorify God. Ephesians 2, 10.

For we are his workmanship, meaning

we are created by God, created in

Christ Jesus for good works, to praise

which God prepared

beforehand that we should walk

in them. We are

called, praise the Lord.

I've told you this. I've loved the Psalms.

There's been some incredible reminders

of who God is and who we are.

And this is just another one of those where you

go, man, God, you're good. And I hope

today, and as we've walked through

the Psalms, you have a better understanding

of what praise and worship is.

And what you are called to do.

The writer of Psalm 150 is

very clear. Says this, where do we praise?

Everywhere and anywhere. He

asked, what specifically about God

do we praise? We praise God for what

he has done, what he is doing, and

what he is going to do.

And then we praise him for his attributes, for who

he is. Thirdly, we praise God.

What do we use to praise?

Anything and everything

with all of our might.

With everything that we have. And I'm going to say this,

even the Macarena. That was a light laugh

that was a real good joke, guys.

That was real good. Whether we eat or

drink or whatever we do. Whatever

we do. Whatever we do, do all

to the glory of God. Who is called to praise?

Everything with breath.

Everyone with breath. Sacrificing

it back to God. Hey God,

thank you for this breath. I'm giving it back to you.

Title of Psalm 150 is this.

Let everything praise the Lord.

Let everything halal the Lord.

Let everything celebrate

God's greatness. Let everything boast

in God rather than oneself.

Let everything sing joyful songs

of worship. Let everything

exalt and honor God publicly.

Let everything express admiration

with enthusiasm and joy.

That's what we're called to do.

In the book of James, the writer says

this. That we are not called

to just be hearers of the word,

but doers of the word. Not just coming on

Sundays and Wednesdays and reading

where we just hear the word, but doing

it. Taking it from here to here.

And this morning, you're going to get an opportunity

to not just be a hearer, but a doer.

We're going to sing a song. And I pray

that you would take a heart of worship

that says how great God is.

How awesome God is. That he would

fill you with joy and encouragement

this morning. And that you would take that breath

that he has given you and you would sacrifice

it back to him. Let's pray together.

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