O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.
As the book of Psalms comes to a close the last 5 chapters have always been very interesting to me. If you pay attention you will notice that Psalm 146 starts off with this phrase “Praise ye the LORD.” The last chapter Psalm 150 closes with the same “Praise ye the LORD.” Now the phrase “Praise ye the LORD” is only mentioned 23 times in the whole book of the Psalms. With that being said from Psalms 146-150 it is mentioned 11 times. If you look at those Psalms 146-150 with the phrase “Praise ye the LORD” you will notice each one of those chapters starts off with “Praise ye the LORD” but it also ends with “Praise ye the LORD.” They call that an inclusio. Inclusio alerts the reader to a particularly important theme. Inclusio is like the refrain in a song or poem
Allelu allelu allelu alleluia, Praise ye the Lord (x2)
Praise ye the Lord, alleluia, Praise ye the Lord, alleluia
Praise ye the Lord, alleluia, Praise ye the Lord.
Another fact is the phrase “Praise ye the LORD” is only mentioned 25 times within the whole canon of scriptures. So outside of these 5 chapters in Psalms it is only mentioned 14 more times and not once in the New Testament. Now don’t misunderstand. I'm not saying there isn’t Praising the Lord in the New Testament for there is. The word praise is mentioned 26 times in the New Testament. Could it be that the Lord maybe saying after all I’ve done shouldn’t you be Praising me more?
Maybe we are too busy Applauding each other.
No comments:
Post a Comment