The End of Prayer is Praise: Psalm 150

The End of Prayer is Praise

Psalm 150

The end of prayer is praise. The psalms show praise as the end of prayer in both meanings of the word: the terminus, the last word in the final Psalm 150; and the goal at which all the psalm prayers arrive after their long travels to the unmapped back countries of pain, doubt, and trouble with only occasional vistas of the sunlit lands along the way.

Eugene Peterson

Two years ago I embarked on a journey to blog through the Psalms, writing prayer guides for each one. Donald Whitney’s book Praying the Bible had inspired me to take his suggestion of praying the psalms and intentionally make a resource for myself and others to use for our prayer lives. When I began, the majority of each post was the prayer suggestions with perhaps a small paragraph about a topic within that particular psalm. But as I continued through the psalms, and as God placed me in the refiner’s fire, the posts became a way for me to remind my own soul of the truth of Scripture and the character of the God we know and love. I began to understand what Mark Futato calls “the psalmic life,” how the psalms mirror our own deep struggles through this world and give us a map through the painful toils of this life. The Psalms have been written on my heart. They are like dear friends that understand our sorrows, that give words and prayers to our lips when we may not know how to describe the emotions: the confusion, heartbreak, sorrow, despair, joy, hope, trust, and anticipation that is mingled in our hearts.

Last year, I was listening to a sermon about prayer by Tim Keller and he quoted Eugene Peterson on these last 5 psalms of praise. He said, “All prayer pursued far enough becomes praise.” I have thought of that often as I have journeyed through the psalms knowing that even with many psalms (at least 1/3 of them) being psalms of lament, I would arrive at the psalms of praise here at the end. Would the deepest prayers I had prayed over the last couple of years become beautiful anthems of praise at the miraculous work that God has accomplished? Would the troubles be wrapped up, lessons learned, fruit produced, and everything tied up into a neat bow? I hoped for that. I anticipated that God might choose to do that. But I also kept thinking about all these prayers that I had prayed and asking myself, “Will they result in praise, in the end?” What is praise? Praise is “confessing who God is and what he has done in our lives” (Futato). Many times we have specific ideas of how we want God to answer our prayers, and when He works in a way we deem wonderful, then we are quick to praise Him. But we can speak well of our King and of all He has done and will do regardless of our circumstances, even when there may still be perplexity.

Keller, in his book Prayer, quotes Eugene Peterson at length, which I will include here: “All [true] prayer, pursued far enough, becomes praise. Any prayer, no matter how desperate its origin, no matter how angry and fearful the experiences it traverses, ends up in praise. It does not always get there quickly or easily—the trip can take a lifetime—but the end is always praise. . . . There are intimations of this throughout the Psalms. Not infrequently, even in the middle of a terrible lament, defying logic and without transition, praise erupts. . . . Psalm 150 does not stand alone; four more hallelujah psalms are inserted in front of it so that it becomes the fifth of five psalms that conclude the Psalter. These five hallelujah psalms are extraordinarily robust. . . . [This means] no matter how much we suffer, no matter our doubts, no matter how angry we get, no matter how many times we have asked in desperation “How long?,” prayer develops finally into praise. Everything finds its way to the doorstep of praise. This is not to say that other prayers are inferior to praise, only that all prayer pursued far enough, becomes praise. . . . Don’t rush it. It may take years, decades even, before certain prayers arrive at the hallelujahs, at Psalms 146–150. Not every prayer is capped off with praise. In fact, most prayers, if the Psalter is a true guide, are not. But prayer is always reaching toward praise and will finally arrive there.”

This quote encourages me because:

1) he reminds us, “the trip can take a lifetime—but the end is always praise.” Just because I’ve spent 2 years journeying through the psalms and reached the praise psalms and naively expected certain experiences to also have a 2 year time frame does not mean that the desire to see these prayers turn to praise will not be met. My perspective may need an eternal viewpoint. Even if I spend my lifetime praying for God’s mighty work and yet my eyes may see nothing, by faith I know He is working. Because of Christ, “we have all the resources that we need to have praise as the dominant note of our lives” (Futato). So, we can speak of our great God, who He is and what He has done, with great joy even while we wait.

2) “no matter how much we suffer…prayer develops finally into praise. Everything finds its way to the doorstep of praise.” Prayer becomes praise…it does, it will, but only if we can submit our will to His. Only if we can accept all His gifts and the timing of them. Only if we can say, “It is well with my soul.” Only if we place our hand in His and trust our Good Shepherd all the way He leads us. There will always be reasons to praise when we are sure of the wise providence of God. There will always be reasons to praise when we remember that He is faithful to all His promises. “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through Him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God” (2 Corinthians 1:20 NIV).

3) “prayer is always reaching toward praise and will finally arrive there.” Prayer reaches toward praise. We honor the Lord greatly when we have a confident expectation that our Lord never makes any mistakes and that He is unfolding His plan perfectly. We honor Him when we pour out our hearts to Him when we are deeply grieved. And there may be times when that grief lingers, but we praise Him in recognizing how He sustains and upholds us in the hard things. Isn’t it true, authentic praise when we speak of who God is and what He has done and will do even when what He is doing in this moment may still be shrouded in darkness or hidden by a cloud? Prayer will finally arrive at praise. “As surely as the Psalms move from lamentation to praise, so most assuredly do our lives move from lamentation to praise” (Futato).

As we conclude this journey through the Psalms, Psalm 150 calls us to praise the Lord for His mighty deeds and excellent greatness. To praise Him with all that you have, and indeed calls on everything that has breath to praise the Lord. John saw the day when all prayers would finally arrive at praise. “And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!’”(Revelation‬ ‭5‬:‭13‬). So today, may our prayers reach toward praise in anticipation and preparation of that day.

Praise the Lord!

150:1-2 Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!

Let’s praise Him:

▫️For His mighty deeds: what deeds in Scripture or in our lives can we praise Him for? What has He done for us spiritually, physically, financially, providentially that we can praise Him for?

▫️For His excellent greatness: is there an attribute or name of God that has become especially dear to you in this season of life? Is there a quality of His character that you have experienced for which you can praise Him?

Let’s pray:

▫️We would trust His will and timing for our prayer concerns.

▫️Because of Christ, the dominant note of our lives would be praise—even in the hard things.

▫️We would submit our will to His will. We would be able to say, “It is well with my soul.”

▫️We would trust our Good Shepherd all the way He leads us, resting in His wise providence.

Let Everything that has Breath Praise the Lord!

150:3-6 Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

Let’s praise Him:

▫️With all that we are: in our thoughts, words, actions, intentions, hopes, desires, indeed everything, we would aim to praise the Lord, the One who died in our place.

▫️For all He has accomplished in us at salvation and now in sanctifying us. Is there an area of spiritual growth that you can praise Him for His work in you?

Let’s pray:

▫️We would praise Him as we remember that He is always faithful to keep His promises.

▫️We would honor the Lord greatly by having a confident expectation that our Lord never makes any mistakes and that He is unfolding His plan perfectly.

▫️We would make it our aim to pursue praise as the end of all our prayers. We would reach for praise while we pray.

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May the Lord do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, for His glory and our good. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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