Psalm 150:6 (NIV)
"Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD".
It is not everything that can praise the Lord or has the right to do so except the things that have breath.
Not everything has breath. All living things breathes but not all living things has breath. Animals breathe but they do not have breath. Plants are considered living things scientifically but they do not have breath.
Jesus in anger said to the religious leaders that He can raise stones and birds to praise God if human beings are prevented to do so. It does not meant that stones and birds can praise God but it was a reply to them that they do not know what should praise Him. This is because God, from the beginning of creation has assigned praises to a specific group of living things of which stones and birds are not part.
In today's message, we will learn about praising God and what can praise Him.
I won't be defining the word breath from a dictionary but from the bible's perspective.
The first time the word breath occurred in the bible was in
Gen 2:7.
"Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground.
He breathed the breath of life into the man's nostrils, and the man became a living person".
In the eyes of God, man and animals don't have the same kind of life. Animals did not receive breath of life from God but man did.
It is the breath of life that makes man a living person. So you can see that God's definition to living things is not the same as the scientists.
To God, living things do not mean mere breathing in and out as scientists claim but rather living from the breath of life.
There are different kinds of breath but the one that gives life is called breath of life and this comes from God.
So if the psalmist says "everything that has breath", then it implies things that have the breath of life.
Animals do not have the breath of life and they cannot praise God, likewise stones.
'The only thing that can praise God is man'.
This is why Jesus Christ was very angry that people were commanded not to praise Him because only man has what it takes to praise God.
God only accepts the praises of man not animals and stones.
If anything is to praise God, then it should be man.
If you have the breath of life, then let praises to God be your most cherished activity to Him.
One secret characteristic about the breath of life is that it is eternal. Yes, the breath of life is eternal that is why when man dies, the bible says the spirit is still awoke.
This is because the breath of life does goes into the spirit of man not just received by their bodies.
Since animals don't have this life, when they die, they are gone for good, nothing remains. But it is the breath of life in the spirit of man that enables his spirit to live and wait for the judgmentday, to render accounts.
God is a God of order and He has ordered every creation to function appropriately and that includes man giving Him praises.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord indeed. HALLELUJAH!
