6/14 Psalm 147 - Gems of Praise

There are so many things we can praise God for, we sometimes get stuck just choosing something to celebrate about Him. Today, we're turning to Psalm 147 and mining out a whole set of gems that are worthy of celebrating about our God. Join us!

STUDY AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. The podcast opened with a question about the places where our mind goes when we’re not paying attention to what we’re thinking. When your mind is on cruise control, what do you tend to think about? How can you develop the habit of increasingly filling your thoughts with praise?

2. Psalm 147 has three paragraphs. Each paragraph opens with a similar theme. Looking over verses 1, 7 and 12. What is that theme? What response it this psalm expecting from us?

3. Verse 1 tells us that it is pleasant to praise the Lord. When is God’s praise pleasant to you? When is it not? When it’s not pleasant to praise God what does that likely reveal about your mindset at that time?

4. The podcast pointed out that Isaiah 57:10 tells us that the Lord creates the praises of our lips. When you think about the Christian walk, how can a person better position themselves to benefit from God’s work in this way?

5. How might verse 2 shed some light on when this psalm was written? If it was written during difficult times, how does this make the overall theme of “praising the Lord” become that much more surprising? Why?

6. When you read verse 3, what does this tell you about God’s love, compassion and care for you? How might you put yourself in a position to receive His ministry to you?

7. Verse 4 tells us that God numbers the stars and gives names to al of them. Since there are over a septillion starts (yes, that’s a real number), what does this tell us about the breadth of God’s mind? What does verse 5 tell us about His understanding?

8. Why should thanksgiving accompany your praises? In terms of percentages, what percentage of your prayer life is devoted to thanksgiving? How can you make thanksgiving a greater part of your prayer life?

9. What are some practical things to praise God for in verses 8 & 9? Does your worship ever consist of thanking God for these kinds of things?

10. Verses 10 & 11 gives us an important principle regarding the perspective of God. In these verses, what is He NOT impressed by? What does He favor? Why?

11. Think about the points being made in verses 13 - 18. What are modern equivalents of these things? How can you convert God’s provision of these things, to your worship and praise of Him?

12. As we finish our study of Psalm 147, how about reading back through this passage and pull out one gem to praise God for throughout your day. Which one have you chosen? As you anticipate how your day will unfold, how might you praise God for this item, throughout your day?

The Key Chapters Bible Podcast is a daily, 15ish minute podcast that goes over the key chapters of the Bible, one per day, explaining how it fits into the overall message of God and how it relates to our lives now. Jump in today or start back in Genesis 1!

To see our dedicated podcast website with access to all our episodes and other resources, visit us at: www.keychapters.org.

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Special thanks to Joseph McDade for providing our theme music.