Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Is Your Heart Getting Bigger? | The Writings | Psalm 150

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

Have you left your heart behind? Are you worshiping in every area of your life? How have you seen God's power this year? In today's episode, Tanya shares how Psalm 150 encourages us to ask God for a bigger heart to praise him in every way. Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 150

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. In the movie Home Alone, there's a moment of uneasy realization. Kevin's mom, seated on an airplane en route to Europe, begins to feel a nagging discomfort she can't quite place. As she sifts through her mental checklist, was the iron love plugged in? Did they forget to close the garage door? She tries to pinpoint the source of her unease. What could it possibly be? They had just celebrated Christmas.

The house had been bursting at the seams, alive with family, chatter, and excitement. Pizza had been delivered. The cars were packed to the brim. The family was flying to Europe for a dream holiday. Everything seemed accounted for until it wasn't. Kevin. They left Kevin. That gut-wrenching realization not only has it made a place in our homes, but something essentially undone.

resonates deeply with all of us. Even if I haven't accidentally left a child behind yet, still I recognize that feeling. After the whirlwind of the Christmas season, when the family heads home, the tree is taken down, and the ornaments are tucked away in their boxes, there's often a lingering sense that something is unfinished. Why do I feel this way? Because it's easy to get caught up in the external, prepping, wrapping, cooking, traveling, gathering, all wonderful things, but sometimes I celebrate outwardly, pouring energy into creating the perfect experience while leaving my heart unengaged. I move forward checking tasks off the list, yet inwardly something feels off. So today, as we close out the year, I pause to ask for one more

thing. Lord, expand my heart to want to praise you more. This is essential. This is essential. the prayer of the very last Psalm, Psalm 150. As we reflect on Psalm 150, we encounter a profound call to worship. It's a challenge and an encouragement. It disrupts our self-centered rhythms, and it invites us into a vision of a glorious, God-centered community. It calls us to lift our eyes from the ordinary and look toward the extraordinary. Psalm 150 is an anthem of praise. It goes like this. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power. Praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet. Praise him with the harp and lyre. Praise him with timbrel and dancing. Praise him with the strings and

pipe. Praise him with the clash of symbols. Praise him with resounding symbols. Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord. See, this Psalm offers us a glimpse of what eternity will look like, where worship will be constant, where it will be joyous and complete. It'll be a day when every heart will be fully aligned with God, when our joy will be uncontainable, where we will praise him forever. Yet today, our hearts feel so divided, undone. Yes, our calendars are full, our hands are busy, our minds are cluttered, we feel full, but we feel full, but not fulfilled. This song pushes back against that kind of life. It challenges the buffet line approach to God's word, where we pick and choose the tastiest parts, thank him for those, and leave the rest behind.

Psalm 150 invites us to see worship as an all-encompassing response to God in every single area of our lives. Verse 1 tells us to worship where we are. It says praise the Lord, praise God in his sanctuary, praise him in his mighty heavens. As we stand on the cusp of a new year, imagine where you'll be. At work, school, home, or elsewhere, and picture yourself praising God in those spaces. What will it look like to bring your worship into those places?

At school, could it mean pausing to pray for a classmate? At work, might it look like choosing patience over frustration with, loved ones, could it mean speaking kindness when harshness feels easier? Lord, give us one more thing, a bigger heart to praise you where we are. Verse two tells us to worship him for everything he's done. It says praise him for his acts of power. Praise him for his surpassing greatness. As you reflect on the past year, where have you seen God's power in your life?

Did you see it in answered prayers? you see it in unexpected provision, or did you see it in quiet moments of grace? How can remembering these acts fuel your praise in the year ahead? Think about what challenges God carried you through this year. And where are you longing for his power in the year to come? Lord, give us one more thing, a bigger heart to praise you for everything. Versus three through five tell us to worship God in every way. It says praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, with the harp and lyre, praise him with Timberland dancing,

praise him with the strings and pipe, praise him with the clash of symbols, praise him with resounding symbols. This imagery calls us to a diverse, vibrant worship. It stretches us beyond our comfort zones and invites us to embrace the full spectrum of God's creation. Maybe you're at ease with a harp or a trumpet, but less so with dancing and clashing symbols.

That's the beauty of this Psalm. It pushes us to expand, to embrace worship in all its forms, and with all of his people. Where can you stretch this year? Can you attend a worship service that's outside your tradition? Can you build a bridge to someone who worships differently than you do? Or can you celebrate the God-given differences in someone rather than holding that person at arm's length? Lord, give us one more thing. thing, a bigger heart to praise you in every way. And finally, the last verse is a life of praise.

The final verse reminds us of our ultimate purpose. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. We often ask for so many things. We ask for new beginnings, fresh starts, resolution to what's unsettled. And then when those things come, we can still fill empty. But this is a call to ask that we will praise the Lord with every breath. Why? Because we're designed for something greater. We're designed to praise the one who gave us breath. Lord, give us one more thing.

Expand our hearts to praise you. When the house is still dark and quiet and the day has yet to begin, let us praise you. When the afternoon busyness threatens to overwhelm us, let us praise you. When we lie awake at night wondering if we've done enough, let us praise you.

When we hear good news and bad news and all the moments in between, let us praise you because you have given us the greatest gift of all. Jesus. Because you have given us our Savior. I will praise you in the morning.

I will praise you in the evening. I will give you all the praise. Lord, help me. Praise you more. Amen.