Living Psalm 148

Living Psalms Book

Psalms in the form of words and art, reborn in the specific contexts of our world, privileging the voices of historically marginalized communities and those acting in solidarity with them.

# Living Psalm 148_Houser for December 28, 2025

Praise the Holy One—
not from some safe distance,
but from the smog and smoke, the flood and the fire,
from the aching lungs of creation that still dare to breathe hallelujah.

Praise from the war zones and refugee camps,
from Gaza’s rubble and Ukraine’s cold fields,
from every border where children still cry out for safety.
Let justice be the song that rises there.

Praise from the streets where protest chants
become hymns of the people—
where truth-tellers and teachers,
nurses and neighbors,
march and mend and refuse to stop believing
that another world is possible.

Praise from the forests still standing
and from those cut down in greed.
Let the rivers hum their lament,
and the polar ice whisper the gospel of fragility.

Praise from the bees and the coral reefs,
from prairie grass pushing through concrete cracks,
from every creature insisting on living
even when human hands forget reverence.

Praise from trans bodies made in divine image,
from queer families chosen and cherished,
from Black and brown prophets still calling us back
to the fierce tenderness of God’s justice.

Praise from the exhausted parents,
the underpaid workers,
the elders whose stories still hold us together.
Praise from the children who refuse despair
and color the future with crayons of hope.

Let all instruments—drums and data,
horns and hashtags,
bells and bodies—join the rhythm of redemption.
Let algorithms learn compassion,
and economies be converted to mercy.

Praise the One whose name is Love,
whose glory is not domination but delight,
whose reign is not hierarchy but harmony,
whose power is not violence but resurrection.

Let heaven and earth echo this truth:
that holiness is not found in escape,
but in the weaving together
of all that breathes, all that breaks, all that begins again.

Let everything that has breath—
and everything still struggling for it—
praise the Living God.
Hallelujah.

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Living Psalm 148 was written Sam Houser.

Living Psalms Book is created by UCC Witness & Worship Artists’ Group, a Network of UCC connected artists, activists and ministers bridging the worship and liturgy of the local church with witness and action in the community. Maren Tirabassi, editor

Logo is detail from Living Psalm 80 by Sophia Beardemphl, Redwoods, CA. Recovering from significant bullying, Sophia, age nine, read Psalm 80 and thought of brokenness that needs mending. She drew this broken and mended bowl.