Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!” (NIV).

In 2020, the year of COVID-19 and the killing of George Floyd, “having breath” became an unexpectedly urgent issue. Floyd said that he couldn’t breathe more than twenty times. Many COVID-19 patients needed a ventilator to breathe. My daughter, a nurse anesthetist who puts patients on ventilators, often must wear an N95 mask at work. She says, only half jokingly, that you know when the mask is properly fitted because you can’t breathe.

Victims of crucifixion often died not of blood loss but of asphyxia, unable to keep pushing themselves up against the nails in their feet so they could breathe.

“Let everything that has breath. . . .”

But Jesus breathed again on Easter morning. He took new breaths for all who cannot breathe because of illness or violence or a job where breathing is hard. Imagine the first breath Jesus drew outside the tomb, in the cool dawn air of spring. Did he use that breath to shout “Hallelujah”? “Hallelujah” is the “praise the LORD” that frames Psalm 150. When Jesus had breath again, did he join in the chorus of praise with all else that breathes?

The risen Jesus, “ruler of the kings of the earth” (see Revelation 1:5), also reigns over all creation (see Philippians 2:9-10 and Hebrews 1:3), receiving the praise of everything that has breath. The glorious beauty of the creatures in spring reflects divine glory, inviting us to join in their praise.

I hope your breath in 2022 is not beset with the choking crises of 2020. I hope you are able to draw your breath freely and can join the whole universe in praise and worship of the One whose reign of compassion, love, and justice gives us hope when our breath is short. Praise the Lord!