Whenever I find myself in a gathering such as the one we are in today, I like to ask myself (and sometimes others) “What are we doing here?”  I don’t mean that in a “What am I doing here doubting my life” kind of way, or even in a big picture “What is our purpose?” kind of way.  I’m thinking in terms of what is happening here as we gather in this building in which faithful people of God have been gathering now for almost 70 years. 

Make no mistake – there’s something happening here.  It’s good to think about why we’re at a particular place and what’s happening here. We could all very easily be doing something else.  The Psalmist sings about taking time to praise; taking time to remember.  Lives may be so full, schedules may be so full, there is so much that seems to demand our attention, that we barely have time to breathe, much less reflect, remember, praise.  Let’s pray…

“May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of all our hearts, be pleasing to you O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.”  Amen

We’ve been in the Psalms for two weeks now and we’ll be in them for two more weeks at least when I’m back from holiday God willing.  The Psalms are a song book.  You don’t need to be an accomplished musician or singer for them to be meaningful.  They are also a prayer book.  The prayer that I just prayed is from the Psalms.  They’re written by multiple people.  Many are known as Psalms of David which could mean by David or about David.  There’s no doubt that King David was heavily involved in music.  His playing soothed Saul after the death of Goliath.  He was known as a great improvisational player on stringed instruments.  He organized the musicians for the temple that would be built after his death.  He wrote songs for them to play too.  There are Psalms that are widely thought to be attributable to David – most notably and famously the 23rd Psalm.

Psalms were written all the way from the time of Moses to the post-exile period of ancient Israel’s history.  Historical details are mostly absent because these song/prayers were meant to be timeless expressions for people whose desire it is to turn toward God.  The Psalms represented prayers that would be appropriate for all of life’s circumstances – its joys and sorrows. 

Praise

This morning we’re talking about praise.  “Praise God from whom all blessings flow” we sing. “Every day I will bless you,” the song goes, “And praise your name for ever and ever.”  It’s important.  How is our praise every day?  Help is at hand.  The idea of praise is contained in the very word for Psalm in Hebrew.  It’s Tehillim.  It means praises.  Psalm 145 kicks off six Psalms of praise that end the Psalms.  It’s the only Psalm that’s introduced as Tehillim – Praise. Of David as it says in our NRSV Bibles.  The Talmud had this to say about this Psalm – “Everyone who repeats the Tehillah of David thrice a day may be sure that he is a child of the world to come.”

Being in the Psalms changes us.  I would expand that statement out to include every Psalm in all of the variety – whether they be prayers of thanksgiving or confidence or praise or lament.  Being in them, praying them, singing them, changes us. 

V1 “I will extol you, my God and King.”  Look at what the Psalmist is saying here.  I will extol you.  I will exalt you.  I will lift you up.  You are worthy O Lord to be lifted up above everything.  Why should we praise God?  You’ll hear people say things like “God must be very needy if God wants us to be praising him all the time.”  Let us not be foolish about this.  Here’s the thing.  God is above all and through all and in all. Let us be reminded in this song of praise.  The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. His compassion is over all he has made, and it is fitting and right and good and proper for us to acknowledge these truths and to offer him our praise.  Every day.  Forever.  To praise God, to tell of who God is - not because God is needy but because God is our delight. 

Living in the generous grace of God is our delight.  Knowing God through the person of his Son and in the power of His Spirit is our delight.  This delight needs to be expressed.   As C.S. Lewis put it “Our delight is incomplete until it is expressed…  It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with.”  To find a cute reel and have no one to share it with.  Sharing images and videos that delight us on our feeds.  Our delight needs to be expressed to be made complete, and our delight in God is made complete in its expression.

Choose

Won’t you choose to do this with me? Let’s choose to praise.  The Psalmist does.  The Psalmist affirms the desire to communicate his delight.  Every day. V2 “Every day I will bless you, and praise your name forever and ever.”  There’s a personal aspect to praising God.  A personal aspect to acknowledging that God is above all, or foundational to all.  Why?  Because Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, his greatness is unsearchable.  It’s so unsearchable we can’t even express it.  We use images.  We sing things like “Your love O Lord reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds, your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgements are like the great deep.” His greatness is unsearchable – inexpressible.   But the Psalmist does his best to express it, as do we.  I’ve always loved the line in Charles Wesley’s “And Can It Be That I Should Gain” – In vain the first-born seraph tries, to sound the depths of love divine.  I think there’s a significance to our trying, not matter how meager it may seem.  I think that God shares our delight.

Share

Because praise is meant to be shared.  We see this in the next section.  There’s an individual aspect to praise.  An individual decision to respond to who God is and what God has done is doing and will do.  There’s also a corporate aspect to praise. V4 “One generation shall laud your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.”  There’s an evangelical aspect to praise – a telling of good news.  There is a declaration or a proclamation of God’s saving y67acts in praise.  There is an invitation towards other to join in.  “O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.” Ps 34:3  “Come let us worship and bow down,” Psalm 95.  Let us praise God together.  Both individual and corporate aspects are shown here – V5b-7 “On your wondrous words I will meditate.  I will declare your greatness.  They shall celebrate the fame of your abundant goodness, and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.”

Our praise of God is not only to delight in God’s greatness, but to delight in and make known God’s goodness.  God is good.  May we never become blasé about God’s goodness or fail to acknowledge it.  May we never fail to wonder at God’s goodness.  May it ever more come to have a deeper meaning for us friends.  What would it mean for us to believe that God is good?  How might we be called and enabled by God to reflect God’s goodness? 

In praising God we leave ourselves open to being changed by the one we’re praising.  In meditating on God’s wondrous works.  V8 “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”  These lines echo all over scripture.  Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever.  Surely goodness and mercy (steadfast love, lovingkindness) will follow me all the days of my life.  V9 “The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.”  What would it mean for us to believe that?  For us to take hold of that in the depths of our being?  How would it cause us to see people?  How would it cause us to see creation?

All

Creation is involved in this too.  We’ve talked about praising God individually.  Praising God together.  Things then expand ever further out.  V11 “All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord.”  In praising God we’re joining in with something that all creation will do one day.  We get glimpses of it now too don’t we?  Creation speaking of the glory of God’s kingdom.  They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom. V13 “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.”  This thing we’re part of is enduring!  We get the idea of this enduring kingdom by singing and reciting the Psalms don’t we?  Not long ago I was singing Psalm 23, known as a Psalm of David.  Of course it had stuck me before that here was a guy named David singing a Psalm of David on a stringed instrument.  It struck me in a new way though this day.  Thinking about singing the same words some 3,000 years later.  Thinking about what they meant to the king, what they have meant for people over thousands of years, what they mean for us today.  Our praising reflects and looks forward to and joins the heavenly praise that we hear about all over the book of Revelation – all part of God kingdom which will have no end. 

What does God’s greatness and goodness look like?  This unsearchable, indescribable, greatness and goodness that go together?  There’s a list that starts at v 14.   He upholds.  “The Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.”  He provides. V15 “The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season.  You open your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing.”  He’s close.  He’s with us.  V18-19  “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.  He fulfills the desire of all who fear him; he also hears their cry, and saves them.”  He watches over.  V20 “The Lord watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.”  If that last part sounds too judgey, we remember that God is just.  He won’t let injustice stand forever.  He calls us to act against injustice too.  He enables us to be part of his setting things right as we look forward to the day when all things will be made right.

Praise

In the meantime, we praise.  Like the Psalmist we begin and end with praise.  The Psalmist ends by restating the intention he started with. V21 “My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord…”   Why?  Because it is right and good and fitting that we should continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of lips that confess his name.  Music is not so much everyone’s thing I know.  We’re going to leave some of these at the door – whether you use it as a bookmark or pin it somewhere. “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.” Let praise of God run through our days.     

This is the praise in which we are invited to join.  May this be an invitation we all accept. May our praise of God change us and cause the God’s Kingdom to be known.  God grant that these things may be true for us.

Amen