He Heals The Brokenhearted Series

Scripture

During this Season of Advent, we have been looking at “Christ’s Advent in the Psalms.”

Today I want to conclude our study by looking at Psalm 147. One commentator notes that “the Book of Psalms began with ‘Blessed is the man’ (1:1) and it ends with a sustained, five-fold equivalent of ‘Blessed be the Lord’ (Psalms 146-150). In these psalms there is no reference to personal need, no petition, little that could be called historical allusion; all is focused on God; all is praise.” That is true of Psalm 147, in which the Psalmist gives us several reasons for praising the Lord.

Let us read Psalm 147:1:

1 Praise the Lord!

For it is good to sing praises to our God;

for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.

2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem;

he gathers the outcasts of Israel.

3 He heals the brokenhearted

and binds up their wounds.

4 He determines the number of the stars;

he gives to all of them their names.

5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;

his understanding is beyond measure.

6 The Lord lifts up the humble;

he casts the wicked to the ground.

7 Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;

make melody to our God on the lyre!

8 He covers the heavens with clouds;

he prepares rain for the earth;

he makes grass grow on the hills.

9 He gives to the beasts their food,

and to the young ravens that cry.

10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse,

nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,

11 but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,

in those who hope in his steadfast love.

12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!

Praise your God, O Zion!

13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates;

he blesses your children within you.

14 He makes peace in your borders;

he fills you with the finest of the wheat.

15 He sends out his command to the earth;

his word runs swiftly.

16 He gives snow like wool;

he scatters frost like ashes.

17 He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;

who can stand before his cold?

18 He sends out his word, and melts them;

he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.

19 He declares his word to Jacob,

his statutes and rules to Israel.

20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation;

they do not know his rules.

Praise the Lord! (Psalm 147:1-20)

Introduction

In his commentary on Psalm 147, Dr. James Montgomery Boice writes:

In the last chapter, I mentioned an excellent study of what it means to worship God called Reaching Out without Dumbing Down by Marva J. Dawn. One of the points it makes is that much of what we call worship today is not worship at all but rather a glorification of ourselves. This is particularly true of what we often call “praise” songs. Dawn gives this example:

I will celebrate, sing unto the Lord.

I will sing to God a new song. (repeat)

I will praise God, I will sing to God a new song. (repeat)

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

I will sing to God a new song. (repeat)

I will celebrate, sing unto the Lord.

I will sing to God a new song. (repeat) (Repeat all)

I have never heard that particular song, but it is a fair example of what we hear in many so-called worship services. The chorus seems to be praising God – it claims to be praising him – but it does not. As Dawn points out, “The verbs say I will, but in this song I don’t, because though God is mentioned as the recipient of my praise and singing, the song never says a single thing about or to God.”

What is the song about, then? If we look at it carefully, the answer is clear. With all the repeats, “I” is the subject twenty-eight times. Not God, but “I” myself. And not even myself along with other members of the covenant community, just “I.” “With that kind of focus,” says Dawn, “we might suppose that all the hallelujahs are praising how good I am… at celebrating and singing.” This is narcissism, a self-absorption characteristic of our contemporary secular culture. So if we are self-absorbed in worship, as we seem to be, it only means that we are worldly in our worship, and not spiritual, as we suppose. We are focused on ourselves.

The praise songs of the Psalter do not fall into this trap, which is one reason why they are such good models for our worship and why they should be used in Christian worship more often than they are. Psalms 146–50 in particular develop aspects of what it means to praise God….