Millions of people have used this product since its introduction in 1971. You may even have a couple of boxes of it in your pantry right now: Hamburger Helper. It may not be what you serve at Thanksgiving or Christmas, but it’s obviously tasty and convenient enough for people to keep buying and using. It’s the same reason Kraft Macaroni and Cheese is so popular. Sometimes you just need a quick meal that everyone in the family is happy to eat.
Just as we need some help with meal prep from time to time, we Christians often need help with our worship prep. Maybe today was one of those Sundays. It’s not Easter or Christmas and so you didn’t come to church with the expectation of an inspiring service. Instead you shuffled through your morning routine feeling more obligated than excited to go to church. Wouldn’t it be something if there was a product that could put us in the right frame of mind for worship every Sunday? Hamburger Helper won’t do that but Psalm 111 can. It’s a Hallelujah Helper. A close look at this Psalm will motivate us to lift our hallelujahs to God with genuine cheerfulness no matter what Sunday or day of the week it is.
Psalm 111 in fact begins in Hebrew with the word “Hallelujah!” Ever wonder what that word means exactly? It means: “Praise the Lord!” Why should we want to do that? Listen again to a few verses from Psalm 111. “Praise the Lord…Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever. 4 He has caused his wonders to be remembered…” (Psalm 111:1a, 3, 4a).
Our God is worth praising because his deeds are majestic. You might think of how God created the earth in six days with his powerful Word. I’ve gained a new appreciation for this miracle when I compare it to the construction being done on our church. I’ve been keeping a record of the work that’s done each day and who has done it. So far it has taken close to 150 different people (plumbers, electricians, carpenters, church volunteers etc.) over 150 days to get us to this point where we’re still at least three months away from completion. And even when everything is finished it’s not going to be perfect. That’s no slight to those who have worked on this project; it’s just a fact of life. No matter how carefully a person builds a house or a church, there’s always going to be something that could have been done better. And yet when God was done with his work of creation on that first Friday afternoon, he looked with satisfaction on a universe with stars, comets, oceans, animals, and two people named Adam and Eve. Everything God created was absolutely perfect.
But then sin came into the world and ruined everything just as a single grain of sand can easily ruin an expensive camera. So perhaps you don’t feel so inclined to raise a “Hallelujah!” for God’s work of creation – not when it’s minus 25C outside for the fifth day in a row. Consider more closely then these sentences from the verses we just read: “He provides food for those who fear him… 6 He has shown his people the power of his works, giving them the lands of other nations.” The author seems to be alluding to the way in which God provided for the Israelites after he rescued them from Egypt. He not only brought them out of slavery, he also provided food for them as they made their way to the Promised Land.
We’re not struggling through a wilderness like the Israelites did, but we are reliant on the food and homes that God provides for us every day. What’s amazing is that God continues to provide for us even when our attitude is like Bart Simpson’s who once prayed: “Lord, since we paid for this food, thanks for nothing.” Sure, you may have paid for the food that’s on your table but who gave you the ability to earn the money to buy the food? Who ensures peace so that the food could be delivered to the grocery store from which you purchased it? God. And so he is deserving of our praise.
But what ought to motivate us even more to give God our hallelujahs is what the psalmist said in this verse: “He provided redemption for his people; he ordained his covenant forever—” (Psalm 111:9a). This verse has special meaning for all who are baptized, for through baptism God has made a covenant with us. A covenant is like a contract. I’ve seen a lot of those lately too with our building project. Each of those covenants or contracts states what the plumber, the electrician, or the painter will do in exchange for what we will do for them: pay them. Compare those contracts with the covenant God made with you in baptism. Through baptism God adopted you as his child. He washed your sins away. He gave you the Holy Spirit and has granted you eternal life through faith in Jesus. He’s done this all for free and forever. Have you ever seen a contract like that? Have you ever heard of a will in which the signatory left everything to his worst enemy, even pledging that his heirs will be the enemy’s servants forever? That’s what God has done for you and for me, for all those who have been baptized. For even though we, as sinners, were God’s enemies, through baptism God pledged himself to us and gives us blessings through Jesus we don’t deserve. That’s quite a covenant! It’s no wonder the psalmist concluded that verse by saying, “…holy and awesome is his name” (Psalm 111:9b).
But if our God is so deserving of our hallelujahs, why can days, even weeks go by without any praises escaping our lips? It’s because like the Israelites we have such a short term memory when it comes to remembering God’s blessings and his love for us. The psalmist gives us a way to combat this attitude. He wrote: “Great are the works of the LORD; they are pondered by all who delight in them” (Psalm 111:2). The word “ponder” in Hebrew literally means to “visit often.” Does that describe your routine with God’s Word? Do you visit it often, as often as you visit your favorite Facebook page? No, the content of Faithbook (God’s Word) doesn’t ever change like the content on Facebook does so Satan makes us believe that there is no point in visiting God’s Word often. But although God’s Word doesn’t change, your life does! A psalm you read last year may not have seemed to say much to you at the time but what about today? What new challenges are you trying to sort through that this psalm would speak to?
One of our members recently shared with me how visiting again a portion of the Bible she had read many times before led to a truth she knew well but was presented in an inspiring way she hadn’t thought of before. She was reading from the book of Exodus about the building of the tabernacle, that tent-church which served as the focal point for Israelite worship in Moses’ day. Besides the tabernacle itself, God wanted his people to build the ark of the covenant, the altar of incense, a lampstand, and other worship utensils all made from or covered with gold. God then appointed a man named Bezalel to be the chief artisan and gave him the ability to build these objects. You can bet that if we had these objects today, and if God permitted this, they would be on display in a world-class museum – not just because they would be 3,500 years old by now, but because they would be genuine works of art to rival anything Michelangelo sculpted.
But when Bezalel and his helpers were done with the work, these objects were kept in the tabernacle where only the priests got to see them. In fact the ark of the covenant was only seen by the high priest once a year. How did Bezalel feel about that? Wouldn’t he have wanted everyone to see his handiwork? It’s this thought that struck our diligent student of God’s Word: all our gifts and talents come from the Lord and are to be used for his glory – even if no one else sees or appreciates what God has done through us. Doesn’t that truth help in your daily work as a mother for example? Very few people see how many vegetables you have cut for school lunches. Your family probably takes for granted the hours of your life you have spent in line at the grocery store for them. And that card you made to cheer up a friend? She treasures it for sure but no one else may know about the effort you put into making that. And that’s OK. Your talent and your faithfulness might not be obvious to the people around you, but God sees and delights in them just as he delighted in the works of art that Bezalel made for the tabernacle. What other truths like that will God open your eyes to this week as you visit again his Word? I’d love to know. Your discoveries will no doubt inspire me too as this truth about Bezalel did.
That brings me to one last point our psalm makes. The first verse of the psalm reads like this: “I will extol the LORD with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly” (Psalm 111:1). The psalmist is encouraging us to do more than visit God’s word often in the privacy of our home, he points out the importance of joining with fellow believers to sing God’s praises. This is not just another plug from your pastor to be regular in worship; it’s God’s encouragement. Put it into practice.
But will you be excited about going to church every Sunday? No. So what can you do? Well when you’re stuck for a meal idea you can reach for the Hamburger Helper, but when your hallelujahs have become stuck in your throat reach for Psalm 111 – that Hallelujah Helper. As you read the psalm again you’ll be reminded of the many reasons you have to praise the Lord, even if it isn’t Easter or Christmas. Psalm 111 teaches that we have an awesome God who saved us from our sin, and who never takes a break from caring for us. May we never take a break from praising him. “Hallelujah!” Amen.
SERMON NOTES
What does the Hebrew word “hallelujah” mean?
Psalm 111 urges us to praise the Lord because his deeds are majestic. God’s work of creation was mentioned as an example in the sermon. List two of your own examples of God’s majestic deeds.
We’ll want to praise God for the food he provides us. Why is it amazing that he provides anything at all for us?
Psalm 111 states that God ordained his covenant forever with his people. The sermon mentioned baptism as an example of such a covenant. What would you say, however, to someone who claims: “But baptism is a covenant I make with God”? (Not referenced in the sermon, but if you’re stuck, read through 1 Peter 3.)
Psalm 111 says that God’s works are pondered (lit. “visited often”) by all who delight in them. What works of God have you pondered recently that have delighted you?
How can you use Psalm 111 with a fellow Christian who says, “I don’t need to go to church to worship God”?
Commit this passage to memory this week. Psalm 111:9, 10 (NIV)
“[The LORD] provided redemption for his people; he ordained his covenant forever— holy and awesome is his name. 10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.”
