Stop yawning! Quit playing with your smart phones! I know you think you know what this sermon is about, so you figure you can turn off the old brain, ignore the old white guy speaking to hear himself speak, go ahead and fulfill your obligation for Sunday worship, and then, see if Da’ Bears can actually perform some kind of Easter miracle and come back from the dead. I can almost hear you looking at the title on this slide and saying to yourself, “Praise—yeah, got that! Thanksgiving—yeah, we hear this all the time. In fact, didn’t you just preach on praise and thanksgiving last week?”
Yes, yes I did. Let me take you back in time to the third slide of last week’s teaching. I spoke about anticipation, that silence before the curtain rises, that strange rest at the beginning of the great hymn, and how much it amplified the event that came after it. Today, I want to look at the performance itself—the concert, the play, the singing of the hymn. I want to look at what comes after the anticipation. Imagine that you are at a concert where the world’s most profound interpreter of your type of music is performing. You sit there, you listen as the sound and rhythm transforms into muscle and chemical reactions within your body. You are profoundly caught up in the interplay between the performance and your emotion, BUT…the music stops, the rest of the audience explodes into applause, shouts, jumping up, crying out for an encore, firing up their lighters, or throwing people into the mosh pits, while you, YOU sit silently. YOU politely offer a “golf clap” at best.
Let me ask you a question. Who is going to remember that experience more? Will it be the ones who threw themselves into it in responding to the performance or will it be YOU, quietly staying within yourself?
Or, for those of you who are more sports oriented, let me posit a question. Would you rather watch a game by yourself at home in front of a large screen television with surround-sound and NFL Ticket or over at a friend’s house where everyone is yelling in triumph and griping about the play-calling, defensive schemes, and bad calls when you’re losing? Which experience are you going to remember more? If you’re honest, in spite of the fact you’d like to own that cool technology, you know that the social experience with noise and interaction is best. That’s why we like to go to the stadiums, even when it’s cold for football or hot for baseball and you can’t see the action as well as you can on television.
We are created to participate in experiences. Praise—shouting and excitedly sharing what is RIGHT and what is GOOD—is part of it. Thanksgiving—acknowledgement of what is RIGHT and GOOD and admitting that we couldn’t have it by ourselves—is another vital part of participating. Today’s text underscores all of that. As I’ve been doing in this series, I’ll be reading from my own translation from the Hebrew text, but I encourage you to compare it with the translation with which God blesses you and try to see what God might be showing you in the differences. As is our tradition, I translated our text from the Hebrew to get a fresh perspective before I shared with all of you.
Title: For the leader: a song, a psalm.
1) Cause a joyful shout to God, all the earth;
2) Sing out the glory of His name;
Establish glory in His praise.
3) Say to God, “How awesome are Your accomplishments,
in the greatness of Your strength, Your enemies cower before You.
4) All the earth will worship You and sing to You;
They will sing Your name.” Stop and think about it.
Well, let’s take the cue from the poet’s “Selah,” his musical rest, his suggestion that we stop and think about it, and let’s do so. Notice that even the title of this psalm seems slightly confusing, at first. It’s almost like the poet or the editor of the book couldn’t make up his/her mind. We’re familiar with the “For the music director” for “For the leader” part, but then, it says: “A song, a psalm.” Now, while I’ll admit that many of the psalms are “songs,” they’re usually designated as one or the other. So, what’s happening here? I have a suggestion that might work. It’s not original to me, but it makes sense to me. I believe that two psalms have been put together to give us a complete message. The first part (verses 1-15) begins with a call to everyone alive to offer praise to God. The second (verses 16-20) challenges those of us who are committed to God to follow through in our commitments in gratitude—thanksgiving.
But what does all this mean for you and me? First and foremost, it means that humanity is universally wired to praise. In fact, all of creation is wired to praise. It’s natural. And if we don’t praise God, we’ll find other things to praise: the emperor or king of biblical times, the war hero, the athletic superstar, the performance idol, the gifted performer, the profound scholar, the provocative writer, the wealthy investor, the insightful scientist, or the seeming comfort of crowd wisdom. None of these things are necessarily evil in themselves, but all can become idols that keep us from authentic praise.
In fact, our desire to praise and to identify with a greater something can be seen in the rather inexplicable event known as the Olympics. Why is it that people who would never think about sports over the course of four years suddenly become obsessed with medal counts and soft-focus stories like a parody of these I recently read in Will Leitch’s God Save the Fan: “Lars Jorghennsenn was born with four calf valves and a blocked aorta, causing him to bleed profusely from the ear, walk around in circles with a pronounced limp, and only be able to utter the words, ‘yak broth.’ It was from this hardship that Jorghennsenn learned his love of the curling broom, and his intestinal fortitude made him a champion.” By the way, that’s the only thing in the whole book of alleged sports journalism (p. 98) I liked.
Sometimes, I think that when Jesus taught that if humans were kept from offering praise to Him that the rocks would cry out that He meant that if we couldn’t find something worthwhile to praise, we would invent it. I never have understood why it’s okay for me to root for a phenomenal specimen of an athlete who can do things that I’ve never and never will come close to doing without feeling like less of a person, but when it comes to confessing and sharing what God has done, I’m hesitant because I feel like I should be doing more by myself. Yet, that’s the way human nature is.
And the fact is, the more we praise, the more we enjoy. It isn’t an accident that the exact wording of the “Westminster Confession of Faith,” a summary of Calvinist theology, reads, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” Notice that it isn’t merely that we are to glorify God in order to make God feel good. God doesn’t need us to kiss up to him; God isn’t insecure like the anti-theists try to paint Him. The purpose of glorifying God is to be able to enjoy the relationship we have together and to savor the resources that God has placed at our disposal. Just as the drumbeats and “Go! Go! Go!” of a football crowd offer confidence in the offense marching down the field, so does our participation in praise give us confidence in God’s victory. That’s why the psalmist tells us to shout for joy! That’s why we are to sing out the GLORY—the heaviness, the significance, the influence, the power, the resources—of God’s NAME—the key to relationship.
Here, we have compared the GLORY, God as represented in worship together, combined with the NAME, God as revealed to the individual (as God revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush). GLORY is God’s power demonstrated in worship and the NAME is God taking the risk of relationship with humanity. Look at that wording in verse 2. Not only are we to give God the glory in our singing, in spite of how often we refer to the song portion of our service as “worship” as though the preaching isn’t, but we are to establish God’s GLORY in praise. By affirming God’s GLORY as we have experienced it in our individual lives and sharing it, we “set it before God” or “place it before God” in praise. That’s where we start building credibility for the gospel. By affirming that our life decisions, our precious resources, and our victories come from God, we build a case, by example, to those around us. Some anti-theists believe that Christians are losers who cannot function without our, to them, “pathetic” wish-fulfillment god. But if we live a life of praise—and I don’t just mean going “Praise God!” and “Praise Jesus!” all the time—where we give God credit for what’s RIGHT and GOOD in our lives, we will be building a witness in all that we do.
We are also commanded to recount God’s accomplishments aloud and realize that God’s enemies aren’t going to like it. They will, to be sure, cower before God when it is necessary, but even though they protest and persecute, we are assured that God will triumph. Indeed, the more we know God, the more we realize that it isn’t God’s will to have to force humanity into submission but to convince humanity to join the harmony of God’s will for creation. God acts when proud humanity forces God’s hand.
A Jewish comedian once defined every Jewish holiday in three statements. 1) Somebody tried to kill us. 2) We won! [Presumably with God’s help!] 3) Let’s eat! That’s the idea we see as the psalm continues, picking up with verse 5.
5) Come and see the accomplishments of God,
Awesome [are] His acts over the sons of Adam [ie humanity].
6) He caused the sea to transform to dry land;
They crossed the river on foot;
THERE, we rejoiced in Him.
7) He rules with heroic strength forever;
His eyes watch over the nations;
The rebellious should not exalt themselves against Him.
8) Praise our God, people!
Cause the sound of His praise to be heard!
9) He establishes our [very] being in life
And does not allow [lit. “give”] our feet to slip.
Here, as we recount what God did, we see the old comedian’s summary working. After allowing Israel to go, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened and he chased them down with his chariots. So, Pharaoh tried to kill them, God transformed the sea to dry land and, with God’s help, Israel won. That’s the story of Passover. Now, a lot of people simply translate the phrase about crossing as crossing the “flood,” but the word translated as “flood” is usually translated as river. I chose to translate it that way because it not only can refer to the Exodus, but also to the crossing of the Jordan where God once again transformed the chaotic waters into dry land for Israel’s crossing. With God’s help, Israel won over the Canaanites as well as the Egyptians and so, it was time to celebrate.
By remembering God’s past actions on Israel’s behalf, the congregation could reaffirm that God was still in charge, to realize that all of their lives needed to be involved in praise. After calling for praise in verse 8, the psalmist asserts that our very lives depend upon God and only stable when we surrender to God’s plan. God has a purpose This reminds me of the answer that Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah gave to King Nebuchadnezzar when the king asked if any god could save them from his fiery furnace. They said that they didn’t know if God would, but they would still be obedient to God—even if God didn’t rescue them. That’s what praise does! It reminds us of the sovereignty of God—the assurance that no matter what happens to us individually, there is meaning and purpose to be accomplished by God’s power.
That’s something to get excited about because not everyone has that! But that doesn’t mean everything is easy. And just in case you think I’m off-base in remembering the three Hebrew faithful, note that verses 10-12 seem to be about the Babylonian captivity where God put Israel in a fix to fix her.
10) BECAUSE God has tested us,
You assayed us as silver is assayed.
11) You brought us in the net;
You established pressure in our midst [lit. loins].
12) You caused men to ride over our heads [“conquer us”]
We came through the fire and into water;
And You delivered us to full satisfaction [“full” or “satiated”].
I’ve shared with you before about how molten ore like silver or pewter is heated to high temperatures to burn off the detritus and gunk. The impurities rise to the top and form a sickening film that has to be skimmed off in order to use the pure metal. In this case, instead of physical heat, God used the conquering power of Babylon to test and refine God’s people. And the lesson to take from this is that no matter how bad things might seem, God is helping us to become the best we can be.
So, you can look at your difficulties as God turning up the heat, as the resultant awareness of what’s wrong in our lives as the impurities rising to the top, and confession of sin as skimming that waste off the top. Then, once we’ve agreed with God that we’re going the wrong way, we can express thanksgiving to God for our forgiveness, restoring the relationship. And that prepares us to be useful in God’s service even as pouring the silver into molds or working with the soft metal begins to turn the precious metal from the ore’s potential into the metal’s reality. It’s for the metal’s own good, even if it doesn’t feel like it when the work is being done. So it is in spiritual growth. So, now what do we do? Pick up with verses 13-15.
13) I will come to Your house with burnt offerings;
I will pay to You, my vows.
14) Those which my lips have promised,
Those my mouth spoke to You when in trouble.
15) I will offer burnt offerings, fat ones, to you with the smoke of rams;
I will offer bulls along with goats. Stop and think about it.
The proper response is thanksgiving, an offering that shows that you know that God is the cause of your abundance. Being thankful encourages us to go forward and face our problems. Being thankful encourages us to move forward as faithfully as we can with God’s help. And, look at verse 14. Being thankful also requires being accountable. We need to follow through with what we say and put feet to our prayers, action to our attitudes.
This reminds me of the wisdom of a famous rabbi/philosopher in the 20th century. Abraham Heschel was a wise man in the Jewish tradition who believed in the Civil Rights Movement and wrote several wonderful books on the Hebrew Bible. In one of his more philosophical works, Between God and Man, he wrote: “…the purpose of speech is to inform; the purpose of prayer is to partake.” (p. 202) When we praise and thank God, it puts us in tune with God and God’s purpose. It starts us on the right path. Prayer is testimony, affirmation, reassurance, and more.
`16) Come, hear, and I will recount, all who are in awe of God,
What God has done for my entire being.
17) I cried out to Him with my mouth
And my lifting Him up was on my tongue.
18) If I could look upon guilt in my heart,
The Lord wouldn’t hear me.
19) Nonetheless, God heard me;
He was responsive to the sound of my prayer.
20) Praise to God who did not turn away from my prayer
Nor [turn back] His covenant relationship from me.
There was a 5th century argument about the necessity of prayer. One side of the argument expressed it in two balanced Latin phrases: lex orandi, lex credenda. What that means is: the law of prayer equals the law of believing. What you’re willing to pray for and the way you structure your life are one and the same. IF you’re not praying, you’re taking God for granted. IF you’re not praying, you’re not really expecting to do anything for and with God.
But is it possible to pray without accomplishing anything? Yes, the psalmist tells us that in verse 18. The King James Version said, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” Literally, the Hebrew says, “If I look upon guilt.” That’s equivalent to what the KJV says, but I chose the idea of looking because it reminds us that the eyes are the windows of the soul. What we’re looking at, what pleases us, what seems beautiful to us is what motivates us.
Fortunately, for the psalmist, he/she was able to receive forgiveness for her/his sin and get on with a positive relationship with God. She/he was effusive in praising God because God answered the sincere prayer, but notice the very last phrase of the psalm. The psalmist is pleased that God hasn’t turned back His covenant love, His grace, His mercy, His ongoing relationship from him/her.
The purpose of experiencing God’s grace, God’s mercy, is for that ongoing relationship. The purpose of getting up early to commune with God in the morning is to have that relationship as the day progresses. The purpose of joining your voice to that of the congregation on Wednesday nights is to share that relationship with and encourage the rest of the Body of Christ in their own relationship with God.
But guess what? Unlike the accusations of our anti-theist celebrities and acquaintances, the purpose of praise and thanksgiving is NOT for God to get some kind of thrill out of our obsequiousness. The purpose of praise and thanksgiving is to give us power in our lives. As the end of verse 12 indicates, it is to leave us with full satisfaction in life, give us a sense of completeness, and as the end of the psalm indicates, it is to keep us in an ongoing relationship. Neglecting prayer and thanksgiving runs the risk of allowing us to be dissatisfied and to feel incomplete, as well as to make our relationship with God more distant.
I want to confess to you that I’m a proud person. I don’t want to admit that I have an inconsistent prayer life. Over the years, I’ve used prayer lists, quiet times, early morning private time, late night private time, and special ways to keep track of requests and answers. When I’m faithful, God blesses. When I’m careless, I’m less effective in everything. I made a small commitment a few months ago. I decided to go to the saybakido one day per week. I had one goal of becoming more visible to the mother church and another goal of demonstrating my support for the new senior pastor. Guess what? God has blessed me in spite of the fact that I’m lucky to make sense out of a word here or there during the devotional. I’ve seen prayers answered and I’ve seen my attitudes change.
And that’s why, even though it seems artificial and more than a little strange, even though it’s kind of rushed, and even though it doesn’t seem profound, we started our conference call saybakido on Mondays through Fridays. Prayer is important and if you don’t have a prayer discipline, I urge you to join us at 6:30 AM throughout this week. And if you can’t do that, I urge you to start carving out real slots of time to spend in prayer and thanksgiving every day of your lives. Why? Because it makes a difference in terms of your awareness of God’s help, your accountability to God and to your co-members of the Body, your effectiveness through the day, and your openness to God’s blessing. We are more blessed than the psalmist. We have God’s GLORY available to us through the presence of God’s Holy Spirit in our lives and we can pray in Jesus’ name. Will you?
