The Psalms: Psalm 150

 Some of the favorite hymns of the faith are songs of praise to God. We’ve lifted up a few in our call to worship this day, but there are hundreds of hymns that contain the word “praise” in them. And that praise is always directed to God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. 

The Psalmist who penned 150 knew something about pure praise of God. I say pure, because he had no other intention but to lift up God’s name. Think back over the last several weeks as we have unpacked the Psalms together. Even the Psalms of praise often talked about God defeating enemies, bringing vindication, or offering judgment. But here we find a Psalm that praises God for who he is, not what he has done.

In many ways it may seem hard to separate those two things in our minds - for God’s actions flow out of his character. But if we think that God is nothing more than what he does for us, then we start to reduce God to One who exists to answer our wish lists - which is not true at all.

So who is God? And why do we praise him?

God is the Creator. The truth is that at times like to act that we are the ultimate creators as human beings, but we just need to go back to the beginning of the Bible to remember that God is the one who created us. In fact God created everything - the seas and the skies. The sun and the moon and the stars. All of the animals and plants we could call to mind. And then as a final act, God took the dust of the ground and breathed life into it - the very breath of God and human beings came to life.

On Wednesdays, I join with a group of sisters to read the Psalms and pray. To begin our together we always have the reminder that the words of breath in both Hebrew and Greek in our Scriptures - ruach and nooma, actually mean Spirit. The Spirit of God is what blessed us with the breath of life and each day that we draw breath in our lungs we can praise our Lord.

But God didn’t stop there. As we are reminded each month during our communion liturgy, we as human beings messed up. We choose our own way of sin and destruction over and above the path of God and as a result we broke relationship with God. But God did not give up on us - instead God kept trying to call us back home. Back to the way of life. God offered guidance and wisdom through the Holy Spirit’s leading. Mercy and salvation through Jesus Christ when even the words of the prophets failed to capture the attention of our hearts. Grace, and compassion and care in times of trouble. And the abiding presence of our Savior through every day of life. 

God is as near as our breath and beat of our heart.

There is more to praise God for than we could ever capture with our words. So why then do we praise God? For the Psalmist the words jump out of him for joy - and they are self-explanatory. We praise God because God is God. And that is enough of a reason. Everything else is a blessing to us!

And the praise of God isn’t limited by us or what we are going through or where we may find ourselves in any given moment. Praise God in his holy temple the Psalmist declares and in the mighty heavens. So where are we to praise God? Anywhere and everywhere. Praise him in the house of God. Praise him where two or three of us gather. Praise him around the dinner table and in the car. Praise him at the desk and in the yard. Praise God!

Praise him because of his mighty deeds and because he is greater than anyone own anything else. Remember, friends, that this is the final of 150 hymns or Psalms that became the songs of ancient Israel. These are the prayers that Jesus would have prayed in the temple and in his home. Because it is the last one it is calling all who declare it to remember God’s mighty deeds testified throughout the rest of the Psalms and scripture. How he brought his people out of captivity and into the promise land. How he sent the prophets to offer guidance. How he made a way through the flames and fire. It’s not just about praising God for what God has done in your life, though that alone is great, but for the magnitude of what God has done throughout scripture. 

God is worthy of incomparable praise because God has shown us love and mercy through incomparable things. Even on your worst of worst days brothers and sisters, you are still loved as a child of God and can offer up a song of praise. 

And really that is what this closing hymn is - an invitation to praise God again and again and again and to let his praise be in our hearts and on our lips. In fact, praising God was how ancient Israel told both of God’s faithfulness towards them and expressed their faithfulness to God.

Every day, I pray through some of the Psalms. Sometimes with other people. Sometimes on my own. But this is one of those Psalms that comes up every single day. Recently, I was talking with another one of these Psalm-prayers and she noted that we lose something if we don’t return to the prayers of Jesus. But we also lose something if we can’t figure out how to speak their truth in language that connects with hearts and lives today.

For the Israelites, this was the language that they were familiar with. The ancient language that defined them and their relationship with a holy God. But what does that look like for us today? What is our language of faith and our daily experience?

Now let me be very clear here - I want you to think about this because it speaks to how you connect with God and possibly God is laying it on your heart in order to invite someone else in to praise through this language. But we do not use our langue of praise to control other people. Rather I want you to think about what language and behavior that we have around praising God that may stand as a testimony to other people.

Take a moment and close your eyes. If I say the word “praise” what comes to your mind? What image do you have of praising God? For some it may be shouting for joy or lifting holy hands. Singing praise songs or the hymns of the faith. 

And those are all valid and true, my friends.

For when we praise, we come and set aside ourselves in order to just express our love for God. This Psalm in particular is such a wonderful example of praising God because it asks nothing of God. It is just coming before God and praising God out of adoration.

I remember the first time I was led to lift holy hands. I was just so moved by the spirit while singing a praise chorus at college, I couldn’t help it. I just wanted my body to express what I was feeling in my heart. I have other colleagues who praise God by taking their shoes off in the sanctuary, as its the house of God. There are others that dance or sway or play the Tamborine. 

Friends, how we praise God isn’t about what other people will think about our praise, its simply about responding to God’s grace and goodness in our lives in whatever way the Spirit moves us. And worship, true worship that comes from the heart, friends that is pleasing to God.

So how is God inviting you to worship through this Psalm? And what do you need to let go of our set aside in order to be attentive to praising God alone? Let us be the people of praise, my friends. Alleulia! Amen. 

The Psalms: Psalm 30

 Have you ever met someone who never said “thank you”? Maybe its a family member that you spent hours of time with - helping them clean their house or work on a special project - only to receive no thanks in return. Or someone in the community you went out of your way to help - only to have them act like they were doing you the favor. When you pour your heart out for someone and they cannot even utter simple words of thanks - how did it make you feel?

I’ve been spending a lot of time this week pondering how God must feel when we fail to praise God for all the ways that he has blessed us. For the times we have treated him, as others have treated us - without a single note or statement of thanks. 

Psalm 30 is a psalm of thanksgiving and praise to God. It speaks of King David, who was in distress, physically ill, and being surrounded by his enemies. And David is praising God for hear his prayer and respond. In other words, God delivered him in so many ways. 

And so, David is telling the faithful people of God to tell God’s story. To proclaim how God had delivered them as well. And to sing God’s praises. 

David spills forth praise for God - for his encouragement, the fact that God provided light during difficult times, that God rescued David when he could see no other way out. He praises God that the enemies that surrounded him did not have the final word - that they did not overcome him. And so David’s praise is filled with relief and recognition of God’s help and faithfulness. 

But in the midst of this wonderful Psalm of praise, I’m left with many questions, my friends. 

First, I wonder what David’s song was in the midst of what he was experiencing. When he was sick and hurting. What was his prayer like then? As I was reflecting on that question there is a song that kept playing through my mind - maybe you know it - by Casting Crowns - “I’ll Praise You in this Storm.”

“I was sure by now

God, You would have reached down

And wiped our tears away

Stepped in and saved the day

But once again, I say, "Amen" and it's still rainin'

Well, as the thunder rolls

I barely hear Your whisper through the rain

"I'm with you"

And as Your mercy falls

I'll raise my hands and praise the God who gives

And takes away”

Friends, it is really easy to praise God when you’ve made it through to the other side, but what prayers are you praying in the middle of it all? What is your song when it seems like the foundations are crumbling in? What are you saying and believing about God in those moments?

Because the truth is God is God even in the hard moments. Even when things don’t go the way that we want. And God is still worthy of praise - even if it is through all of the tears. 

As a pastor, I have sat at the side of more deathbeds and conducted more funerals then I can count. And friends, some of those death were peaceful and some of those deaths were hard. But when we come together as a community and sing the hymns of the faith - “Great is Thy Faithfulness”, “How Great Thou Art”, “It is Well with My Soul” - they aren’t just hymns of comfort. They are hymns of proclamation - that even as we are in this moment that we would rather not be in, even though we have lost someone we dearly love - this is still our song of praise. Because God is with us, even in the hardest mounts of life. 

I also have to wonder if we truly praise God when the answer to the prayers that we are praying is either “no” or “not yet”. I love the lyric to the Garth Brook’s song, “Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers.” But the truth is, we often get caught up on the “sometimes” of it all. Or we praise God, but only in retrospect - after time, like Garth Brooks, when we can look back and see how different our lives would have been if that prayer would have been answered in the way that we want it, in that moment. 

But if God is God and God is worthy of praise, no matter what, then our praise raised to God isn’t conditional to getting a “yes” answer to pray or having enough distance and time to recognize that our ways are not the best ways. And friends, that is especially hard when you are walking through the valley of the shadow or feel like the world is pressing in upon you from every side. 

But as a wise woman in this parish often reminds us, we need to trust who God is and what he says and what he does. There are times that the way that God answers “yes” to our prayers is gently followed by a “but not in that way.” Yes, I will bring healing, but that healing will be on the other side of eternity. Yes, I will give you healing, but it will come a little farther down the line. Yes, I will give you release, but it will come in the form of drawing closer to me. 

God has not forsaken us or left us, if we do not get our prayers answered just as David did in this Psalm. God is always with us. Even when we cannot sense it in the moment. And prayer does not fail even if we do not get the exact answer we desire. Because prayer is just as much about changing us, changing our hearts, and drawing us into the presence of God then anything else. 

Lastly, I wonder what story we are telling about God’s deliverance in our lives. Do we even remember God’s deliverance enough to tell the story? Or over time does it get warped more into a story about us then about God. About what we have done or made it through, more than what God has done and brought us through? Our purpose, is to live a life that praises God. And friends, if we are not connecting our life to the greater story of God’s grace and mercy, then we are missing a divine opportunity. We worship a God who morning by morning new mercies we see. Morning can be yes, the next day, or it could be the next moment. But are we telling the story of God with as much passion and faith as David is in this particular Psalm?

Now, let be clear, that does not mean we lie. We live in a world where when someone asks us how we are, our automatic answer is “fine.” Friends, we are not always fine. Sometimes the greatest praise we can raise to God in the moment is “my heart is breaking, but God is with me, through it all.”

Friends, praise is easy when everything is going well. But we are invited to praise God in all circumstances. To bear witness to God, even when the rest of the world cannot see. So let this be the song of our hearts:

“And I'll praise You in this storm

And I will lift my hands

For You are who You are

No matter where I am

And every tear I've cried

You hold in Your hand

You never left my side

And though my heart is torn

I will praise You in this storm”

Amen. 

Psalm 23

 When I was the teacher for the 3-year old class at an evening Bible program, the kids would have a scripture passage that they would spend the semester memorizing. It didn’t matter if you were 3 or 13, you memorized the same verses. Each week, you would receive a sticker for having that week’s portion memorized, and at the end of the semester, if you could recite the whole passage, you received a prize.

I don’t remember anything about that prize, but I do remember the beaming smiles of pride the kiddos had when they were able to recite from beginning to end, Psalm 23.

This Psalm isn’t just one that kids have memorized. It’s also one that has been recited at countless funerals, bringing words of comfort and hope to those who are grieving. But there are times when we can become so familiar with the words that we have in our heads that they become rote, and we fail to let them capture the attention of our hearts. In other words, sometimes scriptures as powerful, but as well known as this one, can become ones that we simply gloss over.

Sometimes when words are familiar I like to read them from a different translation of scripture, simply to see what stirs my spirit. Perhaps that happened for you this morning as we heard these words read from the New Revised Standard Version of Scripture instead of the King James that this passage is so well known in. 

A few months ago, I was reading this scripture in my personal Bible, which is the New Living Translation, and one of the first things that jumped out at me was the phrase “I have no needs.” 

Stop and think about that. Sometimes we get wants and needs confused in our heads. We think that our wants and desires are actually necessities, when really they are just further good gifts from the hand of the Lord. 

But who provides what we need? The Shepherd. Our Lord. 

When I was studying abroad in Australia, one of our class trips was to a sheep farm. It was in the middle of sheering season and the modern-day shepherds were trying to corral the sheep in to have their wool taken off. It was nearing the point of summer where the days would quickly and consistently be over 100 degrees. But even though the sheep were surely uncomfortable under all of that wool, they were not eager to be sheered by any means.

But the shepherds knew what they needed. Just like they knew what type of nourishment - food and water - they needed. What type of shelter.

Whenever I hear this Psalm as well as other scriptures about sheep and shepherds, those images from Australia keep coming to mind. If we are like the sheep, and Jesus is the Good and perfect shepherd, then this Psalm starts out reminding us that he is going to provide for us what we need - even if it is not always what we want at the time.

One of those things that we need, but don’t always want, is rest. Divine rest. Now, we live in a culture that moves at a pace, where we may say that we want rest - but what we mean is a vacation or a day off. But notice what the Psalmist says here, “he makes me lie down.”

My family is in the season of life where we are thick in the midst of toddlers. Toddler who do not want to miss a single thing. Toddler who don’t want to stop playing. But toddlers who also need a nap. 

Now I don’t know how many of you have memories of those naps for kiddos aged two and three, but they are not always fond memories - especially when it comes to getting them to actually lie down. They know they are tired. You know they are tired. But they are still going to fight it every step of the way.

Friends, sometimes we never outgrow the approach of two and three year olds. We don’t want to miss anything. We know that we are tired - soul tired - but we refuse to stop. And as a result God, who knows exactly what we needs, has to make us lie down. But God also provides a place of refreshment to do so. A place of green, lush pastures. A place beside gentle waters. 

But we can only find refreshment in such a place, because we also trust the shepherd. If we don’t trust God, we could be in the most picturesque place and still not be able to rest - because we are always on high alert. Always thinking that we need to be in control. But here in this place, with the God who provides what we needs, we can fully entrust ourselves over to God, because we know that God is trustworthy - for he has shown it to us again and again throughout the course of our relationship.

And it is the same posture of trust that allows us to lean into the support and love of God, even when things are not as picturesque. When things are difficult. When we walk through the darkest valleys, where it would be really easy to give into the fear of the unknown. It is then that God reminds us of his unrelenting love. The God who leads us to places or rest and restoration is the same God who offers us comfort, if only we are willing to accept it. 

But God isn’t just the Good Shepherd, he is also the perfect host. God is the type of host who doesn’t just prepare a table filled with the finest foods, making sure that your favorites are right there. He isn’t just the type of host that gives you the seat of honor. He is the host who provides this lavishly even in the presence of your enemies. 

Now don’t be fooled, brothers and sisters. The mention of enemies is in this Psalm, because they are still there. But that doesn’t deter God from giving you what you need. It simply gives an even grander opportunity to bear witness to the goodness of our God. 

Why? Because God’s goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives. God’s covenantal love. Not some generic love or wishy-washy understanding of love only based in sentimentality. But life-altering love. The love that led our Great Shepherd to the cross, so God could continue to provide for us what we needed - forgiveness, mercy, and grace. The love of our Savior.

Friends, we cannot hear these words of Psalm 23 and not get swept up in the generosity of our God. God who is both shepherd and host. God who provides mercy for us, even we do not recognize that we need it. 

Sometimes we get so caught up in wanting to go our own way, that we miss out on the right path that God is trying to offer. Let this Psalm both wash over us and guide us this week, as friends of God. Amen. 

Psalm 13

 Have you ever had a time in your life when you couldn’t sense the presence of God? A time when everything seemed to be going wrong, or when you were in a deep season of grief? How did you respond when you couldn’t feel God near?

One of the reasons that I deeply treasure the Psalms is that they are these beautiful songs and prayers written out of all of the human emotions. If you are feeling something, you can probably find it expressed in a Psalm. Last week, with Psalm 100, we heard a Psalm of praise, but this week, Psalm 13, would be considered a Psalm of longing or grief. 

The Psalmist starts out with this statement of “how long”. How long O Lord will you forget me - for I am feeling abandoned. How long must I bear this pain? Because I’m in deep grief. How long will my enemies succeed? I’m angry that they seem to be prospering. 

Give me an answer, God!

Have you ever been there, friends? Have you ever been in such a place where you just cry out to God?

I’m going to be honest, I get a bit more fearful when folks tell me that they would never pray to God like this. That God only wants to hear their praise and concerns. That surely this isn’t the way to talk to God.

Or that God doesn’t want us to have such feelings. 

Friends, the truth is that God created you as a human being not a robot. One of the gifts that God gave us when he breathed the breath of life into us, is feelings. When we deny our feelings, we are denying part of who God created us to be. Would you look at the Creator of the universe and dare to say, “Well, God, you really screwed up with this feelings thing”? By no means! 

Yet, some where along the line we have bought into the lie that our feelings are to be feared or disregarded. But you can only do that if you haven’t dwelled in God’s word. If you haven’t been in the midst of the Psalms like this one, where the Psalmist is crying out “how long?” Or you have read the Gospel accounts of Jesus through a watered down lens. For Jesus was both God and Man. Fully divine and fully human - and he had feelings!

And if Jesus brought all of who he was before God in prayer, then surely we can as well, dear brothers and sisters. Surely we are not meant to hide part of who God created us to be, with this rich tapestry of emotions, from our Holy God. God knows you. God loves you. And God wants you to bring your whole heart before him, even the parts that are crying out “how long?”

Because if we aren’t willing to be people who bring our hearts before God, then we miss the blessing of second half of this Psalm. There are very few Psalms that are considered laments, or prayers of grief and longing, that end there. They may start there, but as the Psalmist brings their heart before God there is a shift in realization. Which is true in Psalm 13 as well. 

For in the final stanza there is this declaration of who God is and what God is about. God is the God of unending, trustworthy, steadfast love. God is the God who redeems the brokenhearted. God is the one who never leaves or forsakes us. 

In other words, God’s true self is not who the “how long” section of the Psalm was thinking he was. But the Psalmist had to work through all that he was feeling in order to truly reach this realization. 

Friends, we all work through our emotions in different ways and at different times. And that is okay. Because our emotions are a gift, and when we bring them before the Almighty God, they can actually help us realize something new about the God who loves us. But we can’t rush people into that. We can’t substitute empty platitudes for another’s path to discover the well of God’s grace and mercy. 

Because it is only in crying out to God that we can truly meet the God who hears and responds. We can tell others that God listens to people in distress. We can tell folks that when we cry for help, God is there. But there’s a big difference between telling someone something and having them discover it richly for themselves.

Jan Richardson is a United Methodist pastor, but she is best known as an artist and a person who writes blessings. I think of blessings a lot like Psalms, human words put to that place where emotions meet prayer. In 2014 her husband of only a few years, Gary, went into the hospital for surgery and never came home. What emerged was this collection of raw and honest blessings for people in times of grief. Blessings for the first time coming home as a widow. Blessings for the anger that comes when a loved one dies, blessing for hope. 

Richardson writes, “A blessing meets us in the place of our deepest loss. In that place, it offers us a glimpse of wholeness and claims that wholeness is here and now.”

Sounds a lot like the steadfast love of God that will not let us go, does it not? The one who can turn our mourning into dancing. The one who declares that while sorrow may last through the night, joy comes with the morning. 

But we have to be willing to bring it before God to get there. We have to be willing to be honest in our grief, to get to the place of healing. 

Think about in terms of your human relationships. Which relationships flourish the most - those where you try to hide bits and pieces of yourself or the ones where you are honest? Which ones make you feel the most loved - when you feel like you are not accepted as you are or those who say come as you are and we will sit in it together? 

God wants us to be honest in our relationship with him - even and maybe most especially when we are grieving and life is hard. God is waiting to redeem all that we are experiencing, but that is really hard to do when we try to hide parts of ourselves from him, or do not trust him and his love enough to lean in. 

Friends, the Psalms encourage us to be real with God. Not who we think we should be. Not saying just what we think God wants to hear, but to be whole. For God did not create us as fragmented people, but whole human beings. And it is in praying out of that wholeness that we will find that our brokenness is bound up by Christ. Let us come before our Lord, with all that we are and all that we are feeling, and find the healing of our Savior. Amen.