"Psalms for Today: A Call to Praise" - Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

Psalms for Today: A Call to Praise
Pentecost 7 (Narrative Lectionary 3 – Summer)
Psalm 150
July 7, 2013
Grace, Mankato, MN

Let everything that breaths praise the Lord! (Psalm 150.6)

This past Wednesday we committed my father-in-law to the earth and God’s care at Ft. Snelling National Cemetery. Following the service, as Cindy, her sister, and her mom were catching up with some extended family I got into a conversation with the funeral director, Bob, which began with the weather being nice. He told me he was of Serbian descent and belonged to a branch of the Eastern Orthodox Church. I responded how much I value the Orthodox appreciation of mystery, revealed through icons, those pictures that point us toward a larger reality of God. Bob went on to share his concern about the declining morality of our society.

I told Bob that I was more concerned about rampant narcissism, people focusing on themselves, their own needs and wants to the exclusion of others. We went on reflect on how fewer people were having religious funerals and some no services at all. His own father had just recently passed away and we both shared about our experiences of family members dying. We agreed that death is a passage that we cannot ignore, or if we do so, we become wounded. Perhaps it was because I had Psalm 150 on my mind that I mused out loud that it seemed to me that the great religions are great because they take us outside of ourselves, to focus on the profound things in life.

Today we wrap up our series on the Psalms for Today, stating they are more than old church songs or songs of the old church. At the beginning of the series, in Psalm 1, we learned how the Psalms are a resource for life connecting us to the source of life. Then we heard how Psalm 150 as a song of praise orients us to that source of life, similar to a GPS system. Psalm 13 introduced us to the lament, the cry for help we sing during disorienting times of our lives when they take an unpleasant and unexpected turn. The 23rd Psalm gave us the psalm of trust, a way to express faith in God during those times. Last week through Psalm 30 we received the song of thanksgiving, sung on the backside, reorienting us to the new life God has brought us.

If you look at the psalms in a good study Bible, you will see that they are divided into five sections or “books.” Interestingly, the last line of the last psalm in each one of these sections ends in doxology or praise. Psalm 150, as not only the last psalm in Book Five, but also of the whole Psalter is all doxology or praise. “Praise the Lord” or “Hallelujah” is proclaimed 13 times in six verses. It’s praise on steroids. This is like the fireworks and cannon at the end of a July 4th pops concert. Do you think this is important? We are called to sing, dance, and play praises to the very one who gives us our very life and breath to do so.

This may be obvious, but it is not trivial. We all probably know some well-meaning Christians whose every other sentence is, “Praise the Lord,” almost like, “Have a nice day” or “No problem.” Yet, we need to ask ourselves, what gets in the way of praising God, of doing sincerely what is breathed into our soul? I have some ideas, and I’ve already suggested some, but I think I’m going to leave it for you to think about that on your own. Meanwhile, I do know that there is nothing in this world—not even death—that prevents us from praising God. Do you remember the story about Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, where the religious leaders order him to tell his disciples to be quiet? Jesus responds, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” All creation praises the Lord.

Praising God is not a silent endeavor. Our hallelujahs are the response of ones who know the power of death, but also know a great God who has conquered death, who holds each of us loving hands. We are not called to praise God to appease God or pay lip service to a petty tyrant. We are called to praise God because God is indeed good and great and loves us steadfastly. God through Jesus Christ has restored us to himself and invites us to share that good news with others. “Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!” Amen.