Psalm 150

Let everything that breathes praise the Lord Psalm 150

Think of a time this past week or month that you were
really excited, enthusiastic, and caught a case of contagious
joy.  I a sure several of you immediately thought of when the
alarm clock went off this morning.  Perhaps others thought of a
chocolate induced euphoria you enjoyed on Friday night after a
long week of work or meeting a new friend or a meal with your
family.  Having just returned from vacation, this is perhaps an
unfair question.   We don’t spend much time in church talking
about joy or how laughter is a prayer to God.  We seem to have
accepted that church is serious and sober business.  On the one
hand we know all too well that this world is not as it should be,
that there is too much pain, far too frequently people are not
treated as beloved children of God, too often we cling to the
truth that might makes right and the one with the most toys
wins.  On the other hand, perhaps we need open ourselves more
to what the psalmist describes as striking up the band and
joining all creation a sacred dance celebrating God’s presence.

The very first word of Psalm 150 is praise.  The Hebrew
word is Tehillim. That is important not only because it can help
you answer Final Jeopardy, it is important because our Jewish
brothers and sisters don’t call the book of poetry and hymns the
psalms, they call this book “Tehillim,” or Praises.  The irony, of
course, is that many of the words in this book are anything but
praises, often the psalms come across as cantankerous or
violent or even angry.  Within the Jewish understanding tehillim
points towards what is to be at the center of our faith and lives. 
As people of God, we are to join creation’s choir, sing out with
gusto, making a joyful noise to the One who is the source and
ground of life. 

 For all you left brain, logical folks, who are not quite sure about
how to take the psalms, it is important to notice that the writer
of the 150^th psalm actually lays out a very clear, concise, linear,
logical argument for why we are to praise, how we are to praise,
and whom we are to praise.  Verse two states that we praise
God because of God’s actions and because of God’s surpassing
greatness.  The psalmist believe deeply that God was active in
this world, God is not distant or disinterested in our lives.  Early
on in this book of praises, the psalmist asks the poignant
question, what are human beings that you, O God, are mindful,
care about us?  And yet, God has left God’s fingerprints upon
on very lives.  When I asked you above, what event this week
awoken joy within you, part of what I am getting at is how was
God’s presence woven into your life recently?  We need to be
awake, alert to that, because the frenzied pace we live our lives
today means that traces of grace can be blurred and we might
miss the subtle ways the sacred is stirring.  We need to practice
noticing and naming for each other God’s serendipitous
movement, because let’s face it, if we don’t, who is?  We
praise, tehillim, because God is present here and now, then and
there this week. That’s our why, the reason and our rationale
from which our praise springs forth.

Having answered the why question, the Psalmist moves on to
tell us how we are going to praise God.  We pick up a trumpet,
a lute, a harp, a tambourine, clashing clanging cymbals, strings,
and pipes.  Basically if something makes a noise and your
mother never would have let you play it inside the house, it is
on and fair game.  And if you don’t want to be part of the band,
you are invited to be part of the joyful procession and divine
dance of praise.  Thirteen times the psalmist shouts out praise. 
Every sentence but one starts with tehillim and the exception
just puts the word praise near the end.  The way the psalmist
describes praise is really self-abandonment.  We let go of our
carefully guarded public personas, we drop our hidden agendas,
and we fling ourselves with reckless disregard for all
respectability.  I am not sure that is usually how we define
worship, but it is how the psalmist describes worship.  But
maybe we should think of worship more like this, as Charles
Wesley wrote in the hymn, Love Divine All Loves Excelling
worship is when, we are lost in wonder, love and praise.  When I
asked the question about a recent joyful moment, I used the
word enthusiastic.  That word today is equated with being
excited, but origin of the word was the combination of en and
theos, in God or even possessed by God.  That somehow in
some way you let go of self and became entrenched in the holy,
beyond our rational, reasonable selves.  How we go about
praise is to get caught up in the stirring of the spirit that is
beyond our control and will invite us to sing at the top of our
lungs, dance with excitement, and generally make a spectacle of
ourselves.  That is how we offer praise to the One who fills us
with joy.
So, we know why – because God is always present and how,
even if we don’t fully think we can do it.  But finally, the
psalmist answers the question, who?  And the response is one
simple statement: everything that breathes is called to this kind
of praise.  There is a universality, all creation joins in worship. 
And we remember that one of the first acts of creation in
Genesis is God offering breath to everything, so everything in
creation is to worship.  And friends, this is not a new idea.  In
fact, it is as familiar as the doxology we sing every single
week.  We sing these words about praising God from whom all
blessings flow.  Praise God all creatures here below, all that
breathe.  Praise God above all else.  Praise the one who creates,
redeems and sustains, because God is.  But that doxology, that
sung prayer is not just for the checks and financial gifts, like
Psalm 150, those words are a vision for our lives.  To praise
God with the rising of the sun to the going down of the same. 
To praise God when we pour over budgets or make decisions or
even disagree.  To praise God in all times and places.  That is
the vision of our faith the Psalmist wants to leave us with.  The
question is the same as it was when Psalm 150 was originally
premiered in the temple, will the people do it?  Will you enter
into that kind of life this week, praising God not just when
singing the doxology, but with your words and actions and
whole life this week?  So that when you come into worship the
following week and someone asks you when were you
enthusiastic, immersed in God’s presence, living the doxology? 
You pick up a trumpet and clang the cymbal and start singing. 
Suddenly we realize that this is not ending to the psalms, it is
the beginning of life and faith, and that is what stewardship is all
about: Praises. Tehillim.  Amen.