Today's Scripture 

Psalm 150

¹ Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise God in the mighty firmament!

² Praise God for God’s mighty deeds;
praise God according to his surpassing greatness!

 ³ Praise God with trumpet sound;
praise God with lute and harp!

⁴ Praise God with tambourine and dance; 
praise God with strings and pipe!

⁵ Praise God with clanging cymbals;
 praise God with loud clashing cymbals!

⁶ Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord!

 THIS IS HOLY WISDOM, HOLY WORD.  THANKS BE TO GOD.

 Today's Teaching

"Praise?"

This is the first Sunday since the pandemic that we’ve included music from a band offering praise music.  If you have enjoyed Bethany’s music over the years, you have no doubt appreciated the element of praise, of joy, it carries.  RuthE. has punctuated our services up to now with that spirit as well because we could all use a little joy during these times, a little something uplifting.  As smoke weighs heavy in the air above us much of the time, the times feel heavy.  People need the truth.  They need to face reality, but they also crave a dose of hope.  I posted a gratitude for a small act of kindness this week on social media and it was astounding how many people hit “like”…people are clinging to signs of goodness and possibility, of joy and assurance.  We need to hold to these things sometimes, lest you sink to a place from which we cannot climb.

Psalm 150 is the final Psalm in the canon, and it should not be lost on us that it is a song of praise.  Maybe that’s no surprise for you.  Of course! you say, but it’s not necessarily and “of course.”  If you follow me or the church on Facebook, you know that I have spent the pandemic offering evening prayers and mornings psalms several days a week.  One of the things I have been reminded of about the psalms is that they are not all happy, not all filled with confidence in the presence of God, not all filled with peace or even hope.  In that sense, they very much speak to real life, which I suppose is the point. 

At times it’s been eerie how troubled and sometimes how timely these ancient words have been, just in the psalms leading up to #44 which is where I am at the time of this writing we can hear the psalms:

-speaking of people who have no truths in their mouths, with hearts set on destructions, whose mouths are open graves, a call to accountability for them (Ps. 5)

- crying “Help, O Lord, for there is no longer anyone who is godly” (Psalm 12)

-throughout begging for protection from enemy and danger, which is to acknowledge there is danger and there are enemies

-giving voice to anger and rage, even wishing violence upon oppressors, “Rise up, O Lord, confront them, overthrown them! By your sword deliver my life” says Psalm 17, and that is not the most violent imagery you will find in the Psalms.  Raw anger being expressed in real terms.

-The psalms critique the kind of power some people seek and display, decrying how “Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses.”  This is not a critique of the pastoral, but of militarism (Psalm 20 here and elsewhere too)

-In the Psalms we see abandonment:  Who could forget the opening words of Psalm 22:  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” the words we are told Jesus himself cried out from the cross. 

-Repeatedly, we see lonely suffering, kept company only by those who mock those in pain, the aggrieved surrounded by those “gathered in glee” (Psalm 35)

-There’s such discontent not just with life or its circumstances or one’s enemies, but with God that in these Holy Scriptures, that more than once the psalmist tells God to wake up and show up! (cf. Psalms 35 and 44)

Those themes are interspersed with praise, with remembrance of God’s faithfulness, of life having gone well and God been protector and provider.  I lift them out here to show how this book of prayers runs the full spectrum of human experience, making it all the more powerful that the psalmist ends it all in praise.

Sometimes it is only when we come to the end of an ordeal that we feel we can offer unforced praise.  I remember a sea kayaking trip we once took.  It was supposed to be marvelous – clergy and with a guide and theologian to experience the beauty of creation while exploring environmental themes and challenges from a Christian perspective, what could be better?  What could be worse?  We encountered inclement weather from the outset, our kayaks filled with water, we found ourselves beached short of our first destination on craggy rock that cut our legs up as we broke through with almost each step.  One participant had to be evacuated by motorboat and taken for medical care.  Sleep was difficult, strong waves, even stronger sun.  It wasn’t without joy, but it was only after it was over, when we’d made it through the ordeal that we could remember it fondly, with praise and appreciation for how we’d come through it.

And that’s a kayaking trip, not the coronavirus.  There we sat around campfires, not taped our windows to keep out the smoke from wildfires.  Now, here people are being kept from work or have lost their work.  Children sit before computers for hours while teachers struggle to teach and those computers also occasionally become unfortunate windows into violent or unsafe homes, parents under too much stress or showing what has been true but hidden for God knows how long.  The struggle around policing and race continues.  Another shooting of a black man caught on camera.  Questions of bias showing up in our backyard.  And through all of it we are now doubly isolated, some triply.  Even when our church building is finished it will have to remain empty until we can get the virus under control.

After speaking to the full range of human experience, our psalm meets us with a conclusion filled bitter irony: “Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!”  Let everything that breathes…oh how that phrase has taken on layers upon layers of meaning…if you can’t breathe, you can’t praise.  Let everything that breathes praise.  All creatures are made for praise and insofar as they are deprived, so is God’s chorus diminished.

I want a full chorus of praise.  We all do.

It hit me how much we want the praise when last week we did this blessing of the backpacks for school children that Jeff and Bethany organized so beautifully.  Cars pulled into the Westminster parking lot and made their way through 4 stations.  At one point I was blessing one family and ash was falling between me in the car as I said the line: and may you look forward to the day, may you dream of the day, draw pictures of the day when you get to do what you want again…I told them to remember there were adults who loved them and were looking out for them, and that it was hard on everyone and to try to be kind and gentle and forgiving of others and of themselves, that they might discover adventures and presence right were they were and that they could be Christ even in this to those around…and all of it was a way to say there’s a place for all of it in the grand book of prayer and on the other side, when we’re through this, whatever the this is, there will be occasion for praise.  Until then, we can build in moments of praise between now and then, water stations so to speak, that keep us going, one after the next, until we get there.  We not only had praise music today, we’ve added extra songs of praise, a model for how we can move through this time, sprinkling in extra times for praise, celebration, and joy, not to deny the present reality, but to bolster us to get through it. 

Until we’re on the other side, hold on.  Hold each other, for if you get too low, you can get swallowed up.  Hold on and if you can reach out to those who have been pushed down, and lift them up, or join them in their place and their breathlessness so we can join our yearning for the day when we can exhale and sing together in harmony:

¹ Praise the Lord!
Praise God in God’s sanctuary;
praise God in the mighty firmament!

² Praise God for God’s mighty deeds;
praise God according to God’s surpassing greatness!

³ Praise God with trumpet sound;
praise God with lute and harp!

⁴ Praise God with tambourine and dance;
praise God with strings and pipe!

⁵ Praise God with clanging cymbals;
praise God with loud clashing cymbals!

⁶ Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord!
Amen.

Quotes, Questions & Prompts for Reflection, Discussion, and Prayer

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come into his presence with singing.
-Psalm 100:1-2

1. Recall some of your favorite songs. What are they about? How do they make you feel?
2. What are the things that looking back you remember with some fondness, though were tough at the time?
3. What does it mean that all the world was created for praise?
4. What does any of this have to do with justice?
5. How does experiencing all your emotions open the way for praise?