Praise the Lord

December 30, 2007 (Psalm 148; Matthew 2:13-23)

The starting point, the journey and the destination of Christian faith is the praise

and worship of God. This is the life that is set out for us. There is no higher calling. The

Christmas and also New Year season surrounds us with a renewal of that vision. Our

texts witness to characters uncontrollable, bursting with praise. Last week we listened to

Isaiah’s words of justice which began and ended with singing, praise and joy. Praise was

the prerequisite and goal of a just life. Then we listened to Mary who found that a song

of praise was her most fitting response to the work of God in her life. We witnessed the

magi and shepherds come to worship. Simeon the priest gives thanks for holding the

baby Jesus before he dies. The only appropriate response for recognizing the coming of

Christ on earth is worship and praise.

As our Christmas hymns testify we give praise because in Christ the hopes and

fears of all the years have met in him that night. Praise most naturally comes as a climax.

In it is a mixture of joy, respect, love, faith and trust. In these instances praise is often

involuntary. It just comes out. It emerges when we our fears and uncertainties have been

wiped away. It emerges when we have been waiting for our hopes to be realized. We

burst out in praise when a lost loved one comes home safe or when we receive a better

job that helps put an ease on our circumstances.

In as much as the birth of Christ was the culmination or climax of hopes and fears

it is also a beginning. We cannot be timid in reading the second half of our New

Testament reading this morning. No sooner had the news arrived that this newborn baby

was the Messiah and Saviour of Israel that an angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a

dream and told them to flee to Egypt because Herod would kill Jesus. And Herod in his

1
anger and paranoia set out and killed all male babies two years old or younger. This too

is part of our Christmas story. The part of the story where the baby Messiah had to flee

and remaining families suffered the consequences. So if it is true that praise and worship

is the beginning, middle and end of our faith, even in these stories, then we must learn a

deeper, more intimate and extensive expression.

Psalm 148, rather than being a pleasant repetitive hymn is a rigorous and

searching commentary on worship and also implicitly on idolatry. This psalm reminds us

that praise is not so much about where we think we should be or what things in our life

should be like but rather how we are orientated in where we are. The psalm begins

simply with an invitation, Praise the Lord. We can hear and respond to this invitation

wherever we are at in life. What follows is a prayerful and reflective Psalm that is not

just telling us how all reality offers praise to God. It is rather inviting us to examine our

life and be aware of things that we give praise to. This invitation allows us to pause and

walk through and take account of our life. And what better time that at the end and the

beginning of a year. The Psalmist begins in the high places.

Praise the LORD from the heavens;

praise him in the heights above.

Praise him, all his angels;

praise him, all his hosts.

Praise him, sun and moon;

praise him, all you shining stars.

Praise him, you highest heavens

and you waters above the skies.

Let them praise the name of the LORD,

for at his command they were created,

and he established them for ever and ever—

2
 he issued a law that will never pass away.

The first half of the Psalm begins with what we might call the spiritual reality of the

world. But perhaps more accurately this half of the Psalm deals with how we understand

the fundamental order of the world. Praise God from the heavens, praise God from the

heights above. This imagery points to places of power and order. In the Old Testament it

is from the heights that order is established. This statement invites us to recognize our

fundamental vision of the world. Is the world a bad place that is just going to get worse?

Or is there something about life that still testifies and gives praise to God?

It is interesting to note that much modern sociology takes as its basis the notion

that the world is primarily violent. The thinking is that cultures, laws and customs arise

in response to conflict as a way of trying to bring order and stability. Violence is

understood to be the fundamental order of reality. It is all too easy to adopt this view of

the world. But can this be our thinking if we also believe, as Paul wrote in Colossians,

that through Christ everything has its being? Paul writes that “all things were created by

Christ and are for Christ.” This is not simply a question of optimism or pessimism. This

not about deciding whether we are inherently good or bad. This call to the heights and

the heavens is a witness that there is no place in existence that is too far away from God

to offer praise. The basic order of reality is that it is built for praise.

So let the heavens and heights above praise God. Know that they were not

created by us nor are they created for us. We are not at the centre of reality. This is

important for understanding the call for the angels and hosts and the sun, moon and stars

to give praise. We are the ones who want God’s angels to serve us. If God entrusts

miracles to the service of angels we want them to benefit us. If we do not see the

3
miracles we ask for then we believe that God is not acting. The goal of angels however is

not our happiness. They act, rather, so that the result is an opportunity for praise. This is

true of sun, moon and stars. Many people still seek to find their meaning and destiny in

the movements of universe around them. But that is to mistake again their purpose.

They were created not with us in mind but with the purpose praising God. We are not to

look to them for personal meaning and direction. Rather we find meaning their because

we can hear and join them in the song. We are not singing solo. We are part of the choir.

The magi understood that the star in the East was not for their benefit but that it was

heralding the coming of God’s king. This psalm reminds us that embedded in the world

are voices crafted for the praise of God. And God will not discriminate who can hear

them because someone acts particularly religious or not. Jesus received praise from

anyone who had ears to hear. If the people didn’t follow him he knew that the rocks were

ready shout out in praise.

In the second half of the Psalm we are taken from the heights of heaven and

plunged into the depths of the earth

Praise the LORD from the earth,

you great sea monsters and all ocean depths,

lightning and hail, snow and smoke,

stormy winds that do God’s work,

Here we move from our hopes for order, power and meaning and plummet down into our

fears of chaos and disaster. In the Bible images of the sea and sea creatures are figurative

of chaos and destruction. Fear is just as important an emotion to understand as joy and

hope if our desire is offer praise and worship with integrity. When the Bible speaks of

the fear of God it is referring to more than just being in awe. Fear is the response we

4
have to being the presence of something that we cannot control and that we perceive as

having the power to harm us. Having a clear understanding of our fears would help us to

understand or identify the gods or idols that we are giving praise to. In the Old

Testament people often created gods to respond to their fears of the threat of nature.

They believed that certain gods would do battle with the destructive elements of weather

and bring them good crops. The people were afraid of the power and unpredictability of

the weather and responded by creating gods that would benefit them. People looked to

something tangible to provide stability and prosperity.

Idols in the Old Testament always seem to me like such strange thing. How could

they keep slipping into the Israelites’ lives? Though the comparison is perhaps arguable

we may want to take a look at the toys and action figures that our culture produces. The

term ‘action figure’ was coined in 1964 to market G.I. Joe. Later figures developed more

cosmic powers with the characters from Masters of the Universe and Thundercats. Many

of the cartoons for these figures even incorporated gods from various historical or

fictional mythology. I am not saying that all toys can cartoons should be banned. I do,

however, think we should be aware as to how these expressions demonstrate our own

cultural myths. Real life forms of these sorts of idols often come in the form of sports

heroes, wrestlers, celebrities, or singers. These are larger-then-life action figures who

have a type of super power we long for. They reflect the idols of power and control not

unlike the people in the Old Testament. We look to whatever will keep us from our fears

of feeling weak, rejected, poor or ugly. The psalmist however tells us that these fears,

these sea-monsters that roam in our depths have no power over us.

5
Rather than creating or running to the protection of our idols we can sit with our fears in

faith that even from these deep and dark places praise will rise up.

What of the disasters that give praise?

lightning and hail, snow and smoke,

stormy winds that do God’s work,

These are images often used of judgment in the Bible. We no longer speak of disasters as

acts of God’s judgment. It seems preposterous to think that the people in Asia deserved

to be hit by the Tsunami that killed almost a quarter of a million people in 2004. If God

does not punish people through natural disasters then how can the psalmist call on them

as events that do God’s work? Perhaps there is another way of understanding these

disasters. The word judgment carries such distinct connotations in our society, especially

when used from the pulpit. What if we understood disasters as events of truth-telling?

When disasters hit people are left exposed and vulnerable. Our idols of security are

washed away or burned up. The nature of people and communities are often revealed in

a new way. Individual homes literally become an open book. When I volunteered with

Mennonite Disaster Service after flooding in northern California we entered homes that

families had to leave without notice. We went through bedrooms and closets and found

their lives as they had left them. In them we came across the good and the bad. We also

see how this state of vulnerability can lead communities to generous mutual support or it

can also turn into violent looting. The situation in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina

was a particularly startling account of a disaster as truth-telling. Jim Wallis from

Sojourners Magazine wrote this in response to what emerged from this event.

The waters of Hurricane Katrina washed away our national denial of the
shockingly high number of Americans living in poverty and our reluctance to
admit the still-persistent connection of race and poverty in America. The faces of

6
 those stranded in New Orleans were overwhelmingly poor and black, the very old
and the very young. They were the ones who could not evacuate; had no cars or
money for gas; no money for bus, train, or airfare; no budget for hotels or no
friends or family with room to share or spare. They were already vulnerable
before this calamity; now they were totally exposed and on their own. For days,
nobody came for them. And the conditions of the places they were finally herded
to ("like animals," many testified) sickened the nation. Those left behind in New
Orleans had already been left out in America.

Disasters are unbiased and unapologetic in their truth-telling. And in their unnerving

truth they offer their praise to God.

The psalmist continues to call out praise from nature,

you mountains and all hills,

fruit trees and all cedars,

wild animals and all cattle,

small creatures and flying birds,

Though we are beginning to renew our vision of respect and care for the environment

much of the emphasis is coming from the fear of what environmental damage will mean

for our lives. We need to pay attention to passages like these and continue to develop a

more positive approach to the environment. Listen to the twelfth century mystic

Hildegard of Bingen in what could be a commentary on this Psalm as she speaks of the

Holy Spirit,

I am that living and fiery essence of the divine substance that flows in the beauty
of the fields. I shine in the water; I burn in the sun and the moon and the stars.
The mysterious force of the invisible world is mine. I sustain the breath of all
living beings. I breathe in the grass and in the flowers; and when the waters flow
like living things, it is I . . . I am the force that lies hidden in the winds; . . . fire
burns by my blast. All these live because I am in them and I am their life. I am
Wisdom. . . . I permeate all things that they may not die, I am life.

Even in our environmental efforts our goals are still often self-centered as we are looking

out for our well being. No matter how we view environmentalism as Christians we

cannot view the environment simply as a warehouse of resources for our comfort and

7
consumption. The world around us sings along. Rather than a fear based approach to the

environment we need to develop ways of hearing, nurturing and sharing the songs of

praise that are being quieted or extinguished.

And finally the psalmist also has the courtesy of inviting humans in praising God.

kings of the earth and all nations,

you princes and all rulers on earth,
young men and women,
old men and children.
Let them praise the name of the LORD,
for his name alone is exalted;
his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.

Praise God. Why? Praise God because only God’s name is exalted. God’s glory is

above the heavens and above the earth. Praise God, because from your highest hopes to

your deepest fears you will find no satisfaction in praising anything else. And as the

psalmist concludes, praise God because he has raised a horn for his people. The image

of a horn in the Old Testament is unmistakable for strength. Praise God because God is

above our highest hopes whether they are noble or not. Praise God because he is more

powerful than our deepest and darkest fears. Praise God because he has given us strength

for journey. God has raised one who is the strength of our salvation. Praise God for a

child is born who will never leave us even when there is destruction around from people

who let their hopes and fears drive them like Herod who set out to kill baby boys for fear

of losing his power. Praise God for the year that has past. Praise God for the year to

come. Let praise be found in your hopes and fears.

Praise the Lord.

Amen.