Exuberant Praise

21 Nov Exuberant Praise

Exuberant Praise

Psalm 111

November 18, 2018

Michelle Fincher

Calvary Presbyterian Church

On Thursday people all across the country will gather around dining tables that will be laden with turkey and dressing, gravy and cranberry sauce, green beans and corn pudding and bofrots, pumpkin and pecan pies, and potatoes that are diced, sliced, mashed, boiled, baked and casseroled in nearly endless varieties.  I’m hungry just thinking about it. Around a good many of those tables, before spoons and forks are allowed to be raised, people will pause to say a word of gratitude about what they are thankful for. It is a day to count our blessings and to remember to say, “thank you.”

I can’t say whether the psalmist has a turkey in front of him, but Psalm 111 could well have been written from around the Thanksgiving table.  It is an explosion of exuberant praise as the psalmist names God’s wonderful works. In the original language, this psalm, along with Psalm 112, comprise an alphabetic acrostic:  each line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It is a literary framework that signals that this song of praise is a comprehensive, A-to-Z celebration of what God has done.

If the Israelites needed to be reminded of all that God has done on their behalf, how much more do we need to stop and be reminded?  After all, we live in an anthropocentric world, where we humans place ourselves in the middle of the universe. We expect farmers to feed us, judges to offer us justice, teachers to give us wisdom and our 401K plans to offer us security.  Into our anthropocentric world, where everything is up to us, Psalm 111 delivers a shock and a challenge, to move us from being human centered to God-centered, from anthropocentric to theocentric, from shaping our own lives to being shaped by God.  It is a shift that has never been easy, not for ancient Israel any more than for those of us in the 21st century, so to help us, the psalmist calls us to three acts:  praise, discovery and trust.  And these actions shape us in three specific ways: to be more thankful people, to be more understanding people, and to be more faithful people.

The psalm starts with the single word “Hallelujah,” which is translated “Praise the Lord!”  It is a shout that comes from the psalmist’s whole heart which means that it involves the whole person.  The word “heart” is used metaphorically to refer to the inner self, the source of a person’s thoughts and feelings.  It is also the seat of reason, understanding and imagination. It is the conscience and the wellspring of emotions. In other words, the psalmist’s praise involves her completely, body, soul, spirit and mind.  It is testimony that is deeply personal but because it takes place in the congregation, it is also utterly public.

The fact that this praise takes place in the gathered community is not an incidental sidebar.  In the congregation at worship, an artist can give praise alongside an archeologist. A child can worship right next to a senior citizen.  A genius can shout “hallelujah” in harmony with a person with an intellectual disability. In an anthropocentric world, these distinctions make a difference, but not in a theocentric world.  Together, we are a community of support and accountability. We learn from one another and are inspired by each other. We see God’s work more clearly and are able to praise God more joyfully. All of us are equal in the eyes of God, so that all that matters is that we worship God with our “whole heart.”  And as we worship and praise together, we are shaped by God into more thankful people.  

After beginning with praise, we move to discovery.  “Great are the works of the Lord,” says the psalm, “studied by all who delight in them” (v. 2).  When we shift to a theocentric view of the world, we see with new eyes what God has done. It is so easy to let our lives be defined by the little world we create through habits of mind and body that limit our perspectives to just what we can touch, feel and experience.  But when we allow ourselves to be open to something greater, something bigger, something beyond ourselves, we discover that our lives are set in the midst of an unimaginable greatness and goodness. We discover God’s liberating power that sets us free from selfishness and pride and fear as surely as it set the Israelites free from Egyptian bondage.  We discover God’s grace and mercy that we need as surely as the Hebrews needed it after worshiping the golden calf. We discover that God feeds us both materially and spiritually, as surely as God sent manna to feed the people in the desert.

As we discover again what God has done and continues to do, we realize anew how faithful and generous God is and that God is always working for good in our lives.  And we are shaped by this knowledge into more understanding and wise people.  As the psalmist expresses it, wisdom begins with fear, which is to say, wisdom begins with reverence and awe of the Lord.  This is not an emotion the psalmist is describing; it is a way of life, a posture of heart and mind that acknowledges God’s sovereignty and our place in God’s creation with both our capabilities and our limitations.

As we gain understanding both into ourselves and into God’s character and faithfulness, we are called to trust.  God has a long, infinite history of promises made and kept.  God established a covenant, a promise-based relationship with a people called to be God’s own for the purpose of making God known to the world.  That covenant is not something that comes and goes. First with Israel and later with the church through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God keeps up God’s end of the promise, whether we do or not.  

Our end is to walk with God in faith and to live a life of righteousness.  A life of righteousness means being in right relationships, both with God and with others.  It includes treating your neighbor as you would like to be treated. It means that you keep God’s word, seek to do God’s will, and put your energy into acts of service and generosity.  Righteous women and men follow the example of Jesus by stressing that the most significant matters of the law are “justice and mercy and faith”, as Matthew’s gospel puts it (23:23).

Righteousness as the psalmist envisions it is about far more than playing by the rules and being a “good” person.  Rule-following alone can make a person self-righteous, self-satisfied and smug. The practice of God’s righteousness involves loving the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind and loving your neighbor as yourself.  You cannot be truly righteous without being in right relationship with God and the people around you, and of course, we cannot do that alone. That’s why Jesus promised us the very Spirit of God to make alive in each of us the love of Christ.  It is God’s love towards us that inspires our love of others. God’s righteousness enlivens our righteousness. God’s work motives our work. God’s faithfulness summons our own faithfulness. When we are willing to trust, God shapes us into more faithful people.

In our postmodern, scientifically-oriented, often cynical age, it is all too easy to be dismissive of claims that God is working in our lives.  An anthropocentric world view has no room for such claims about God, and if we are not careful, we will forget and then buy in to the view that we’re on our own.  One of the most powerful reasons we show up here week after week is that our praise and our worship remind us of the truth—that God is here and alive and involved; that God cares and is trustworthy; that God is active in the affairs of our lives and in our world; that God is still acting and speaking.  

Think about what we’ve seen in this place in just the past few months that reminds us of God’s presence and work among us:  the new members that joined in the spring and again this morning—how they found us, that they found us, across years and miles and long journeys and here they are, right on schedule, by divine appointment, with a reason for being here that is partly about how God wants to use them in our lives and partly about how God wants to use us in theirs.  There was Leon’s baptism and Isla’s and one year ago today, Steve Roberts’ baptism—all evidences of God with us, calling us, loving us, faithful to us. We’ve completed another Be the Kingdom Sunday, the building renovations are finally done that culminated with a spectacular day of worship when we dedicated the organ.  We’ve prayed one another through numerous surgeries and travels around the globe, finding new jobs and becoming a new citizen. And then last Sunday you responded to God’s faithfulness and generosity with faithfulness and generosity of your own.

See what I mean?  Like the psalmist, when we stop and name how God is involved with us, praise can’t help but spill out.  It’s no wonder he puts his whole heart and soul into shouting, “Hallelujah! Thank you, God; look at all you’ve done; you’re great, God!”  And now, it’s our turn…..