Psalm 100
“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed
gloriously!” So declared Moses (Ex.
15:1) “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Worship the Lord with gladness; come into his
presence with singing!” (Ps. 100:1-2).
So declares the Psalmist. “Let
the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all
wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns and spiritual
songs to God.” So declares the apostle
Paul (Col. 3:16).
“Yabba-dabbe-do-lu-yah! Hi-ho-lee-lu-yah!” So declares contemporary Christian songwriter
Chris Rice, channeling Fred Flintstone and Kermit the Frog.
In case you can’t tell, before his music career took
off, Chris Rice was in youth and college campus ministry. He quotes those cartoon great s in rather silly song called “Cartoons”
that showed up on his 1998 album. In
this tune about toons, he asks what would happen if these animated characters
we suddenly saved in Christ. He states
they’d sing praise in a whole new way and then proceeds to impersonate them. In the final verse, he confess that there
isn’t a real point to his doing so, except to say that there is a lot of
praising to do and cartoons aren’t made for that. It’s our job! We have to find our own praising voice!
Formalized singings of praises to God are an ancient
practice. It was particularly
formalized back in the time of King David.
Upon entering Solomon’s Temple, praises were sung. So too during sacrificial offerings. You have written record of these praises
right in your pews – right there in the Book of Psalms. If you thought the Psalms were just
poetry, here’s an important fact. Our
English word “psalm” comes from a Greek translation of the Old Testament Hebrew
word mizmor, means “Melody of
Praise.”[i] Our Scripture lesson this morning, then, is
Melody of Praise #100!
The earliest Christians continued the practice of
singing praises. Historical record
tells us that during the time of Jesus, it was faithful practice to sing
Melodies of Praise #’s 145-150 during the week. Melodies of Praise #’s 95-100 were sung on
the Sabbath day. Newer praise songs
soon followed as well – such as the songs of Mary, Zechariah and Simeon.
Unfortunately, the vocal praise within people’s hearts
got muted by church orthodoxy around the time of the Middle Ages. It
became that only monks were allowed to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs
to God. This said, this period is well
credited with bringing choral and instrumental music into worship. I’m so pleased this practice of only allowing
monks to sing came to pass. Among other
things, just imagine if the choir last week had to wear earth-brown hoodies
instead of those colorfully patriotic scarves and ties!
The change from particular people to all people
praising took place, not surprisingly, during the 16th century
Protestant Reformation. Silencing the
masses has some purpose back in medieval days, but the exclusivity of this
orthodox practice was way out of step with a world freshly awash in the
rich-expressionism of the European Renaissance. Martin Luther -- the flute-playing, hymn
writing German sparkplug of ecclesiastical upheaval – is reported to have said
that a person who isn’t moved by the marvel of polyphonic music “must be a
course clod” who would rather “listen to the donkey braying Gregorian chorale.” And John Calvin, furthering the earlier words
of St. Augustine, and in support of singing praises to the Lord, wrote in 1543 that though a “nightingale or a
parrot sing ever so well, it will be without understanding. It is [humankind’s] gift to be able to sing
and to know what [we] are singing.”[ii]
Song, of course, isn’t the only way to use your
praising voice. That may be a primary
way you use it, but there are many other wonderful ways to express your praise
as well! My prayer for you is to keep
aware of, of find, your particular praising “voice” and add it to the harmony
of the great cloud of witnesses past and present.
Praising is sometimes easy and spontaneous. Other times, however, it needs to rise up
from a very deliberate, boldly faithful place in our hearts and minds.
An
inspirational reminder of this comes from the word of Joni (pronounced
‘Johnny’) Earekson Tada. She is a
strong vocal advocate for differently abled people and a very devout
Christian. Named after her father, but
spelled Joni, she was an adventurous,
life-loving teenager who enjoyed riding horses, hiking, playing tennis and
swimming. At seventeen, however, a
diving accident led to her being in a quadriplegic state with minimal use of
her hands. During the two years of
rehabilitation that followed, her adventurous side spilled out in the form of
painting with a brush between her teeth.
Her fine art later inspired people across the world and she went on to
found an evangelical international disability center.
For her, as it sure should be for us as well, in our
own unique ways, making a sacrifice of praise is a biblical mandate. To this end she has written the following
about praise – “it will always cost you something. It will be a difficult thing to do. It requires trading in our pride, our anger,
and most value of all, our human logic.
We will be compelled to voice our words of praise firmly and precisely,
even as our logic screams that God has no idea what he’s doing.” She then adds what I find a most helpful
insight, saying, “Most of the verses written about praise in God’s Word were
penned by men and women who faced crushing heartaches, injustice, treachery,
slander and scores of other intolerable situations.”
Such a faithful statement about making a sacrifice of
praise could well have come from the mouth of an ancient Israelite enduring the
hardship of exiled life in Babylonia.
It could well have come from the mouths of the earliest Christians
facing certain persecution and crucifixion.
It could well have come from the founders of the Protestant Reformation
enduring the consequences of challenging papal authority in their time.
All of these voices make it clear that praising God is
less about round-the-clock giddiness and more about having an all-out godly
disposition. It is about holding fast
in faith, having deep conviction in your belief that God is good, loving, and
brings redemption out of brokenness.
As the praising voice of 17th century British mystic and
writer William Law has put it, it’s about receiving “every day as resurrection
from death, as a new enjoyment of life” and letting “your joyful heart praise
and magnify so good and glorious a Creator.”
How do we, as members and friends of Fairmount
Presbyterian, as followers of Jesus in this time and place, help one another
find our praising voices? How do we,
as a whole, go about letting loose our praise in every season of our family
life together?
If you read this month’s Focus church newsletter, you
won’t be surprised that I’m going to answer this by reiterating our need to be
in weekly worship together. How beautiful and reassuring to make a
sacrifice of praise last week with a candle-light communion. How wonderful to be silent as we faithfully
absorb the gifted, praising voices of our choir every week. How bolstering to our daily walk with the
Lord to completely give this one hour out of the 168 in a week. And beyond this weekly hour, our worship
and praise are manifest in our service to the Lord in the greater community, in
our vocations, and in our families.
Let me share a short cute story to send us home
smiling and remembering to make all of our sacrifices of praise. It’s has to do with a time a three year-old
tried to say something she had heard in church. She had heard words of praise that said,
“We exalt Thee!” That’s not how it
flowed from her mouth, though. Instead,
she said, “We exhaust Thee!”
You know, she may be on to something. Imagine if we praised so much that God
somehow got tired of trying to keep up with it all! That’s a good way to focus on using our
praising voices and praising presence in all circumstances of life, don’t you
think? “For the Lord if good; his
steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” (Ps.
100:5) Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment