Eph. 1:7-14; Psalm 148
I read a good amount of Bible commentary. The folks who write them are my weekly conversation partners as the Holy Spirit inspires thoughts for me to weave together for our weekly worship. When I began in ordained ministry, I relied heavily on books and magazines. I still do, but not as much as my finding fresh voices from all over the country and the world through internet research.
One voice that chatted with me this week shared something I totally wasn’t expecting to hear. The Rev. Dr. Shauna Hannon shared what happened when she encountered Psalm 148 through the ancient practice of lectio divina. The phrase is Latin for “Sacred Reading.” This is a very prayerful, slow, gentle way of reading the Bible that I’ve always found a powerful experience. Through several phases, you freely open yourself up to whatever Word and world associations the Holy Spirit stirs up. It’s commonly experienced in a group setting. And, as Dr. Hannon remarked in the commentary, this practice “encourages participants not to judge what comes to mind.”[i]
And so what came to her well-educated, faithful mind when she one day read Psalm 148 in this way? “Whack-A-Mole.” Yes, as in the arcade game invented in 1976 where the head of a mole pops up and you take a large, soft black mallet to try and bop it back down. This, of all things, is what the Holy Spirit spoke! Based on this experience, I’m thinking it would be great fun it we all practiced lectio divina this week and reported back here next Sunday to share what happened! I actually would love to get a group together for this, so do let me know if you’re interested.
Here’s the professor’s understanding of why “Wack-A-Mole” and Psalm 148 met up in her mind and heart. She said it had to do with how the word “praise” pops-up repeatedly and in fast succession. Let’s give the first couple verses a re-read – “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise Him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his host!” Yes, we can appreciate that Whack-A-Mole came to mind!
This Psalm makes it clear that “all of creation, simply by existing, is a chorus of praise to its Maker.”[ii] It names angels, shining stars, all sorts of weather, all sorts of creatures, all sorts of natural landscapes and includes absolutely all kinds of people. All have been set within sacred bounds, and so it is the dignity of all to be found at any time and in any place praising the Lord. Psalm 148 exists to remind us of “the abundant and random nature of reasons to praise the Lord that arise in any given day.”[iii]
Yet do we? Reasons to glorify our Lord surely do keep popping up, but do we take notice? And if we do, what’s our response? Do we give a joyful shout out loud no matter where we are or what we are doing? Hey, listen up everyone, my pharmacy discount card just saved me $5, praise the Lord! Or do we say a more polite, silent word of gratitude within ourselves? Praise the Lord this discount saves me money needed for other important things. Or do we do what Dr. Hannon confessed to herself later in the day of that particular lectio divina? She confessed that there are times when she inadvertently whacks “these abundant and seemingly random invitations to praise.”
Thinking about this confession takes me back to this past Thursday night. The sunshine was really energizing around suppertime. It probably had been all day, but that’s when I most had opportunity to notice it. Feeling a deep need to let it saturate me, I moved our hammock and its stand off the front porch and out into the yard. I lowered myself into the supporting weave and, after quite a few minutes of decompression from the day’s busyness, I began to just look up and all around. I started to more or less not notice what the rest of my wonderful family was up to. I even managed to somehow not hear our dog, Dinah, beg-barking for my attention while attached to her lead in another part of the yard. I just absorbed the sun, my eyelids alternating between open and shut. When open, I found myself noticing more than usual. Not coincidentally, I also found myself intentionally praising God in my heart and mind more than usual. I couldn’t help it because reasons kept popping up.
I praised God for the way the sun lit-up and made new, beautiful art of the branches on a nearby tree. I praised God for the broad blue space above me and all that air provided to me so I can keep breathing. I praised God for the gift of relaxation after various tensions felt during the week. I praised God for human creativity and engineering as I marveled at just how high up a certain airplane was traveling. I praised God for my gifts in ministry as I reflected on a recent and really powerful, positive pastoral visit.
Before long, however, I realized I had begun to do something else. I’d grabbed several large, soft, black mallets. The ones within me. The ones I inadvertently bop down praises with. There’s was the mallet I pulled out the moment I thought to check my phone for email replies I was waiting on. There’s was the mallet I pulled out when worry began to creep in about the well-being of my loved ones. There was the mallet of suddenly remembering something I forgot to do and then the mallet of subsequent stress.
All these sorts of mallets are different, but they all come from the same collection. It’s a collection labeled “Distraction.” They are all legitimate life responsibilities that I must keep in mind, but the daily fact is that when I swing them, I get distracted from offering the simple, spontaneous kind of constant praise that builds up gratitude and greater trust in God.
Getting distracted isn’t the only problematic response to pop-up praises. We also might not be expecting them, and therefore not notice them at all. Another conversation partner this week (this one teaches in Australia) noted that this happens because we are accustomed to seeing praise only in terms of a special offering, such as a prayer or a song. We therefore also tend to relegate praise to a particular time and place, such as the same time and place we relegate our worship.[iv] So do you find that you mostly praise God only when you are here in this sanctuary? During the hymns or prayers of the people? How about all the other time you spend in the sanctuary of God’s vast, wondrous, interconnected Creation?
Beyond failing to notice or noticing but then bopping down praises, we also just might have to confess that praising the Lord feels like no big deal. This, suggests yet another conversation partner, is partly because “in our media culture, everything gets praised: cars, a bar of soap, a smartphone.” I do tend to hear a lot more praise for the latest iPhone than I do for how God loves us in Jesus Christ! When so much gets invested in glorifying things humankind has made, what room is left for genuinely glorifying God?
This same Bible commentator then dug down to a deeper root problem, saying our ability to praise also gets “burdened by a false image of a machine-God who exists to do our bidding, a functional deity whose sole purpose is to give us a boost if asked.”[v] When we understand God primarily in terms of personal supply and demand, we only offer praise when we get what we want, right?
So, faithful friends, there are quite a few pitfalls to our living a life of pop-up praise to the Lord. I hope my conversation partners and I have helped you become more aware of them. We all need to more consistently tune into and join the great chorus all around us that Psalm 148 identifies so well. We should be able to hear and see God alive in all things. Even more significantly, we need to offer up ongoing praise because of all the gracious forgiveness, wisdom, and hope God never ceases to lavish on us in Christ. What a positive difference this would make in our daily lives! In the lives of our loved ones and all the neighbors we are called to love! In this beautiful world we are called to care for!
Practice right now. Look around. Look within. Listen the sounds within and beyond this sanctuary. Listen to sounds of the sanctuary that is your heart and soul. What praise is popping up? Amen.
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