Praise

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

December 29, 2013

Praise

Psalm 148

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights!
Praise him, all his angels;

praise him, all his host!

Praise him, sun and moon;

praise him, all you shining stars!
Praise him, you highest heavens,

and you waters above the heavens!

We are born to praise God,

to sing “Glory be to the Father,

and to the Son,

and to the Holy Spirit.

Amen and Amen.”

Our Westminster Confession of Faith tells us that

“the chief and highest end of humankind

is to glorify God and fully to enjoy him forever.”

Glory to God!

Praise the Lord!

Yet “praise” is one of those

suspect words for us as Presbyterians,

one of those words we know,

but prefer to leave to others,

rather like “evangelism”.

We’re comfortable having the choir sing an anthem

praising the Lord,

but that’s about as far as we prefer to go,

about as far as our comfort level allows.

If we are going to sing praise to God,

better to obscure the fact

by calling what we sing

a “Gloria Patri” or a “doxology”.

But the Psalms are full of calls to us to praise God,

to shout out our praise,

to sing out our praise.

For us, for you and me,

what better way to start the new year

than to join with all creation

praising the Lord our God!

Praising God for our Christmas present:

our Lord Jesus Christ.

Didn’t praise fill the earth and sky

on that first Christmas?

Luke tells us that

“a multitude of the heavenly host

sang out in praise,

Glory to God in the highest heaven

and on earth peace and goodwill to all.”

After the shepherds visited the stable

and had seen what God had done,

they returned to their flocks.

But did they return quietly?

Contemplatively?

Fearful and shaken?

No! They returned, “glorifying and praising God

for all they had heard and seen.”

(Luke 2:20)

And it isn’t just we humans

who are called to praise God,

whose voices should be raised in praise to God.

All creatures, all creation,

all the heavens,

the universe itself is called

to sing out in praise to the Lord God:

Praise him, sun and moon;
   praise him, all you shining stars!
Praise him, you highest heavens,
   and you waters above the heavens!

Let them praise the name of the Lord,
   for he commanded and they were created.
He established them for ever and ever;
   he fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed.

The theologian Walter Brueggemann has written,

“Praise is a daring departure

from all things rational,”

and he’s right.

Praise should be loud, clamorous, joyful;

something to be done with abandonment,

excitement,

passion.

The psalmist calls us to praise God with

trumpet,

with lute, with harp,

with tambourine, with dance,

with strings and pipe,

with clanging cymbals,

with loud clashing cymbals.

(Psalm 150)

There’s no place for subtlety in our praise!

It should be noisy,

it should be joyous!

It’s something that can be done alone, of course,

but it is best done in community,

here, together, all of us responding to

the psalmist’s call,

“let everything that breathes praise the Lord!”

(Psalm 150)

Even if it is a departure from what seems rational.

Even if it is a departure from what seems comfortable.

Even if it is a departure from what seems

“decent and in order”.

The psalmist seemed to have understood our hesitancy,

seemed to have understood that

he would have to take us gently by the hand at first

saying, “It is good to give thanks to the Lord,

to sing praises to the name of the Lord Most High.”

(Psalm 92:1)

But once the psalmist gets started,

once he opens the door,

he pushes on,

pulling us, urging us:

“O come, let us sing to the Lord,

let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation…

O Sing to the Lord, all the earth!”

(Psalms 95, 96)

The psalmist ratchets up the energy,

the volume,

the enthusiasm,

leading to shouts of joyful praise:

“Let the heavens be glad

and let the earth rejoice;

let the sea roar, and all that fills it;

let the field exult, and everything in it,

then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy…”

(Psalm 96:11)

Still we hesitate.

Praise that is too ebullient,

too excited,

too passionate seems like a gateway

to more extreme behavior.

Praise done with abandonment might lead to

speaking in tongues,

or even snake handling!

But the Westminster Confession of Faith is right:

we live to glorify God.

We live to praise God.

We live to join our voices with all creation

to praise the Lord:

Praise the Lord from the earth,

 you sea monsters and all deeps,
fire and hail, snow and frost,
   stormy wind fulfilling his command!

Mountains and all hills,
   fruit trees and all cedars!
Wild animals and all cattle,
   creeping things and flying birds!

Kings of the earth and all peoples,
   princes and all rulers of the earth!
Young men and women alike,
   old and young together!

Praise the Lord!

To praise the Lord is to put God

where God belongs in our lives:

first,

most important,

the focus of our lives, our beings.

To praise God is to speak up and speak out

for what concerns God:

love and grace,

mercy and kindness,

justice and righteousness,

human dignity,

health for the creation.

(Brueggemann)

“He raises the poor from the dust,

and lifts the needy from the ash heap.”

(Psalm 113:7)

“He executes justice for the oppressed;

and gives food to the hungry;

he lifts up those who are bowed down,

watches over the stranger,

and upholds the orphan and the widow.”

(Psalm 146)

“Righteousness and justice

are the foundation of his throne.”

(Psalm 97:2)

To praise God is turn from all those other things

that too often receive our praise,

things like money, comfort, material goods.

To praise God is to refocus,

to center our lives as they should be centered,

where they should be centered.

Let them praise the name of the Lord,
   for his name alone is exalted;
  his glory is above earth and heaven.

He has raised up a horn for his people,
   praise for all his faithful,
  for the people of Israel who are close to him.
Praise the Lord!

To praise God isn’t simply to enjoy a feel-good moment;

to praise God is to submit to God,

to bow, kneel in humble obedience,

to turn our lives over to God.

To praise God is to let go

and in the “glad letting go

find everything generously shared

and richly available.”

(Brueggemann)

“I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;

I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

I will be glad and exult in you;

I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.”

(Psalm 9:1-2)

To praise God is to be in

“extravagant communion” with God.

(Brueggemann)

In his Christmas poem, “For the Time Being”,

W. H. Auden wrote,

“…As in previous years we have seen the actual Vision

and failed To do more than

entertain it as an agreeable Possibility,

once again we have sent Him away,”

It is easy to pack Christ away with the decorations,

tuck him away once the season is over

as we turn our thoughts from Christmas

to all the things that await us in the new year.  

But our praise can help us to keep Christmas,

keep Christ,

keep our focus on God,

on the future that God wants for us,

the future God has planned for us,

the future we heard Isaiah point to

in both text and song:

“Nature reordered to match God's intent,

nations obeying the call to repent,

all of creation completely restored,

filled with the knowledge and love of the Lord.”

(The Dream Isaiah Saw)

Our future is one in which all creation

is praising God!

Our future is one with all creation

praising God!

So let us end this year and begin the new year

by praising God.

Praising God for Christmas;

Praising God for Christ;

Praising God for love, for life,

for hope, for mercy

for forgiveness,

for second and third chances;

for hands and hearts,

for eyes to see and ears to hear,

for voices to shout and sing our praises,

for minds to take it all in and

marvel at it all.

The whole world was filled with praise

on that first Christmas,

and we are called to continue the singing,

continue the shouting,

continue the joyful praise:

“Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord from the heavens;

praise him in the heights!

Praise him, all his angels

Praise him, all his host….

…Kings of the earth and all peoples,

princes and all rulers of the earth!

Young men and women alike,

old and young together!

Let them praise the name of the Lord

…for his glory is above earth and heaven.

…Praise the Lord!”

AMEN