Difference between revisions of "Sermon for August 15th, 2021"

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Psalm 147:1-20

1 Praise the Lord!
How good it is to sing praises to our God;
    for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.
2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
    he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted,
    and binds up their wounds.
4 He determines the number of the stars;
    he gives to all of them their names.
5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
    his understanding is beyond measure.
6 The Lord lifts up the downtrodden;
    he casts the wicked to the ground.

7 Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
    make melody to our God on the lyre.
8 He covers the heavens with clouds,
    prepares rain for the earth,
    makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He gives to the animals their food,
    and to the young ravens when they cry.
10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
    nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner;
11 but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
    in those who hope in his steadfast love.

12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
    Praise your God, O Zion!
13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
    he blesses your children within you.
14 He grants peace within your borders;
    he fills you with the finest of wheat.
15 He sends out his command to the earth;
    his word runs swiftly.
16 He gives snow like wool;
    he scatters frost like ashes.
17 He hurls down hail like crumbs—
    who can stand before his cold?
18 He sends out his word, and melts them;
    he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.
19 He declares his word to Jacob,
    his statutes and ordinances to Israel.
20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation;
    they do not know his ordinances.
Praise the Lord!

Psummer of Psalms IV - Psalm 147, A Psalm of Praise

Back in the days of the circuit riding preacher--the preacher who would ride on horseback across the plains to preach at several different churches each Sunday--a certain preacher wanted to train his horse, and, being a preacher he thought it would be clever to use biblical phrases as commands. So he taught the horse to giddy up and go whenever he said the word, "Praise the Lord." And he taught his horse to stop whenever he said the word "Hallelujah."

This worked out great, and really impressed the people when he rode into town, loudly shouting "Hallelujah," and bringing his horse to a stop. Then after the service, he'd mount his horse as the people gathered on the steps of the church, shout "Praise the Lord," and horse and rider would gallop off into the horizon.

One day, in between towns, the preacher fell asleep in the saddle. When he woke up, he found his horse had veered off course and was headed at a fast trot straight towards the edge of a cliff. Flustered, he tried hard to remember which command made the horse stop. He shouted, "Jubilation" and "God Almighty!" and even "transubstantiation" but nothing worked. Just as the horse was about to go over the edge, he remembered and cried out "Hallelujah" and the horse came to an abrupt stop two inches from certain death. Wiping the sweat from his brow, the preacher breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Whew! That was close, but we made it, praise the Lord!" He was never heard from again.

Hallelujah is simply a Hebrew word that, when literally translated, means "Praise the Lord." It's the very first word at the beginning of Psalm 147, and the very last word as well. In fact, the last five Psalms in the Book of Psalms all begin and end with "Hallelujah" or "Praise the Lord" and so they are known as the "Hillel" or "Praise" psalms.

It's fitting that today we end our summer sermon series on the Psalms with one of the very last Psalms--the third from the end, in fact. Let's jump right in.

1 Praise the Lord!
How good it is to sing praises to our God;
    for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.

But wait a minute, God. The past year was really tough! I can think of more reasons to be angry with you than to praise you right now. Why is a song of praise "fitting" when things in my life...and in my world...are so messed up right now? That's a great question, and one that would be familiar to the people of ancient Jerusalem. In the year 587 BC, the Babylonian army invaded their city, breaking through its walls and razing all of its buildings to the ground. Entire families were slaughtered, and those few who survived were carted away into slavery in a foreign land. With their sacred temple destroyed, singing praises to God wasn't even an option anymore--at least not in any familiar or recognizable way.

70 years later, after a regime change in Babylon, a remnant of those exiles were allowed to return and rebuild the city of Jerusalem, its homes, its walls, and its temple. Psalm 147, beginning in verse 2, recognizes this event:

2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
    he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted,
    and binds up their wounds.

Why do we praise the Lord, in bad years as well as good one? Because we trust in his ultimate trajectory--that even when all that we love and hold dear is lost, God still has a plan and a future for us. Broken hearts heal in time, and old wounds give way to new horizons.

4 He determines the number of the stars;
    he gives to all of them their names.
5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
    his understanding is beyond measure.
6 The Lord lifts up the downtrodden;
    he casts the wicked to the ground.

When the psalmist speaks of stars--every single one named, numbered, and remembered--I think this is also a poetic way of saying that God remembers all of his children: Those whom we have lost, as well as those who are yet to come. We may never understand why people come and go into our lives, in the blink of an eye, but it's enough to know that our lives are in God's just and loving hands.

7 Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
    make melody to our God on the lyre.
8 He covers the heavens with clouds,
    prepares rain for the earth,
    makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He gives to the animals their food,
    and to the young ravens when they cry.
10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
    nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner;
11 but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
    in those who hope in his steadfast love.

12 Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
    Praise your God, O Zion!
13 For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
    he blesses your children within you.
14 He grants peace within your borders;
    he fills you with the finest of wheat.
15 He sends out his command to the earth;
    his word runs swiftly.
16 He gives snow like wool;
    he scatters frost like ashes.
17 He hurls down hail like crumbs—
    who can stand before his cold?
18 He sends out his word, and melts them;
    he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.
19 He declares his word to Jacob,
    his statutes and ordinances to Israel.
20 He has not dealt thus with any other nation;
    they do not know his ordinances.
Praise the Lord!