Sermon for July 23rd, 2023

Psalm 145:1-21

Praise. Of David.
1 I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.
2 Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.
3 Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; his greatness is unsearchable.
4 One generation shall extol your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts.
5 They will recount the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works I will meditate.
6 They will proclaim the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness.
7 They shall celebrate the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
8 The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 The Lord is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made.
10 All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your faithful shall bless you.
11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power,
12 to make known to all people your mighty deeds and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
The Lord is faithful in all his words and gracious in all his deeds.
14 The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.
15 The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season.
16 You open your hand, satisfying the desire of every living thing.
17 The Lord is just in all his ways and kind in all his doings.
18 The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
19 He fulfills the desire of all who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them.
20 The Lord watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.
21 My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh will bless his holy name forever and ever.

Psalm 145: An Alphabet of Praise

Psalm 145 is all about praising God.

Which reminds me of the story about a woman who bought a parrot from the pet store, with the assurance that it was a "talking parrot." But the woman quickly learned that her parrot was silent most of the time, except for when she had guests come over to her house, at which point the parrot, in a sexy, seductive voice, would say, "Hey cutie, wanna have some fun?"

Embarrassed and dismayed, the woman consulted with her pastor, who also happened to be the owner of a talking parrot. Her pastor reassured her, saying, "My parrot is very religious and spends all of his time praying and reading the bible. Bring your parrot over for a visit, and I'm sure he'll be a good influence on her.

On the day of the arranged visit, sure enough, the pastor's parrot was deeply immersed in reading the Bible and praying. When the woman’s parrot was placed in his cage, he all but ignored her. And then she said, in her most seductive voice, "Hey cutie, wanna have some fun?" At which point the pastor's parrot slammed his little Bible shut, raised his wings to heaven, and said, "Praise God! My prayers have been answered!"

There are all sorts of reasons we give praise to God, and many (if not most) of those reasons have to do with answered prayers. Of course, anyone who has ever prayed knows that God doesn’t always answer our prayers in the exactly the way, or the timing, we might hope for.

The people of Ancient Israel, after the fall of Jerusalem, the destruction of the first temple, and the Babylonian exile, prayed desperately for a King who might return them to their homeland, restore the temple, and lead them to renewed days of glory, just like King David did so long ago. The Psalms leading up to this one reflect those desperate prayers, that sense of abandonment, and that yearning for a new leader, a new King David.

Many of those Psalms are “Psalms of David” not in the sense that they were written BY David, but that they were written TO David, FOR David, or in memory OF David. And this Psalm, Psalm 145, is the last one in the book of Psalms to be labeled “A Psalm of David.” But there’s another part to the inscription, right before David’s name: It’s the Hebrew word תְּהִלָּ֗ה (tehilah), which simply means… “praise.” And Psalm 145 is a transitional psalm—it’s the last Psalm of David, but the first of the “Hallel” psalms, the last five psalms which all begin and end with the words “Praise God” (or Hallelujah, in Hebrew). This is the grand finale of the Book of Psalms, where all of the lament, all of the angst, all of the cries for help are finally subsumed in a triumphant crescendo of confident praise, offered to a good and loving God who cares for all people and all creatures, and who in the end lifts up his people and makes all the wrongs right again.

But to get to that point, the people of Israel had to let go of the idea that an earthly king could do all this. Verse 1 acknowledges that God is the only king that really matters: I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Verse 13: Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.

Psalm 145 is an acrostic poem—each verse starts with a subsequent letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, and this is probably intended to poetically imply comprehensiveness. In English we might say this is the A to Z of praising God. Each verse offers a different reason for praising God. Verse 3: Praise God because he is great; his greatness is unsearchable. Or verse 8: Praise God because he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Or verse 14: Praise God because he upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.

Some verses in Psalm 145 focus on HOW we should praise God. Verse 2: Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. Verse 4: One generation shall extol your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts.

There’s another reason for the acrostic nature of the poem: It would have made it easier to teach and remember. In that sense, you might say this is the ABC’s of praising God. And this psalm still plays an important educational role in the Jewish community. Rabbi Yehiel Poupko, who is the Judaic Scholar for the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, has said that Psalm 145 is the “prayer of all prayers” and the “entry way to the Psalms.” According to the Talmud, one of the central texts of Judaism, all who repeat Psalm 145 three times a day may be sure that they are children of the world to come.”

In early Christianity, it was this Psalm that led St. Augustine to say about God, “You stir us to delight in praising you, for you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. And that quote in turn inspired John Calvin, during the Protestant Reformation, to his idea that in order for us to truly understand ourselves, we must understand the God who created us.

I could go on at length about what other people have said about Psalm 145 and praising God. But the real question is this: Why should YOU praise God, whether it’s three times a day or twice a year?

I said at the beginning that we are most likely to praise God when God answers our prayers. And that’s a good start. Often we praise another person when that person does something for us, or helps us in some way. Psalm 145 gives plenty of examples of what God does for us. But if we stop there, I think we’re missing something.

If you happen to be a parent, think of the first time you held your newborn child in your arms. Did you love your son or your daughter because of all the things they had done for you? Do you praise a beautiful painting or a magnificent sunset because it puts money in your wallet or solves a problem you’ve had? Sometimes we praise things (and people) just because of who and what they are. Verse 17: The Lord is just in all his ways and kind in all his doings.

But there’s another level, an even deeper reason to praise God, that I think is also reflected throughout Psalm 145. The Book of Genesis relates how, when God desired to create the world, he spoke it into existence: God said, let there be light, and there was light. And then God praises the light, calling it “good.”

We are created in God’s image, and our words, too, have the power to create entire new realities—for ourselves and for the people around us. When I genuinely and sincerely praise my children, my spouse, my co-workers, or even a random stranger, I bring a tiny light into their lives that was not there before. In a real sense, I help them to BECOME what I see in them, what I say about them, what I believe about them.

Our beliefs take shape when we put them into words, and our words, spoken sincerely and consistently, predispose our actions and our habits. If you want to be a better person, then this is my challenge to you: Praise the God who made you, because he doesn’t make mistakes. If you want to be a better parent, spouse, son, daughter, or co-worker—then praise the God who made them as well, and you will begin see them through his eyes. If you want the world to be a better place, then praise the God who created it, and he will begin to use you to make his plans for the world (not yours) materialize all around you.

But it all begins (and here I’m using all the verbs in Psalm 145) with extolling, blessing, praising, lauding, telling, proclaiming, declaring, celebrating, singing, giving thanks, speaking, and making known. Faith isn’t faith if it stays inside your head or your heart—true faith must be spoken, shared, and proclaimed. That’s the only way for our faith to make a difference, and it’s the best way for our faith to grow.

When the Psalmist penned this song of praise to God in the spirit of King David, he couldn’t have possibly known that in short order, his people would be returned to their homeland, and the temple would be rebuilt. He also couldn’t have known that 600 years later, that second temple would be destroyed too, this time by the Romans, and the Jewish people would once again be forced into exile. The Jewish prayer for a king like David would go unanswered during the Psalmist’s lifetime, but the next time the Jews actually had a king, King Herod, he wasn’t quite what they were hoping for. Christians believe that prayer was finally answered in the person of Jesus Christ, the son of God and the King of Kings, but here again, Jesus was far from the sort of Messiah that the ancient Jews had hoped and prayed for.

And yet, all those years ago, while the prayers of his people went seemingly unanswered—still the lone Psalmist, the author of Psalm 145, put words to his faith, and praised the Lord. Over and over again. His song made it into the Book of Psalms, and with these words the Jewish people lifted their praises to God once more. His words spread, and for 2,000 years Christians have added their voices to the chorus of praise, in almost every land and every language.

Temples, homelands, earthly rulers, and all the things we yearn for and pray for… these things come and go, but still God remains, and still he continues to move and work among us for the good of his creation. We have a role to play in this work, and it begins with our words:

Praise God…from whom all blessings flow!
Praise God…all creatures here below!
Praise God above, you heavenly hosts!
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!