Sermon for July 23rd, 2023 - Revision history

Iraneal at 03:30, 23 July 2023

2023-07-23T03:30:43Z

Iraneal at 03:15, 23 July 2023

2023-07-23T03:15:12Z

Iraneal: /* Psalm 145: An Alphabet of Praise */

2023-07-23T03:13:17Z

‎Psalm 145: An Alphabet of Praise

Iraneal at 02:24, 23 July 2023

2023-07-23T02:24:35Z

Iraneal at 01:57, 23 July 2023

2023-07-23T01:57:18Z

Iraneal at 01:40, 23 July 2023

2023-07-23T01:40:28Z

Iraneal at 01:28, 23 July 2023

2023-07-23T01:28:45Z

Iraneal at 01:17, 23 July 2023

2023-07-23T01:17:14Z

Iraneal at 01:01, 23 July 2023

2023-07-23T01:01:52Z

Iraneal at 01:00, 23 July 2023

2023-07-23T01:00:17Z

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 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.
+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 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.
@@ Line 64: / Line 66: @@
 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.
+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.
 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.

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 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:
+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 a few simple words, spoken from the heart:
   Praise God…from whom all blessings flow!

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 Psalm 145 is all about praising God.
-Which reminds me of the story about a woman who bought a female 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?"
+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 happened to be the owner of a talking male 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.
+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 female 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!"
+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.
@@ Line 38: / Line 38: @@
 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 are written BY David, but that they are 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.
+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 different 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.
+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.
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 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 are 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.
+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.
+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.”
 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.
+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.

@@ Line 56: / Line 56: @@
   If you are 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.
-*Poetry, Prayer, Personal, Public
+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.
-*In this psalm’s universe, the role of humans is to speak. Worshipers describe themselves as extolling, blessing, praising, lauding, telling, meditating, proclaiming, declaring, celebrating, singing, giving thanks, speaking, and making known. The role of God is to act.
-*Faith isn’t faith if it’s just inside your head/heart—true faith must be spoken, shared, proclaimed.

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 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 find 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.
+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.
 *Poetry, Prayer, Personal, Public
 *In this psalm’s universe, the role of humans is to speak. Worshipers describe themselves as extolling, blessing, praising, lauding, telling, meditating, proclaiming, declaring, celebrating, singing, giving thanks, speaking, and making known. The role of God is to act.
 *Faith isn’t faith if it’s just inside your head/heart—true faith must be spoken, shared, proclaimed.

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:17, 23 July 2023
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	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.		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 different 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 way of, or a different justification 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.

		+
		+	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 thi

	*Poetry, Prayer, Personal, Public		*Poetry, Prayer, Personal, Public

@@ Line 51: / Line 51: @@
 * Augustine selected Psalm 145:3 as the opening words of his Confessions: “You are great, Lord, and highly to be praised.” In the opening paragraph to his spiritual autobiography, commenting on this and other psalms, Augustine addresses one of his greatest insights about God: “You stir [us] to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you”
 *This insight from Augustine inspired one of Calvin’s own great insights: knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves are woven together into one true quest. If we would come to know the truth about ourselves, we must come to a true knowledge of God our Creator and Redeemer.
 * Psalm 145 beautifully demonstrates the lex orandi lex credendi rule of the Christian tradition. This classical phrase in Christian theology means that as the church prays, so it believes.

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:00, 23 July 2023
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	On the day of the arranged visit, sure enough, the pastor's parrot was deeply immersed in reading the Bible and praying. When the female 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!"		On the day of the arranged visit, sure enough, the pastor's parrot was deeply immersed in reading the Bible and praying. When the female 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 ~~quite~~ the ~~manner~~, or timing, we might ~~wish~~.	+	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 are written BY David, but that they are 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.