This sermon was in our series on the Psalms, on the Sunday when we emphasized music as a form of prayer and worship.
Praying Twice
Psalm 150
July 7, 2013
First Presbyterian Church,
Sterling, IL
Christina Berry
Psalm 150
CEB
1 Praise the LORD! Praise God
in his sanctuary!
Praise God
in his fortress, the sky!
2 Praise God in his mighty
acts!
Praise God
as suits his incredible greatness!
3 Praise God with the blast
of the ram's horn!
Praise God
with lute and lyre!
4 Praise God with drum and
dance! Praise God with strings and pipe!
5 Praise God with loud
cymbals! Praise God with clashing cymbals!
6 Let every living thing
praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!
I just got home last night from a
kind of mini-vacation. I drove up to beautiful Cresco, Iowa,
and met Bob at the luxurious
Super 8 motel. The first day there, we rode our bikes on the Trout Run Trail. It
was a day of just-right weather, sunny but not too hot, a pleasant breeze
blowing. The new trail is about ten miles, through tall grass, wildflowers,
farms and woods, through Decorah and past the river, along the playing fields
and the parks. We rode along easily, in no hurry, enjoying the scenery and
being together. I felt like singing! Actually, I did sing – to the cows
alongside the trail. They didn’t seem impressed, just continued to sit and
stare as I passed by. It was all worth singing about, or shouting hallelujah! No
matter what the cows thought.
Hallelujah!
Hallelujah, you may already know,
is a Hebrew word.
Two words, actually: hallal –
praise (actually, in English, y’all praise!)
and Yah – God – the I AM, the
breath – Yah!
Hallelujah, the Psalm says!
Hallelujah! in his sanctuary!
Hallelujah! in his fortress, the sky
Hallelujah! in his mighty acts!
Hallelujah! as suits his incredible greatness!
It only makes sense to join the
Psalmist in song!
Hallelujah!
Response: I Will Enter His Gates
A great many of our hymns and
songs, like the Psalms, are inspired by natural wonders, and God’s supernatural
powers.
“When I behold the heavens in
their vastness,
Where golden ships in azure issue forth,
Where sun and moon keep watch upon the fastness
Of changing seasons and of time on earth.”
Where golden ships in azure issue forth,
Where sun and moon keep watch upon the fastness
Of changing seasons and of time on earth.”
These lines are the first English
translation of the Swedish hymn we now know as “How Great Thou Art.” Look
through your hymnal sometime, and you will see many more like it.
On Thursday, Bob and I kayaked
the Upper Iowa River. The sun shone through the trees and dappled the water. There
were stretches where hundreds of swallows had built their nests on the side of
the bluffs, and they swooped around our heads, dipping down from side to side
across the water. We saw a young eagle perched in a treetop. I thought of all
the amazing and wonderful things God has done, for me, for you, for all of us! The
great God who created us all continues to work upon the earth, with beauty, and
with healing, with mercy and with power.
Hallelujah in his mighty acts!
Hallelujah as suits his incredible
greatness!
Hallelujah with the blast of the ram's
horn!
Hallelujah with lute and lyre!
There seems
to be no better response than to sing: Our God is an awesome God.
Response: Awesome God
On Friday night, Bob and I took a
late-night bike ride. We had noticed there were a lot of fireflies as we drove
home at dusk the night before. So we took our bikes out to the Prairie Farmer
Trail and rode a few miles in the dark, watching the fireflies flicker and
flash across the tops of the fields. There were fireworks off in the distance, and
thousands of stars in the sky, and it seemed for a moment like they were all
connected, the fireflies, the fireworks, the stars, all sparkling fragments of
a larger light.
It’s not that I’m so pious, but
it did make me think of that verse from John’s gospel:
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it. It was like a prayer.
There’s a
famous line, attributed to St. Augustine, “To sing is to pray twice.” But at
least one scholar says that is a mistranslation. He said that what Augustine
really said is this:
“For he who sings praise, does not only praise, but also praises
joyously;
he who sings praise, is not only singing,
but also loving Him whom he is singing for.
There is a praise-filled public proclamation – or preaching!
in the praise of someone who is acknowledging God, in the song of the lover there is deep love.”(1)
So to sing is to pray, to pray is to praise, to praise is to proclaim, and
in the song, there is deep love.
Hallelujah with drum and dance!
Hallelujah with strings and
pipe!
Hallelujah with loud cymbals!
Hallelujah with clashing cymbals!
As we sing together, let these words be your prayer, let this song be
your praise, and let your singing be your proclamation, to lift the name of God
on high.
Let every
living thing praise the LORD! Hallelujah!
Response III Lord I
Lift Your Name on High
Comments
Post a Comment