Psalm 150

1 Hallelujah! Praise God in his holy temple;
praise him in the firmament of his power.

2 Praise him for his mighty acts;
praise him for his excellent greatness.

3 Praise him with the blast of the ram's-horn;
praise him with lyre and harp.

4 Praise him with timbrel and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe.

5 Praise him with resounding cymbals;
praise him with loud-clanging cymbals.

6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Hallelujah!

This year, Monday Matters will focus on wisdom conveyed in the treasures of the book of Psalms. We'll look at the psalms read in church before Monday Matters comes to your screen.

Amazing praise how sweet the sound.

You’ve probably noticed that the psalms reflect a wide range of human emotions. You can find psalms of penitence and lament, psalms of confusion and doubt, psalms of warfare and vengeance. But whoever put the psalms together decided that the last psalms (145-150) should be characterized as psalms of praise. We see that in the psalm you may have heard in church yesterday, Psalm 150. We’ve reprinted it in this email, with its singular focus on praise. “Let everything that has breath praise the lord.” If you missed saying “alleluia” in Lent, these psalms are for you.

So a few questions emerge for me. What is the point of praise? What does it say that we worship a God who seems to insist on praise? Is God some narcissistic celestial political (dear) leader? There’s hubris in speculating that the God of creation depends on what we think of him. As the psalmist asks: What is man that thou art mindful of him?

The best answer I can come up with is not that the Holy One needs our affirmation. Rather, it seems to me that a posture of praise sets us in right relationship with our creator. If we understand that being righteous means to be in right relationship with God, then praise is an aspect of prayer that sets us in that relationship. C.S. Lewis said this about prayer: “It doesn’t change God. It changes me.” Mother Teresa made a similar point: “I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us, and we change things.” With praise as one aspect of our prayer life, our relationship with the Holy One, we find ourselves changed, even converted by that offering of worship.

Another question: How does praise differ from thanksgiving? I had a rather pious great-aunt. I remember as a young person hearing her say: “God is good.” True enough, but she would say it when something good happened, everything from a good medical report to finding a parking space. I wondered if circumstances had worked out otherwise, would she feel differently about God’s goodness. All of that is to say that often a prayer of thanksgiving can have a slightly transactional quality, as we give thanks for blessings. If God comes through for me, then I’ll offer thanks. Truly spiritually evolved people may find it possible to give thanks in all things, including hardship. I don't think I’m not there yet.

Praise as distinct from thanksgiving focuses are hearts and minds on attributes of God that transcend circumstances of our lives. You can look at that last bunch of psalms and see all kinds of reasons for offering praise, from the marvels of creation to the gracious intervention of God in history. In those psalms, all of creation enters into praise, which is why the last verse in the psalms reads: Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

A third question: How might praise become part of our spiritual practice? I’ll admit that much of my prayer life is presenting God with a list of things I’d like accomplished, thank you very much. It’s when I think of God as valet. An offering of praise, sometimes referred to as adoration, removes that transactional element, and brings us closer to the fulfillment of the first part of the great commandment: To love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. We may not fully realize that kind of complete love in this lifetime, but I sense that offering praise brings us a step closer. It provides a pathway to grow in that relationship.

It's interesting to me that Psalm 150 suggests that music can be a great expression of praise. As the saying goes, the person who sings prays twice. Maybe that’s why Bach signed his compositions: Deo Gloria. To the glory of God. I have found this true of all kinds of artistic expression.

In our prayer life, entering into praise may simply mean spending more time in a contemplative mode, pondering with amazement the amazing truths of our faith. Maybe amazement is the key to praise. With that, I conclude with a quote from Abraham Heschel:

Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement…get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible, never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.

What leads you to offer praise this Monday morning? What do you find amazing?

- Jay Sidebotham