by
Kathleen Fox
*I. Narrative*
*Introduction*
*Key Idea*: ‘In praise, the people of God acknowledge and celebrate God’s
works and goodness.”
Though accurate, this statement of the key idea of this set of six Praise
Psalms, the culmination of the Psalter, is sadly secondary to the primary
purpose of praise, as stated over and over in these psalms themselves.
Rather, in praise, God’s people lead all creation in worship to the only One
in all creation worthy of praise.
‘Worship is the missing jewel in the church,” wrote A.W.Tozer. This set of
psalms overflows in enthusiasm from the heartfelt, God-inspired psalms of
all kinds preceding the culmination of the Book. ‘Let everything that
breathes, praise the Lord!” After all that God has done for us: after the
celebration, instruction, rehearsing, affirmations of trust, desire for
vengeance, confession and lamentations, the first 145 psalms should
crescendo into irrepressible shouts of joy and praise to the God who is
sovereign, who is above all gods, who is unsearchable, yet knowable because
He has chosen to reveal Himself to us, for our worship.
The psalms of praise call us command us, impel us into the very presence of
the Lord of the universe. Our hearts should pound with the immensity of
it…our songs should tumble from our lips. ‘Great is the Lord, and greatly
to be praised!”
‘Praise is the exaltation of that which makes one exult,” declares James L.
Mays. ‘ The hymn is a song of praise of which God is the sole subject. In
language of exuberant joy, the hymn says what God is like and has done and
characteristically does…the hymns gave the invisible presence audible
representation in the space and place of worship..the liturgical cry
‘Hallelujah” is a hymn condensed to one terse Hebrew sentence.” (James L.
Jays, Psalms _Interpretation Commentary_, P.26). The consideration of these
six jubilant psalms is powerful in attesting to the sovereignty, majesty and
faithfulness of Almighty God, the Lord. These six hymns of praise
demonstrate in liturgical genre what the Book of the Revelation of John
paints in vision. God on his throne, reveling in the praise of all creation.
‘Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever” fulfilled!
(Westminster Shorter Catechism Q.1) As Donald Williams writes,
‘The greatest truth of God is that He is worthy of our worship, and the
deepest truth about ourselves is that we have been created to worship
Him. When we actually do this, we find the real and eternal end or
_telos_ of our existence.” (Williams, Donald. Commentary on Psalms
75-150: _the Communicator’s Commentary_. Dallas: Word Publisher)
‘Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!” Nothing, and no one is
above the injunction to praise God.
In grounding this study in the words of Psalm 100 and the Doxology, p. 52,
the author chooses to use the inclusive language form of the psalm, to
demonstrate the inclusion of ‘all persons of the Trinity as objects of our
praise.” The avoidance of the specific Trinitarian identification of
Father, Son and Holy Spirit should be corrected to include both the New
Testament language for God, as well as the inclusion then of the
‘alternative” language. When the psalms particularly identify God’s
majesty, breadth and saving grace, it is imperative to not lose the truth of
the Trinity’s presence even among the Old Testament peoples. This is one of
the subtle places this study has continued to undermine the authority and
the impact of the Scriptures, in using paraphrases as Scripture.
‘The Trinity is our theology,” said Charles Wiley of the Office of Theology
and Worship; ‘not a trivial way we speak about God…We are losing our
doctrine of God and who God is.” (Presbyterian Layman, March/April 2000, p.
4) Though the inclusive language version of the Doxology mentions Christ and
the Holy Spirit, it avoids the Trinitarian language of Father, Son and Holy
Spirit, thereby ignoring the biblical and confessional baptismal formula.
The Son was present at the Creation which is called to extol the Lord. Even
the avoidance of the term Lord in this study is disconcerting, since ‘Lord”
brings the force of the distinction of Yahweh as Lord, to the exclusion of
all other gods.
*Psalm 100*
Again, the study leaves aside any powerful language in favor of ‘nice”
language: Psalm 100 ‘invites” everyone to worship. Rather, the force of the
processional psalm is the obedient joyful movement into God’s presence by
the imperative, ‘Come into his presence…make a joyful noise to the Lord,
all the earth.” The question of ‘Who is God?” is not simply answered that
the God of Israel is ‘our” God, He is THE GOD, the LORD. The only God,
whether we recognize him or not. The issue is not whose God is God, but Who
is God. Period.
This psalm describes our worship as actions that belong to the approach to a
king. (Mays p. 317) This powerful psalm teaches us that Yahweh, the Lord, is
the sovereign King whom we worship because of who He is, not because of the
way we feel about Him. We are to praise Him regardless of our opinion of
Him, regardless of our experience of Him. It is true we ‘experience God’s
goodness…even when we are not delivered” because we have the recorded
testimony of Scripture to inform our experience. _God_ is the focus; not we
ourselves. ‘ God is good because with God we lack nothing”? ( p. 53.) No!
We lack nothing because God is by nature and character good. We know the
truth about God not just through our ‘long history with God,” but through
the gracious revelation of Himself He has given us in the Written Word, and
in the Living Word, his Son Jesus Christ, through the testimony of the Holy
Spirit Take this opportunity to strengthen the import of the God who is
worshiped in these Psalms of Praise.
This God is indeed King, and is to be treated with the reverence due to
royalty who is gracious to his people by grace, not by office. ‘Serve the
Lord with gladness…” Giving the royal one your appropriate conduct. To
serve the Lord is to have Him as sovereign, as King. To call oneself a
servant of the Lord is to acknowledge dependence upon and subjection to him.
Again, the redundancy of the exclusive use of ‘God” to translate Yahweh
waters down the impact of the praise.
That Yahweh is King is fundamental to this psalm, to the one hundred fifty
Psalms, to the author of these psalms. The call to worship is the summons to
gather as the citizenry of the Kingdom of the Lord. For further expansion on
this profound theme, see the full text of James Mays’ commentary. Mays makes
the case clear to state that the God who is worshiped in the praise of the
people is in clear exclusion of all other gods or kings: King of Kings.
*From Petition to Praise*
While it is true in our experience that we begin with the cry for ‘Help!”
and finally come to ‘Hallelujah!” we must remember that the Psalter began
with the description of the one who obediently trusts and follows the ways
of the Lord. Psalm 1 lays the foundation with the opening words,
‘Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners…
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night…”
Our cry for help, our praise of the Lord, all rise from the truth that God’s
way is blessed, right, and whole. The Psalms are the praise and prayers of
relationship with God.
*Psalms 146-150*
*Hymns of Praise*
Even the hymns of praise in the psalter are for our _instruction_. David the
shepherd King of Israel did not simply suggest,” as the author of our study
asserts in page 54, that it is our vocation to praise; it _teaches_ us that.
We are not simply ‘urged,” we are instructed, compelled, impelled,
commanded, and expected to do so, out of reverence, gladness and profound
joy. This is the _imperative_ of these psalms.
*The Church Continues God’s Praise*
The extravagance of the witness of Almighty God’s greatness is indeed the
responsibility of the Church, the Body of Christ. We indeed should ‘hold
nothing back” in our attributing to God glory and honor and praise. While
we are joyfully spontaneous, we can at the same time be specific, as the
psalms themselves are specific, and ready to take good care to enumerate the
innumerable attributes, deeds and character of God whom we worship and
praise. I don’t know what the author intends by her comment, ‘Praising
people are not careful…” As Reformed Christians, we are committed to
taking good care in the handling of the Word of God. There is plenty in the
Word with which to praise and glorify God, and _still_ be spontaneous. As
the Lenten hymn ‘O Sacred Head Now Wounded” put it, ‘What language shall I
borrow, to thank Thee, dearest Friend? The Scripture, the Psalms themselves
are a treasury of language from which we draw to praise and magnify Almighty
God, while teaching us to use our language in imitation.
The editorial section on page 55, takes the intention of the Scripture far
afield. Again, although it may be technically accurate, it is not true that
‘A creation in decay cannot praise the Creator.” Indeed, that is exactly
the state of affairs! We _are_ in decay, _yet_ we praise and trust the one
who has promised restoration. WE do not effect that restoration. All God
_has_, outside the heavenly hosts, is a decaying creation, which he delights
to use for his praise and glory. What a privilege! If we can so praise Him,
in this fallen, broken life, how much more, when we come fully restored into
His presence for eternity! While I recognize the author’s desire to
challenge us out of our ‘comfort zone,” to call praise of God the King
‘subversive act” is to acknowledge oneself a part of the hostile order at
odds with God. Praise is witness to God’s gracious mercy, the litany of his
mighty acts, his trustworthiness, a listing of all the reasons ANYONE and
everyone should submit themselves to this God. Standing in the throng of
witnesses singing praise is to stand in the victory stand….hardly a
subversive thing to do! Yes, we clearly cry that our God of justice will
make all things new. We must proclaim that as _Good_ News.
*II. Suggestions for Leaders*
Our author’s instruction is to ‘pull out all the stops!” Then do so using
the very language of the psalms themselves, and the Book of Revelation, to
practice the kind of praise the Psalmist instructs us to give to the Lord.
*Leading the Lesson*
· Begin with prayer as suggested.
· Ask, ‘What is your favorite hymn of praise and adoration?” Encourage
people to recall phrases and texts of hymns which particularly speak of
worship and praise. Use the hymnal of your congregation to make
suggestions of familiar, favorite words of praise.
‘Had I a thousand tongues, I would praise Christ Jesus with all of them.”
This is the phrase that is often attributed to hymn writer Charles Wesley,
which inspired the joyful hymn ‘O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing.” Though
the comment was probably made by a fellow Christian to Wesley, still the
sentiment is at the heart of this study: with everything we have, we are to
praise the Lord of Heaven and earth.
· Ask the group to offer their own words of praise by completing the
phrase ‘_Praise God_… This changes the focus from the author’s
suggested phrase, ‘ Praise _is_…” which asks what praise means to us
or does for us, to what it offers to God.
· Read Revelation 4:1-11 … This passage reminds us of the perfect
worship which we will participate in, in the Kingdom of Heaven. It is
the picture of praise and worship which inspired the hymn ‘Holy, Holy,
Holy,” and which can inspire our hearts to sing God’s praise.
· Psalm 100: The sheer beauty of Psalm 100 calls for everyone to read it
aloud with enthusiasm. Choose a common or favorite translation, a
traditional one and not a paraphrase for this exercise, for everyone to
read together. Photocopy for all to have, so that your group can read in
unison.
· Psalms 147-149 … For highlighting Psalms 147, 148 and 149, use the
following antiphonal litany, using three groups to read various sections
of the three psalms.
Group A Group B Group C
Psalm 147 Psalm 148 Psalm 149
A:
Praise the Lord!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
B
Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens,
Praise him, all his angels!
Praise him, sun and moon,
all you shining stars!
C
Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the faithful!
Let Israel be glad in his Maker!
A
For the Lord builds up Jerusalem;
He heals the brokenhearted,
he determines the number of the stars,
he gives to all of them their names.
B
Let them praise the name of the Lord!
For he commanded and they were created.
He established them forever and ever;
C
Let the sons of Zion rejoice in their King!
Let them praise his name with dancing,
making melody to him with timbrel and lyre
A
The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who hope in his steadfast love.
B
He has raised up a horn for his people,
Praise for all his saints,
for the people of Israel who are near to him.
C
Let the faithful exult in glory;
let them sing for joy on their couches.
UNISON
_This is the glory for all his faithful ones._
_Praise the Lord! _
· Psalm 146 … The author suggests a discussion of the following
statement: ‘If we praise God as long as we live, the world will become
that vision.” This seems to imply that if we just praise enough, the
world will know peace, as is implied in the discussion question
regarding Psalms 146-149, if not handled carefully. Do not allow the
impression that anything but God’s cataclysmic return and restoration
will bring peace, or His vision of world peace. Be clear that our praise
is our response, our duty to God, not a tool for reform. This total
praise _would_ mean that all creation had submitted itself to God’s
rule, and _that_ is clearly a future reality that we will know only in
part here in this life.
*Closing*
The Closing exercise on page 57, focusing on the use of the hymn ‘All
Creatures of Our God and King” is an effective way to conclude this year’s
study of The Psalms.