pastorjohnb

Thoughts and musings on faith and our mighty God!

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Praise

Reading: Psalm 150

Psalm 150 is the last Psalm.  It concludes the fifth ‘book’ within the larger book of Psalms.  But unlike the other four books, it does not end with a conclusion.  All of the other books in Psalms, and most other books in the Bible, have a definite conclusion to them.  Most often it is the word “Amen” and it usually functions much like ‘The End’ does in a novel or movie.

Psalm 150 ends with two sentences that invite a continuation of the action instead.  Verse 6 reads, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord”.  The invitation to praise is not limited either.  It does not say Israel or even human beings but ‘everything’.  As the bird lifts up its song one can certainly find praise in that.  As the cat purrs in response to affection one can feel love and bring God praise.  If one is open to a broad definition of breath, one can connect to God in the gentle breeze on a hot summer day or in the stream gently bubbling along.  From the beauty and awe of nature we often bring praise to God.

So why does God, through the psalmist, close with an open-ended invitation to continue to praise the Lord?  On the large, upper level it is just one more example of the Bible as the living Word of God, always active and moving.  On the more personal level, it is God asking each of us to live a life of praise.  God desires for our verbal praise to be not only daily but frequent within our days.  It is our grateful response to His many blessings.  But it is also more than words.  God desires for our actions to bring Him praise as well.  How we love and care for and treat others, both our friends and family as well as the enemy or stranger, should bring praise to God.  May He so shine in our lives that all we do and say brings praise to the Lord!


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Worship

Reading: Psalm 150

The Psalm calls upon us to “Praise the Lord” in many ways.  First, we are to praise Him with our voice – to shout or lift up our praises to God.  The psalmist also calls upon us to make music to God using all kinds of instruments: trumpets, lyres, harps, tambourines, flutes, strings, cymbals.  And lastly, the psalmist encourages us to dance before the Lord.  I have the feeling that if the Psalm were written today, the list of instruments would be much longer and the visual arts would also include painting, drawing, images, and so on.  In essence the psalmist is telling us to Praise God every way we can.

In our worship yesterday, many of these elements were present.  But I do not think God only desires or is impressed by how many instruments or presentations we offer.  One lone voice lifted to God can be as pleasing and worshipful to Him as a whole orchestra or huge choir or multi-instrument praise band.  In our worship, the “how” God desires is not how many but simply how.  “How did you worship me today?” is the question God asks.  Did we come before God yesterday with our whole beings, intent on nothing other than offering all we are and all we have to Him?

My off key, changing tempo song can be more pleasing to God than the most polished voice performing a perfect solo.  It is all about our heart.  When we praise our God, He wants our whole heart to be fully engaged.  This day may we find opportunity to praise our God with our whole being.


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Let Us Rejoice

Reading: Psalm 118: 1-2 & 19-29

The Psalm opens with a timeless line: “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever”.  These three truths form some of the bedrock of our faith.  If one took the time, we could each list the many ways that we have personally experienced each of these truths in our lives.  As we grow in our faith, we come to appreciate each of these truths more and more.

The relationship we have with God is the overarching relationship in our life.  He actively seeks to guide and protect us, to bless us, and to bring us joy.  God desires to answer our prayers, to bring us success, and to receive our praise.  He is our strength in times of doubt, our courage in times of fear, our comforter in times of suffering, and our light in times of darkness.  Our relationship with God is the relationship which we should model all of our other relationships after.

For our part, we offer God our thanksgiving and praise for all He brings to the relationship.  Our grateful response is to seek to bring others into this relationship as well.  Jesus commanded all of His followers to go forth to make new disciples.  Jesus set the example for what our relationships with God and fellow man should look like and then said to go and do likewise, to love others as He first loved us.  We do this by being love, goodness, strength, courage, comfort, and light to those in our lives.

The psalmist also wrote, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord”.  As we seek to emulate Christ and to bring Him to the corners of our world, we too will be blessed.  As we share the light and love of Christ with others, we too will be blessed.  Verse 24 reads, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it”.  Each day is a day the Lord has made.  May we go out daily into our world rejoicing in all He has done for us, drawing others into our joy and praise, into His love and hope.


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Hope and Grace

Reading: Psalm 126: 1-4

God restores His people.  He brings them our of captivity and they can again dream.  He fills them with laughter and instills in them songs of joy.  Great joy fills the people as they realize all that God has done for them.

All of this joy and happiness is set against a long period of trial.  The people are finally returning to the land that God had promised them after a lengthy period in exile.  Their faith had sustained them in the long period of captivity and exile, but it was not a joyful time, not a time of happy laughter, not a time when they could dream of what could be.

There are times in our lives when we struggle, when joys seems far away, and when we cannot see hope on the horizon.  Like the people in captivity, we too must allow our faith to sustain us.  We may not be able to joyfully praise God, but we can continue to pray with a quiet confidence.  We can choose to lean on Him for strength we cannot seem to muster on our own but that we find when we rest in Him.

We must always hold onto hope.  We find hope inn His promises.  From the great song Amazing Grace, “The Lord has promised good to me, His word my hope secures.  He will my shield and portion be, as long as life endures.”  Like the Israelites, our journey out of captivity, out of our struggle, may be long.  But we too know that God loves us and seeks good for us.  In Him our hope rests secure.  May we rely on His amazing grace, a grace that is always present and a grace that always saves.


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Our Worship

What kind of worship do you think God likes best?  Yes, I did ask that.  I think God most likes the worship that brings all the glory and honor to Him.  That may happen in a lot of different styles and settings and experiences.

Ezra read from the scriptures and the people listened attentively.  They raised their hands up toward heaven, seeking to connect to God.  They bowed their heads low, seeking to demonstrate their obedience and submission to God, to His holy Word.  In prayer they laid low to the ground.  All of these gestures were done to bring honor and glory to God alone and to indicate the conditions of their hearts – hearts fully committed to God.  But this is not the only way on can worship God.  David danced in the streets as he worshiped God.  Jesus went alone up on the mountain to worship God.

In our churches, our worship can vary greatly too.  It amazes me how many ways we can worship God and bring our praises to glorify God.  Musically it can be a stirring organ or a rocking praise band or a beautiful piano gently playing a song.  Vocally it can be a moving choir or a single voice lifted beautifully in praise or it can be a whole congregation raising the roof.  Prayer can be vocal with hands lifted high or it can be kneeling at the rail with head bowed low in reverent silence.  The Word can be read together or it may just be the liturgist.  The variances in tone, gesture, inflection, pace, and so on can be great even within one sermon.

God desires our worship to reflect the condition of our heart.  Does our individual worship on a Sunday in church reveal a faith fully committed to God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength?  Does our worship fill us so completely full of God that we have to go through the week ahead pouring Him out to all we meet?  This is the worship God desires.

Scripture reference: Nehemiah 8: 5-6


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All the Praise and Glory

At Christmas it can be easy to get into the receiving mode.  Although Christmas is really about the birth of Christ, it can be easy to slip into this mode.  Today’s passage begins by listing all we receive in and through Christ.  Through Jesus Christ we are blessed and adopted as children of God.  In Jesus’ blood we find the forgiveness of our sins.  Through Jesus’ perfect life and example we have come to know God’s will.  In Christ, through a personal relationship with Him, we receive the gift of our eternal inheritance.  In this list we find much that we “get” from Christ.  But that us not the point of the passage.

Paul’s first point is to remind us why we receive so much.  His answer is rooted solely in one thing: love.  We are part of God’s family, washed clean in Jesus’ blood, and promised eternal life because God loves us deeply.  It is a love that sees all of our flaws and sins and tendency to be independent yet loves us unconditionally anyway.

Paul’s second point is to reveal our correct response to all that God has given: to praise His name.  In doing so we turn all the attention to God.  God is at the center of it all and our praise needs to recognize and acknowledge God as our all in all.  In doing so we become less and He becomes more.  It is as it should be.  To Him be all the glory and praise forever and ever!  Amen.

Scripture reference: Ephesians 1: 3-14


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Praise the Creator

Yesterday we celebrated the gift of Jesus Christ to us and to our world.  The psalm today celebrates all of God’s other gifts that we find in our world.  God clothed creation in amazing beauty – from the stars, sun, and moon to the snow, frost, and rain.  He also created much that is also beautiful.  From the birds and animals to the mountains, trees, and flowers, we find much beauty in our world.

God created much with an amazing amount of diversity and creativity.  We do not see just roses, but tulips and daffodils, and morning glories.  We don’t just see red roses, but white and pink and…  There is not just one type of mountainscape.  Some are beautiful in their rugged splendor and others are pine-covered and inviting.

Today at my house it is very cold and windy and snowy.  In a few months the grass and plants will burst forth with beautiful green and young birds will chirp.  In just a few more months the hot sun will bring forth growth and the occasional thunderstorm to remind me of God’s power and might.  And soon thereafter the leaves will turn a variety of yellows, reds, and oranges and cool evenings will return.

Today may we connect to the many incredible ways that God has created the earth and all that is in and on it.  As we consider and marvel at the work of His hands, may we praise and thank our loving and amazing Creator God.

Scripture reference: Psalm 148


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An Act of Praise

“I will praise the Lord all my life.” (Psalm 146, verse 2a)

We find this line at the beginning of Psalm 146, one of the “Hallelujah” psalms.  Each of the last five psalms in the book focus on the idea of praising the Lord.  It is a great way to end the book of Psalms.  In verse 2a the psalmist pledges to praise God all of the time.  This too should be our pledge.

How would our daily life and perspective on life change if we really did live in a state of constant praise to our God?  How would our life look if all we did was bring praise and glory to God?  I imagine our witness would be quite different!  If we lived and breathed a constant praise to God, imagine how our light would shine!

We are created to live this way, implanted with the spark of the divine since our conception.  God’s desire is for us to reflect His light and love all of the time, not just in church for an hour or just when we are with our church friends.

To live as a constant praise to God requires some choices.  First, we must fully trust in Him as our all in all – our provider, comforter, healer, creator, …  Second, we must actively thank God for all of the blessings in our daily lives.  In doing so we reinforce that God is really our all.  From this deep well of trust and thanksgiving, may we pour out our lives today and every day as an act of praise to our God and King!

Scripture reference: Psalm 146


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Praise Indeed

Today is “Native American Day” in my home state.  I think in every state except South Dakota that today is “Columbus Day.”  I do not know the reasoning that went into the name change and shifting the focus of the day, but I think it is cool.  The Lakota and Columbus both tie into a theme found in Psalm 104 – discovering something amazing.

Psalm 104:1 calls for us to praise God who is great and who is clothed in majesty and splendor.  For the Lakota and many other indigenous peoples, there is a holy connection to the Creator and to all of life.  They see the Creator God in all things and in all of life.  God ‘pulses’ through each creature, mankind included.  The Creator is the life force.  In my Lakota friends I see the wonderful way that they have of continually discovering God and His goodness in people, nature, and so forth over and over and over.  It is awesome!

Columbus set out into the unknown to try to find a new way.  As Christians we often wrestle with our faith and in knowing the unexplainable God we worship.  As we walk along on our journey of faith, we often encounter the unknown or that which we cannot give a logical explanation right away.  Yet with time in the Word, in prayer, in study, and in meditation, we can often find a way to either a new place of faith or to a place where we are comfortable again with God.  Often we are also reminded of how immeasurable and big our God is.  This connection builds our faith as well.

In Job, God tells him to brace himself.  Sometimes I think we are like Job in this. When we are willing and open to God and where He wants to lead us in life, sometimes I think I need to brace myself.  To trust and step into this unknown takes a lot of faith and trust.  God asks Job (and us) who was there when the foundations of the earth were laid or when the cornerstone was set.  God reminds him and us that none were there except the stars and the angels!  It is good in this story to remember that God was there before the beginning, at the beginning, is here now and will forever be.  Praise indeed for the God of the universe and the same God that walks and connects with us daily so that we can discover and grow in our faith.

Scripture references: Job 38: 1-7 and Psalm 104:1


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The Gift of Music

Have you ever heard a song and continued with the words or the tune long after it stopped playing?  Ever had a song come to mind as you were praying over a concern or trouble?  Music has a way of soothing and also a way of encouraging.

Psalm 124 is believed to be a call and response song often sung as people made their way up to the temple for worship.  The content of the song recalls how God has intervened in the past to save Israel from its enemies.  It was a concrete reminder of how God is always present to protect the people, always there to preserve at lead a remnant.  As Psalm 124 was sung, it also reminded the people of their dependence on God.

We too are often blessed by God’s hand and are often living under His protection.  The words of songs or hymns that we know can remind us of these gifts.  Their words can also encourage and lift us up in times of need.  Music can be powerful.

Psalm 124 prepared the people for worship as they made their way to the temple.  It put them in the right frame of mind.  I imagine at times people would sing or hum the song as they went through the ups and downs of their daily lives.  Music serves to connect us to God as well, reminding us of who God is and of how we are in relationship with God.  May we too find encouragement and strength when needed and may we offer up our praise and thanksgiving as well through the gift of music each day.

Scripture reference: Psalm 124