If I asked
you to imagine a situation in which people cried “Praise the Lord!” over 60
times, what would it be? I’ll bet it would be a revival meeting; one with a big
tent, and rows and rows of folding chairs, and a preacher up in the front of
the tent getting the congregation all fired up! He’s shouting “Praise the
Lord!” and all the people are echoing “Praise the Lord!” We could easily hear
“Praise the Lord” over 60 times in a situation like that.
But today,
I’m not thinking about a church revival. No, what I have in mind right now is
something that we usually consider to be much more serious and sober. The Old
Testament tells us to “Praise the Lord!” over 60 separate times. And that’s
only the imperative form – you know, a word that tells us to do something. If
we count the total times that the word “praise” is used in the Old Testament,
it’s over 200 times! You might guess that most of those commands are in the
Psalms; and you would be absolutely right. Out of a total of 150 psalms, 23
tell us to “Praise the Lord!” and one of them tells us 13 different times that
we should be praising God! The Psalm that I read a few minutes ago (Psalm
147:1-13) only tells us to praise God five times: once at the beginning, three
times in the middle, and once again at the very end. But Psalm 147 not only
tells us to praise God: it tells us why
we should do that!
One of those
reasons is because of who God is. God
is gracious, powerful, wise, and loving. We could add more to that list, too,
couldn’t we? God is not only gracious, powerful, wise, and loving; God is kind,
merciful, compassionate, reliable, and creative. Those qualities alone make God
worthy of praise! But God’s qualities are barren if God doesn’t act on them. “What has God done for me
lately?” we could ask. So the psalm reminds us of some of the things that God does. God not only does things for us;
God does things for plants, and for animals, and for the whole universe! Imagine
that you’re lying on your back on a grassy field at midnight looking up at the
vast expanse of the Milky Way. God not only created every one of those stars,
God knows the name of every single one of them! Not only did God create
everything, God set up creation so that everything fits together. The clouds
supply rain; the rain makes the grass, the flowers, and the crops grow; and the
grass feeds the cattle, the flower seeds feed the birds, and the crops feed us!
And we humans have a special place in God’s creation. God blesses us, calls us
together in love, forgives us when we mess up, and helps us when times get
rough. God heals us, too, both the ouchies that we have on our knees and the
wounds that we have in our souls. We just have to praise a God like that!
But we don’t
always want to praise, do we? There are days when we are depressed, angry,
frustrated, or lonely. When we’ve had a terrible argument with someone in the family, nobody is speaking to anybody else, and the tension is so thick that
you can feel it, we don’t feel very much like praising God! So we need to
understand what praise is – and what praise isn’t.
Praise is simply expressing approval or admiration for something. It’s a
judgment call; and we can make judgment calls no matter how we feel on any
given day. One of the great misunderstandings about praise is that you can only
do it when you’re feeling good. Sure, praise flows naturally then, but it should
flow when you’re not feeling good,
too. Let’s meet somebody who will be able to explain what I mean.
Meet Barbara.
Barbara has just lost her factory job that she has had for over 20 years. She
has to start all over again looking for another job. In the meanwhile, her
husband is recovering from a serious automobile accident that left him
bedridden. Her son is having real difficulty in school, too. And yet, Barbara
praises God every chance that she gets! How is that possible? Is Barbara just a
hopeless Pollyanna whose eyes are closed to the reality of her life? Well, let’s
ask her, and you can decide for yourself.
“How, Barbara,”
we ask, “can you possibly praise God when you just lost your job?” “Why,
honey,” she replies, “God will lead me to something else! After all, God is my
provider; and I will praise my provider at all times!”
“OK,” we
say, “but what about your husband? He’s stuck in bed and you have to take care
of him.” “For goodness sake,” she replies, “he could have been killed in that
accident, and he’s still with us! Besides, God is the great healer; and in the
meantime, God will help us as we take care of him. God is my healer, and I will
praise my healer at all times! Actually, since I lost my job, I can be home
with him until I find another one. Praise God, because God is my strength and
my comforter!”
“But what
about your son?” we ask. “Surely you can’t praise God that he is having trouble
in school!” “God didn’t cause his troubles,” Barbara replies. “I praise God
that there are people who are so ready to help him with his schoolwork:
teachers, and tutors, and even some of his friends! God is my helper; and I
will praise my helper at all times!”
“Besides,”
she concludes, “I believe that things will get better. God is my hope; and I
will praise my hope at all times!”
Now, Barbara
isn’t a real person. She is a combination of people that I have known during my
life. But her responses to us are real. Praising God isn’t something that we do
only when times are good and we feel happy. Praising God should be something
that we do all the time! God is our provider…
our healer… our strength… our comforter… our helper… and our hope. God is the
One whose love for us will never change, and whose presence is always with us,
whether or not we feel it. As the psalm proclaims, God blesses us – not some of
the time, but all of the time! God is
our Divine Parent whose loving arms hold us tightly from our birth to our death
and even into eternal life. Of course we should praise the Lord! I invite you
this morning to continue doing just that! It’s the right thing to do – not only
on Sunday, but on any day of the week.
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