Until We Finally Get it Right
Sermon by Sandra M. Thomas
July 22, 2007, Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill

Psalm 148
I Corinthians 10:23-22

“Young men and women alike, old and young together! Let them praise the name of the Lord”

We’re reading the Psalms in our journey through the Old Testament. The Psalms are about extravagance – something very un-Presbyterian. These chapters are packed with extremes of emotion – elation, joy, awe, anger, depression, gratitude, excited anticipation, retribution, warmest comfort, coldest hate. I don’t know that John Calvin experienced any of these emotions and we imitate that sometimes on Sunday mornings when our reading of the Psalter is: “Let all that have breath praise the Lord.”

Somewhere along the way, the church forgot about emotions. It’s not that we’re so serious – the Psalms are serious – I think it’s that we don’t want anyone to know what we’re feeling. So if we happy, we smile (a little) and if we’re really happy we might laugh quietly – but only after worship. And if we’re sad we stay home from church – heaven forbid we shed tears here! And if we’re angry we tuck it away. If we’re really angry we hold back our offering. If we’re afraid we suck it up and carry on.

From within such a culture, we’ll never understand the Psalms. These songs are LOUD and quiet….never monotone. The God described in Psalms is VERY BIG and HIGH OVER ALL – or very still and close at hand – never simply sitting on the sofa. This God is POWERFUL or tender, INVOLVED or off in the clouds somewhere, WITH us or against us, COMPASSIONATE or hot as Hades. You can’t read these songs with your hands quietly at your side. Either your fingers tingle with joy and then (if no ones looking) your arms rise up --- or your hands clench and (if no one is looking) the fist shakes. So let go! Don’t bother with some half mumbled Amen! It’s YES! Here in the Psalms we have theology turned up full blast.

I remember a “Peanuts” cartoon in which Charlie Brown is complaining about his lunch because it has the same boring old thing in it every day. When Linus asks Charlie Brown who makes his lunch, Charlie Brown says, “I do.” Who makes your life? You do! We make our own lunch in this life -- and what is our life to be made up of (according to the Westminster catechism?) Our primary purpose here on earth is to “praise God and enjoy him forever.” Fully one third of the Psalms invite us to praise, awe, wonderment, and joy.

This morning, I want to encourage you, as you read the Psalms, to look for the ingredients that you want to include in your life – and to mark them, memorize phrases, write down verses. The reason we include a Psalm in each Sunday’s worship is because we need these words to stick with us and become part of the fabric of our lives. These words, when plastered into our souls, become the messages that surface in our minds just when we need them most.

  • When we’re in trouble – we’re reminded that “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
  • Standing on the beach on a summer’s evening, watching the waves – and words long engraved on our hearts come to the fore “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth”
  • In the hallway of the hospital emergency room – we may not know the chapter and verse but still the promises come to mind “My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth….God who watches over Israel does not slumber or sleep”
  • And when a co-worker gives you a bad time “God destroys his enemies!” YES! until that same angry gaze turns toward you.
  • Psalm 23 is not only for funerals – it’s for shopping malls. You didn’t know that? What better way to go shopping than with the 23rd Psalm on your lips “The Lord almighty, maker of heaven and earth – That Lord is my shepherd, I will not want.” Try it – “The Lord is my Shepherd, I have everything I need.”
  • “I lift my eyes to the hills – where does my help come from?” maybe we get it right when our eyes fall upon friends at the top of the hill in the Presbyterian Church
  • After session meeting do you go home with the words of Psalm 133 in mind: “How good and how pleasant it is, when people live in unity”
  • How does one watch a sunset or look up on a clear starry night without bursting into ----- Franz Joseph Hayden and “The heavens are telling the glory of God!”

If this rich heritage is to be our daily bread, we need to pack it into our hearts and minds. The Psalms are only there for us, if we know them, if we have engraved them deep in our memory.

The chief end of every man and woman here – is to praise God and enjoy God forever. How often do we get that right? Our chief end is not to work – not to worry – not to ask why – not to figure out how – it is to say WOW God you are so wonderful, life is such a great gift, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Abraham Heschel reflecting back on his life said, “I did not ask for success; I asked for wonder. And you gave it to me.”

Psalms of praise often refer to nature – because it’s easy to be awed by all that God has created. Praise comes easy on a day like today – but we don’t worship nature – we worship the God who gifted us with such beauty. When we finally “get it right” we both marvel and respect and pay attention to the world we live in, because it is given for our enjoyment. Pay attention!

Frederick Buechner points out that the natural world in Psalm 148 that praises God doesn’t even have words…..sun, moon, waters, sea monsters, fire, snow, stormy wind. We learn to praise God, not by saying the right thing – or giving compliments to God, but by paying attention to the volcanic burst of praise occurring all around us – Watch how the trees exult when the wind blows through them. Mark the stillness of the great blue heron in the swamp. Listen to the rain on the roof. Learn to say “Hallelujah” from those who say it right.

We’ve heard people getting it wrong. Words can do that to you…. “Praise the Lord, I broke my leg” or “Praise God, he was in a car accident on his way to buy another lottery ticket.” or “Thank God she landed in jail.” No, that’s not it! We don’t have it right until we’re lost in wonder, love, and awe – marveling at a leg that is mendable or giving thanks for life interventions that pick us up and turn us around, or quietly whispering “Thank you Thank you Thank you.” Praise that comes from the heart and mind, enjoying God in a way that is genuine.

Even St. Augustine struggled with this lesson. He wrote: “Let us sing alleluia here on earth, while we still live in anxiety, so that we may sing it one day in heaven in full security….God’s praises are sung both there and here, but here they are sung in anxiety, there in security; here they are sung by those destined to die, there, by those destined to live forever; here they are sung in hope, there in hope’s fulfillment; here, they are sung by wayfarers, there, by those living in their own country. So then…let us sing now, not in order to enjoy a life of leisure, but in order to lighten our labors.”

Wrong answer! Augustine – didn’t study the Shorter Catechism – which teaches us that enjoying God is for now! If praising God and enjoying God are our chief ends – we’d better not wait until we’re at heavens gates to begin

In the17th century, Brother Lawrence, a Carmellite monk, stood looking at a barren tree, stripped of leaves and fruit, waiting silently and patiently for the sure hope of summer abundance. Gazing at the tree, Lawrence grasped for the first time the extravagance of God's grace and the unfailing sovereignty of divine providence. Like the tree, he himself was seemingly dead, but God had life waiting for him, and the turn of seasons would bring fullness. At that moment, he said, that leafless tree "first flashed in upon my soul the fact of God," and a love for God that never after ceased to burn. Sometime later, (having taken his assignment to the monastery kitchen where, amidst the tedious chores of cooking and cleaning one day he looks up, while kneading dough, and realizes that the pans around him are aglow with God’s glory – and the sink where he washes dirty plates is holy – the counter where he cuts vegetables a sacred place…..and he kneads that into the dough – developing a rule of spirituality and work…that included the continual practice of the presence of God.

For Brother Lawrence, "common business," no matter how mundane or routine, was the medium of God's love. The issue was not the sacredness or worldly status of the task but the motivation behind it. "Nor is it needful that we should have great things to do. . . We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before him, who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God."

Together, God and Brother Lawrence went through each day. He had learned at last what the catechism calls us to: praising God on Sunday – not to get to heaven’s gates – but to get to Monday. Praising God on Monday – as practice for Tuesday. Praising God on Tuesday so that we’re able to enjoy God on Wednesday…..

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