Way back in Psalm 1 we were told: "Happy indeed is the man (the person)...whose delight is the law of the Lord and who ponders God's law day and night." But "God's law" isn't movie-Moses coming down the smokey mountain holding stone slabs inscribed with Roman numerals I to X. God's law is everything that reveals God's beauty, God's justice, God's presence, God's intentions and hopes.
And following that first psalm, we have dozens and dozens more that petition, cry out, complain, teach, warn and encourage. But even through the worst of the many complaining psalms, they all contain some element of wondrous, even rapturous, praise. Here at the end, Psalm 150 sums it all up.
Verse 1: Alleluia! One author says alleluia is the only word we know from the angels' lexicon. It sounds like a baby's babble-word. For all our talking and writing, we actually say very little - especially when we are talking about God, who supercedes everything we think or say. Before God, we are reduced to babbling.
Verse 2: God's surpassing greatness. In the Russian film, The Island, in a fictitious port in northern Russia during the second war, Anatoly, with his captain, Tikhon, are manning a coal barge when a Nazi trawler comes into their quiet night-time port. The two hide themselves in piles of coal, but when Anatoly's cough gives him away, the Nazis uncover him and demand he reveal the whereabouts of the captain.
Threatened with his life, Anatoly digs in the coal revealing Tikhon. The Nazi commander hands Anatoly a gun, telling him to kill Tikhon or both of them will die. Anatoly shoots his captain who falls overboard into the water. The Nazi sailors leave and blow up the barge. The next morning at low tide, Anatoly is found unconscious on the beach where monks discover him and bring him to their monastery.
The story shifts in time and we meet Anatoly again, now a middle-aged monk, living as a holy fool in the monastery boiler room. He spends the day shoveling coal from the ruined barge and transporting it in a wheelbarrow.
He is overwhelmed with a tearful repentance for having shot Tikhon years ago. We see him repeatedly row out to a deserted island away from the monastery, throwing himself down on the ground, begging God's forgiveness. But people also come to see him, asking for life-advice or even miracles. No one goes away happy though, even after having been the recipient of wondrous healing. They have in mind how it should be with God - what problem-resolution Anatoly should offer them. Or they simply can't return gratitude for God's mercy.
That's how it goes: people not really wanting what God wants, but what they want, and expecting God to "make it happen" for them. "Praise him for his powerful deeds, praise his surpassing greatness."
God's surpassing greatness! Maybe we don't understand it, or we're really not interested: my cure, my protection, my security, my success, my idea of a solution. A lot of people don't really want God - they only want what God can do for them. There's a difference.
Verses 3-5: And how are we to praise the God of surpassing greatness? With lute, harp, timbrel, dance, strings, pipes, reverberating and crashing cymbals! Christian worship is often just a little twitter; a mumble. Why is that? The psalmist envisions a worship that can reach heaven's heights.
Verse 6: And notice that it's not just human beings that are called to praise God, but everything that lives and breathes! We're to find our solidarity before God with all the animals, the insects, the trees and plants, the breathing waters! The invitation is to praise, not plunder! It is being reported that if the whole world consumed materials the way Americans and Europeans do, four planets would be needed to provide the natural resources. Praise, not plunder!
Verse 2: God's surpassing greatness. In the Russian film, The Island, in a fictitious port in northern Russia during the second war, Anatoly, with his captain, Tikhon, are manning a coal barge when a Nazi trawler comes into their quiet night-time port. The two hide themselves in piles of coal, but when Anatoly's cough gives him away, the Nazis uncover him and demand he reveal the whereabouts of the captain.
Threatened with his life, Anatoly digs in the coal revealing Tikhon. The Nazi commander hands Anatoly a gun, telling him to kill Tikhon or both of them will die. Anatoly shoots his captain who falls overboard into the water. The Nazi sailors leave and blow up the barge. The next morning at low tide, Anatoly is found unconscious on the beach where monks discover him and bring him to their monastery.
The story shifts in time and we meet Anatoly again, now a middle-aged monk, living as a holy fool in the monastery boiler room. He spends the day shoveling coal from the ruined barge and transporting it in a wheelbarrow.
He is overwhelmed with a tearful repentance for having shot Tikhon years ago. We see him repeatedly row out to a deserted island away from the monastery, throwing himself down on the ground, begging God's forgiveness. But people also come to see him, asking for life-advice or even miracles. No one goes away happy though, even after having been the recipient of wondrous healing. They have in mind how it should be with God - what problem-resolution Anatoly should offer them. Or they simply can't return gratitude for God's mercy.
That's how it goes: people not really wanting what God wants, but what they want, and expecting God to "make it happen" for them. "Praise him for his powerful deeds, praise his surpassing greatness."
God's surpassing greatness! Maybe we don't understand it, or we're really not interested: my cure, my protection, my security, my success, my idea of a solution. A lot of people don't really want God - they only want what God can do for them. There's a difference.
Verses 3-5: And how are we to praise the God of surpassing greatness? With lute, harp, timbrel, dance, strings, pipes, reverberating and crashing cymbals! Christian worship is often just a little twitter; a mumble. Why is that? The psalmist envisions a worship that can reach heaven's heights.
Verse 6: And notice that it's not just human beings that are called to praise God, but everything that lives and breathes! We're to find our solidarity before God with all the animals, the insects, the trees and plants, the breathing waters! The invitation is to praise, not plunder! It is being reported that if the whole world consumed materials the way Americans and Europeans do, four planets would be needed to provide the natural resources. Praise, not plunder!
