It wasn’t very long ago when I was on the subway at Union Station. As I entered the station I encountered a horde of people: all Raptors’ fans. Evidently, the Raptors had just won a game and made the playoffs for the first time in years. You have never seen a more ecstatic group of fans in your life! They were singing and chanting and wearing red caps and red sweaters. There was more bling than you would ever see anywhere. It was really special!
A group of them were starting to get on to the subway, and then they had this kind of chant/sing/rap thing. I don’t know what it was, but it said, “Praise the Raptors! Praise the Raptors!” They got on, and then they continued to “Praise the Raptors!” all the way from Union Station up to St. Clair, where I got off – relieved by that time! I had had enough about praising the Raptors, but that was fine. I must admit though, I was enthralled by their enthusiasm. You can see why people get caught up in the emotion, in the ecstasy and in the joy of winning something, especially when you have had as many losing seasons as the Raptors have had! They were ecstatic.
I thought to myself over the last few days about that moment on the subway, and I thought “Here we are, as Christians, here we are basking in the glory of Easter. Here we are, having sung the great hymns, listened to the great trumpet fanfares, sung the Hallelujah Chorus, but I wonder if we still have within us the passion of the praise of God that those fans had for the praise of the Raptors, for it seems to me that if we genuinely believe what happened at Easter, if we are really seized by the events of Easter, then how much more would we feel thrilled to praise our God, who has had victory over death itself, than a victory over the Timberwolves at the ACC?
It just seems to me that, as Christians, we should have this profound sense of praise, not only now, but all our lives. It should be an integral part of who and what we are. As Christians, we are also a little demure. I am not quite so sure we want to become ecstatic. We are certainly not going down to the subway and start praising Jesus. We are not going to do that in the same way the fans will, although I did hear yesterday that downtown there was a flash mob that did exactly that for Jesus Christ, which is interesting, but, for the most part, we don’t do that.
We have been taught to be somewhat more restrained, a little reserved, and that is fine. Maybe we haven’t all grown up in ecstatic churches and churches that are demonstrative about the openness of their praise. I have certainly grown up in both. I have grown up in more sombre Protestant Reform traditions, where you let the great hymns do your praising for you. I have grown up in Methodist churches in Bermuda and Congregational churches in South Africa, and their praising before the service has even begun and they are praising after the service has ended!
Either way, there can be praise. It doesn’t matter the form; what matters is the substance. What matters is not the outward appearance, but rather the inward faith and convictions. That is where today’s passage from Psalm 150 comes in, for Psalm 150 gives us a template for how we should praise, a template for the people of God to understand what praise is all about.
It is the end of what is known as Book Five of the Psalms, and it is considered a doxology. A doxology is of course an outward expression of praise. For example, whenever we in our service have had the “Assurance of Pardon” we sing “The Doxology.” It is our praise for the forgiveness of sins. It is our extreme statement of what we believe. Well, Psalm 150 is like that. It is part of what is known as a series called “The Hillel Psalms.” It is a Psalm that is a summary in a sense, an exclamation point at the end of all the other Psalms, and all the different themes that they have addressed.
Some have suggested – and I never would – that it is a Psalm about nothing, and that when you look at this Psalm it might appear not to be deep in theology, might not be rooted in anything that we can take home with us that gives us a better idea of God. It sort of reminds me – and some of you will remember this – that there was a very famous show on television called Seinfeld. Well, Seinfeld and his sidekick George decided to pitch a show to NBC show, and they said the show was about nothing! That is what they were hoping for: a show about nothing! Well, Psalm 150 seems like a Psalm about nothing: “Praise the Lord! Everything praise the Lord! Praise the Lord.” That is about it! Or is it?
I would suggest that there is great depth in Psalm 150. This is because Psalm 150 tells us and reminds us of whom we are to praise, who we are to worship. We are to praise the Lord. We are to elevate God. It is the Lord God who is worthy of praise. This sounds of course very much like the First Commandment: “You shall have no other Gods before me.” The only subject, the only object of praise is God, and this God stands in contrast with all the other Gods and idols of the world. To say, “I praise God. I praise the Holy God.” is to make a definitive statement of faith in the midst of all the other Gods.
It is not that we praise great sports people for their activities, it is not that we praise politicians and admire their good deeds, it is not that we praise nationalities and glorify in our national pride, it is not that we praise cultures and cultural distinctiveness, it is not that we praise our own limited understanding of law and philosophy and logic, no, the source of praise is God. It is God who calls us, and it is God who invites us. It is God who is the object of our praise – and there are no other gods! It is the central biblical message: one God worthy of our praise.
Why do we praise this God? Well, according to the Psalm, we praise God because of God’s mighty deeds, because of God’s power, because of God’s splendour. There is a passage I read in the Book of Romans where Paul talks about – of course after, years after Psalm 150 – the power of God. The power of God in fact was demonstrated in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. In fact, if you Romans 1, you will see that it is right there. It is by power, and declared by power, that Jesus was raised from the dead. The Resurrection is the moment of God’s power; the Resurrection is a sign and a symbol, a testament to the power and the glory of this God. It is pre-eminently the moment of God’s power, for God alone could raise Jesus of Nazareth from the dead. That is why we praise. That is why we gather and we sing the hymns that we have sung this morning. That is why we glorify God. We glorify God for what God has done.
God’s power is not fleeting. His power is not something that ebbs and flows. It is not something that is diminished by the actions of history. Unlike so many of the others who we praise and adore whose glory is fleeting, whose power is momentary, whose time on the radar is but a blip within history, the God of the Bible is the God who is always worthy of our praise.
The question is: where do we pray to this God? The psalmist makes it abundantly clear. We know the why, we know the who, but where? In his sanctuary, that is where we praise. In God’s sanctuary! A “sanctuary” really means a “safe place” a place where you can go – and that is why we offer “sanctuary” to refugees, and should continue by the way to do so. This is where we give a place, a refuge for those who are lost and are homeless and have nowhere. The Church is always a safe place, a sanctuary for people to come into, a place where they can live and be safe.
The sanctuary that I am sure the psalmist was thinking of was the Temple: The Temple that has been built for the very purpose of the praise of God. Look around you. Look in this place! Look at the high ceilings pointing upwards to the heavens and the lights coming down! Look how the windows are all shaped in such a way that they point you upwards. Look at the magnificent nave and the fact that the Gospels are in the rooms. Look how everything is designed to focus you forward to the Table of the Lord and the gift of Jesus Christ broken for us. Notice that the architecture of our church, and all churches, is designed to be a place of worship and praise.
I often feel, and I must say this now, that many people lose out. They lose out when they decide that the place of worship, the sanctuary, the safe place, is not the place where they want to carry out their rites of passage. They want to do other things in their lives, or want to be in other places when they worship God. Why would you not want to be in the House of the Lord? Why would you not want to be in a sanctuary that is designed to cast your eyes to glory of Almighty God?
The psalmist is clear that it is in God’s sanctuary where God is to be praised. Even if we don’t praise him on the streetcars, even if we don’t praise him on the subways, and even if we don’t praise him on the streets, when we come in here God knows that his people are praising him, and he hears our praise. But we are not limited to this. God is praised in the firmament. God is praised in the heavens. The whole of creation praises God, and the heavens adore his glory.
What makes Psalms so great is the sense in which the universal nature of praise is manifested. But how do we praise? Well, the psalmist understands the role of music in this. I have never understood actually why some people don’t want music in their worship and in their praise. It seems to me that the psalmist understands that music goes right to the heart of people. I look at what our choir has done for us this morning with the Rutter piece. Look at the sounds that we heard last Sunday, and the incredible Hallelujah Chorus!
Look at the magnificence of the music of what is often referred to as The Fifth Evangelist – Johann Sebastian Bach. He once said, and I want to quote him: “At a reverent performance of music, God is always at hand with his gracious presence.” It is not surprising that his great passions – the St. Matthew’s Passion for example, was considered by Mendelssohn to be one of the greatest pieces of music, if not the greatest piece of music that had ever been written. Even Frederick Nietzsche, who was a sceptic and a cynic, said this of Bach: “He was one who had completely forgotten Christianity until one hears the Gospel in Bach’s music.” People forget Christianity until they hear the Gospel in Bach’s music!
There is a sense in which those who throughout the years have committed themselves to Christ have even through their music and through their songs been able to praise God and been able to elevate God. They said that in a footnote of a faith book to a noted opera singer this week who is going to retire, that God’s music has gone through him, that God’s music has been heard in him, but God will always have something to proclaim through his life.
At the 9:15 am service, which I really can’t describe to you this morning, we had nearly 300 people here, and pets galore. It was an amazing service of praise! It really was. We had the Blessing of the Pets, and we had the Choir School and children everywhere! It was magnificent this morning. It was praise! As the children sung, it was praise. We sang a piece by Graham Kendrick, Shine Jesus Shine, and I thought of Graham because he received an honour at the same time as I did from a college and university here in Toronto. We were on the same stage together at the same time. Graham is a man of God, and he said that the only reason that he wrote his songs and he wrote his music was to give God praise. He never thought he was very good. He always was and is extremely humble about it. But it was to give God praise. Churches all over the world have played his music and sung his songs in praise to God. The crashing cymbal, the mighty horn, these are things that the people of God use to praise God. It is incredible!
But who should praise? And here the Bible is at its poignant, and most direct for you: The Scriptures say that everything that has breath – neshamah in Hebrew – praise the Lord. Based on Genesis 2:7, based even on the animals in the flood, this phrase, this word, talks about God being the source of life and breath for all God’s creatures no matter where they are or no matter where they are from. All of the world, all of the living creatures should praise God.
Years ago, when I lived in South Africa, I took a little break with a friend of mine. We went to the veldt in the northern part of the country on the eastern side – the high mountains, the high plateaus – where a lot of the animals are. My friend and I were city dwellers – we lived in Cape Town. We were used to all the noise of the city, like we have the noise of the city here in Toronto: buses and fire engines and neighbours and cars. We thought we were going to have an incredible time of peace and quiet.
We went up to the veldt, and the idea was that we finally would get a night’s sleep without any extra noise. Oh, mercy me, were we wrong! First of all, there was an African thunderstorm. If you have never heard a thunderstorm in Africa, trust me, it will wake the dead! We survived that – it only lasted a minute of two – they don’t last long. So then, the crickets came out and started to chirp loudly, and with no extra noise, all you could hear were chirping crickets! Then after a while, there were cicada beetles, and you could hear them. I can’t describe it to you, but they sound like a power saw. They rattle, and they make the most incredible noise you’ve ever heard. Finally, they calmed down, but then they were joined by fish eagles. Fish eagles are birds that are always going “Whee-hah, whee-hah.” Then, there were two lions. I think, unfortunately, they were both getting amorous. It wasn’t a pleasant sound. Then, there was the spotted hyena, and they started singing at about four in the morning! All they do is laugh like idiots! The hippos sleep in the mud, and they get up very early in the morning, like five o’clock and they just start grunting. If you haven’t heard a hippopotamus grunt, trust me, you have heard nothing. Then, the fiery necked nightjar, which again is another bird, started calling out. And then, the Hadeda Ibis, another bird, and it calls, “Ha-ha-ha-ha.” To just team it all off, the black backed jackal that simply yells for the heck of it. We didn’t get a decent night’s sleep in four nights in the veldt. But there is an old African saying and that is: “the animals come out at night so that God knows that his world is alive.” It is as if that cacophony of sounds, which I will never forget, is just like the earth praising God, just like everything that has breath letting their voices be heard.
This is why the Scriptures make it clear that “All that has breath praise the Lord.” So, what about you? As we bask in the glow of Easter, as we enjoy the power of the Resurrection, as we are in a gorgeous, safe place, deep down in your soul, deep down in your heart, do you, as the psalmist says, “Praise the Lord”? Amen.