"Praise Him! He Deserves It." Psalm 148:1-14-Pastor Joel Schroeder

Sermon on Psalm 148:1-14 Mt. Olive Lutheran 2/19/12 Pastor Joel B. Schroeder "Praise Him! He Deserves It." 1. Look What He's Made 2. Look What He's Done

It must be good to be basketball player Jeremy Lin. In a few days this Asian-American from California has gone from unknown NBA substitute to starter, game winner, hero, talk of New York, and sports fans across America. America showers instant celebrities with praise and affection. But we're just as quick to learn of their failures, sins, and crimes and delight in tearing them down. "They really didn't deserve all that praise after all!"  We're also quick to praise the smallest successes of our children: "What a beautiful giraffe, Johnny!" when the 4-year old scribbles a tall loop with a crayon. Kids quickly discount such praise: "You're just saying that 'cause you're my dad!" Well-balanced people take all praise with a grain of salt. Praise might be genuinely meant, but all credit goes to our God for what we do well. What really matters is not whether people praise us; what really counts is God's "Well done!" Only One is worthy of our unconditional, unlimited, unqualified, enthusiastic, constant praise. Our Maker, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Many Psalms encourage us to praise him. Psalm 148 is a good example of that. It tells us: "Praise Him! He Deserves It." Look What He's Made. Look What He's Done.

Telling God how great he is one of the most appropriate, fulfilling, spiritually-healthy things Christians can do. The Psalmist, probably David, encourages us, all people and all creation to praise the Lord. In Hebrew: Hallelujah. That's the way the psalm begins. Like an echo, that's the way it ends. Like antiphonal choirs first the heavens are told to praise him; then the earth.  The structure of the psalm is interesting. First things in the heavens that can speak are told to praise him, then those that can't. Then in opposite order things on earth that can't speak are commanded to praise, then humans who can. From glorious and complex angels in heaven down to the lowest worm crawling in mud. From the invisible to the visible. From uncharted space we can't see with a telescope to subatomic particles we can't see with a microscope.  Living and non-living. Animal, mineral, and vegetable. People of every social status, gender, and age.

Creation itself is encouraged to praise the Creator. Is this just poetic license or personification by the psalmist--as if thunder is talking or rain is crying? No, creation itself is commanded to praise God and really does so. It has never stopped praising him for the estimated 6,000 years it has existed.

How does creation praise? Some like good angels and people have voices and clear communicate meaningful praise. Some creatures praise God with sound. The thrush seems to be practicing as it sings its solo--starting a musical run, then backing up and starting over. Humpback whales sing signals about food sources, danger warnings, and mating calls. They also leap out of the sea, land on their backs striking the water with their flippers as if rejoicing to be alive--saying so much more than "Whale here."  Spend a night camping in the Serengeti or KC Zoo and you'lll hear the sounds of lions, jackals, and monkeys.  Biologist Lewis Thomas says lowly termites "make percussive sounds to each other beating their heads against the floor in the dark, resonating the corridors of their nests..." Bats constantly ping their surroundings with high frequency sound. Fish "make sounds clicking their teeth, blowing air, and drumming with special muscles against their tuned, inflated air bladders." Bees hum like cellos. The seas roar and crash, the winds howl and whistle, lightning and thunder crack like a bass drum. They may not hold rehearsals, go on tour, or charge admission, but many parts of nature perform symphonies of praise to the Creator.

The complexity of creation shouts praises to the Creator, and so should we. How wise you are, O God. In wisdom you made them all! Although sinful man often, like Job, dares to criticize when God sends too much or too little rain, too much or too little heat, if we had the power and were in charge of such processes, we'd soon make a total mess of it. If we didn't make it and don't keep it going, how do we sinners with our limited minds imagine we can tell God he's not doing it right, or dare suggest we could do it better? We wouldn't tell an experienced diamond cutter where to put his chisel or how hard to hit with his hammer, would we? God painted rainbow colors on the delicate wings of the housefly. He drew a pattern on the belly plate of the turtle--though it's rarely seen and often is dragged through mud. He engineered the common caterpillar's head using 228 muscles. He crafted the narrow pipe the mosquito uses to draw blood. The one-celled bacteria has a flagellum or tail which has 40 perfectly engineered parts. If one of them were missing, the cell couldn't move and life would cease. One observer said: "The Creator loves pizzaz!" And man in his sin has often foolishly chosen to worship parts of creation, rather than praise the Creator who designed and formed such magnificent creatures and objects. Man has worshipped them all: angels, heavenly bodies like the sun and moon, birds like the eagle, animals like lions and snakes, and even people--like kings and emperors.

Creation also praises the Creator when it carries out its God-assigned functions. When the bloodhound sniffs a trail, the sheep dog rounds up the herd, the lab retriever hunts or just plain loves its master unconditionally. When the thoroughbred gallops, the stars and planets move and spin in their predetermined orbits as time-keepers, and sign givers, the sea keeps in its boundaries or is granted permission to overflow them. When the mountains stand in their tall majesty they indicate God's power, God's immutability, and timelessness, but also to remind us he once piled them up, and will shake them when the world ends. When the ground quakes, and hurricanes and tornadoes blow, they praise God by carrying out his sacred purposes--whether that's to bring justice to his enemies, remind his people how much they need him, give Christians opportunities to bear suffering or bring loving aid to those in need, or serve as repeated signs judgment's coming. When gold serves as means of exchange, or is injected into joints as a lubricant, put into teeth to fill cavities, or on spacecraft to reflect the sun's light and heat. Whether bark in the rain forest keeps the tree alive, processes carbon dioxide, provides shelter for natives or bugs, gives medicine for miracle drugs, or just helps the tree look pretty. Created things praise the Creator by doing what he made and ordered them to do by his almighty Word and command.

God's creation praises him by teaching us lessons. Birds don't need to plow or plant. Lilies don't have to spin or sew clothes. God gives life to grass which is so temporary. Surely you're worth more than a bird, a flower, or grass. Praise him because he gave you life and will provide for you, even if you don't worry about it. The creation has suffered since the Fall into sin. Every time we see the forces of nature seem to be out of control, bringing disorder, destruction, and suffering--it's sending a loud message: you're a sinner. You need to be redeemed. You need a Savior. This world isn't heaven. Look for the only way the Creator has provided to get there. The universe is praising God's justice by saying constantly: sin can't go unpunished. There will be a day of reckoning. How can the sins in your account be cancelled and righteous, good acts be put in your account? One day creation will praise God by coming apart at the seams, just as he says it will in his Word. It will praise him by obeying him. It will experience a glorious day of redemption from its bondage to decay, and it will get to partake in the holy new heaven and new world when it's re-made to serve God's redeemed people and redound to the Creator-Redeemer's praise forever.

Pretty simple isn't it? As baseball can be simplified to four words: see ball, hit ball, life can be broken down: see creation, praise creator. See the beautiful creation; praise the beautiful Creator. How can we sinful creatures not worship our good, wise, merciful, generous creator every week in public worship, and every day in our thoughts, words, and life?  How can we take for granted this beautiful world or trash it up by not taking good care of it? How can we not speak out against the lies of evolution so prevalent in science, education, entertainment, and literature?  They rob God of glory and praise he deserves for the magnificent universe he made by careful design through his almighty Word. How can we praise God for the gift of life, then live like it's OK to end human life by abortion or the morning-after pill our president wants our church body to pay for in our synod's health plan for our called workers like we're taking out the day's garbage?

Praise God now and for all eternity for the wonders of his creation. But if those are the only reasons--great though they are--to praise God--we'd be in trouble indeed. Thanks be to God there's more in verses 13-14, the Gospel climax of Psalm 148. Those verses tells us God should be praised even more for what else he's done, his greatest miracle. He didn't rest content with non-human creation's praise. He wouldn't abandon us in our sin and silence. He sent his precious Son so a sinner like me could consciously praise him for creating me and for redeeming me.

"Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens. He has raised up for his people a horn, the praise of all his saints, of Israel, the people close to his heart. Praise the Lord." He is to be exalted or lifted high with our praises because of what his name is all about--what his Word reveals about what he's done for us and all sinners. The horn he's raised is the powerful ruler, the Son of David who had the power to defeat our enemies: Satan, sin, death, and hell. Zachariah in the Benedictus in Luke 1 prophesied John would go before the "horn of salvation" God had raised up in the house of David to save us from our enemies. Believers in Christ are told to praise him because he's declared us to be saints--holy ones by removing the guilt of our sin by punishing his sinless Son for us. We are Israel. We didn't deserve to be chosen as his specially loved people any more than ancient Israel did. We are children of Abraham by grace through faith in Christ.

The Creator did entered creation as true man. He got DNA from Mary, his mother. He was sustained by normal food and drink, usually provided by natural means. When it was time to die, combustible material provided light for soldiers to find and arrest him, vegetable fibers in the rope bound his wrists, a thorn bush supplied his crown and caused his precioius blood to flow, iron made up the nails fixing him to a cross fashioned from a tree. Creation couldn't dull his pain with gall, for then he wouldn't have paid the full price for our sins. Rock held his lifeless body until Easter morning. A huge stone rolled out of the way revealed an empty tomb and praised the One who conquered death. A wooden door locked by metal couldn't keep Jesus from appearing to his disciples. Lake water supported his resurrection body, and when he went up from the earth into the sky, God used a cloud to take him out of sight. Creation praised the Redeemer.

We are "the people close to his heart." That's not just using the heart to picture love, as you saw so many times on Valentine's Day. "People close to God's heart" doesn't mean "people God dearly loves" here. For Old Testament believers, those "close to God" were priests. They alone had direct access to God's presence in the holy place and most holy place. They were pictures of Christ, the priest who didn't have to offer sacrifices for his own sin. He could offer himself as the sinless substitute for all. So now through Jesus, those who believe in him as their Savior share his status. Christians are a "kingdom of priests and a holy nation." Close to God. Able to come to him and not be turned away by our sins. Close to God. He'll accept our prayers. Not like a woman might say to her boyfriend who hurt her deeply, then gives her a compliment. "You dare to tell me you think I'm beautiful, after you treated me so shabbily? Just go away You can take your praise and give it to your next girlfriend."

And don't forget the Savior is all over this psalm in another way. Hallelujah means "praise JAH--praise JAHWEH"--the God of free and faithful grace, the Savior God, I AM. That name, the LORD, or JAHWEH is used 6 times in the psalm, and is replaced by the pronouns "he, his, or him" another 18 times. We may be saying "Farewell to Hallelujah" in our final public worship until the end of the Lenten season to remind us of the seriousness of our Savior's Passion. But praise to JAH, to JAHWEH, to the LORD, dare never cease in our hearts or lives.

All creation praises him for what he's made. Even his enemies will have to praise him when he comes in judgment. Want to praise him better? Marvel at his creation. Marvel at his greater miracle, your redemption. Because of Jesus completed work of redemption, we can and should praise him for what he's done. And we can look forward to praising him without sin, constantly in glory. AMEN.