Praise our God! (Psalm 150)

This sermon was preached on 8/12/2013

What is the function of Psalm 150? Clearly it serves as a conclusion to the Psalter. We don’t know when it was written, but we can see that those who were guided by God to organize the Psalter chose this psalm to function as the conclusion. Since the psalm is the conclusion of the Psalter it invites comparison with the psalm that functions as the preface or introduction to the Psalter, that is, Psalm 1. The first psalm is about an individual who delights in God as revealed in his Word. Then the Psalter deals with a wide range of issues that will happen to those who delight in his Word. Is the conclusion suggesting that if we live according to God’s Words, whatever the circumstances, we will find ourselves marked by praise? I suspect it is.

It also looks as if the psalm is designed to create an aspiration for and an anticipation of a world in which nothing happens apart from praise. Certainly the psalm does not mention anything else. Where is that wonderful place where there is nothing but praise of the Lord? The answer is the new heavens and new earth. We know much more about it than did the people of the Old Testament period. Yet like them we have our spiritual ups and downs. But this psalm reminds us that there is a place where those experiences will be gone, and where nothing but praise will take place.

One way to divide the psalm is as follows: (1) Who should be praised (v. 1)? (2) Where should he be praised (v. 1)? (3) Why should he be praised (v. 2)? (4) How should he be praised (vv. 3-5)? (5) Who should praise him (v. 6)?

Who should be praised (v. 1)?

The answer is obvious – the Lord should be praised. Here he is addressed as Yahweh, a special name that stresses his eternity and his covenant fidelity. While God is the sum of all his attributes, there are a few attributes that highlight his uniqueness and one is his beginningless and endless existence. His eternalness marks everything about him. We can think in particular of his love in this way, but we can also see that his other attributes, while only revealed in time, have also an eternal aspect to them. He did not become wise or strong or merciful, he always was the perfect God.

He is also marked by covenant fidelity, which means he always does what he promised he would do. Our God never fails to keep a commitment, never neglects an obligation, and never forgets what he is meant to do at any given moment. The psalmist could look into his own experience and into the experience of his people and see that this was the case, which is why he exhorts them to praise God. And we can do the same.

He is also referred to as El (God) in verse 1, probably in reference to his power (the name means ‘strong one’), which the psalmist focuses on in verses 1 and 2. After all, he is the One controls the whole universe, both what is below and above the visible heavens.

 

Where should he be praised (v. 1)?

The author, in verse 1, mentions two possible places: ‘Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens!’ Right away we have to decide whether we have two names for the same location (as John Calvin thought) or whether we have two different locations. After all, there is obviously a sense in which heaven is a sanctuary. Yet it is likely that the psalmist is referring to two different places, because it is unlikely that his references to musical instruments describe what is going on in heaven. So one location of worship is the Jerusalem temple and the other is heaven.

Right away we can see that the worship of God contains a vivid contrast because those who worship in the earthly sanctuary are sinful whereas those who worship in heaven are sinless angels (perhaps we should also see the redeemed souls of humans among this number). One of the groups, those on earth, is dependent on his saving grace and the other group is dependent on his upholding grace. There are many ways in which this contrast could be shown, but since we will look at some of them later it is sufficient at present to note this amazing contrast found in the worship of God at all times.

At the same time, there is also harmony between the two locations in which worship occurs. Although the two worshipping groups are so different, they share one common desire (to praise God) and one common theme (to praise him for what he did on earth in particular). We can see this shared experience in the description of worship that is given in Revelation 4 and 5 when the heavenly host and the earthly redeemed praise God for his salvation.

What does this harmony have to say to us? An answer to this question can be found in Hebrews 12:18-: ‘For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.’ In this passage we are told that the angelic hosts and the redeemed (those at home in heaven and those still on earth) meet together. This is beyond our ability to grasp intellectually, but by faith we should appreciate it and attempt to enter into it, even if only to recognize that it is what is happening every time we engage in the worship of God. In a sense, what is described in Hebrews 12 is a partial fulfillment of what the psalmist in Psalm 150 was looking forward to, with the complete fulfillment to occur when Jesus returns.

Why should he be praised (v. 2)?

Verse 2 tells us why we should praise our God: ‘Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness!’ His mighty deeds are his work of creation, of providence and of redemption. The Israelites would recall that he made the worlds, that he chose their forefathers to begin his people, that he delivered them from slavery in Egypt, that he provided them with the Promised Land, that he restored them from captivity in Babylon, and numerous other details. But what about ourselves?

There is a danger that we can approach the creation with the mind of a scientist rather than with the heart of a worshipper. Obviously, it is good to be a devout scientist and explore and explain all the intricacies and other features of the universe. Yet when we come to worship, we come to think about the amazing fact that the Lord made the universe and maintains it in existence. Whether we focus on the macro or on the micro of the created universe, we are enthralled and astonished at the abilities of God.

Similarly, whenever we come to worship, we come under his providence. It is the Lord who has brought about all the circumstances that enable us to participate in worship. Providence includes our health, our past and current experiences, our companions, our understanding of doctrine, and a million other aspects. He is our Guide to the place where we confess that he is our Goal.

The main reason why we come to worship him is because he is the Saviour of sinners. His salvation is a Triune salvation, involving the Father’s sovereign choice, the Son’s substitution in our place, and the Spirit’s sanctification day by day. It deals with the penalty of our sins when Jesus died on the cross, it deals with the power of our sins as they are subdued and we are transformed by the Spirit, and it will deal with the presence of sin when Jesus returns and all trace of sin will be removed from each of his people.

We are not only to praise him for his actions, however. In addition, we are to praise him for his ‘excellent greatness’, which is a description of the permanent and complete greatness that he possesses. Spurgeon explains in a brief sentence: ‘There is nothing little about God, and there is nothing great apart from him.’

How should he be praised (vv. 3-5)?

Often we come to the psalm and ask what does it mean for me today without asking what it would have meant to the one who composed it and to those who first read it. The one thing that is clear is that he is not describing worship in a twenty-first century church, but is describing what took place in the sanctuary of Israel in Jerusalem.

So what took place in the sanctuary in Jerusalem? It is straightforward to identify three specific groups, although others may also be included. Priests played the trumpets (2 Chron. 29:26) and the Levites played lutes, harps and cymbals (2 Chron. 29:25) when sacrifices were offered in the temple, and the women played tambourines and danced, often in celebration of victory in battle. So it can be argued that the point the psalmist is stressing is that in the sanctuary God should be praised by those who understand the significance of the sacrifices in the worship of God and who rejoice in the victories he has achieved.

As we think about the performance in the temple, I would suggest three features of the worship and they are expertise, edification and enjoyment. Take a priest, for example. He had to develop his gift of playing his trumpet and not neglect it. Then he played it for the edification of others because he was helping them to worship. And he would play it with enjoyment in his heart. The same three features would be in the experience of the Levites as they played their instruments, and no doubt would be seen in the women as they played their tambourines and danced.

Those same three features should mark our worship. We should develop our gifts and talents so that when we use them they will edify God’s people, and when that happens we will have spiritual joy. After all, the Lord deserves our best, especially when we are worshipping him.

Who should praise him (v. 6)?

The final verse of the Psalter is a call for universal praise. Perhaps it is a prayer from the psalmist for his contemporaries that they would come and praise his Lord. Maybe it is a holy longing for that new world in which nothing but praise will occur from all its inhabitants. Probably it is both a prayer and a longing, similar to the statement in the Lord’s Prayer, ‘Your kingdom come.’ And it is a most suitable expression with which to close the Book of Praises.