A Call To Praise God
Psalm 111
A small congregation began its worship service each Sunday by standing, then everyone turned to the right, facing the south wall of the church. Facing that blank white wall, they recited together the Apostle’s Creed. Every Sunday. A newcomer to the church watched this ritual in silence. Every Sunday. Finally, on her fourth week of worshipping with this group of Christians, she asked the pastor, “What is the significance of standing and facing the wall when you open your service each Sunday?”
The pastor said he wasn’t really sure, that they had been doing that every Sunday since he began there 6 years before. Prompted by the visitor’s question, he asked the congregation one Sunday. “Why do we begin our services by standing, and turning to face the south wall before we say the Apostle’s Creed together?”
There was murmuring in the pews. The matriarch of the congregation, a 72 year old woman, said they had been doing that as long as she could remember. She said she remembered doing it as a child. It was just something “they did.” But she said she would ask her 95 year old mother, who lived in a nearby nursing home, if she knew.
The next week, the woman reported on what she had learned from her mother. It seems that when the congregation had decided, nearly 80 years before, to include the Apostle’s Creed in their morning worship, someone had painted the words on the south wall. Through the years, the words faded, had even been restored once, but eventually were painted over. The tradition, however, remained.
Traditions shape our lives, but its important to know why we do them. "Because we’ve always done it that way" doesn’t provide enough meaning to keep our traditions from becoming stale and meaningless. We may have received our worship traditions from great great grandparents, but for us to offer authentic worship we need to understand the meaning behind the traditions. If our worship seems lifeless and dull, perhaps we’re just going through the motions instead of really offering God true worship.
Psalm 111 is a psalm that will help us see some of the elements of real worship. It is actually a poem and in the Hebrew, the first word of each line is a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Listen to these beautiful words. I’m reading from The Message, a Bible paraphrase:
1 Hallelujah! I give thanks to God with everything I've got - Wherever good people gather, and in the congregation. 2 God's works are so great, worth A lifetime of study - endless enjoyment! 3 Splendor and beauty mark his craft; His generosity never gives out. 4 His miracles are his memorial - This God of Grace, this God of Love. 5 He gave food to those who fear him, He remembered to keep his ancient promise. 6 He proved to his people that he could do what he said: Hand them the nations on a platter - a gift! 7 He manufactures truth and justice; All his products are guaranteed to last - 8 Never out-of-date, never obsolete, rust-proof. All that he makes and does is honest and true: 9 He paid the ransom for his people, He ordered his Covenant kept forever. He's so personal and holy, worthy of our respect. 10 The good life begins in the fear of God - Do that and you'll know the blessing of God. His Hallelujah lasts forever!
Note that this passage begins with a “halleluiah!” which simply means “Praise the Lord!” So the basic element of worship is praise. Now let’s look at some of the other instructions on worship and praise.
Where does it tell us to offer our praise, our worship? Verse one says “wherever good people gather,” the upright, “in the congregation.” Now I wonder why God specifically wants us to know we are supposed to praise Him in the congregation, among other believers, among others who are striving to be upright.
We cannot be what God wants us to be and not include praise in our church. Where two or three gather together, a special bond of the Holy Spirit exists between us. This enables us to multiply our praise to God! Are we praising Him in our worship? Yes or No? (How do we praise Him in our congregational worship? We need to be charged up like the writer of this psalm. What keeps us from getting excited about God?)
True worship is bringing God pleasure. That can’t happen until you give yourself completely to God in this hour. Romans 12:1 says it this way: “…I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
Just because we are here in church does not necessarily mean we are listening to God. When my grandsons were playing tee ball, I went to a lot of games. One time during a lull in the action, I found myself looking around. On the side of the concession stand is mounted a great big loudspeaker. In that speaker I noticed a small bird had built her nest and was raising her young. Though she doubtless heard all that was going on and was right smack in the middle of the game, she had absolutely no interest and was certainly not listening.
We can be just the same: attending and being seen, immersed in the routine of worship and even our everyday lives, but not listening to a bit of it. The hard truth is this: Listening to those we love, from our children to our God, takes effort. You have to work at it. We need to listen, because it shows our love and that we value people enough to hear them out. And ultimately it shows the love we have for God. (Dr. James H. Rucker Jr., On Listening, Monticello, Indiana.)
Offering yourself to God is what worship is all about. Come in here with an attitude of surrender
--surrender to really listening to God’s word and thinking about what He is saying personally to you. Surrender, like praise, needs practice. The problem with a living sacrifice is that it can crawl off the altar and become lost in all your pain or needs. When you come with an attitude of surrender, thinking of being a living sacrifice to God, then you won’t be embarrassed or care what anyone else thinks about how you praise the Lord. You can lift your hands in the air, sing as loud as you want, even kneel right there in the pew if God leads you to do that.
That brings me to how to praise God. This Psalm tells us to thank him with everything you’ve got, to praise him with your whole heart. Your whole heart! Everything you’ve got. Have we been doing that? Praising him with everything we’ve got, completely, unreserved and unrestrained? I don’t think so.
And this is so important, because God loves to hear our praise! When you are singing here, are you singing with everything you’ve got? When you’re praying, are you praying with your whole heart? When you present your tithes and offering, is it with heartfelt thanks for what God has given you this week?
Praise and worship go together like bread and butter. If we just go through the motions, like politely singing the hymn, that’s not music to God’s ears; that’s not praise. If our offerings are not a sacrifice, is God going to believe you when you say “He is able to meet all my needs.” If God has never heard you, here in the company of the upright, in the congregation, share of his wonderful deeds, his mercy and grace, is he going to believe you when you say, as in verse 2, “God's works are so great, worth a lifetime of study - endless enjoyment!”
Right here in Psalm 111 we have all kinds of things we can praise God for. As I just said, God’s works are worthy to be praised, don’t you think? Splendor and beauty mark his works. They are “full of honor and majesty,” in the words of the NRSV Bible. But how do you know about those great works, the ones studied by all who delight in them? Study is the key word, here. Study your Bible. In fact, you don’t even have to study it. Just READ it. You will find thousands of the great works of God recorded there.
We can praise Him for being gracious and merciful (verse 4). What He does may not always seem good at the time…what He commands us to do may hurt or be difficult...but that’s where surrender and being a living sacrifice come in. It’s also called obedience. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey my commandments (John 14:15).”
God doesn’t owe us an explanation for everything he asks us to do. A firm, committed decision to be obedient will teach you more about God than a whole lifetime of sermons. In fact, you will never understand some of God’s demands until you obey them first.
Some of us try to offer God partial obedience. We want to pick and choose the commands we obey. You know, like “I’ll attend church but I won’t tithe 10% of my earnings.” “I’ll read my Bible but I won’t forgive the person who hurt me.” “I’ll invite my neighbor to come to church with me but I won’t say yes to being on any church committees.” This kind of obedience is disobedience!
Wholehearted obedience is done joyfully, with enthusiasm, with praise. James said to us, “We please God by what we do and not only by what we believe” (James 2:24 CEV). And, an act of obedience is an act of worship, which is praise. Why is obedience so pleasing to God? Because it proves you really love him….“If you love me, you will obey my commandments (John 14:15).”
Verses 5-9 of Psalm 111 remind us of some of the things we can praise God for. He provides food for those who fear him…PRAISE THE LORD!...he is ever mindful of His covenant with us…PRAISE THE LORD!...He has shown us the power of his works, he gives us a heritage…PRAISE THE LORD!...Everything God does is faithful and just…HALLELUIAH! ...All his commands are trustworthy…HALLELUIAH!...and those commands He wants us to perform with faith and uprightness are forever and ever, they won’t change on a whim… HALLELUIAH!...He redeemed us from our sins by sending Jesus to sacrifice for us… HALLELUIAH! Holy and awesome is his name.
I discovered something interesting as I was studying this passage. In Hebrew, the word for PRAISE is NOT the same word used when referring to singing! So there are definitely other ways than singing to praise. Praising God can also be done by the things we say. We need to talk about God’s goodness. The Hebrew word here literally means "to make shine" --and is usually associated with a loud shout! Would it be INAPPROPRIATE to have cheerleaders up here getting us to shout about what God has done? It might be unusual, but it would not be scripturally inappropriate!
In essence, the psalm writer is telling us to let out praise be NOISY! But the word means a clear and distinct sound--so it is not just noise, but purposeful, specific things we are saying about God. That would make for an interesting worship service, wouldn’t it? Everyone shouting about what God had done for them this week!
And finally, verse 10, the last verse in this poem written by a very excited psalmist: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever.”
First I want to say that I used to think fearing the Lord meant I had to be afraid of him. But that’s not what God means at all. Fear also means reverence and awe (look in your dictionary—I did!). So before we can be wise, we must begin by being awed by God, by showing him respect in all we do.
We think we can become wise by life experiences and academic knowledge. But if we don’t acknowledge God as the source of wisdom, if we don’t learn to see him as awesome, our foundation for making wise decisions will be shaky at best. Without at least a little wisdom, we are doomed to making mistakes and foolish choices. Obedience comes in to play here, too, because in the obeying we begin walking the path toward wisdom.
Wisdom. It is a desire to follow God and his ways. When we follow him and gain wisdom, we seek to praise him more. When we praise him more, he grants us more wisdom, and on and on. Someone, somewhere will praise God forever. The psalmist says so.
Let’s praise God today, by remembering what he did for us through his Son. He redeemed us from slavery to sin. Jesus’ body was broken, and his blood was shed for us.
Let’s be done with half-hearted commitment. Let’s decide today to get involved and in that way, praise the Lord as we worship him and do His work for the Kingdom.
