Psalms the Series - Praise the Lord, 9/28/14

Psalm 150

¹ Praise the Lord.^[a] Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. ² Praise him for his acts of power;  praise him for his surpassing greatness. ³ Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,   praise him with the harp and lyre, ⁴ praise him with timbrel and dancing,   praise him with the strings and pipe, ⁵ praise him with the clash of cymbals,  praise him with resounding cymbals. ⁶ Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord.

 

Last sermon in this series.

Next week a new series, rethink.  Rethink your life.

Today, psalm 150.  A psalm of delight.

Joy – Faith can be joyful!

Christians don’t have to be glum…….cartoon 

I rewrote this psalm.  Is that sacreligious?

¹ Wow!  Praise the Lord.^[a] Feel it.  God is amazing!  Praise God when you come to church.  Engage your heart with him; praise him when you are looking at the sky.  Praise him when you think about the stars and the moon.  Praise him when you think about the millions of planets and galaxies in our universe. ² Praise him for the things that he has done.  Don’t take any of it for granted.  See the things that he has done.  Think on them;  praise him for his super cool amazingness.  Get out the instruments! ³ Praise him with the sound of the trumpet,   turn up the guitar!  Beat the drums!  Turn up the radio.  Crank up Pandora.  Feel it inside and dance.  Dance, dance, dance.   ⁶ Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Wow.  Praise the Lord.

So much to say

When I was a kid we read the liturgy together.

That’s fine, but learn to make it your own

Does not have to be organized or orchestrated

Find your own words of thanks to god

When I was a teen I was in a demonstrative church

That’s fine – I changed

Im not loud or demonstrative

Im introverted and quiet.  It sounds droll, but its heartfelt

I left the liturgical because it did not feel alive – to me

I left the demonstrative because to me it didn’t work during the week

We had Loud prayers on Sunday morning

How do we pray at la fuente

So I choose a method of prayer and praise that I think works all the time.  I don’t have to turn it on or off.

I can just be me.  Anytime, anywhere.

But demonstrative or not, everyone can praise

I have been very happy lately.  Mostly.

Except for the road rage guy that followed me the other day.

We think we are only happy when things go well.

Well, things aren’t perfect for me.

But right now I am in a good place.

You can praise god and give thanks even when you have problems.

In our problems we are not alone.

Finding joy when life is difficult

Those who turn away from god in difficulty, make it worse

          Angry, sad, bitter lives – the woman in awakenings

Those who turn to him in difficulty, find an amazing source of hope.

The guitarist in the concentration camp Once upon a time in a concentration camp there lived a prisoner who, even though he was under sentence of execution, was fearless and free. One day he was seen in the middle of the prison square playing his guitar. A large crowd gathered to listen for, under the spell of the music, they became as fearless as he. When the prison authorities saw this they forbade the man to play.

But the next day there he was again, singing and playing on his guitar with a larger crowd around him. The guards angrily dragged him away and smashed his fingers so he could not play.
The next day he was back, singing and making what music he could with his swollen broken fingers. This time the crowd was cheering. The guards dragged him away again, beat him again and smashed his guitar.
The following day he was in the square again, singing with all his heart. What a song! So pure and uplifting. The crowd joined in, and while the singing lasted their hearts became as pure as his and their spirits as invincible. So angry were the guards this time that they tore out his tongue.
A hush descended on the camp, a something that was deathless.
To the astonishment of everyone, he was back at his place the next day swaying and dancing to a silent music that no one but he could hear. And soon everyone was holding hands and dancing around his bleeding, broken figure in the centre of the square, while the guards stood rooted to the ground in wonder.      Anthony de Mello, Prayer of the Frog, p.73-4

Praise him in the sanctuary

One of the main reasons that people leave churches is because they aren’t getting what they want from church.

Or they liked the pastors stuff for a while, but now it all seems the same.  Maybe they have outgrown his or her stuff

I want you to get something out of it

But we cant miss the other aspect of coming to church, the main aspect.

Its to say thanks to God

Its to honor him.  To give back to him.  To support others. To join in his work.

People whose church relationship is measured by what they are getting are rarely happy

Those whose church relationship is about giving back to god, they are almost always full

Why? We weren’t created to live selfish lives, that never satisfies

We were created to live generous lives investing others, investing in life

Something else about praising in the sanctuary

Sing.

To sing.  Why.  Make a joyful noise

Not really a singing church

I sing in the car.  I sing in the shower.

I sing in church sometimes

In a song, the heart comes out

Make a joyful noise - kjv

Carpenters.  Sing, sing a song, sing it long sing it strong

Sing, sing a song
Sing  out loud, sing out strong
Sing of good things not bad
Sing of happy not sad

Sing, sing a song
Make it simple to last your whole life long
Don't worry that it's not good enough
For anyone else to hear
Just sing, sing a song

Praise him for the mighty heavens

Praise him for creation

The theology of creation

Sister sun, brother moon

The fatherhood of god and the brotherhood of man

My parents wanted to dislike people that were different than them

The moon is amazing.  Trees are amazing.

They are not God, but God is in them somehow speaking to us

²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.       Romans 1:20

Praise boils down to two things

Wow and thank you.

Wow.  Thank you.

I am not sure that we are very good about  this.

It’s a beautiful day in God’s world, be sure to see the good.

I don’t think we see it enough

When you are aware and you see what god is ddoing, then we say wow

We need to stop, look and see it more.

Wow thank you.

You make friends by saying thank you.

It is a sign of love and appreciation

We want to be thanked

I was taught to live without this.

I am trying to be better at saying thank you

If thank you is the only prayer that we learn in this life, it is enough

Nate Bartlett

The royals are in the playoffs for the first time since 1985

Wow.  Thank you.

Cut loose

Let it go

God?  He is amazing

Wow.  Thank you.

Cut loose. Let it go.

Lets have a band.  Lets get some instruments

Lets sing

Lets dance

God is everywhere.

You can praise him anywhere.

You can wow- thank him anywhere.

To praise is to restore my soul

To praise the lord  is to say thank you

To say I love you

We live so much in the mind.  Thinking, worrying.

To praise and thank god…….

It helps our soul rise to the top of our life

Thank you thank you.  I want to thank you.

I just want to thank you lord

¹ Wow!  Praise the Lord.^[a] Feel it.  God is amazing!  Praise God when you come to church.  Engage your heart with him; praise him when you are looking at the sky.  Praise him when you think about the stars and the moon.  Praise him when you think about the millions of planets and galaxies in our universe. ² Praise him for the things that he has done.  Don’t take any of it for granted.  See the things that he has done.  Think on them;  praise him for his super cool amazingness.  Get out the instruments! ³ Praise him with the sound of the trumpet,   turn up the guitar!  Beat the drums!  Turn up the radio.  Crank up Pandora.  Feel it inside and dance.  Dance, dance, dance.   ⁶ Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Wow.  Praise the Lord.