Making 'Psense' of Psalms--Psalm 145: Awe

This site awed me--a church that survived the devastating
2014 fires of North Central Washington. Trees around it were
singed, homes in four city blocks to the left destroyed,
but the church was spared. More than 320 homes burned.

Part of a continuing series on selected psalms.

One of the worship choruses sung in my church is about standing in awe of God. In its ancient format—an acrostic built off the Hebrew alphabet—this is the message of Psalm 145.  The last psalm attributed to David (who wrote approximately half the psalms), it is almost breathtaking in its breadth of praising God’s many attributes. Verse 5 puts the message in a capsule: “Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom.”

 For our times, when many have become careless and even flippant about God’s name, this psalm rightly reminds us that His person and His name are intertwined. “I will exalt you, my God, the king,” David begins. “I will praise your name for ever and ever.” This also went beyond “worship day.” David said, “Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever” (v. 2).  Then, starting with the Hebrew “aleph” and on to “taw,” he offers a teaching psalm about exalting God for His greatness, graciousness,  faithfulness, and righteousness. The word “all” is prominent throughout the psalm, a reminder that worship is not the domain of a select few, but all.
 

GOD’S GREATNESS (vv. 3-7)

As I began underlining and circling words in this section, I realized the statements had a similar grammar form: action verb/direct object. Like a hammer pounding a nail into wood, it gives many ways to exalt God’s greatness:
*Commend/His works to another. This verse specifies: “One generation will command your works to another” (v. 4a)—a reminder that unless we pass on our faith, it’s one generation from extinction.  The Enemy is hard at work! Thus we need to:
*Tell/His mighty acts.
*Speak of/the glorious splendor of His majesty.
*Meditate on /God’s wonderful works.
*Proclaim/God’s great deeds.
*Celebrate/God’s abundant goodness.
*Joyfully sing/of God’s righteousness.

GOD’S GRACIOUSNESS (vv. 8-13a)

This section begins with an ancient jewel:
The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love. (v. 8)
This verse is drawn from God’s revelation of Himself to Moses, told in Exodus 34:6. After getting two tablets with God’s “Ten Commandments” for living, Moses came down to find the Israelites foolishly worshipping a golden calf. In anger, he smashed the two tablets. Before long, Moses went up the mountain again to receive replacement tablets, and this time God described Himself with the words partly quoted in Psalm 145:8. God also described Himself as “forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin,” but not letting the guilty go unpunished (Exodus 34:6). Instead of wiping out the fickle nation, God gave them a second chance—just as He does for us. Like the first section, this one also has action verbs for praising and extolling God. We’re to:
*Tell/the glory of God’s kingdom
*Speak of /His might “so that men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom” (v. 12). In other words, we’re to be about soul business!



Eastern Washington grain elevators--symbols of God's supply.

GOD’S FAITHFULNESS (vv. 13b-16)

Psalm 145 wouldn’t be a true “alphabetical” or acrostic psalm without a second part to verse 13, which starts with “nun,” the Hebrew letter between mem and samekh:
The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.
That verse isn’t in the 1611 King James version, but subsequent discoveries of more ancient manuscripts with that verse resulted in it being put in newer versions, at least in footnotes. The verse, like the previous section, paraphrases part of God’s revelation about His nature in Exodus 34:6. More important, it fits the theme of this section, which portrays God as taking care of our daily needs.  He upholds us or lifts us up when negatives strike us. We can trust Him for our daily needs:
The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time.  You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing. (vv. 15-16)
This verse became meaningful to me during lean financial times as a graduate student, when unexpected jobs helped me buy my food. It’s encouragement for those who run “soup kitchens” of food banks for the needy. It’s also about those who have enough to eat and to share. It should prompt us to thank God for those in the food chain, all the way to farmers and ranchers, who depend on God’s gifts of good weather, seed, and soil. They all are part of the hands of God in providing “food at the proper time.” No matter how He orchestrates taking care of our needs, He is faithful. As David prayed while offerings came in to build the temple: “Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand” (1 Chronicles 29:14b).

GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS (vv. 17-20)

In another allusion to Exodus 34, Psalm 145 affirms that God’s righteousness means He abhors evil but loves the sinner who comes to Him in repentance. Exodus 34:7 speaks of Him:
Maintaining love to thousands and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.  Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished.
Then in Psalm 145:20:
The LORD watches over all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.
Oh, the benefits for those who call on Him “in truth” (in faith):
*He will come near to them (v. 18).
*He will fulfill their desires (v. 19, an echo of Psalm 37:4).
*He will hear their cries and save them (v. 19).
*He will watch over them (v. 20, a frequent benefit named by David, who needed much “watching over”!).
*He will destroy the wicked (v. 20).
The fate of the wicked shadows this psalm about God’s blessing. If God tolerated evil forever, then He wouldn’t be a holy God.  He’d be a compromising deity—and what would be the use of that?

CONCLUSION (v. 21)

Often at a holiday family dinner we will all sing the “Doxology,” the ancient hymn that begins, “Praise God from whom all blessings come.” Psalm 145 also ends with a doxology as David essentially says, “I’ll praise God, but really all of us, even all creatures, should praise His holy name forever.” And so Psalm 145, which began with praising God’s name, ends with that same theme. This is right, for in praising God’s Name, we praise all that He is—His greatness, graciousness, faithfulness, righteousness, and so much more!

Next: Psalm 150.

 

Making 'Psense' of Psalms--Psalm 100: Worship!

Part of a series on selected psalms.

Hymns or choruses? Psalm 100 is a good place to stop and consider how worship styles have changed from the original Hebrew melodies and worship postures. As Christianity spread to Europe, the psalms were often chanted to plain melodies. Then came earnest reformers like Martin Luther (1483-1546), who felt the common people ought to have sing-able and memorable hymns based on scripture truth, like his “A Mighty Fortress is our God.”

After Luther’s death, John Calvin rose to leadership in France’s Protestant movement. Anti-Reformation riots drove him to settle in Geneva. Besides writing huge volumes of theology, Calvin took a psalms-only stance that only the Bible texts were appropriate for church worship music. Thus his followers set to work versifying the ancient psalms into metrical (poetic) English. One of his colleagues was William Kethe (?-1593), who had fled his native Scotland during the persecutions of Queen Mary. His rendition of Psalm 100, “All People That on Earth Do Dwell,” was published in a 1516 hymnal and became known as “Calvin’s Reformation Hymn.” Also called “Old Hundredth,” it’s perhaps the oldest hymn of praise in the English language still in regular use.

But the story of Kethe’s hymn also requires the story of hymns by Thomas Ken (1637-1711), who didn’t believe “psalms-only.” An orphan who rose to the role of bishop and confidante to royalty, he boldly condemned immorality in royal courts, leading to several years’ imprisonment in the Tower of London. He also ministered to students in Winchester College, writing three hymns for their morning, evening and midnight devotions. (Few, it’s believed, stayed up to sing the “midnight” hymn!). His morning devotional hymn, “Awake my Soul, and with the Sun,” is still in many hymnals, though not all fourteen verses of it. All three hymns ended with this stanza, which we sing today as “The Doxology” (the name from Latin and Greek for glory/praise+speak):

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;

Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him, above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Both Ken’s three devotional hymns and Kethe’s “Old Hundreth” use a melody written by Louis Bourgeois (published 1551). And it all goes back to Psalm 100, probably written a thousand or so years before Christ.

THE PSALM”S “DO’S”

When I first memorized Psalm 100, I found it helpful to use hand motions for its imperatives (“do’s”). “Shout” was hands to mouth, “serve,” palms out and up; “come,” beckoning gesture; “know,” hand to head; “enter,” pointing; “give thanks,” hands together; and “praise his name,” hands upward in a praise posture. Later I realized that the psalm is built around these action “imperatives” (“do” phrases) and two “why” verses. First, the “do’s”:

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth (v. 1)—The KJV renders this, “Make a joyful noise,” but “shout” is closer to the original Hebrew rûa‘. It comes from a primitive root meaning “to mar” (especially by breaking), and by association to “split the ears with sound.” It’s a “glad shout,” like loyal subjects give when a king appears. I’ll remember the “ear-splitting” meaning the next time my church’s guitarists and drummer ramp it up! Seriously, we don’t come close to the exuberance shown in worship in Bible times. I grew up in a traditional church in which the organist tried to rev up the tempo of hymns, but the congregation inevitably dragged behind. The peppy hymns that grew out of the revivals of the late 1800s and those after the “Maranatha!” infusion of the 1970s have given us a livelier collection of worship songs.  Be glad of that!

Serve the LORD with gladness (v. 2)—Translated “worship” in the KJV, the “serve” chosen by other translations is closer to the meaning of the original ābad, which refers to working. It’s one thing to express our faith in a worship service, it’s another to work it out in service to others. Jesus clarified that in Matthew 25:35-36 when He said works of service and love done do those in need (the hungry, thirsty, strangers, those needing clothes, sick) were done to Him. 

Come before Him with joyful songs (v. 2a)—For those physically able, there’s no “Mattress Methodist,” “Bedside Baptist,” or “Pillow Presbyterian.” We’re to come together in formal worship. James Montgomery Boice, in his commentary on Psalms (Baker, 1996, Vol. 2, p. 812), remarked: “Silent belief is not enough. I am struck by the well-rounded nature of these terms—shout, serve (“worship”), and come—for they embrace our verbal witness, our humanitarian activities, and worship, three necessary parts of Christianity.”

Know that the LORD is God (v. 3)—From the Hebrew yāda, “know” refers to perception and understanding. We don’t “guess” or “assume” there is a God, we know, and He wants us to know Him. Yet even today, people have their own “gods.” Some worship “nature” or the god of success. Many make “gods” of their own beings, thinking they are the highest creation. In Paul’s days, men debated over which might be the greatest god from all that grew up in their legends. They even had an altar to an unknown god. Preaching in Athens to these so-called intellectuals, Paul said, “Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you” (Acts 17:23). Then he proceeded to preach about a God who could be known, in whom “we live and move and have our being” (v. 28).

Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise (v. 4). This verse echoes the declaration of David: “I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the LORD” (Psalm 122:1). It’s a reprimand for those who approach Sunday worship grudgingly, feeling forced by a parent or culture to come, not really connecting with the God who is worthy of our praise or with fellow believers. Notice there are two steps to worship, gates and courts. They could be a reminder to us that as soon as we see the church (the “gates” of its location), we begin a worship mindset. When we enter the courts (the sanctuary and beginning of the worship service), the “outside” distractions (including electronic devices for calls or games!) are to cease.

 “Give thanks to Him and praise His name (v. 4c). To make sure we get the message, “thanks” and “praise” are repeated. Yet some come to worship with a bag full of complaints. Warren Wiersbe, in Be Exulted (Victor, 2004, p. 41) remarked on this verse, “A spirit of thanksgiving helps us overcome” sins like complaining, idolatry, pride and ingratitude. There’s something purifying and humbling in thinking about the names of God. In the back of my prayer notebook I have begun an A-Z list of the names and attributes of God, for meditation and praise. Like glasses, they correct my vision of the Holy One who created me to love and serve Him.

THE PSALM’S “WHY’S”

The middle and end of Psalm 100 give us the “why’s” of thankful praise.
“Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; We are his people, the sheep of his pasture” (v. 3). “Knowing” God means we acknowledge Him as creator of the world as well as each of us. It also means recognizing our subordination to Him (“we are his”). Even more, we are in His care, “the sheep of his pasture.” As a former shepherd, King David previously used the analogy of God as shepherd in his Psalm 23. Jesus used it, too, calling Himself “The Good Shepherd” (John 10).  More than a caretaker, He is our Redeemer: “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). Sheep, inherently dumb, must be gently led by the wisdom of the Shepherd. We, too, must trust that He has only our best interests in mind. Few of us will endure, like the apostle Paul, multiple imprisonments and abuse for our faith. But even in these trials, Paul was able to say, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want” (Philippians 4:12b). The secret was trusting the Shepherd.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations (v. 5). The psalm concludes with three key attributes of God: His goodness, His love, and His faithfulness. What God inspired the authors of this psalm to write thousands of years ago is still true. The best way to contemplate the psalm’s conclusion may be to repeat it with certain words emphasized: The Lord IS.  He is GOOD. His love is FOREVER. His faithfulness CONTINUES to ALL generations.

Or, go back to the beginning of this posting for the words of the Doxology and sing them:  “Praise God from whom all blessings flow….”

 

Next: Psalm 103