Sing Praise

We are working our way through the sections of the hymnal in our summer series, and today we come to the section on praise. Last week, Bev led us through thoughts on gathering and worship. There is, of course, overlap between the different themes. Praise and worship and thanksgiving are all interrelated, so those speaking on each theme can be expected to repeat some of the same ideas. That is not a problem. In fact, it is a positive benefit, since it helps us in our exploration of each theme.

 

We read two Scriptures only among the many we could have referenced. Psalm 95 calls us to sing praises to God, who is our Creator and our Salvation and our Ruler. Many of the psalms have similar shouts of praise. Sometimes they lead to an exhortation to listen to God’s voice and obey God in our lives, as in this Psalm. Sometimes they occur in the middle of deep cries of pain. Sometimes they come at the end of grief and sadness, which leave us wondering why we would praise God at that moment.

 

In every case, they remind us that praise is the lifeblood of God’s people. We praise God who made us. We praise God who saves us. We praise God who rules our lives. Praise is what God’s people do. Always and in every circumstance. You remember how the New Testament puts it: “In everything give thanks” (1 Th 5: 18); “Always give thanks to God for everything (Eph 5:20). Thanksgiving is basic to praise. Praise is the lifeblood of God’s people.

 

The gospel reading is a well-known passage in Matthew 6, which gives us what we call “The Lord’s Prayer”. I observe only the beginning of the prayer: “Our Father in Heaven, let your name be acknowledged as holy.” You can see that this is a prayer beginning in praise. The old acronym ACTS is built on this model. ACTS stands for Adoration – Confession – Thanksgiving – Supplication. Adoration is the action of praise as modelled in the Lord’s Prayer. Prayer begins in praise, as Jesus himself taught us. 

 

Why is Praise so Important? 

Here is the basic question: Why is it so important to praise God? I want to spend some time on this question, because the answer helps us to structure our lives in ways that are good for us and that honour the God who made us. 

 

We could answer that it is important, because the Psalms make praise basic to lament and to supplication and to all of the appeals we make to God. When we turn to God, we begin and end in praise. But that answer is only to say that praise is important because praise is important. So, why is it something we do when we appeal to God? 

 

To some extent, I am trying to work this out myself. I don’t understand God, nor do I understand fully what God wants me to do, but here is my effort to grasp the necessity of praise. It all begins, I think, with the way that we experience life and the way that we see reality. 

 

When we come into this world, everything revolves around us. We see and hear and learn based on the observed fact that we are the centre of our own little universe. As we grow, we learn that other people matter too, and our world begins to expand a bit. As adults, we have a fuller view of reality, but the truth is that we all still experience life first of all through our own skin. 

 

As a result of this necessary self-centredness, we think that the world is good or bad based on what our own life is like. If we experience great joy, we think that life is great. If we experience great suffering, we think that life is bad. We tend to evaluate the whole of reality based on what our own little piece of reality is like. 

 

Now surely our own limited experience of life is not a good guide to the whole of reality, but it is hard to get beyond it. When I feel sick or experience great loss, reality as a whole feels bad. I may know objectively that the world is not a bad place, but it feels like one to me. Similarly, when everything in my own experience is rosy – a good job, good family, and good community – it is hard for me to grasp the complexities of famine and warfare elsewhere. 

 

One of the ways that we move beyond this limited self-centred perspective on reality is to involve ourselves in the larger world. Some of us have worked oversees in various countries. Others of us have stayed here in Steinbach, but we have involved ourselves in the almost invisible layers of our community, and as a result our boundaries have broadened. Some of us read voraciously and our world has become much bigger. This involvement in the larger world gives us a better view of reality. 

 

The fact remains, however, that even our larger perspective is still limited. It is limited by our own finite minds, and we can easily conclude that the whole of reality is something quite different than it is. To see reality properly, we need a perspective that can see the whole picture, and none of us is nearly big enough to do that. 

 

The Place of Praise 

When we praise God, we take a step towards that larger perspective. We focus our hearts and minds on the One who really does see and know everything. We begin to get out of our own skin and see the world as God sees it. We see and express a reality that is beyond our own limited and finite minds, a reality big enough to build our lives on.

 

The whole process is similar to what happens when we look at certain paintings. Have you ever stood so close to a painting that all you can see are individual blobs of colour? Then, as you back up and can take in the whole canvas, the blobs of colour turn into a picture of startling beauty and clarity.

 

A similar effect – contrasting what we see close up and what we see at a distance – appears in the picture we used for our Gathering Sunday hanging on the wall in our foyer. Close up, so close you could touch the picture, you can see the names of individual people in the congregation. As you back up, you can take in the whole picture, full of wind and waves. If you are actually living within one of those names, you cannot even see the wind and the waves of which you are a part. We live close up, and we see what is right around us, but we also need the perspective of standing back to see the whole picture. 

 

Think about that image for a bit. The little blob of paint in which you live your whole life may be a blob of particularly dark and stormy paint, so that all you can see is hardship and struggle and pain. If you could step back, however, you would begin to see the bigger picture in which there is joy and beauty and delight beyond imagining. Praise is the act of stepping back and listening for God’s voice, beginning to see with God’s eyes. Only so can we discover the reality on which we can build our lives. 

 

A Musical Illustration 

You may heard of Tolkein’s great trilogy, “Lord of the Rings”. The story is set in “Middle-Earth”, and Tolkein constructed a complete history of his world, complete with a creation story. His prehistory of Middle-Earth is found in The Silmarillion. It begins with Iluvatar, the name that Tolkein uses for the Creator God, singing a wonderful melody that brings all of creation into being. I will describe what happens, using our own names for the process.

 

First there are the Ainur, Tolkein’s name for the angels and archangels. The angels and archangels begin to sing with God, filling out the melody with the harmonies God puts within them. Then the greatest of these beings decides that he wants to sing his own melody. His name in Tolkein’s story is Melchor. We could call him Lucifer, the Son of the Morning.

 

Lucifer, whom we have come to know as Satan, begins to sing a different song, one that destroys instead of creates and brings harsh pain instead of joy and delight. Soon others of the angels begin to sing with him, and darkness grows within the song of joy and beauty and wonder that God is singing with the hosts of Heaven.

 

God hears Satan’s song of pain and destruction and takes the harsh melodies, weaving them together into a new song greater and more wonderful even than the first song. These combined melodies and harmonies are of an almost unbearable beauty. Then the angels – good and bad – see that the combined melodies have brought into being, the whole of our created order.

 

Tolkein has given us a picture of what he thinks happens in creation. The picture is one of great delight, but it contains scenes of unspeakable pain. This past week we have heard again of the pain that besets our own country, with the rediscovery of 751 unmarked graves in southeast Saskatchewan. We are reminded of the deaths of so many children in the residential schools of our country.

 

This reminder is only one of many dark places in our history. Sometimes we feel as though we are caught up in Melchor-Satan’s countermelody of grief and destruction. We are reminded that Jesus said of Satan that the thief comes only to kill and steal and destroy. We are trapped in that trail of destruction – until we begin to sing again our songs of praise. Haltingly, almost afraid to praise God in the middle of our heartache and heart break, we sing to God. In the act of praise, we begin again to hear the larger melody that God sings. Gradually, our voices strengthen, and we become able to see the joy and beauty of life, greater than all of our sin and failures. 

 

Voices Together 

Praise reconnects us with God. Praise reconnects us with the greater reality of God’s presence and work in our world. As we praise God, we begin again to hear God’s voice and feel God’s heart. We rediscover the strength we need to live as God’s people in this world. Praise does not eliminate the pain and hurt of our lives, but it connects us again with the strength we need to live in this world.

 

Our new hymnal, Voices Together, has a strong section of hymns of praise to help us in this great task of healing our souls. Some of the hymns are old and well-loved; some are new and will need learning. Some old hymns have new words, which can help us grow in our understanding of who God is and who we are. They are in English and German and other languages from Africa and Indonesia. Together they give us the resources to rediscover God and to begin to see reality again with God’s eyes. They help us build the foundation of our lives anew so that we can live fully the justice and peace that God brings into our world.

 

Hear just two examples. First, the old 606 (#118 in the blue hymnal) is now #70. This version of the doxology – Praise God from whom all blessings flow – is a hymn to sing when all seems dark around us. Voices raised united in praise to God remind us that even unmarked graves are not the end. God is present and God gives us strength and wisdom to find new paths when our own strength and understanding fail.

 

Second, a hymn in the closing section of the hymnal – “Sending” – reminds us that God receives our praise but does not need our praise. Here are the words from #814.

 

O God beyond all praising, we worship you today,

and sing the love amazing that songs cannot repay;

For we can only wonder at every gift you send,

at blessings without number and mercies without end.

We lift our hearts before you and wait upon your Word,

we honour and adore you, our great and mighty Lord.

 

The flower of earthly splendour in time must surely die,

its fragile bloom surrender to you, the Lord most high.

But hidden from all nature, th’eternal seed is sown,

though small in mortal stature, to heaven’s garden grown;

for Christ, your gift from heaven, from death has set us free,

and we through him are given the final victory.

 

Then hear, a gracious Saviour, accept the love we bring,

that we who know your favour may serve you as our King.

And whether our tomorrows be filled with good or ill,

we’ll triumph through our sorrows and rise to bless you still;

to marvel at your beauty and glory in your ways,

and make a joyful duty our sacrifice of praise. 

 

 

Steinbach Mennonite Church 

4 July 2021 

 

Texts 

Psalm 95: 1 to 7

¹ O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 

³ For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. ⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. ⁵ The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed. 

⁶ O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! ⁷ For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. 

 

Matthew 6: 5 to 15 

⁵ “And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. ⁶ But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 

⁷ “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 

⁹ “Pray then in this way: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. ¹⁰ Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. ¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread. ¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ¹³ And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.’ 

¹⁴ For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; ¹⁵ but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

 

Looking Ahead: Why is “praising” so important in Christian worship? What’s going on when we “praise the Lord”? 

 

Focus Statement: Praise re-orients us and helps rebuild the foundations of our lives.