Our Scripture reading for today appropriately comes from the book of Psalms – the hymnal and prayer book of God’s people for thousands of years.
Scripture: Psalm 147
Praise the Lord!
How good it is to sing praises to our God,
for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.
The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
He determines the number of the stars;
he gives to all of them their names.
Great is our Lord and abundant in power;
his understanding is beyond measure.
The Lord lifts up the downtrodden;
he casts the wicked to the ground.
Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
make melody to our God on the lyre.
He covers the heavens with clouds,
prepares rain for the earth,
makes grass grow on the hills.
He gives to the animals their food
and to the young ravens when they cry.
His delight is not in the strength of the horse
nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner,
but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who hope in his steadfast love.
Extol the Lord, O Jerusalem!
Praise your God, O Zion!
For he strengthens the bars of your gates;
he blesses your children within you.
He grants peace within your borders;
he fills you with the finest of wheat.
He sends out his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
He gives snow like wool;
he scatters frost like ashes.
He hurls down hail like crumbs—
who can stand before his cold?
He sends out his word and melts them;
he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.
He declares his word to Jacob,
his statutes and ordinances to Israel.
He has not dealt thus with any other nation;
they do not know his ordinances.
Praise the Lord!
Music is a universal human experience – some might even call it a human need. Anthropologists and historians have never, not once, come across a culture that did not incorporate music in some way, shape, or form into their life together. Language and culture change. Instruments change. Scales, melodies and harmonies change.
But music, as an expression of human life, has persisted throughout human history. In every time and place where humans have lived, there has been music.
We sing lullabies to our babies. We chant and sing our prayers. We belt at the top of our lungs when we are excited, when we are happy, when we are angry, when we need motivation or comfort or to let it all out. Music moves us in a way nothing else really can.
At this moment, we have access to more music – of all kinds, professional and individual and otherwise – than any other people in history.
And still, we come back to the psalms.
Psalm 147 is one of five ‘hallelujah’ psalms, which close out the book. Each of them begins with the same Hebrew phrase: the word ‘hallelu’ – the invitation to praise! And ‘yah’ – the first syllable of God’s unpronounceable name.
In our Bibles, this phrase gets translated as ‘Praise the Lord!’, even though we would get the idea pretty well if all of them just started out with ‘Hallelujah!’
It begins with the invitation to praise God, and sing. Let God’s people sing a song of joy and gratitude together, dancing and breaking out the tambourines and guitars!
Why? Because God is gracious, and powerful, and good, and caring, and gives us every good and wondrous thing. The psalmist describes God as the one who binds up our wounds, who heals our broken hearts, who lifts up the humble, the have-nots, the oppressed and the sidelined.
This is not a song of praise from someone who has only known joy and delight and ease. This is not the kind of song that says “you have made my life so easy, thank you.”
This psalmist has seen some things, and been to some scary places, and God has seen them through it.
Here is the good news, proclaimed for us in this ancient song: the God who numbered the stars and gave them their names is the same God who made you, who knows and loves you. The God of the universe is the God of your Mondays.
The people of God have been singing this song for thousands of years, because when it all hits the fan, this is our reminder that God is bigger and greater than we could ever imagine – and God is right here with us.
Hallelujah, indeed.