Why Praise

Why Praise?

For First Congregational Church of Bellevue, UCC

September 22, 2019

Scripture: Psalm 113

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

Praise the Lord! We hear it all the time, and it certainly is what Psalm 113 is calling us to do; but I have a confession to make. I used to have a really hard time understanding what the purpose of our praising God is. I mean, it’s not like God needs our praise. God is, I am sure, far above needing praise or much of anything else from us. I suppose the point is that we need to praise God not because God needs it but because we do. Praising God is an important part of worship and of prayer. When we praise God we are giving God thanks for the ways God has blessed us and has blessed the whole world with God’s love. Praising God connects us with God. It brings God into our hearts and into our lives. It makes God, God’s unshakable solidarity with us, and God’s grace-filled blessings real for us. Sometimes that’s what it takes to g?et us through the night in these troubled times. So yes indeed. Praise the Lord! It is a vital and necessary thing for people of faith to do.

But there’s a problem here, isn’t there. Calling us to praise God isn’t all that Psalm 113 does. It also says that God raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. Whenever I read scripture saying that God does things like that I want to say: Really? To be honest about it, it isn’t at all apparent that God does that. I mean, both our nation and the world are full of poor people living actually or metaphorically in the dust and on the ash heaps of the earth. The policies of our federal government these days seem intent on not just keeping them there but forcing more and more people into that dust and onto those ash heaps. God cares for the poor and for all people spiritually, but physically? Really?

So are Psalm 113 and so many other passages in the Bible just wrong when they say that God takes care of the poor and needy in very real, physical ways? It sure would be easy to answer yes to that question given how, as Jesus says, the poor we always have with us. So what are we to make of verses like Psalm 113’s that say that God rescues the poor and the needy?

Here’s what I think we’re to make of them. Consider that what Psalm 113 is really saying is not so much that God does good work for the poor on God’s own. Consider that what Psalm 113 is really doing is telling us that our lives of faith aren’t finished when we leave worship. In worship we come closer to God. Ideally at least our spirits are refreshed and strengthened. And then. Then God calls us to get to work. To get on with the task of raising the poor from the dust and the needy from the ash heap. God does that, but God does it through people like us. We are God’s hands for that work. That’s how I think we should hear Psalm 113.

That work isn’t easy. The need is so great and the opposition to policies that would really work to relieve poverty are so powerful. Some of that opposition even claims to be Christian. It says if people are poor it’s their own fault. It says God is punishing them for some sin they committed. Well, that’s what the Pharisees said in Jesus’ time, and Jesus said no. He said no then and he says no now. He said blessed are the poor, and he called his people to do something about people being poor. He calls us to do the same. And yes, I know that many of you do a lot of that work already. But there’s always more to do. God always calls us to that more. That, folks, is how I think we need to understand our scripture this morning.

So listen now to the words of Psalm 113 not read but sung. Perhaps the music will take those words deeper into your heart. Perhaps the melody will make them more real for you. Perhaps then those words will prod all of us to do more to make what the psalm says God does more real in the world. May it be so. Amen.