Psalm 150

Intro

READ PSALM 150

Pray

On April 14, 1912 at 11:40PM somewhere in the Northern Atlantic Ocean, the lookout on the RMS Titanic spotted an iceberg. The First Officer William Murdach ordered the ship to be steered around the ice and for the engines to be stopped, but it was too late; the side of Titanic struck the iceberg, creating a series of holes below the waterline. Water begin to seep in and soon five of the ship's watertight compartments are filled with water and it soon it became clear that the ship that was once labeled as unsinkable was indeed sinking.

One of the most famous stories of Titanic is about the band. The band kept playing in an effort to keep passengers calm and they continued playing on the deck, even when it became apparent that ship was sinking, and according to some of the survivors, the last song they played as the ship was going down was Nearer my God to Thee. In James Cameron’s adaptation of this tragic night, I think this is one of the most powerful scenes. As people are running around, and the captains area is filling up with water, and people are running all around, and parents are comforting their kids, and there’s an elderly couple clinging to each other in their bed, and in the midst of all of that…the band is playing this wonderful hymn.

Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!

Ok, so as the ship is going down, the band is surrounded by current and impending death, and yet, they’re playing a hymn about drawing nearer to God.

I don’t know about you, but for me when I watch the news, when I read the newspaper, when I look out at the brokenness of the world that surrounds us – it feels a lot like being on a sinking ship. (pause) I don’t have to give you examples, all we need to do is open a newspaper and we’ll see countless tragedies and difficulties that will inevitably end up as mere footnotes in the year that is 2025.

We’re living in difficult times.

And the waves of frustration, and fear and confusion are crashing all around, yet we as believers gather together week after week – you all here in Kent...myself and our church in Macedonia – and we do this week after week alongside millions of believers around the world – and we sing powerful hymns like the ones we just sang, and someone each weeks stands up on a podium or stage like this each week and says, “lets talk about Jesus!” (pause) And in a way it can be easy for us to feel like the band on that sinking ship.

But here’s the deal...what the book of Psalms reminds us...is that the more we keep our eyes on Jesus, the more the problems of this world fade away. (pause) The more we draw near to him and seek HIS face...not just his hand or what he can give us...but we earnestly seek His face. We seek to know him better and grow closer to Him....the more we do that....the more we find ourselves praising Him…regardless of what’s going on around us.

Like I said, it’s been great ot hear through Pastor Jon about the twists and turns that have already unfolded in just the short history of this church plant....and our church is no stranger to change. We launched in 2020, changed our name in 2022, and have had three different locations in our time, four if you count our online phase.

Yet what’s been consistant through the ups and downs, the known, and the unknown is our focus on praise.

Friends, if you take nothing else away from our time together this morning, I want you to know that whatever comes your way in life, in this church, in you family, in your jobs....in any area of your life – regardless of your circumstances YOU are called to praise. (pause) It’s central to what it means to be in Christ...we’re worshippers giving our King his glory. .

And I think we see this illustrated in an amazing way in Psalm 150 like we just read.

And what’s amazing about this Psalm, and how the whole book of Psalms ends, is that it’s centered on praise.

Now, before we turn again at Psalm 150, I want to remind you about the layout of the book of Psalms…or I should say the bookS of Psalms. The word Psalms…in Hebrew means “a book of praise.” And this book of praise or what we call, “The Book of Psalms” is broken down into five books. And each of these 5 books culminates with a benediction of sorts.

You don’t have to turn to all of them, but maybe turn just for a second to Pslm 41.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen.

- Psalm 41:13

Blessed be his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and Amen!

- Psalm 72:19

Blessed be the Lord forever! Amen and Amen.

- Psalm 89:52

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, “Amen!” Praise the Lord!

- Psalm 106:48

So each one of these first four books ends with this similar benediction, and then….you get to book 5. And the end of book 5 we see something incredible. It’s not just the same phrase that’s repeated once at the end of the book. But no this is the grand finale!

And what we see as book 5 reaches it’s conclusion…and the entire book is reaching it’s conclusion…is that the last five chapters of book 5…all start and end with the same phrase…”Praise the Lord.”

That’s three words in English. But in Hebrew it’s just one word…and the Hebrew word is one that we all know. It’s the word Hallelujah. Say it with me, “Hallelujah.”

It’s a word that even most non-Christians have at least heard. Whether they’re talking about Hallelujah Chorus from Handell’s Messiah. Or Leonard Cohen’s famous song called Hallelujah. But the word is a combination of two Hebrew words hallel – to boast or brag and Ya- being the shortened form of God’s covenant name – Yahweh.

So to boast or brag about Yahweh. The Hymn writer says... I will not boast in anything…

See to praise the Lord is to magnify, to exult, to honor the Lord.

And that’s exactly what we’re told to do in Psalm 150.

In fact in just the six short verses of Psalm 150, we’re told 13 times to praise! And even more, what I love about this Psalm is we’re told everything that we need to know in order to praise.

I remember growing up in school we were always told to look for the 5 W’s when reading or to include the 5 W’s when writing…Who, What, When, Where, and Why. And sometimes they’d add How in there and it would mess the whole thing up because it was all neat with the W’s and so then it was the 5 W’s and an H, which just doesn’t roll off the tongue as easy. But those questions are important. Journalists are taught to answer all of these questions when reporting the news. Police investigations seek to find the answer to all of these questions.

And what’s amazing is that this Psalm answers all of those questions in regard to praising the Lord. First we see the What, then the where, then the why, then the when and how, and the who”

So if you’re a notetaker, that’s our outline today. For the rest of our time, we’re going to make our way Psalm 150 and answer those questions. (What are we told to do with regards to praise, Where should we praise, Why should we praise, When and How should we praise, and lastly Who is called to praise?)

Starting with the “what.” What are we told to do. We’ll it’s what we’ve been talking about up until this point. We’re told in verses 1 to praise the Lord….halelu-YAH…praise Yahweh!...but look at the next line… The Psalmist switches it up, he says halelu-EL…or praise God. And this might seem like a small change, but I think its important.

One commentator says it like this:

All glory, praise and honor is due not only to the God who intervened in time and space to save a sinful world (Yahweh), but also to that same God who is above and beyond our time and space (El).

Ok, so in using two names for God, the Psalmist is not saying that there are two different Gods, but he’s focusing on two different aspects of God…that God is a personal covenant God, and that God is also beyond our comprehension!

And this mystery is even further revealed as the Psalmist moves to the next W. The where. Where do we praise God? Well look at verse 1 again:

Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens!

Now, when the psalmist wrote sanctuary he wasn’t talking about the main teaching room in a church building. This was written in the Old Testament, there were no churches yet as we know them. But he was talking about the corporate gathering of God’s people. That when we gather in a church building, in a school like this, or any other corporate gathering of the people of God, praise is our primary objective!

We don’t come to church primarily to see our friends although hopefully we do. We don’t come to church to be entertained, although we do want to have a good time. We don’t even come to church primarily to be fed the word, although that is important. Our primary purpose is to praise!

In the church I have the privilege of pastoring, we currently meet in a High School. But we used to meet in a YMCA and in the school, we set up in the gymnasium, and I’ve told our team “gym” is a banned word on Sundays between 8am & 1pm. Because when we set up and gather together as believers to praise the Lord, until we tear it down, it’s a “worship center.” And there’s nothing special or holy about the building itself, but we’re there to praise God corporately.

And look at what else the Psalmist says. He says, praise him in his mighty heavens. Now remember again, this is poetry. And the Psalmist in each of these verses in this chapter is giving us an imperative and then repeating it. So he’s saying Praise God in the sanctuary and praise God in the heavens, in other words…where are we to praise God? Everywhere!

Praise isn’t just a Sunday thing. And catch this, our corporate worship is enriched when every member has been praising God wherever we’re at throughout the week! Sundays should be the great crescendo as all of us individual worshipers gather corporately to praise our great God.

To quote Charles Spurgeon….

Praise begins at home. – Spurgeon

See when our days during the week -- at work, at home, at school, or wherever we are marked with thoughts and expressions of praise, then when we gather together corporately our praise should ring out all the louder!

But what’s the reason? Why do should we praise him? We’ve talked about the what, the where, but why? Well look at verse 2.

Praise him for his mighty deeds;

praise him according to his excellent greatness!

Ok, so he gives two reason. First we praise him because of what he’s done. This is what the psalmist is talking about in Psalm 19 isn’t it. Psalm 19. The heaven’s declare the glory of God. How can we not praise the God who created the oceans. The God who speaks galaxy’s into existence, right?! But it doesn’t stop there. Because the one who created everything has also opened himself up to be known by us! He’s revealed himself to us! So we can thank God for his creation, his revelation…his redemption! I mean think about it. This perfect God, who knows all of our imperfections has provided a way for us to be made right with Him! That by putting out faith in Jesus we can spend eternity with Him?! And not only that, but we don’t have to live in constant fear of whether or not we’re still on God’s good side because he also keeps those who are his, secure in Him. So creation, revelation, redemption, preservation, and so many more, there are so many mighty deeds we have to praise Him for.

But look at the other half of verse 2. We’re not just praising Him for what he’s done, but also for who he is!

And this is so important for us to grasp because if we’re honest there are times when its difficult to focus on what God’s done. When hardships, and uncertainty, and heartache cause us to forget and we can’t see past our struggles in the moment. How can we avoid losing sight of God and what he’s done? Well, friends what I want us to realize this morning is that when the clouds of despair blur our vision and we can’t focus on all of those mighty deeds, we just focus on who He is!

I want to introduce you all to a man who I recently discovered just a few years ago. A man who has become one of my heroes, but has been lost to the footnotes of history, and his name is Lumuel Haynes. Has anyone heard of Lemuel Haynes?

Lemuel Haynes was born on July 1, 1753 in West Hartford, Connecticut, which at the time was one of the colonies. His parents abandoned him at birth, and he ended up being adopted and raised by a God fearing man who named him Lemuel after an obscure reference in Proverbs 31. And while an abandoned African American baby in the 18thcentury would usually end up being a slave or worse, thanks to this God fearing man named David Rose, who adopted him, Lemuel became an indentured servant, and ultimately he would go on to study the teaching of John Edwards and George Whitfield, and he would eventually became the first African-American ordained minister in the US and the first African American to pastor a predominantly white congregation…okay? In the late 1700s.

Now, why am I mentioning Lemuel Haynes? Well because the difficulties he faced would make our difficulties pale in comparison. His parents abandoned him. He lived in servitude for 21 years. When he was 21 he joined the continental Army in the American Revolution and fought for two years until he got Typhus in 1776. He almost drowned on multiple occasions, He was gored by an ox, and his adopted parents died when he was young. He endured ridicule and constant threats on his life, as you can imagine, being a free man in the late 1700’s and early 1800s. Ok, so this was a man who suffered greatly. But look at what he said.

“He who observes providence will have providences to observe.” – Lemuel Haynes

What does it mean? Well it means when we keep our eyes on Jesus, when he focus on who he is…not just what he’s done, but the truths that we know about him in his word, then…as the old hymn says, the things of earth will grow strangely dim…in the light of his glory and grace.

Listen, we don’t follow Christ to guarantee that we’ll have an easy life, just but when we keep our eyes on him, we can see the blessings we might not have noticed before.

So how and when do we praise God we do take notice of these blessings?

Well we see the answer in verses 3-5 and the answer is this…how and when do we praise God? “All the time and with all we’ve got.”

Look at verses 3-5.

3Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! 4 Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! 5 Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!

Now many commentators key in on the significance of the particular instruments listed, and say that certain ones of the instruments represented certain feasts and special occasions for Israel and that the Psalmist by mentioning these specific instruments was basically saying Praise God year round, hence the “all the time.” But what I want us to focus on this morning is the fact that there’s a joyous ring to these verses isn’t there? Worship isn’t meant to be a somber painful task…we should enjoy it!

“I can safely say, on the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of God, that any man or woman on this earth who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for heaven.”—A.W. Tozer

Friends, if we’re worshipping the God who made everything around us, we should show some excitement during worship. And I know many of us are just more reserved, that’s our personality and that’s okay! I’m not saying we all need to be jumping around and getting a workout either. Sometimes we can swing too far in the other direction and it becomes a performance. All I’m saying is that our faces should reflect what’s going on inside. And if we’re really focusing on praising the creator of the universe, it should show.

Which leads to our final point. We’ve talked about the What, the where, the why, the how and when, and lastly the who. Not the band. But Who should praise God.

6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

Now, this is huge, it doesn’t say let everyone who feelslike praising praise the Lord, praise the Lord. It doesn’t say let everyone is successful praise the Lord. No, it says let everything that has breath praise the Lord. So who’s praising the Lord? We’re all called to praise the Lord regardless of our circumstances!

Going back to our friend Lemuel Haynes. After a moving around countless times in his early life, he found a church that accepted him for several decades where he preached into his 70s. Then as the racial divide grew and the doctrine of the church begin to go in a different, less orthadox, he ended up losing his job. And afterwards, when he could have lashed out. He could have thought of many reasons to be angry.

"I have been examining myself and looking back upon my life, but I can find nothing in myself and nothing in all my services to recommend me at the bar of Jehovah. Christ is my all. His blood is my only hope of acceptance."Lemuel Haynes

You see, he wasn’t focused on this life. He was focused on what was to come. And this thought. His focus on this finished word of Christ, and his hope for the future was his reason for praise…not his circumstances. Lemuel Haynes passed away on September 28 1833, and he was blessed to write his own epitaph and here is what it said, the words have since faded.

“Here lies the dust of a poor hell-deserving sinner who ventured into eternity trusting wholly on the merits of Christ for salvation. In the full belief of the great doctrines he preached while on earth, he invites his children, and all who read this, to trust their eternal interest in the same foundation.” – Lemuel Haynes

See he knew that the trials and uncertainty of this life, were not the end of the story. And with his focus on the end of the story…eternity…he was able to continue to lift up his praise even in the unknown!

And the same is true for us today. Its because we know the end of the story, that we can keep on praising during the difficult parts of the story.

See, this is where it all comes together with the book of Psalms. The Book of Psalms (and really the entire Old Testament, but the whole Book of Psalms ultimately points to Jesus. The individual psalms in the book of psalms are not just isolated songs like you might find in a hymnal. In hymnals the songs are all about God, but you don’t look to hymn number 3 to understand hymn number 48, right? But just like every book in the Old Testament, the book of Psalms points straight to Jesus! And that’s seen when you again look at the whole book in it’s entirety.

Because, When you do that you see that the first few books are heavily dominated by Psalms of lament. Psalms that focus on the predicament of the Psalmists. There are some Psalms of praise, in the first few books as well, but they’re outnumbered by lament. But as the book goes on, this switches. And we see more Psalms of praise that begin to outnumber the Psalms of lament.

Because like we said Psalms…even in the name is a book about praise. It’s forward looking book if you will. The Psalms allow us to look at our situation, and we weep and cry how long o lord, but ultimately the Psalmist were comforted and continued to praise because they were looking forwardto the promise one who is to come.

And when we read these Psalms and our lament turns to praise, we’re looking backwards at the promised one who came, but we’re also looking forward to his return! We in what Theologians call the already – not yet. Because we have the privilege of looking back at what Jesus did for us, but also being forward looking to what is promised to us.

And what is that promise that can turn our lament to praise? Well jump with me over to Revelation 19 and with this we’ll close.

The word Hallelujah is mentioned 24 times in the OT, the majority are in the Psalms. But then its mentioned again four times in the NT and all four uses are here in Revelation 19. The where now is in heaven. Where there’s a great multitude has gathered before the throne in the presence of God Himself. It is the wedding supper of the Lamb. The enemies of God have been overthrown, and the gospel has triumphed. In a victory cry, all of heaven is ringing with praise!

1After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah!

3 Once more they cried out,

“Hallelujah!

4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!”

6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;

Friends, this is the image that when we keep in mind, allows us to praise God in the midst of the unknown.

Like the Psalmists, God had given us the privillage of looking forward with great anticipation to promised coming of the promised one! And we know that when we returns, he will usher in with him the promises of eternity spent with God where there will be no more suffering...there will be no more death for those who put their trust hope in the Lord! There will be no more tears, or pain…or heartache….or Facebook arguments.

And brothers and sisters, when we operate with eternity in mind, how can we not praise? When we realize the God we serve…the God we can praise anytime, anywhere is the one to home these living creatures in Revelation that we can’t even comprehend…they’re falling down before God’s throne, then we can praise him. And with that in mind, we realize that our praises are not just the dying tunes on a sinking ship, but the confident expectation of a glorious reality that is yet to come! And even if the metaphorical ship we’re on called life does crash and begins to sink…we can still sing praises when we keep our eyes on him because we know that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

So I’ve got to ask, do you KNOW him? Do you know this love? Do you have a saving relationship with Him? Maybe your heart is being stirred and you have questions and I’d love to chat with you.

And if you do know him, then lets praise him together as we sing this final song together.

Let everything that has breath Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

Hallelujah