Sermon Tone Analysis

On a typical week for me, usually on Tuesday or Wednesday, I will get ready for leading worship for the next Sunday’s meeting.

I’ll pick songs and scripture verses and arrange them around a theme to be the main idea for our worship.

A lot of the times, that theme will end up working in concert with the sermon in a surprising way.

Almost as if the whole thing was planned that way.

The only thing…is that it never is.

Separately, without anybody comparing notes, without preplanning, the themes of our times of worship have accompanied the opening and preaching of God’s word and these two parts of our Sunday meeting routinely fit together in amazing and unexpected ways.

I want to be absolutely clear, this happens not because of some unique or special gifting in any of us who preach or lead worship, this occurs not because every part of our meeting has been planned down to the last detail… I am completely convinced, this happens because the Spirit of God is actually at work and not just on Sunday mornings but also Monday through Saturday.

This is clearly God’s church, and He has things to say for all of us.

It builds my faith so much when I see this week in and week out.

This past week was no exception, however it played out in a surprisingly different and humbling way.

Last weekend, my family and I were out of town to celebrate with my sister as she got married.

After a whirlwind of travel arraignments and flights and car trips… we got back into town last Sunday evening, and after unpacking the car, and putting our kids to bed, I sat down and listened to Jeffs message from last week online.

Now before this while I was on the plane to California I had been putting the finishing touches on this mornings message and now was eager to listen to Jeff as he preached through Psalm 111.

About 15 minutes in, to my disbelief, I came to the realization that Jeffs message last week and the one I had just finished preparing were essentially identical.

Without any planning or coordination, Jeff and I had separately prepared basically the same sermon.

It was bizarre…There were several parts that were almost word for word exactly the same.

I just couldn’t believe it.

The biggest difference being: Jeff said stuff way better than I ever could.

But I got to the end of the livestream and my first thought was, “This guy just preached my message!”

And immediately after having that very arrogant thought, I felt like I heard the Lord gently say, “No, that guy just preached my message.”

But I thought, “I can’t show up and preach the exact same message!

What will people think?

They’re gonna think I just copied Jeff!

Maybe I should come up with something completely different… seven days before it was time to preach.”

I was very optimistic.

But optimism gave way to that familiar last minute panic of trying to start a term paper 5 minutes before it’s due.

And I felt God’s spirit gently convict my heart, as if to say to me “My praise is more important than your comfort level.

Tell the church again to Praise their Lord.”

And last minute panic gave way to reluctance, as this week did not go at all how I wanted it to… with more reliance on God’s sustaining grace than in my own preparation.

As if another look into God’s word on the topic of Praising the LORD was somehow redundant or just not really worth our time?!

The last 5 chapters of Psalms the term Praise is used 45 times… the psalmists clearly weren’t concerned at all about again and again and again calling God’s people to praise the LORD.

The writer of psalm 149 didn’t seem to be too worried about copying the writer of Psalm 148 by opening the song with the same exact loud exclamation of “Praise the Lord!”

Evidently this is something that is important enough to be repeated and looked at, and to be reminded of… over and over again.

So this morning, I have the privilege of bringing our sermon series “Summer in the Psalms” to a close with a message newly titled “Praise the Lord.

Part 2”… For the past 7 weeks, my soul has been helped, and encouraged, and served so well by our time in this book.

We began with chapter 1 where we saw how someone who delights in the law of the Lord is like a tree planted next to an ever flowing stream, prospering in all that they do, but the wicked are blown away like chaff in the wind and will ultimately perish.

Then in Chapter 2 we saw our first sighting of Jesus as God’s anointed one, as the nations rage and the people’s plot, God looks and laughs… The anointed Son is coming soon, and he will break the nations with a rod of iron.

Psalm 13… We see how God permits our humanity as David cries out “How long o Lord?

Will you forget me forever.”

When it feels like God has forgotten us, or left us, we can cry out to God and express those human emotions to him.

And we can preach to ourselves the steadfast love of God.

Then in Psalm 51, we saw how David expressed his sorrow and remorse for his sin and how the reality is, our sin is bigger than we think, but God’s mercy in forgiving us and saving us is greater still.

Psalm 27, we were helped by seeing how David sees God.

And the need for us to seek God’s face first above all else.

And last week in Psalm 111 Jeff encouraged us to embrace the call to Praise the Lord.

Not as just some filler phrase to say when good things happen, but to truly praise God for both who he is and what he has done.

And now we come to the final chapter in the Psalms, and be fore we get there.

it’s almost like as you reach the end of this book, there is a growing crescendo of a theme in the last few chapters.

There is a sense of growing excitement and building anticipation.

If you read this massive book you see it’s filled with the entire spectrum of human emotion and experiences and there is this unanswered question hovering above them all, begging to be answered.

After all these songs about feeling the weight of sin, the comfort of the Lord leading us as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, the hopelessness of feeling like God has forgotten you, the joy of finding our refuge in God, our fortress, the bitterness of being betrayed by a close friend, the sorrow of the loss of a loved one….

over all of these very real, very raw, and very relatable emotions and experiences this question floats above them all:

“So now what?” “Where do we go from here?”

Look, It is freeing to know that God does not dismiss us or rebuke us for having emotions.

We aren’t supposed to be stoic or consider emotions a bad thing.

He created us to feel them.

They are an expression of our bearing his image.

And it is freeing even further to know we can take those emotions and direct those thoughts to God… but what do we do after that?

What do you do after crying out to God, “Father I’ve been waiting for so long for you bring my back my wayward son or daughter.

How long do I have to wait?”

What happens after you pray, “Lord, it’s been years since I was betrayed by my close friend, I still feel my heart race and a lump forms in my throat when I simply hear their name spoken aloud.

God, you feel far away from me in those moments.”

What are we supposed to do after years and years of asking God for the healing of a disease, but his answer seems to alway be.

Not yet?

Whats left for us to do when the grief of losing a child is still fresh and raw in your soul?

And you’ve offered that up to the LORD but you still feel it?

Like I said, It is very freeing and there is real comfort found in offering up these candid cries to our God who hears them.

But even after all that, we’re left in this sort of paused moment, “ok now what?”

What should we do now?

Where do we go after that?

And the final 5 chapters of the Psalms, which are filled with these dramatic doxologies, accelerate one after the other into the unexpected answer to that question with increasing passion and excitement you can almost feel it.

Just look at the beginning of each of these final chapters

Ps 146:1-2

Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord, O my soul!

I will praise the Lord as long as I live;

I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

Psalm 147:1

Praise the Lord!

For it is good to sing praises to our God;

for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.

Psalm 148:1-3

Praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord from the heavens;

praise him in the heights!

Praise him, all his angels;

praise him, all his hosts!

Praise him, sun and moon,

praise him, all you shining stars!

Psalm 149:1

Praise the Lord!

Sing to the Lord a new song,

his praise in the assembly of the godly!

These are not meant to be slogans.

These aren’t trying to get you “Fake it till you feel it.”

These psalms aren’t saying “Hey everyone, I know life can be rough sometimes, but lets put a smile on our faces and just keep on keeping on, praise the Lord.”

No.

These Psalms are meant to reorient our minds and our hearts to direct praise where it is due even while experiencing the toughness of life.

That’s what we do next.

We praise God.