Psalm 148
1 Hallelujah! Praise the
Lord from the heavens;
praise God in the
heights.
2 Praise the Lord, all
you angels;
sing praise, all you hosts
of heaven.
3 Praise the Lord, sun
and moon;
sing praise, all you shining
stars.
4 Praise the Lord, heaven
of heavens,
and you waters above the
heavens.
5 Let them praise the
name of the Lord,
who commanded, and they were
created,
6 who made them stand
fast forever and ever,
giving them a law that
shall not pass away.
7 Praise the Lord from
the earth,
you sea monsters and all
deeps;
8 fire and hail, snow
and fog,
tempestuous wind, doing
God’s will;
9 mountains and all
hills,
fruit trees | and all
cedars;
10 wild beasts and all
cattle,
creeping things and flying
birds;
11 sovereigns of the
earth and all peoples,
princes and all rulers of
the world;
12 young men and
maidens,
old and young together.
13 Let them praise the
name of the Lord,
whose name only is exalted,
whose splendor is over earth and heaven.
14 The Lord has raised
up strength for the people and praise for all faithful servants,
the children of Israel,
a people who are near the Lord. Hallelujah!
Reflection
There
are not too many times of the year where we spend so much time praising God as
at Christmastime.
Praise, of course, comes out of a deep sense of gratefulness and joy. For example, as a child, when the Christmas morning came that I finally got to open up the one gift that I had been waiting for over the course of years (a Power Wheels police motorcycle, like the ones I saw Poncho and Jon ride on the TV series, CHIPs) I must have excitedly thanked my Mom at least two hundred times. I would wheel past while she was washing dishes and say, “Thank you, Mom!” I would wheel past while she was folding laundry and say, “Thank you, Mom!” I would wheel past while I was supposed to be brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed and say, “Thank you, Mom!”
You get the idea. I was full of praise for the great thing that my mom had done…oh, and my dad. I am sure he had a hand in buying to too.
And, during Christmas, we sing our thanks and praise to God for giving us Jesus, the Messiah, Emmanuel, God with us. We longed to be connected to God, to have God with us, walking and talking with us, and in Jesus we have it! What is there not to be excited about? What is there that would keep us from singing songs of praise?
The gospel writers certainly offer us glimpses of praise at the birth of Jesus! We see Mary sing her heart out as she finds out about the coming of the Lord, in her own belly. We hear angels sing full voice as the Shepherds see the heavens open, revealing the choir of heavenly beings, all praising God. And, though it is not in the Bible, we often hear tales about cattle, sheep, and even poultry in the stable all giving their praise for what God has done in giving the world the gift of Jesus.
Where does the inspiration for all of this praise come from? You need look no further than Psalm 148 that has all the heavenly beings as well as all creation singing God’s praise. Now, Psalm 148 does not talk about Jesus, but you can see how both the followers of Jesus and the writers of our Christmas hymns are all highly influenced by its poetry.
Psalm 148:1-2 begins excitedly with: “Hallelujah! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise God in the heights. Praise the Lord, all you angels; sing praise, all you hosts of heaven.”
That is right; the heavenly angels give their praise of all that God has done in creation. At Jesus birth, they sing once again about God sending Jesus to redeem the world. We still sing of it this day in verses 1 and 4 of “Angels from the Realm of Glory.”
Angels from the realm of Glory
1 Angels, from the realms of glory,
wing your flight o'er all the earth;
once you sang creation's story,
now proclaim Messiah's birth:
Come and worship, come and worship,
worship Christ, the newborn king.
4 All creation, join in praising
God, the Father, Spirit, Son,
evermore your voices raising
to the eternal Three in One.
Come and worship, come and worship,
worship Christ, the newborn king.
You heard the hymn right. Not only are the angels praising God, but so is “all creation.” Even before our hymns were written, Psalm 148:7-10 tells us of creation’s praise. “Praise the Lord from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps; fire and hail, snow and fog, tempestuous wind, doing God’s will; mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars; wild beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds…”
Sea monsters and ocean depths, fire and hail, mountains and hills, fruit trees and cedars, the wild animals such as bears and domesticated animals such as cows and cats, even creeping spiders and flying blue birds all give praise to the Lord for all that the Lord has done in creating and sustaining each of them. Maybe, those early Christmas hymn writers were not so far off in having the cattle and sheep giving their quiet praise at the humble cradle of the Christ child.
And, though I do not necessarily want to, I feel compelled to point out that even snow and blustery winds are praising God in Psalm 148. Of course, not everyone has a negative relationship with the winter. As Carl Reiner once quipped, “A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.”
But, the Bible was not written by people who had to shovel the stuff. In an arid desert, snow was the unlikely gift of water to a people suffering from dry conditions. Snow is a type of liquid manna, falling in the desert. Snow is a miraculous cause for praise for those in arid conditions.
So, yes, even snow and the cutting wind that accompanies it, joins in praising God and is still remembered in the Christmas song of praise: “In the Bleak Midwinter.”
In the Bleak Midwinter
1 In the bleak midwinter,
frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron,
water like a stone;
snow had fallen, snow on snow,
snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter,
long ago.
Do not forget that Psalm 148:9 also has “mountains and all hills” praising the Lord who is exalted over all the heavens and the earth. Along with mountains and hills, all creation repeats the sounding joy of God as we still sing in verses 1 and 2 of “Joy to the World.”
Joy to the World
1 Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her king;
let ev'ry heart prepare him room
and heav'n and nature sing,
and heav'n and nature sing,
and heav'n, and heav'n and nature
sing.
2 Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let all their songs employ,
while fields and floods, rocks,
hills, and plains
repeat the sounding joy,
repeat the sounding joy,
repeat, repeat the sounding joy.
And, why does all creation sing their praise to God? First, God has taken the time to create us in the first place. And, to some of us in creation, God even breathes in us life. Rocks still give their praise, though they did not get this gift. So, we should give praise even more so than rocks!
This breath of life is so taken for granted, but as every person with asthma knows…every person who has struggled to suck in that life giving air…the breath of life is truly a gift to get excited about.
So, even if you cannot rejoice in anything else in this hard life, at least rejoice that you can take a breath. Take a breath and know that you are blessed! Take a breath and give thanks to God for that gift.
We do take the time to rejoice at each gift that the Lord provides, because God did not have to give any of it. All creation is enslaved to sin and death. All creation is subject to harm, and falling apart, and eventual death and crumbling. Therefore, all creation gives praise to God when it is given a hope that it can be blessed and restored again. Verse 3 of “Joy to the World” gets at this source of praise.
Joy to the World
3 No more let sin and sorrow grow
nor thorns infest the ground;
he comes to make his blessings flow
far as the curse is found,
far as the curse is found,
far as, far as the curse is found.
“Let them praise the name of the Lord, whose name only is exalted, whose splendor is over earth and heaven” the writer of Psalm 148:13 exclaims.
And, at Christmas, we praise God for plowing the fields and making creation ready for the planting of a savior who will redeem not only lowly people, but will redeem all creation. Romans 8:22 says “that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now." God has plowed a furrow, a trench, in which is planted the Messiah who spreads his arms wide to redeem all creation. Colossians says of Christ Jesus, “He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). So, we sing praises out loud for those furrows to receive the glorious seed of Jesus, the Messiah, as we sing in verse 2 of “People Look East.”
People Look East
2 Furrows, be glad. Though earth is
bare,
one more seed is planted there.
Give up your strength the seed to
nourish,
that in course the flow'r may
flourish.
People, look east, and sing today—
Love, the Rose, is on the way.
All creation celebrates God’s redemptive task! All earth is hopeful!
All Earth Is Hopeful
1 All earth is hopeful, the Savior comes
at last!
Furrows lie open for God's creative
task:
this, the labor of people who
struggle to see
how God's truth and justice set
ev'rybody free.
So, this Christmas we will continue to sing our praises to God for Jesus. We will listen to the writer of Colossians as he instructs us to: “With gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God” (Colossians 3:16).
After-all, when you sing praises to God, you are actually doing something quite holy and quite essential to the faith. Even if you if you sing off tune, you are still letting Christ do something so, so important in your life. You let Christ thrive in you. So, this Christmas and beyond, sing your praises to God and “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16).
*Thank you to Sermon Brainwave hosts Rolf Jacobson, and Caroline Lewis for these examples from hymnody.
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