Monday Reflection – January 17, 2022
Praise the Lord!!!

Praise the Lord! How good it is to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting. Psalm 147:1

Psalm 147 is the second of five “Alleluia” hymns that close the Book of Psalms. Each of the last five Psalms starts and ends with the imperative, “Praise the Lord!” Together, these five Psalms put a final powerful note on the book that the Jewish community calls, “Praises” (tehillim). Indeed, the Psalmist closes with an extended summoning of the people to praise. Psalm 147 has three stanzas (verses 1-6, 7-11, 12-20), each of which opens with a call to praise and then outlines the reasons for praise. What should be noted about the call to praise is that it literally calls for a response. The people are called to open our mouths, lift up our voices, and join in the Psalmist’s joyful song. We are challenged to take up the songs that we have learned from the Psalmist and sing those songs out in the world.

I agree with Rolf Jacobson who asserts that we tend to think that the purpose of singing in worship is something we do as part of our relationship with God, as something we do for God. However, the direction of the call to praise at the end by the Psalmist is a little different. We are encouraged here to come to worship, to learn the praise of God, and to go out into the world and sing these songs. The praise that this Psalm calls for is the testimony about God. There are two types of praise. Firstly, there is praise that is sung to God, which generally uses the second person, ‘You’. Then there is praise that is sung about God, which generally uses the third person. For example, “The Lord lifts up the downtrodden; he casts the wicked to the ground” (147:6).

Psalm 147 is exclusively a praise sung about God. Patrick Miller writes, “the purpose of praise [is] . . . to bear witness to all who hear that God is God.” The content of the testimony of Psalm 147 is about God as Creator and Sustainer, and God as Redeemer. Focusing on God as creator, the Psalm emphasizes both the initial act of creation, but also the ongoing, sustaining actions of the creator — providing food, sending rain, and so on. In terms of redemption, the Psalm bears witness to God’s acts of blessing and redemption in Israel’s history, especially to the act of restoring Jerusalem following the Babylonian exile.

David summons us to praise God, as we sing our praises about God. For what shall we sing about God today? I firmly believe that we all have enough, indeed more than enough, reasons to sing about God. Shall we be ungrateful and withhold our praise? Shall we turn to ourselves and praise ourselves, thus committing idolatry? God deserves every measure of our praise and every opportunity we get, privately and corporately, should be spent in sincere praise about God. The world should know what God has done for us, through our praise about God. Such praise should not only be about our words and gestures in worship, but our entire lives should be a reflection of God’s lordship over our lives and our commitment to honour Him in every aspect of our living.

May God forever be praised! Praise the Lord!

Jermaine Gibson