Scripture: Psalm 136:1-28
Date: February 20, 2011
Speaker: Sean Higgins
What we say says something. So does how we say what we say. We may not always use the precise words or the logic or the gestures or the tone that we wished we would have, but we are always saying something in addition to the list of vocabulary words in our sentences.
When it comes to corporate worship, the same thing applies. No matter how pre-planned or unrehearsed, no matter the number (or style or instrumentation) of songs, the duration of the sermon, the placement of the pulpit, or how many eyes are closed during prayer, we are saying something in everything we do, and only some of what we’re saying can be found in the words that come out of our mouths while we’re doing it.
A relevant word in this discussion is the word liturgy. It’s a scary word for most of us, either because we grew up in highly liturgical churches (Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, some Presbyterian and Reformed) or because we grew up in churches that made fun of highly liturgical churches. The word liturgy simply refers to the form of worship, the formula or pattern of praise, especially religious services. We talk about “high” liturgy (highly-structured, thoroughly thought out ahead of time) or “low” liturgy (less developed beforehand) because everyone has a liturgy, even if it is the liturgy of trying to look random and spontaneous.
We all are familiar with liturgy, even if we don’t tag our behavior with the word. Liturgy includes standing to read Scripture, the fact that we read Scripture at all, standing to pray (Russian churches). Liturgy includes putting our heads down or our hands up.
Liturgy is easily in error, either through overstatement or understatement. It’s easy to focus on liturgy rather than on God, it’s also easy to forget about liturgy and miss God in a different way.
I have been teaching on some of the biggest, Bible-driven reasons for worship that I know of. I’m planning one more week on the subject of worship and then planning to go through our church name in a short series of messages.
This morning I’d like to consider, with the help of Psalm 136, a pattern of reasons for worship and them move to consider ways to worship, and that the way we worship is not disconnected from the reasons we worship. What we do when we’re together, our corporate activity, says something that a mp3 download or book cannot contain or communicate.
We have a great God and we ought to have great liturgy (not necessarily high liturgy, but high enough) that reflects what we say we believe. So my message: In Praise of Liturgy.
We can’t give credit to the human author of this psalm nor can we cite the particular context in which it was written. We do know that it was used regularly by the Jews at their annual Passover feast, somewhat because of the content of the psalm (lyrics regarding the Exodus) and somewhat because of its form, a form conducive for corporate worship.
The most striking thing about Psalm 136 is the refrain, “for his steadfast love endures forever.” It echoes 26 times, the second half of all 26 verses. There’s a reason for the repetition.
The primary purpose in terms of content is to praise Yahwey’s hesed, His “steadfast love” (ESV), and a seemingly endless number of other options: “lovingkindness” (NAS), “kindness” (YNG), “mercy” (KJV, LXX), “love” (NIV). We learn about God, His character, and the motivation for His work. It’s important to worship God who is the God of lovingkindess, mercy, and grace.
The primary purpose in terms of form is to involve the congregation. This is a responsive psalm, an antiphonal (played alternately by two groups) song. The Levitical priest would lead out in the first line and the choir or congregation would respond. The back and forth engaged everyone in worship. The lyrics teach us about God’s never-ending, faithful love for His people, and the liturgy teaches us that thanksgiving for His never-ending, faithful love is given by all His people.
So what is said is important AND how it is said, said by a multitude of voices a multitude of times, sung at a multitude of meetings. It reminded the people and sustained that praise for generations. It was part of Israel’s liturgy, their purposed strategy for community worship.
Liturgy needs good content, and this psalm includes many reasons for worship.
The first three verses reveal three names for God that reflect different parts of His character and that comment on His supremacy.
Give thanks to Yahweh, “to the LORD,” all upper case. Yahweh is His covenant name, a name of intimacy and relationship with His people.
Give thanks to Elohi of the elohim, “to the God of gods.” Elohim is the nonspecific word for deity, the name in the Old Testament referring to the sovereign creator. And He is above all other gods, “the God of gods,” the supreme God.
Give thanks to Adoni of the adonim, “to the Lord of lords.” Adonai is a word that refers to the master, the ruler, the sovereign king. And He again is above all other lords, “the Lord of lords,” the supreme Lord.
In every case, thanks is given to the covenant keeping, universe creating, absolute ruling God because his steadfast love endures forever. He is glorious and gracious. His person is reason for thanks and worship.
From verse 4 through verse 25, God’s works are in view, and there are four developments. The first section of the song extolling His work speaks of His marvelous creation.
He alone does great wonders. In other words, He does extraordinary things, unique things, all by Himself; they are things only He does.
The heavens declare His glory (cf. Psalm 19:1) because of the understanding employed to imagine and create and sustain them; think: Big Dipper and Crab Nebula. He made the heavens and spread out the earth above the waters; the land and sea obey the boundaries He sets, and the earth spins and orbits at His command, and it never topples over. He made the great lights, the sun to rule over the day and the moon and stars to rule over the night. We are not in darkness because He did marvelous, great wonders.
Again, all of these creative accomplishments come out of his steadfast love that endures forever. The wonders of creation were for His people. I never realized how His forming and filling of the universe was grace directed towards man (Genesis 1).
The song moves more specific, from God’s work in creation history to His work in redemption history. In one paragraph, it also moves from Genesis to Exodus.
He struck down the firstborn of Egypt, the 10th plague on Egypt and a serious statement of His wrath.
The other statements move through major stages of His deliverance program and highlight His might ( strong hand) and His personal involvement ( outstretched arm). He divided the Red Sea and made Israel pass through the midst of it but overthrew Pharaoh and his host. The word overthrew could also be translated “shook off.” Think of the nation defeated, a nation who basically owned everything and everyone in the region due to the earlier famine.
Again, all of this was due to his steadfast love that endures forever.
After considering God’s creative wonders and His deliverance of Israel from Egypt, the song turns to consider God giving the promised land to His people.
He systematically empowered Israel to take over the land. They struck down great kings and killed mighty kings in general. Specifically, they conquered Sihon and Og. Their victories were due to God’s work and the song repeats that this was their heritage given by Him, promised to Abram generations before.
Israel displaced nations, winning battles and occupying a land of milk and honey because his steadfast love endures forever.
While this section primarily refers to His provision and protection of Israel, verse 25 expands to include every breathing creature, including men from other nations, who all receive their food from the Lord. In Him we live and move and have our being; He makes the rain and sun to fall on the just and unjust. He is to be praised and all is due to the fact that his steadfast love endures forever.
The final verse, verse 26, is a closing call to give thanks to the God of heaven, a general title for the one who ultimately sees and rules all, for his steadfast love endures forever.
The movements of the psalm say a lot. God is worthy to be praised. The burden of the psalm is to show the people reasons to thank God. But the burden of the psalm includes different ways to thank Him. It is a call to the worshipping community and demonstrates different components of worship. There are unspoken implications from this psalm that show us certain things along the path of corporate worship.
I just don’t want to take this for granted. As the Israelites in the OT, our Christian gatherings for worship must be focused away from ourselves. I’ve argued that our souls tend to take the shape and size of the object(s) of their contemplation. We need big souls and the only way to be transformed is to behold the glory of the Lord.
Psalm 136 spills over in godwardness. He dominates every verse, every half of every verse. The psalm rehearses His person and His work. The psalm also does so with a mix of statements and story. We learn facts about God: He is good, merciful, supreme, powerful, wise, strong, giving. These are attributes that can be identified, defined, and defended. We ought to know true propositions about God.
Statements are not enough. There is also story, that is, an account of those attributes at work and in relation with people. We know that these events fit into God’s amazing, eternal love story as his steadfast love endures forever.
We gather to get more than our facts in order, we gather to get our story straight, and all our horizontal needs are put in a vertical, godward, transcendent context. Whether we’re in the law (Deuteronomy 10:17 - “For the LORD your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty and the awesome God…”) or the apocalypse (Revelation 19:16 - “On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords”), from beginning to end, our liturgy must be godward.
Our liturgy, our practice of public praise, should be corporate. We have a leader or leaders, there are followers, but everyone should be active.
Psalm 136 is a song meant to be sung. There is something about singing that engages multiple parts of us. We think and say and move and hear and feel.
Psalm 136 is a responsive song; the back and forth makes for movement that involves and unites everyone. It isn’t a performance or a show. We are all on stage before God and, while some parts of the liturgy are meant to be heard, the whole product is a group effort. You can’t get that at home by yourself.
Corporate, community worship propels, and in turn is propelled by, individual worship. For many of the Israelites who did not have their own copies of God’s law, these songs conveyed, in learnable, memorizable chunks, truths about God that were taken beyond the annual feasts and Sabbath services.
The form helped rather than hindered expressions of worship. The constraint of words and phrases allowed for freedom rather than restriction.
Think about going on vacation. Thinking out beforehand allows for freedom to enjoy it rather than sitting around all day trying to decide where to go.
The repetition also helped; it would be difficult to know this song and not remember that God’s steadfast love endures forever.
Here’s one illustration from our liturgy. We have a time for confession of sin every Lord’s day. Doing that week after week reminds us that sin is the problem. Even if every sermon isn’t about sin, we acknowledge that sin is our problem. It also reminds us who believe that we have forgiveness in Christ. Words well formed may may it memorable, so does planning and purpose and regular practice of worship.
Perhaps this is an odd component to mention, but no one service or song will ever be complete.
Think of all the chapters of the story missing in Psalm 136. There is no mention of the flood, the giving of the Law, or how many times Israel disobeyed. Those are no small events, but not every part needs to be, or can be practically, included every time.
Every good sermon is heresy when judged for all the important truths left untreated (Fred Craddock, found in Eugene Lowry, The Homiletical Plot, xiv).
God is infinite and His story is eternal. We won’t wrap our arms around all of Him, ever. We can’t even get our mental arms around the entire Bible at one time, and it has covers. We could never exhaust it in a short period of time, the best we’ll deal with is a selective sampling.
Back to Psalm 136, there is no mention of the Messiah, let alone Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There is no justification by faith alone, no church, no conquering of the worthy One.
My point is that we can follow a pattern and never run out. We also don’t necessarily need to freak out if not everything is said every time.
We have many things to say about or great God and Savior. We have been given many ways to say them, and we want to take full advantage of our opportunities, to express thanks to God (godward) with each other (engaging) with ongoing effect (memorable).
I/we have much more to learn about good thanksgiving and liturgy.
Our weekly, Lord’s day worship, is intended to show off all the reasons we have to be thankful to God and to provide many ways to express that thanks as God’s chosen ones. We do it by dwelling on His Word, through teaching and admonishing and singing. We give thanks it because it’s right, we do it because it’s powerful to transform us and powerful to dispel the darkness of dissatisfaction.
And now we must take thankfulness with us out the doors. What you have heard from God’s Word, speak to others. “Let the word of Christ dwell in your richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Colossians 3:16-17), for His steadfast love endures forever.
I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. (1 Timothy 6:13-16, ESV)