I have started getting massages to help with lower back pain, and my general wellbeing. I have
spent a good six months working with Physical Therapy to get stronger, and now through massage I
am helping my body to relax. I have gone about six times now. I have to say historically massages
have been special treats while on vacation, or gifts of pampering, but now I see massage as a health
practice. You see I carry much of my stress in my neck and shoulders. During the first massage, I
could hear and feel the click, click, click of my shoulder muscles as she was working out the
tension. The last visit, while working on my shoulders, my masseuse encouraged me to ask God to
lift the weight I carry off my shoulders and for me to give it to God. She was encouraging me to
pray, to have intention about laying down the burdens I carry and to ask God to carry them. There
was something so beautiful having this healer nudge the pastor to pray more. And to pray not for
others but for myself. I have been mulling over her words, pausing more to turn my burdens over to
God.
We just heard encouragement to pray more for all people, pray for leaders, those in high places, and
to pray for the truth. We have a mediator in Jesus Christ who facilitates those prayers, ushers them
into God’s hearing and works through the Holy Spirit to bring forth God’s salvation. Now we are
turning from the New Testament to the Old, to a psalm that is recited at the first cup of Passover
reminding everyone to praise the Lord. This psalm begins and ends with Hallelujah, which comes
from hallel, meaning “to praise,” and “yah” meaning “Yahweh”, the Hebrew name of God. “Halelu
yah” is the Hebrew imperative Praise Yahweh! READ Psalm 113.
Yesterday Brad, my boyfriend, and I spent the day in San Francisco. We explored the DeYoung
with all of it’s wonderful art, listened to jazz at the bandstand, and the surprise of the day was
Flower Piano at the botanical gardens, where we listened to gifted musicians play a dozen pianos
scattered all over the gardens. Our favorite was listening to a trio, vocal, piano and bass, in the
California Redwoods.
Paul O Myhre writes, “I think the psalms were meant for more than reading. They are set for the
arts: singing and dancing, painting and sculpting, chanting and improvisational jazz. Like ballet, the
words lift from the page without effort and fall to the floor with grace. Like improvisational jazz
they carry their own rhythm that beats in sync with inner rhythms known to each individual
hearer… As poetry and prayer, the psalms speak a language that constructs thought worlds in which
human minds can play freely in boundless spaces of theological imagination and personal
reflection. There is a timeless quality to the psalms I think in part because of the capacity of the
verses to defy simple or compact definitions of God, humanity, or creation. They invite active play
and personal and communal discovery” (Working Preacher).
So, what can we discover from Psalm 113? We are to praise God! We are to praise and bless the
name of the Lord and we often do that through prayer and our overall disposition in life. Like many
of the hymns of praise, the call to praise (vs 1-4) is followed by the reasons for praise (vs 5-9). This
starts with “Who is like the Lord?” “acting as the centerpiece of the psalm and connecting its two
parts. Some scholars suggest that the psalm may have been used antiphonally, sung by two choirs in
a worship setting” (Working Preacher, Nancy de Claissie Walford). Yet before we get lost in the
beauty of this psalm, let’s drill down into what God’s active presence is doing in the world. “God
lifts up the poor from the dirt and raises up the needy from the garbage pile to seat them with leaders—with the leaders of (God’s) own people! God nests the once barren woman at home—now
a joyful mother with children!” (Working Preacher, Kelly J Murphy).
We want this, the lifting up of the poor, raising the needy from the trash heap, and the blessing of
women who feel barren. Yet how do we reconcile this with current oppression- capturing and
deporting immigrants, stripping away insurance from millions, mother’s being told not to vaccinate
their children. “What do we do when we look around and it seems as if God is nowhere active in
the lives of the poor, the needy, the barren? How do we praise God…in a world that tells a different
story?” (Working Preacher, Kelly J Murphy). We come back to the turning point question, “Who is
like the Lord our God?” Our translation declares a “God who looks far down on heaven and earth.”
But many other translations say, “Who humbles Godself to behold the things of heavens and earth”
(KJV). We are encouraged to praise God, to pray to God, because we know that our amazing and
awesome God chose to be humbled to behold not only the things of heaven, but also us on earth.
“This inconceivably limitless Lord freely chooses to ‘bend down’ to human beings in order to
‘raise’ us from the ‘dust’ and ‘ash heaps’ to which we condemn one another—especially the poor,
ill, and those unable to fulfill the expectations society places upon them. For Christians, the
character of the Lord that we hear proclaimed in this psalm is seen most clearly in ‘Christ Jesus,
who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be
grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, assuming human likeness. And being
found in appearance as a human, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of
death—even death on a cross’ (Phil. 2:6–8) (Working Preacher, Samatha Gilmore).
“In Christ, the Lord who “looks far down” comes all the way down to us, to the depths of the earth.
The Lord of the cosmos, who might have remained abstract to and distant from us, freely chooses to
be revealed as the Lord who is with us and for us, always. In Christ, the Lord walked through all the
“dust” and “ash heaps” to which we could condemn him, all the way to death, and overcame death
once and for all—for us. Through the Holy Spirit, the Lord unites us with Christ in his death and
resurrection, raising us to new life with him and freeing us from all condemnation. Therefore,
whatever ash heap the world throws us on—and whatever ash heap we throw others on—does not
have the final say. In Christ, we are set free from our death-dealing ways. Death itself is put to
death. We are raised to ‘sit with princes,’ through no merit of our own.
‘Who is like the LORD our God?’ No one!” (Working Preacher, Samatha Gilmore).
Yet it is Jesus, our Lord, the one who humbled himself and became one of us and died for us, who
is our mediator in prayer. The one who makes our case before God when we offer our prayers.
Jesus is also the one through whom we can praise God! Jesus bridges the holiness gap, because
Jesus is equal to God, yet knows the realities of our life, ash heaps and all. It may feel like we are
creating more ash heaps by the minute in this country, when all we want is “to live quiet and
peaceable lives of godliness and dignity” (1Tim. 2:2). But that dignity needs to be for all people!
Not just the wealthy or privileged. Pope John Paul II reminds us, “Do not abandon yourselves to
despair. We are the Easter people and Hallelujah is our song.”
Hallelujah is our song. We praise the Lord, we recall the goodness of God, we stand for the rights
of others, and we pray, fervently pray to God who hears us. A God who loves us. A God whose
Son died for us so that we could become Easter people! Praying people. Loving people.
Compassionate people.
People who take care of ourselves so we can take care of others. People who pray for ourselves so
we can pray for others. People who praise the Lord, because we know God through the life, death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are a people who come to church because there are lots of ash
heaps out there and we need to be reminded of who we are and whose we are. Joining together in
worship helps God do that for us. We sing, we pray, we listen, and we learn. Yet ultimately praising the Lord is worship. A.W. Tozer reminds us, “Worship is to feel in your heart and express
in some appropriate manner a humbling but delightful sense of admiring awe and astonished
wonder and overpowering love in the presence of that most ancient Mystery” (Sermons.com).
That’s how we Paise the Lord! Hallelujah Amen!
