A CALL TO PRAISE

Psalm 66: 1-4

A PRESBYTERIAN PSALTER - by Pastor Max A Forsythe

As we shall see in our psalter later, this psalm is divided into three general parts. While the singing portions are of equal length, we shall focus our attention of slightly uneven divisions. The first four verses encourage all those who live in the world to praise our God. The second eight verses invites us to see what God has done for His own people and the last eight verses invite us to hear what God has done for a particular servant.

To appreciate this intensification of focus I would share with you two views of teaching history. One member of our history faculty at school, likes to start with today and then work backwards into time showing the roots of our problems, ideas and attitudes as a culture. My personal preference would be to start with the earliest known history of man and demonstrate the developments and problems of our relationship to the God of heaven and what happens when cultures reject the civilizing effects of the law and gospel revealed by the God of heaven. While I am severely limited in how I proceed, at the very least I am able to communicate that intelligence and wisdom did not suddenly arise on planet earth with the dusking of the new age of Aquarius which is the attitude of many who are selected to teach social studies in the public arena.

Certainly, I would not use the text before us to justify my approach to the teaching of history. However, in the case of the story of election, what better means to challenge believers to consider their place in the working out of His story than to see the perspective of God's invitation to the world, the response of His elect peoples and finally the focus of one heart and the reaction of the psalmist to God's gracious invitation.

For the balance of this morning's meditation, let us carefully consider the call to praise issued to the nations. Here in verse one, all the inhabitants of earth are summoned to give praise to God's holy Name. We know that at the present time this praise is in a minor key when it comes to numbers. Yet we look forward to that day when every knee shall bow and every tongue fulfill this call to praise the Lord of Creation. Until then we are to sing the glory of His name and we are to make his praise glorious.

The first part of this injunction is easy. Very many mouths can be persuaded to sing psalms, hymns and songs of praise to our God. But, there is on the fringe of God's true Church any number of people whose praise is not honest because it is not heartfelt! This lack then limits the truth of the second injunction that his praise should be glorious. What we mean here is that those who offer praise should be fully persuaded that our God deserves the praise that is offered. An older translation encourages us to "sing the honor of his name, give (him) honor, (give) him praise". This is how we glorify Him, by honoring Him with praise straight from the heart.

What good is empty words when your heart is not in the words. Now I know that we all fall short here from time to time. We do have bad weeks now and then. We come to worship tired, run down, perhaps even distracted! It is very easy to sluff off in our praise when the familiar tunes and words are sung! We can be carried along with the crowd and dream other dreams as we give praise to our God and King! This is one reason that I like to use new tunes and words as regularly as possible. And in the last year, haven't the new psalters added an extra dimension to our worship as we use familiar tunes to sing new words to, week by week?

This practice is something I was aware of for a long time. In our hymnals the metrical index would allow almost every hymn to be sung to half a dozen tunes! Only with the practice of psalm singing have you all begun to appreciate that fact. In fact a few weeks ago, we used a "Christmas" tune for one psalm selection. And, I'd almost bet that too many people were trying to remember what song they were used to for that particular tune. Certainly, new songs and tunes do not sound as well to our ears as we would like. Very often we have stumbled through some difficult verses. But, you know what, whenever we do that everyone is paying close attention! And your minds at least are on the task of praising our God and King.

Now, in the sense of this second verse here, which songs of praise do you suppose God appreciates most? Is it a familiar tune and song well sung and loud where habit carries the day and daydreams abound? Or does our Lord and King desire close attention to the focus of our heart as we fumble for the words before us? Let us look at verse three for instruction: There the psalmist instructs us in the proper attitude. We are called to turn all our praise to Him. We are not to come with a sense of familiarity. We are not to come with a sense of burdened duty.

Once upon a time, a visitor to a Reformed congregation complained that they got nothing out of the service, they were bored to tears, the prayers were too long, there was no choir, the technical terms of the sermon put them off and the minister wasn't even all that attractive to look up at. The elder tried to explain as tactfully as he could, that worship is not something that we come to in order to feel good only. The call to worship is that we come to give something to God, we come to praise, to honor and glorify His Name. Oh, they assured him, they did put a dollar in the offering plate and for what they received, that was plenty enough. At that point, the elder thanked them for their generosity and mentioned another congregation that put on a well rehearsed production every single week.

By contrast, a popular song writer observed in World magazine this summer that the old fashioned unpolished traditional service was getting rarer and rarer. He remembered fondly from his childhood the organist who almost always fumbled on b flats! Yet, the simplicity and sincerity of his home church's worship continued to remind him that something was indeed missing from the contemporary extravaganzas!

We are to come into God's presence with a sense of awe. God after all is GOD! All the earth will eventually bow down before Him. All the earth eventually will join in the sacred song and confess that only He is worthy of praise, honor and worship. Selah the psalmist declares, pause and think about the praise that you have come to give this day! Do you give praise sincerely or do you go through the motions alone? Isn't it true that only God's elect can really get something out of a biblical worship service where the congregation has gathered to worship the Lord of all the earth in spirit and in truth?

May our worship be found to honor and glorify Jesus Christ, the Lord God of the Universe and His Spirit in our midst this day and all days. Amen.

	Resources Used:
Kidner, Derek.	Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries: Psalms.
MacLaren, Alexander.	The Expositor's Bible: The Psalms.
Spurgeon, C.H.	The Treasury of David.
Foundation for Reformation. New Geneva Study Bible . (1995) Thomas Nelson, Inc. New King James Version. (1982)
Psm 066b	24 September 89 & 06 August 95

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