(I want to listen to this sermon)

Text: Eph.2:13 "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."

What do we really know about praising God?

Do you ever, I wonder, think about what it means to praise and worship the LORD GOD?

Do you ever ask yourself how we should go about praising God? Do you ever consider who and what should be involved in such worship?

When we gather together on the LORD's Day for worship I wonder how much thought you actually give to what we do?

If you were to look back a few years and to compare then with now I wonder whether you'd be able to detect any development or progress in what you do and in your attitude while doing it?

And what about your private life of praise and worship? It is easy to allow ourselves to get into a rut isn't it? It's all too easy to use a number of biblical phrases in a quasi-magical way while no longer giving any serious thought to what those phrases really mean. It's easy to allow others to do our thinking for us – for example, to constantly rely on the words of others as we turn to praise and worship.

Now I want to encourage us all to think seriously together about this matter. I want to do so because it is clear when we turn to the book of Psalms that the psalmist's thought a great deal about what they wrote. They use all kinds of literary devices and methods in order to get across and to anchor in the mind the message they wanted to communicate. You only have to think about those alphabetic psalms to realise that a lot of thought must have gone into their composition. You know don't you that Ps.119 is divided up into 22 sections – one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Then each verse in these sections begins with the same letter. vv.1-8 aleph or A; vv.9-16 beth or B and so on.

Now the Psalm we are looking at this evening is not one of the several alphabetical psalm but it does nevertheless have a carefully planned structure. Let's take a closer look at it.

It is not really rocket science to work out what is the major theme of this psalm. As you read it through there is one word that appears again and again – 13 times in fact in just 14 verses. The psalmist has used the method of repetition to direct our attention to his theme – it is the word Praise.

We noted last week that in the last 5 psalms each psalm began and ended with exactly the same phrase – that phrase, which we find here in Ps.148 is "Praise the LORD" or as it could be translated "Hallelujah"!

The psalmist is enclosing his psalm with these bookends of praise "Hallelujah"

But this is not the only time he uses identical phrases in the psalm. He uses two other phrases in similar ways and thus he makes it clear for us that the Psalm is written in two halves.

Look with me at these phrases and you'll see what I mean.

v.1b Praise the LORD from the…

is matched later on in the psalm by the identical phrase:

v.7 Praise the LORD from the…

You'll see straightaway that these phrases are then finished off in different ways. The basic formula is the same but the exact detail is different and this is the way in which the Psalmist is indicating to us how to read his psalm – it is a psalm in two parts namely vv.1-6 which addresses the heavens and their inhabitants and vv.7-14 which is concerned with the earth and its inhabitants.

Now in most of the Bibles we're using we have no hint that the phrase translated "Praise the LORD" in the second sentence of v.1 and again in v.7 is not quite the same as the Praise the LORD with which the Psalm both begins and ends. The opening Praise the LORD is this :"Hallelu-jah" where the "jah" is a shortened form of the word Jehovah or Yahweh that most of our Bibles simply translate as LORD with capitals. Whereas the second use has the full name Jehovah/Yahweh not an abbreviated form.

The Jerusalem Bible does actually differentiate and translates the opening verse for us as follows:

v.1 "Alleluia! Praise Yahweh from the heavens, praise him in the heights."

I'm emphasising this as it shows us that the psalmist has been careful in his choice of words in the construction of his psalm. The implication for us is that we too should be thoughtful in the way in which we worship and with the words which we employ as we worship. (Our hymnwriters have long known this as they have carefully constructed their writings so that rime and meter are respected in a way that facilitates their use.)

I said earlier that the psalmist repeated three phrases in his psalm – we've seen two of these uses and here is the third.

"Let them praise the name of the LORD!" is found in both v.5 and in v.13. Once again a phrase is repeated in each of the two sections. Our psalmist is making it clear to us that throughout the same message is central – Praise to the LORD even though he is going to look in different directions in the two sections of his psalm.

We should be grateful to the psalmist for the care which he has taken in constructing his framework. He is not simply stringing together a hotch-potch of ideas but there is order and development in what he is doing.

Once more this should not surprise us as the LORD presents Himself to us in the Scriptures as a God of order and not a God of chaos and disorder. Surely then our worship and adoration should follow this same pattern or model – there should be a certain order and decency about what we do as we set about our worship of Almighty God.

In Part one of his Psalm our Psalmist does not address himself directly to us at all! And from this we have an important lesson to learn. Human beings are not the only ones concerned with the worship of God!

We love to put ourselves on the centre stage and somehow to see everything as relating directly to us. We have a tendency to do exactly the same when it comes to God. If we are not very careful we can even end up acting and behaving as though somehow God's very reason for existing is to do us good and to meet our needs.

Now there is a very healthy element of truth here. God is exceedingly kind and generous to us and it is right and proper for us to appreciate, and to benefit from, all the kindness He offers us. But we must resist the temptation to treat Him as some kind of divine slot machine whose only function is to meet our needs.

Our psalmist reminds us of the sheer and utter greatness of God as he begins his exhortation not with men in view at all! No, God is so great and majestic that all of creation is to be involved in divine worship.

Now it is very important that we get a grasp of this otherwise we will tend to domesticate God and bring Him down to our size as it were. The psalmist begins his psalm by reminding us of the magnitude of God – and he will also return to this exaltedness of God as he later turns to exhort mankind to praise and worship!

So the psalmist begins with the heavenly realms and the heavenly inhabitants.

Exalted worship is to begin with the angelic hosts.

Now I suppose it's high time that I explain what it means to "Praise the LORD". Praise expresses admiration or approval of someone. It involves worship that is the declaration of the worthiness of another. Glory and honour are attributed and recognized as the legitimate right of the one being praised.

Now consider just who is being exhorted to praise the LORD in these opening verses: angels are being called upon to declare the total worthiness of the LORD God. Those pure spirits of awesome majesty and power are being called upon to worship the Creator.

There are countless thousands of them – they are innumerable that is the meaning of the Greek expression we find in the Book of Revelation "ten thousand times ten thousand and thousand of thousands" "myriads of myriads". And they are all called upon to offer worship to the LORD.

They have each one been created by our Lord Jesus Christ, they are described as ministering spirits, and they are to praise the LORD.

You can see too how this was carried out at the time of the Incarnation – you will remember, I'm sure, that when the birth of the Saviour was announced to the shepherds angels were present. A multitude – that is a great number of the heavenly host was present. They had come to witness the remarkable event of their maker's Incarnation and coming to earth and as they shared the Good News with the shepherds you'll remember what they were doing – they were praising God! You can read about it in Lk.2:13-14.

The next "group" addressed by the Psalmist appears at the end of v.2 "All His hosts". Now this word "hosts" is somewhat ambiguous – it could refer again to the "angelic hosts" that have just been mentioned, the angels regarded as forming an army ready to defend the cause of the Lord's own – or it could refer to the various celestial bodies such as the sun, moon and stars which will be specifically spoken to next.

And with the sun, moon and stars the psalmist turns to exhort what we might  consider as belonging to the inanimate part of creation. How might such bodies be urged to praise the LORD? Well they do so by existing just as He created them. Their very being acts a declaration testifying to the greatness and majesty and awesome power of an intelligent God.

If I were a skilled artist I wouldn't have to go around telling everyone how good I was I could just hang up my paintings and let them do the talking for me. Their beauty would testify of my artistic skills and creativity. In exactly that way the heavenly bodies speak volumes concerning the greatness of Almighty God.

So in the first section of the Psalm the psalmist begins with the heavenly realm – there he began with the highest heavenly beings – sentient angels – before descending to speak of inanimate phenomena. But all must combine to declare the praises of the LORD.

The second section of the psalm concerns the earth and this time the psalmist reverses the direction of movement. He doesn't start with man then descend to lower elements within the creation but does exactly the reverse. Lower elements in the creation are to praise the LORD – indeed as we contemplate the things the LORD has made the intricacies and beauty etc. we are led to marvel at the splendor of it all and beyond the matter to the Creator Himself.

But man cannot remain a mere spectator of all of this. Man too must praise the LORD!

This is not arduous but we should rather see this as a high privilege. Man was indeed created in God's image and was designed to reflect the God's glory.  This privilege is not to be restricted to only certain types of people. All sorts of people are to be involved in the worship of Almighty God.

The important of this world – Kings etc. – are not the only ones deemed suitable and neither are they to consider themselves too elevated or too busy – they are to praise the LORD. And so it is true too that none is too insignificant!! As v.12 speaks of "young men and maidens, old men and children" – all are to be involved.

And that means that you are to be involved! You are called to this high privilege – what are you doing about it? What thought are you giving to this task?

Do you meditate upon the fact that God is the highest being that there is? Do you realize that He is exalted above all others? As a Christian as I ask that question you're probably thinking that Jesus has been given the name that is above all names. You must learn to think much of Him, His words and His works. Praise flows more readily when we take time to contemplate such glorious greatness as was displayed by our Lord Jesus!

So it is clear that we have the responsibility of praising God. But it is also clear from Scripture that man's fall into sin has seriously compromised our ability to praise God. Human sin has similarly affected the entire creation which has become disjointed because of sin.

The psalmist knows this. He is not ignorant of it at all. But he also knows that God has a plan to deal with this problem of sin and it is with that thought that he brings his psalm to a conclusion.

 Our psalmist brings his psalm to an end by speaking about a horn that God raises up for His people.

What are we to make of this? What does He mean?

A horn in the Bible symbolizes power and dignity. These are the very hallmarks of a worthy King who can deliver his people from danger and rule over them beneficently in wisdom and with wonderful care. It is the King that makes the people special – such a King is the glory and honour of his people. It is not that the people themselves are somehow special, all their high status flows from the fact that they have a great King ruling over them.

The Lord had made a solemn promise that would give a Son to the house of David. In Ps.137:17 this is how He speaks of that promise that He had made:

"There I will make a horn to sprout for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed."

And you know who this Son of David was. So you know who this horn is about whom the psalmist writes in Ps.148. This is Jesus Christ! Listen to how the NT develops this theme. It comes from the mouth of Zechariah shortly after the birth of his son John the Baptist. Filled with the Holy Spirit Zechariah was enabled to prophesy and this is what he declared:

Lk.1:68-69 "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,"

The context is one of praise! God Almighty has kept His promises – salvation is to come by this one – mercy comes by this one – deliverance comes by this one.

My friends let us rejoice that the Saviour has indeed come and Jesus is His name! Let us Praise God and seek to become more and more informed in our worship.

To God be the Glory!