Let All Creation Praise Him

If you wanted to formally study the Psalms, I encourage some of

you to do that. If you wanted to formally study

them, there's a lot of really promising areas of research that

are happening right now. Some of those or one of those.

How do you tell the difference when you're reading your Hebrew

Bible between what is poetry and what's not?

How do you know when you're reading poetry?

How do you know when you're reading prose?

That's one subject. Another one, what's the basic

fundamental unit in poetry? Is it parallel lines?

Is it groupings of lines? Is it just the singular line as

you're going through? We, we don't know.

We're working this out. We're still wondering if there's

any meter in biblical poetry. We're looking at the nature of

figurative language in Hebrew, and scholars are more and more

interested in studying the beauty of the poetry itself.

We call it the aesthetics, working out the meaning from the

beauty, looking at imagery, the use of metaphor, word play,

sound play, sonority meeting, the the loudness versus

quietness, praise versus silence in the Psalms, the paradox of

silence and praise, imagination and emotion.

But all parties agree that there is one area of study that is

dominating Psalms research right now and scholarship right now,

and it has for 50 years. And if you want to understand

where we are and why it's important, I have a figure I

want to introduce you to or a little bit of history I want to

introduce you to. There's a man named Airman

Gunkel, who's an Old Testament scholar.

His greatest work translated into English from German,

translates the Psalms. And some of you will know the

name Gunkel because he is the father of what we call form

criticism and applied to the Psalms.

He says there are certain forms that the Psalms take, certain

categories of Psalms that we're looking at.

And it's important that we understand because they follow a

structure. And it's important that we look

at the history and the context behind the Psalms and understand

what was going on in ancient Israel when they were written.

And if you've ever studied the Psalms or you've been in church,

you'll hear people using these categories.

They'll say there are lament Psalms, individual laments,

things that are for you on your knees before God in your closet

and and community psalms, things that we lament together as a

church. And you say there's Thanksgiving

psalms both for your community, things that we give thanks to

God together, and individual psalms of Thanksgiving that you

can do between you and God alone.

And there's wisdom psalms, and there's royal psalms, and

there's praise psalms, and there's imprecatory psalms, and

there's pilgrimage psalms and there's enthronement.

PS If you've ever used any of those categories before, you can

thank the research of Gunkul. And what runs into this line of

thinking or what happened in the church with this line of

thinking about the psalms was be we began to treat them all

individually. It doesn't matter the order that

they're in. You treat this Psalm and then

this Psalm, and the meaning and application comes from this

Psalm, the the genre or the category of Psalm that it's in

and what was going on in the life of Israel at the time.

And so you have to go to the next watershed moment in the

study of the Psalms, which was in 1985, Gerald Wilson.

You can find all these books in the library upstairs, the

editing of the Hebrew Psalter, where you have Gerald Wilson

saying, no, the order of the Psalms as they appear in your

Bible is important. We don't just treat them as

individuals. They're in this order.

He called it the canonical shape.

They're in this order for a reason.

And the categories are important.

Of course there's categories and they're so helpful and they

bring us meaning, but there's also meaning to be found and

where the Psalm you're reading finds itself in the Psalm book

or the Psalter. And so he says, as you progress

through the Psalms, they tell a story.

And so here's the great subject of Psalms research right now.

What story are the Psalms telling?

What is that story? And you've got 2 camps.

And they're both true. Gerald Wilson himself said the

story is a story of kingship. It's a messianic focus, and he

goes all the way to the beginning and he says Psalm one,

which if you know Psalm 1 and Psalm 2GO together.

They begin and end with the same word.

They're the same Psalm. And it begins with this great

gateway of saying this is what a man or a woman of God is

supposed to look like. This is what blessing looks

like. We're going to be like trees

that are planted by streams of water which yield fruit in their

season, and where our righteousness goes before us

like light Into Darkness. That is the goal and the aim and

then immediately after that, as you come into Psalm 2, the

second section, it talks about the kingship of Yahweh.

It introduces it saying why do the nation's rage in the

people's plot in vain? The kings there.

It is the kings of the earth. They set themselves against the

Lord and his anointed his king. Verse 6 God says, As for me, I

have set my king on Zion, my holy hill, and that is this

Messianic king. And then the application.

Verse 10 Now therefore, O kings of the world, be wise, be

warned, O rulers of the earth. And then what is it?

What's the application? Kiss the sun, lest in his wrath

you perish, right? Come to the sun and kiss the

sun. Psalm 2, Psalm 72, Psalm 89,

Psalm 110, Psalm 132 stress God's anointed king putting

pointing ultimately to the Messiah who is Jesus Christ.

And there's a lament as you go through the Psalms.

There's there's heavy lament. You remember book three of the

Psalms we didn't know we were getting into when we jumped into

that. It's very dark because that's

our experience on the earth as Christians.

It's it's giving us this vocabulary and this life and

it's showing us that the kings of this world will fail us.

There's no perfect king. And it's kind of culminates in

Psalm 51 with David, the greatest king of Israel, ruling

over Israel during the golden age.

He's God's man. And what is 51, chapter 51

revealed to you? That he's an adulterer and he's

a murderer. And so we look from that moment

on to a greater king, a Messiah, and it builds.

Chapter 67117 emphasize our eternal worship. 4648 one 32,

the eternal dwelling of this king with his people,

culminating in 146 to 150 where you can turn.

That's where we are today. The final five chapters, the

doxology, we see the restoration of all creation in praise.

It's telling a story. It's a beautiful story with a

wonderful end. It ends in a Hallelujah chorus.

And so he says that's that's the one camp.

What's the other camp? They say the Psalms have a

wisdom or a democratizing focus. Big fancy words for easy

concepts. This means that the Psalms are

teaching us how to be wise and how to live righteously, and

they're teaching us most importantly, they're bringing

the theology and Christian living and worship out of the

temple. And it's putting those things

into the hands of every individual believer.

It's taking all of that temple worship, all that personal

piety, and it's saying this is for you, the Christian, every

believer. It's making theology accessible,

faithful Christian living and worship accessible in the church

to everyone without distinction, which is why we say this is our

song book. This was Israel's songbook.

This is the Christian songbook that gives us vocabulary for all

the experiences that we experience as we go through

life. And we can argue about, you

know, of all of this, which one is to be the focus?

But I want you to see all these themes are true.

If you'll turn to Psalm 148, there are categories of Psalms.

And so we can say thanks to the vocabulary of Airman Gunkel that

Psalm 148 is a praise song. And we're going to use his

framework to, to even guide us through this message.

It's biblical praise. And we can say the Psalms are

undeniably Messianic king focused.

And thanks to the wisdom of Gerald Wilson and, and Psalm

148, we say Psalm 148 just doesn't happen to be at the end

of the Psalter. It's there for a reason and it's

important that it is where it is.

All of creation culminates in praise and worship of the

eternal King. We're we're here.

It's here for a reason. It stresses that all creation

declares the majesty and praise of the king of glory.

And finally, we confess that the Psalms are undeniably

democratizing, meaning they they make faithful Christian living

and theology and worship accessible to you.

And Psalm 148 specifically, it's saying this is the vocabulary

that you can use to praise God. This is what praise looks like.

These are the words you can use. And most beautifully he says,

now do it yourself. I've equipped you.

Now praise God, from whom all blessings flow.

And so the movement of these 150 songs ends in a Hallelujah

chorus. And lament at this portion of

the Psalms is gone, and depression is gone and sadness

is gone. And what is here is praise and

joy reigning forever and the end with everyone and Everything

Everywhere praising God through Jesus Christ.

And there's a fivefold doxology we've said, and this is the

third Psalm 148, and it begins with this twofold cry verse one,

Hallelu ya Hallelu Yahweh. That's how it begins.

Read it with me. Psalm 148 says, praise the Lord,

praise the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the

heights, praise Him all his angels, praise Him, all his

hosts, praise him, sun and moon, praise Him all you shining

stars, praise Him, you highest heavens, and you waters above

the heavens. Let them praise the name of the

Lord, for He commanded, and they were created, and He established

them forever and ever. He gave a decree, and it shall

not pass away. Praise the Lord from the earth,

You great sea creatures in all deeps.

Fire and hail and snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling His word.

Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all Cedars, beasts and

all livestock, creeping things and flying birds.

Kings of the earth and all peoples, Princess and all rulers

of the earth, Young men and maidens together, old men and

children. Let them praise the name of the

Lord, for His name alone is exalted.

His Majesty is above earth and heaven.

He's raised up a horn for His people.

Praise for all His Saints, for the people of Israel who are

near to Him. Praise the Lord when you you

know what this is about. Do you need me to explain to you

what this passage is about? 13 times and 14 verses.

A child with no help from a Sunday school teacher or his

mother could tell you what this passage means.

But the it's significant. It's weighty in what it's

saying, and it begins with a command that serves in Hebrew

just like it does in the English.

We say Hallelujah. It's an interjection.

It's spontaneous praise, but it's also a second person plural

imperative. It's a commandment to be obeyed

as much as it is a declaration. It means literally, you praise

God for this. You all praise God for this.

It's used to stir one another up to praise.

It comes from Hallelujah, comes from the word praise or halal,

which means to celebrate or to glory or to boast.

In thinking of Jeremiah 923, we're not given to boast in our

strength or in our might or in our riches, it says, but let him

who glories, let him who boasts, boast in this that he

understands and knows me. For I am the Lord exercising

loving kindness and righteousness and justice in the

earth. And it's, it's not just that we

celebrate. There's an object to it.

It's not just Hallelu, it's Hallelu Yahweh.

We put our trust, we glory. We celebrate the King of kings

and our Lord. We celebrate his glory and his

fame and his renown and his works and his deliverance and

his salvation. What does it mean to praise?

Here's a brief definition. Recognizing the praiseworthiness

and the worth of the eternal King, rejoicing in him and

delighting in his glory and responding in words and in

actions, and especially in the Psalms, in song and singing,

there's a response that comes. That's what praise is.

And even in English, when we say praise the Lord or praise God,

it's an interjection. We can't help it.

And Nehemiah 8, when the people are hearing the word and they

haven't heard it and it's being preached rightly, they just say

Amen and Amen, Hallelujah. That's what they say in heaven.

There will be a spontaneous word in heaven, as you say, forever

and ever, Hallelujah, praise the Lord.

And Psalm 148 begins and ends with a call to praise.

The first word and the original is Hallelujah.

The last word and the original is Hallelujah.

Unless there be any confusion in the first verse, which is a

short verse that uses the word praise 3 * 13 times and 14

verses. If the Bible tells you to do

something once, you better pay attention.

If you open. When I open my Bible flat on on

this page 42 times in these final five chapters, it commands

me to praise God. This is weighty, this is

important, this matters, it's serious.

And when we look at praise songs as a category of biblical Psalm,

you see that there's myriad reasons we're given to praise

God. Some emphasize different things.

Some of the praise psalms call you to praise God as the

protector and provider of his people.

As we confess all the time, we are vulnerable.

He's our provider. He's our protector.

He includes us in a church. He includes us into the

community of heaven with the Saints and the redeemed of all

time. We praise him for that.

It goes on. Some psalms, some praise songs

call you to praise God, and the emphasis is his role as Lord of

all history and the focal point of all history.

And we said we praise him for that.

We have more reason. But Psalm 148 is a part of a

collection of praise psalms that praise God as the creator of all

things. And that's what we're looking at

as we narrow in on on this chapter.

He is the creator of the universe, and we'll use the

structure, the standard structure of a praise song as as

our structure to move through this.

First, you're going to see praise declared.

He calls all creation to praise. He declares the praiseworthiness

of God, and then he explains why.

So there's praise declared and then praise explained.

This is why you ought to praise God.

And then third and finally, he's going to repeat it.

There's always an ending. There's always a repetition.

Now that you know why go and praise Him?

So the lion's share of the verse, verses 1 to 12 are praise

declared. And then you really, you come to

the conclusion, right? Praise explained is like a verse

and 1/2 at the end. And then this final little line,

it's really one word, Hallelujah.

It calls you to praise God again.

And in a minute we will. And so we begin with the lion's

share of the Psalm, this long declaration of praise.

We have to answer the question, who is to praise him?

Who is called to praise God? And the answer is all, all

creation. All creation joins the song of

praise. And he's going to divide

creation into two categories. There's the heavens and the

earth. And then he's going to subdivide

that again. He says even in the heavens

there's the highest heaven and the 2nd heaven and the 1st

heaven. And on the earth there's the the

sea and the sky. And he begins to get into all of

the elements and everything that's included.

And he says it's all called to praise God.

And they called it in the ancient Jewish worldview, they,

they had three heavens. And they would say, if you can

even picture it here with this light shining in, there's,

there's this 1st heaven. That's our atmosphere.

If you were to plant your feet and look up the clouds, there's

a certain glory of the sky above in the Jewish world view.

That was your first heaven. And if you were to look through

a telescope, then you would have access to the 2nd heaven, which

is the glory of the universe and the sun and the stars and the

the universes and the black holes and all of those.

That is the 2nd heaven. I want to note that as glorious

as the second heaven is above the first, there's a 3rd heaven

that says infinitely more glorious as the second.

And it's the very throne room of God.

This was the 3rd heaven to be in the presence of God in heaven

itself. I think of it in in terms of

glory. You're stepping out on a cloudy

day. You look into the sky.

There is one measure of glory, and looking at the sky and even

on a cloudy day, you see rays of sunlight coming through the

clouds. And you have to confess there

must be something more glorious than the lights that I see.

Even as now there must be something more glorious than the

lights because it's shining into this room.

And if you were to go in and stand above the clouds and you

would see the vastness of this universe and the shining of 10

trillion Suns and accelerating as it goes.

I think of Psalm 19 also a praise Psalm that says like a

bridegroom leaving his chamber or a strongman running his race,

so it proceeds upward in joy. It's proceeding from somewhere

to somewhere. We have to confess there must be

something more glorious than this created order that we see

in front of in front of us. And the answer is, according to

Scripture, there is something infinite, more glorious.

Psalm 24, eight says, who is this king of glory?

There is a king seated on a throne in the highest heaven,

and he is worthy of all praise, and he is glorious.

Who is this king of glory? Someone 15 answers it.

The highest heaven belongs to the Lord.

And Psalm 148 takes you into the very throne room of God where we

sat in Revelation 19 just a while ago, and we see what's

happening in the highest heavens, what's happening in the

presence of God now and forever. The answer is praise.

The angels are praising him, the hosts are praising him, the

elders are praising him, the Saints are praising him forever

and ever. It says in this Psalm verse one

in the throne room of God. It says praise the Lord from the

heavens. Praise him in the heights,

praise him all his angels, praise him all his hosts.

Verse 4 Praise Him, you highest heavens, you waters above the

heavens, All the heavens are called to praise Him.

Verses 3 to 6 says Praise Him sun and moon, praise Him,

shining stars, praise Him you highest heavens, and you waters

above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the

Lord, for He commanded, and they were created.

He established them forever and ever.

He gave a decree, and they shall not pass away.

So you the living creatures are praising Him.

And then it says, interestingly, the inanimate objects are

praising Him. How does an inanimate, inanimate

object praise God, except it's functioning according to its

purpose. God made it for this thing and

that's what it's doing. And he says, so you are giving

me glory, so you are praising me.

Scripture calls it praise. And we could take the the

spotlight off of them and shine it on you and say, what are you

made to do? How do you praise God?

What's your purpose? And it goes back to our

definition of praise, recognizing the praiseworthiness

of the King of glory, the worth of the King of glory, rejoicing

in him and delighting in him, responding in words and in

action and in song. Praise the Lord, the Lord from

the heavens, the heaven and the inhabitants of heaven, it says,

praises the Lord. All of the sky is to praise the

Lord. And now he says, not only heaven

and its inhabitants, but the earth and its inhabitants.

And He takes his attention now as he moves to the earth.

The earth and all its inhabitants in verses 7 to 12

have to praise God. Look with me, read with me.

Verses 7 to 12 Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea

creatures in all deeps, fire, hail, snow and mist, stormy

wind, fulfilling His word, mountains and all hills, fruit

trees and all Cedars, beasts and all livestock, creeping things

and flying birds, kings of the earth and all peoples, Princess

and all rulers of the earth, young men and maidens together,

old men and children, and just follow along with me.

In verse 7 he says the sea and all it contains the sea and all

the creatures are to praise him. Verse 8 say, what about the

natural elements, the snow, the wind, the fire, the hail, the

mist? They praise him.

It says when they fulfill his word and they do.

Verse 9, it says the earth praises him and it breaks it out

and it says it's the mountains and it's the hills and the trees

that clap their hands. And then it clarifies the the

fruit trees of which I got my first fruits after three years.

Yesterday we got our Peach trees and made Peach cobbler.

The fruit trees bring him glory and praise.

And I can affirm they have. And it says not only the fruit

trees, but the evergreens and the Pines.

When you go snowboarding and you see those trees, it's all

declaring his praise. And he moves on in verse 10 and

it says the entire animal Kingdom.

You may notice we're moving along the the lines of Genesis 1

and Genesis 2 in the creation order.

And he says beasts and livestock, insects and birds.

These as they praised him became the the living illustrations of

Jesus Christ. He uses their praise as elements

in his teaching. When the king of all glory walk

the earth, he says in Luke 14, five of the beasts and

livestock, he says, which one of you having an ox that's fallen

into a well on the Sabbath, does not immediately pull him out?

And of creeping things, Luke 1112 What father among you?

If his son asks for an egg, we'll give him a snake, or we'll

give him a scorpion. And then of the birds in Matthew

626, consider the birds of the air praising Him.

They neither sow nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your

heavenly Father feeds them every aspect of creation, the music of

the spheres functioning according to the purpose that

God has created it. And as you move down again,

following the order of Genesis, you come to mankind the highest

and greatest of God's creation, that which was determined to be

very good. Verses 11 to 12 He says mankind

will praise me, mankind must praise me.

And he says of this, kings and common people will praise Him,

which means the demand for praise does not discriminate by

status. And then he says young men and

maidens will praise him, meaning the demand for praise does not

discriminate by gender. Old men and children will praise

him. The demand for praise does not

discriminate by age. And there's a song that we sing

together all the time, which is why we're studying this Psalm,

so we understand what we're singing to one another.

The Psalm says, let all creation join the song of praise.

Let everyone declare his mighty ways.

Every tongue we will sing of your goodness and mercy all of

our days. And so you see this list.

What's missing? Heaven and all its inhabitants.

The earth and all its inhabitants.

The sea and all its inhabitants, The mountains and the hills, the

trees, the animal Kingdom, kings, poppers, young men,

maiden, old men and children. To add insult to injury, you'll

notice, at least in my translation, the word all is

used six times in six verses. So the question for you is,

who's exempt from praising God? At this point?

It's clear no one is exempt, nothing is exempt from praising

God the Father through Jesus Christ the King of glory.

As a matter of fact, as you move through Psalm 149 and one, 5150

especially is going to say it's not just everyone and Everything

Everywhere. He says we need to Marshall

every instrument to bring God the praise he deserves and even

our own bodies. He says you need to dance and

use strings and pipes and loot lutes and harps and trumpets and

tambourines and sounding cymbals and loud crashing cymbals.

All of this is to be marshalled for the praise in the glory of

God. And then this, the whole Psalm

book concludes with the words, Let everything that has breath

praise the Lord. Even Psalm 48 says, and even if

you don't have breath, you still praise the Lord.

Nothing's exempt. The call is universal.

The call is indiscriminate. The call is inescapable.

Praise is demanded of all creation.

It is the music of the spheres. And so we cannot fail to praise

God and we cannot use these excuses.

I forgot to praise him today. How can you forget to do what

you were created to do? This is your purpose.

I don't know what else you're doing.

This is your purpose. You can't not praise God because

you're depressed, because you're busy, because you don't believe,

because you don't feel like it right now, because you're

trapped in sin and guilt and shame, because you're tired,

because you're disappointed. You cannot fail to praise God

because again, this is what you were created to do.

You were created, you were given a voice that you could sing

God's praises back to him. That's why he made you.

So that's why we move into our second point.

He's he's called you to praise God in these first 12 voices

verses. And now we move to an

explanation of why. Why should you praise the Lord

of glory? And as you move into verse 13,

you see he ends this section on calling to praise with the

words, let them praise the Lord. And then finally, really in in

conclusion to the Psalm, he offers the explanation.

There's the word for for meaning reason.

This is why for his name alone is exalted.

We got this, this phrase from our our reformation forefathers

where they would say we're to worship God alone through Christ

alone according to Scripture alone by grace alone through

faith alone. And it would say to the glory of

God alone. I even have on my Bible right

here. It says Soli Dale Gloria,

meaning God alone is worthy of the glory because God alone is

glorious. You know Allah did not create

you, Muhammad did not create you, Vishnu did not create you,

The one who created you, His name is Yahweh.

He alone is worthy of praise. He alone is worthy of glory.

Him and no other idol. Another four reason, His Majesty

alone is above earth in heaven. So we say that the 10 trillion

Suns that are shining and the stars above are shining with a

borrowed glory. They're shining, pointing you to

the Son of God seated on the throne.

It's His Majesty, it's his glory we're praising.

And not any other idol, not any other God.

For reason He's raised up a horn for his people.

He's redeemed you. He sent his only begotten Son

into the world to save your soul and redeem you from death.

And this is for reason. He has raised up praise for all

His Saints. He's written praise in your

hearts. We say that God has made you

with a voice so that you might praise Him, and He's redeemed

your soul so that you might have a reason to praise Him.

And He delivers you every day, and He gives you every good

thing so that you might have every reason to praise Him.

So why would we? Why would we not?

Why would you not? You were praising God when you

work according to the purpose He created you for.

You were made to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

Or we might say you were made to glorify God by enjoying him

forever. You were made for praise.

You were made to sing the praises of God.

And the psalmist is, is teaching here in this passage that

failing to praise God is not only to be out of step with your

purpose, To fail to praise God is to be out of step with the

harmony of the created order. You're in rebellion.

And then Sir Thomas Brown said in 1643 that though it is

inaudible to the human ear, the inherent order of the universe

is reflecting a divine harmony, a music of the spheres.

Again, Psalm 19 says it this way, that praise Psalm.

The heavens are declaring the glory of God.

The sky above is proclaiming His handiwork.

Day after day they pour forth speech.

Night after night they reveal knowledge.

It's not audible, but for those with eyes to see and ears to

hear, the universe is telling the story of the glory of God.

It teaches you about his wrath. It teaches you about His

Majesty. It teaches you about his

eternality and his power and his glory.

And so he says, there's a music of the spheres that are

declaring the glory of God. And there's a hymn that we sing

frequently and we'll sing together called This is My

Father's World. And it gets this right.

Verse one says This is my Father's world.

I rest me in the thought, Speaking of creation, of rocks

and trees, of skies and seas, His hands, the wonders wrought.

He says in verse 2, This is my father's world.

The birds, their carols, rays, the morning light, the Lily

white declare their makers what praise they're singing his

praises and remember as we read Psalm 148, we're we're at the

culmination of the entire song book.

It's all working to this verses 13 to 14 declare his name alone

is exalted. His Majesty alone is above the

earth. He is the eternal king that all

creation is hoped for. He's the greater David that

we've been hoping for and remember the the final words of

the hymn is the kingly focus finds its culmination and the

wisdom focus of the Psalm finds its culmination and the

democratizing focus of the Psalms finds its culmination.

This hymn gets right. It says this is my father's

world in the final verse. Oh, let me never forget that

though the wrong seems off. So strong.

God is the ruler, yet this is my father's world.

Why should my heart be sad? The Lord is king, let the

heavens ring. God reigns, Let the earth be

glad. Say it again.

The Lord is king. Let the heavens ring, God

reigns. Let the earth be glad.

God rules and reigns. It is our responsibility to

praise Him and faith for all who draw near to Him.

And this is common in nearly every praise song.

There's these two themes and the third one repeats the first

you've seen the praise called for.

It's been it's been begged for you see now it's been explained

and he reminds you again, it's time to praise the Lord from

whom all blessings flow. The final section of verse 14

ends this way. Hallelujah, praise the Lord and

rather than preach the final verse and to do it again, we're

going to sing together and by two all to stand as Jeff and the

praise team is here. I say regardless the state of

your own heart. We will be obedient to these

words as the sun and the moon and the stars are obedient to

praise him. So now we lift our voices

together and praise the King of Glory.

Thanks for listening. To learn more about Heritage

Church or if you'd like to respond to this sermon, visit

our website at www.heritageshawnee.org.