Thursday, July 28, and Sunday, July 31, 2005
On the insert in your bulletin you have Psalm 136. Will you please read it responsively with me?
P: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
P: Give thanks to the God of gods,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
P: Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
P: to him who alone does great wonders,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
OK, stop right there. How many of you are feeling like your part is a little repetitive? Maybe it would help if you knew why this psalm repeats itself a lot. Maybe it would help us if you could picture how this psalm was originally used.
Psalm 136 was written for temple worship as a congregational song and prayer. The congregation repeated the same line in response to what the leader said, because it was the era before printed bulletins. With a repeated line like “for his steadfast love endures forever,” everyone could quickly know the words they were supposed to say.
So imagine the people all gathered in the temple in Jerusalem, a large crowd standing in the courts of this incredible building of beauty dedicated to the Lord. As the leader chanted his lines, his voice echoing among the pillars, the crowd would respond in full voice, “for his steadfast love endures forever.” And because that crowd continued to repeat that same line, they could simply concentrate on praising God. Sort of like when you are singing a song you really know, you don’t have to think about it so much. You can lose yourself in the song. You have the joy of singing. So as the people joined in Psalm 136, their voices could grow stronger and stronger, “for his steadfast love endures forever.”
So we’re going to read Psalm 136 again, this time I want you to imagine standing in that big temple. I don’t want you to read the psalm. Your line is always the same—for his steadfast love endures forever—so just follow my lead. Make this a heartfelt prayer to God, praising Him for His love, all of His loving actions. So please stand. Don’t look at your bulletin. Let’s praise God with Psalm 136.
P: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
P: Give thanks to the God of gods,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
P: Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
P: to him who alone does great wonders,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
P: to him who by understanding made the heavens,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
OK, no, have a seat, I don’t want to try reading all of the verses yet, because while I think you’re getting the hang of your line, now we’ve got to realize what’s going on with the other lines.
Look at the bottom of your insert where it says, “The Mini Worship Service.” This psalm is like a mini worship service. Hopefully some of my confirmation students will remember how to fill in the blanks here. Worship is like a conversation between God and us. God blanks and we blank. Anyone here know how I usually fill in those blanks? God blanks and we blank OK, for the sake of feeling like I’ve taught someone something, I’ll just assume that I can’t hear you saying the answer. God gives and we respond.
You see, throughout the worship service, God gives us His gifts—His gifts of salvation, forgiveness, and love, as they come through the absolution (forgiveness of sins), His Word, the Lord’s Supper. And we respond with our hymns, prayers, and praises. God gives and we respond. Worship isn’t just our action. Worship is our action in response to God’s incredible actions. We love God in worship, because God first loved us.
Look at Psalm 136 again. Each of the lines that the leader says is something that God has done, an action of God, the gifts of God. God is good. He is above all gods. He is above all lords. He is the only one who does great wonders. Every line that the leader speaks in Psalm 136 is the God gives part of worship. And for each of those gifts, the people respond with praise. That’s why Psalm 136 is like a mini worship service.
The leader says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,” and if we freeze the scene, pause the video right after the leader says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good,” we’d see you thinking, “Man, God is good. He’s done so much for me. He’s always wants the best for me. He is the definition of good. I want to praise Him for how good He is.”
Every line is one blessing, and then all give praise. The leader names one blessing that God gives us, and then all the people give praise to God. Every line that the leader says is an example of God’s love, another proof of God’s love lasting forever, God’s love being more loyal and strong than we can know.
So putting all of this together, we’re going to try Psalm 136 again. You don’t have to read the psalm, because you’ve got your line ready to go—for his steadfast love endures forever. You’re free to just raise your voice in praise. And now you know why you’re saying that line; you’re saying it in response to all of these actions of God, actions of love. Each time it’s like saying, “Yeah, God is good. That’s who our God is. For His steadfast love endures forever.” So stand with the congregation in this temple, this beautiful building dedicated to God.
If you normally talk with your hands, let your hands do the talking. If you normally talk loudly, raise your voice. If you normally smile for something good, be all smiles, because God is definitely good. If you normally are quiet or reserved, be quiet or reserved, but let your heart race to realize what you are hearing—God is good—and what you are saying—His love will always be there.
P: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
P: Give thanks to the God of gods,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
P: Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
P: to him who alone does great wonders,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
P: to him who by understanding made the heavens,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
P: to him who spread out the earth above the waters,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
P: to him who made the great lights,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
P: the sun to rule over the day,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
P: the moon and stars to rule over the night,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
P: It is he who remembered us in our low estate,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
P: and rescued us from our foes,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
P: he who gives food to all flesh,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
P: Give thanks to the God of heaven,
C: for his steadfast love endures forever.
Praise God! You can be seated.
Maybe, though, you’re thinking that just reading lines back and forth doesn’t match what you’d expect for something that’s supposed to be a joyous celebration. That’s why people have used the psalms in many different styles. On the back side of the insert, you’ve got some blank lines under the heading, “Psalm 136 in Many Styles.”
The first style is the one we just did: speak. We often say read responsively, but maybe saying speak responsively is better. It’s more than just reading, mumbling the words. You’re speaking, you’re using inflection, you’re emphasizing words, you’re speaking to other people, you’re speaking to God. So the first style we might use is Speak.
The second style is Chant. Chanting uses a short line of notes that can be repeated for each line of the psalm. It’s a way for a group of people to say the psalm together. Plus, chanting also often helps you to memorize portions of the psalms, because there’s notes to go with the words. There are chant tones given for Psalm 136 in the front of the hymnal. (Chant three lines)
But maybe you’re still thinking that if Psalm 136 is supposed to be this big cheer than speaking it or chanting it doesn’t seem right. They’re not the kind of celebrations you’re used to. Well, the third style might be for you: Cheer. I’ll admit that I haven’t really seen anyone do this, but Psalm 136 would make a good cheer. Like at some baseball game or in some large stadium where the cheers are the crowd’s way of showing their excitement, showing their response to what is happening in the game, so I think Psalm 136 could be a cheer, our response to what God is doing.
Give thanks (clap), give thanks (clap), give thanks to the (clap) God of gods (clap),
for his love (clap), for his love (clap), for his love endures forever. (clap)
Give thanks (clap), give thanks (clap), give thanks to the (clap) Lord of Lords (clap),
for his love (clap), for his love (clap), for his love endures forever. (clap)
The fourth style is one we’re more familiar with—the contemporary praise song. It takes the form of a rock song, the kind of verse-chorus-verse-chorus songs we hear on the radio, but uses them to praise God. Chris Tomlin took Psalm 136, changed the words a little bit, but then put them into a contemporary praise song. You’ve got the lyrics on the insert. I want you to hear a little bit of the song, and listen for how he kept the back and forth between leader and the congregation, how there’s still the idea of God gives and we respond.
Give thanks to the Lord, our God and King
His love endures forever
For He is good, He is above all things
His love endures forever
Sing praise, sing praise
With a mighty hand and outstretched arm
His love endures forever
For the life that’s been reborn
His love endures forever
Sing praise, sing praise
Sing praise, sing praise
CHORUS:
Forever God is faithful
Forever God is strong
Forever God is with us
Forever, forever (2X)
© 2001 worshiptogether.com songs/Six Steps Music (admin. By EMI Christian Music Publishing, Inc.)/ASCAP. Used by permission.
Twice this summer I’ve been able to see Fusebox, a Christian band, who played at the Statewide Youth Gathering in June and at the National Youth Workers Conference just last week. They play an rocking version of this song with more distortion in the guitars, more danceability. So even if you don’t like the style of the song you just heard, you could use the same song in a different style—more mellow, or more ROCKIN’. Either way, though, the song keeps the idea of responding to God’s gifts with those words, “His love endures forever.”
And we could probably think of other ways to use Psalm 136, other styles, but it still goes back to the basic idea of worship: God gives and we respond. God gives us His Son, Jesus Christ, to be our Savior, and we respond with our thanks and praise.
Yet, there’s one other thing that sometimes makes the psalms and worship difficult: what if you aren’t experiencing the blessings mentioned in the psalm? Psalm 136 goes onto to praise God for “remembering us in our low estate,” in other words, remembering us when we’re poor or depressed or feel like second-class citizens. Psalm 136 praises God for “giving food to all flesh.” Well, what if you’re not experiencing those blessings from God? What if you are in some low place and you’re feeling pretty alone? What if you’re having trouble keeping food on the table? What if the things we’re praising God for today are blessings that you can’t see in your life right now?
Well, that’s the other interesting thing about going back to see how the psalms were used originally. They weren’t always written to talk about what had happened to all of the people. Sometimes they were written by individuals who had experienced God’s salvation, God’s rescuing hand, and so that one individual asks everyone to give praise to God. One blessing, all give praise. One person is blessed, but the whole community responds with praise.
That’s a reminder to us that we’re not gathered as individuals who praise God by checking only the items that apply. God has been good to me. Check. For his steadfast love endures forever. God gives food to all flesh. Not happening for me right now, so I’ll sit that one out.
It doesn’t work like that. We give praise to God for all of His blessings—whether they come to us individually or not—because we praise Him as a community. What happens to one person in this room happens to all of us. If one person here has experienced God’s help in defeating an addiction, than all of us praise God for the strength of the Holy Spirit in our lives. One blessing, all give praise.
So again after each line that the leader says, freeze the fame. In that moment, you can look around and remember the ways God has blessed the people around you. So the psalm says, “God is good,” and you look around and you think, “Yeah, God has been so good to so-and-so, getting them through that surgery. God has been so good to that other family, providing for them, blessing them with talents to help the church. I want to praise God for the blessings He’s given to the people around me.”
And now you’re praising God as a community, as a people together, realizing that when one person is blessed, all of us are blessed. When God works in one person’s life, it is a reminder of how God’s love works in all of our lives.
Now, remembering all of these things, we’re going to use Psalm 136, our mini worship service one more time. Remember that this comes from the ancient temple, the people stood and raised their voices, filling the space with their praises. Remember that worship is a conversation, God gives and we respond. Our praises are in response to the examples of God’s love. Remember that this could come in many different styles. We’re going to try the speaking style one more time, because then you can use that same line over and over again, letting yourself speak with your voices, your hands, your eyes, your hearts. Remember that even though you might not be experiencing all of these blessings, someone in here is. We’re praising God for what He has done in all of our lives. This is a community at worship. So let’s stand and speak Psalm 136.