This sermon was inspired, in part, by a quote from Marvin E. Tate’s Word Biblical Commentary XX (Psalms 51-100) where Tate says: “The Psalm opens with a crash of words: The psalmist calls upon his hearers to ‘shout’ and ‘sing aloud.’”
Thanksgiving Eve
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song.
Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
Praise, sing, praise,
Shout to the rooftops with all your voice,
Speak up, sing out, shout out, lift your voice.
Blast the horn,
blast, blare, burst, boom,
bombastic sound with all your horns and drums and things to rattle.
It’s a crash of words, a crash of words and sounds, a crash for our Lord.
This praise, this thanksgiving, this hymn of praise we offer,
It’s a crash of words ringing and singing the Name of the Lord
Forever to be praised.
There’s joy from knowing our Lord,
Joy from knowing that He is our Lord and we are His people,
So let us speak up, sing out, shout out, lift our voices,
Let us shout the Name of the Lord for He is the Rock of our Salvation—
Christ the Rock, Jesus the Savior, Immanuel the Redeemer,
The Rock of our Salvation who died upon the cross,
Died and rose again,
Died and rose again to the shouts of great rejoicing in heaven,
So now, so now, let us lift our voices, too.
Thank, praise, extol, raise,
Sing with all our might,
Sing with all our hearts,
Sing with all our soul,
For the Lord has been good to us—so good to us,
The Lord has done everything we need for salvation,
The Lord has brought us back from the depths of death,
Certain eternal death,
Has brought us back so that we have the promise of forever life with Him.
Thank, praise, extol, raise,
Declare, sing, echo, ring,
Let everything that is in us praise the Lord.
This crash of words,
This hymn that crashes words together,
This psalm of praise,
This psalm is on our lips for this evening of thanksgiving.
Praise, sing, praise,
Shout to the rooftops with all your voice,
Speak up, sing out, shout out, lift your voice.
Blast the horn,
blast, blare, burst, boom,
bombastic sound with all your horns and drums and things to rattle.
Praise, sing, praise,
Come on, let’s go, let’s go before the Lord, let’s go before our Maker,
let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.
Let’s go and thank Him for all that He’s done for us—
From the creation of the world until now,
Let’s thank Him for all of the ways He provides for us,
Let’s thank Him, praise Him, raise His Name to the heights of sound.
This crash of words is cranked to 10,
The volume cannot be higher,
Blow out the speakers trying to raise enough praise to match what He has done—
And we’ll never match it—
But we’re gonna have a good time trying.
We’re gonna shout out, speak out, sing out,
Let our lives shine with the joy that we have in Christ.
We’re going to shine with praise, shine and beam and smile and laugh and rejoice.
And when have shouted with all our might,
We’ll collapse in a good kind of exhaustion,
Exhausted from dancing and singing and ringing
and drumming and making noise to the Lord,
We’ll collapse in exhaustion,
And then we’ll bow down before the Lord—
Take a breath.
Relax.
Rest in Him.
We’ll collapse in a good kind of exhaustion,
And then we’ll kneel before the Lord our Maker—
Take a breath.
Relax.
Rest in Him.
We’ll collapse in a good kind of exhaustion and stop and pray,
Stop and pray and listen,
Listen to what the Lord has to say,
Listen to the ways that the Lord is working in our lives,
Listen to what God has to say in His Word.
We’ll collapse in exhaustion, that good kind of exhaustion,
And the Lord will be there, too.
But that good kind of exhaustion also leaves you vulnerable,
Leaves you open to reflecting on your life,
Leaves you open to seeing just what God has done in your life,
Leaves you open to the pains that are still there,
Leaves you open before the Lord, realizing just how much you need Him.
You need the Lord.
All of that singing and ringing and drumming, all of that noise to the Lord,
Well, it brings you to that point again of realizing just how much you need the Lord.
And in this moment of vulnerability,
In this moment of taking a breath and relaxing before the Lord,
In this moment of listening to the Lord,
You hear the word that you need,
You hear that the Lord is our Shepherd and we are His sheep,
We are His flock,
We are under His care,
We can rest and be assured of His constant care.
When we find ourselves vulnerable, open, and honest about who we are,
Just when we realize just how fragile and broken and sinful and forlorn we are,
Just then, we find ourselves in His flock.
And no matter what happens to us, no matter what danger we’re open to,
We’ll still find ourselves in His flock.
You see, we don’t praise the Lord today because everything is always so great,
Because certainly we know everything isn’t always great.
We aren’t thankful for everything that happens in our lives,
There’s plenty of things that we’d rather not see, rather not experience,
There’s plenty of things that we’re not adding to our thankful list,
There’s plenty of things that we’ve seen plenty of—take them away Lord!
So we don’t praise the Lord today because everything is always so great,
We praise the Lord because through all things, in all things,
He is still our Lord,
He is still our Shepherd,
He is still our Maker,
He is our sustainer, provider, caretaker,
He will be our guard on high.
So when we have come to the limit of our strength and energy,
So when we take a breath and rest and look up,
We will find the Lord watching over us, caring for us, guarding us.
And it’s from that moment of being in His flock, being safe under His guard,
It’s from that moment that our praise arises.
His care picks us back up.
His care raises our spirits.
His care renews our energy.
His care calls us back to where we started this whole song.
His care calls us back to make noise unto the Lord for all that He has done.
We’re under His care—Give Thanks!
He is guarding us, body, mind, and soul—Give Thanks!
We are the sheep of His flock—Give Thanks!
Give Thanks! Let the song begin again.
Praise, sing, praise,
Shout to the rooftops with all your voice,
Speak up, sing out, shout out, lift your voice.
Blast the horn,
blast, blare, burst, boom,
bombastic sound with all your horns and drums and things to rattle.
It’s a crash of words, a crash of words and sounds, a crash for our Lord.
This praise, this thanksgiving, this hymn of praise we offer,
It’s a crash of words ringing and singing the Name of the Lord
Forever to be praised.
Praise, sing, praise,
Come on, let’s go, let’s go before the Lord, let’s go before our Maker,
let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.
Let’s go and thank Him for all that He’s done for us—
From the creation of the world until now,
Let’s thank Him for all of the ways He provides for us,
Let’s thank Him, praise Him, raise His Name to the heights of sound.