The Bible Study Hour

Dr. James Boice: Much of what we call worship today is really not worship at all. Many of the so-called praise songs of our age are more about us than they are about God. And the use of the personal pronoun "I" far exceeds the use of the pronoun "He".

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Bible Study Hour, a radio and internet broadcast with Dr. James Boice, preparing you to think and act biblically.

Our modern praise has taken on the characteristics of our age, an age in which the worship of God is diminished, while our needs and our importance are magnified. Let's join Dr. Boice as he studies Psalm 147 and the seven reasons for which we should exalt and praise our God.

Dr. James Boice: Several times now in my introduction to our studies of the last Psalms of the Psalter, I've mentioned a Lutheran woman whose name is Marva Dawn. She's written a very good book on worship called "Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down". And one of the things she says in the book several times over is that much of what we call worship today is not worship at all, but instead a glorification of ourselves.

This is often true of what are sometimes called the praise songs. Not all of them, of course, but many of them. And Dawn gives us an example. Let me just read it to you as it is written out in the hymnbooks that contain it. It goes like this: "I will celebrate, sing unto the Lord. I will sing to God a new song." Repeat. "I will praise God, I will sing to God a new song." Repeat. "Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. I will sing to God a new song." Repeat. "I will celebrate, sing unto the Lord. I will sing to God a new song." Repeat. And then repeat it all again.

Now, I've never heard that particular praise song, which is one reason why I am bold in referring to it, because nobody can say you're criticizing the music I have chosen. But it's typical of what we hear many times in services that use this kind of music. And the point is that it doesn't actually glorify God. It seems to be praising God. It says it's praising Him, but this is the one thing it doesn't actually do.

As Dawn points out, the verbs say "I will", but in this song, I don't. Because though God is mentioned as the recipient of my praise and singing, the song never says a single thing about or to God. Now, that makes us want to ask, "Well, what is the song about then?" You look at it very carefully, the answer's clear. With all of the repeats, "I", first-person pronoun, is the subject 28 times.

Not God, but I, myself, and not even myself along with the other members of the covenant community, it's just "I". With that kind of focus, says Dawn, we might suppose that all the Hallelujahs are praising how good I am at celebrating and singing. Now, that's narcissism. That's self-absorption. That is the thing that is most characteristic of our self-absorbed age.

And so, if our worship is beginning to reflect that kind of self-absorption, it's not spiritual as we suppose, but is worldly. It's alleged worship, which has actually taken on the characteristics of our age. We are focused on ourselves. Now, the point of all of that is that the praise songs of the Psalter don't fall into this trap. And it's one reason why they're such good models for Christian worship and why they ought to be used a lot more in so-called evangelical worship than they are used, especially in our day.

We're looking at a particular grouping of these, Psalms 146 to 150, the last five Psalms in the Psalter, and they develop various aspects of what it means to praise God. Psalm 146 begins with the personal element: "I will praise the Lord all my life," but then it goes on to invite God's other people to join in. Psalm 148 explains where God must be praised. It's from the heavens above to the earth below, in other words, throughout all creation.

Psalm 149 tells us how to praise God, that is, it gives us a suggestion: it is, that Psalm says, with a new song. And Psalm 150 tells everyone everywhere to praise God: "Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord." Now, what about Psalm 147? Well, this is a Psalm that tells us what we can praise God for. Look at this striking characteristic. In Psalm 147, the pronoun "He", which refers to God, occurs 14 times, and "Lord" occurs eight times.

In other words, the Psalm's all about God, not about ourselves. The word "I" doesn't occur once. And "our" only occurs one time. It suggests, of course, that this is the way the worship of God should be done. Now, as far as an outline goes, many of the commentators divide it into three parts because there are three calls to praise God, and they lead off what might well be three divisions of the Psalm: verses 1 through 6, verses 7 through 11, and verses 12 through 20.

I think, however, that the way the New International Version divides this up into seven stanzas should be preferred because those seven stanzas actually give us seven distinct matters for which we should praise God. If we use that division and remember that the Psalm is all about God, we can capture something of the thrust of the Psalm with headings like these. First of all, God's care for His people. Secondly, God's care for the least significant among His people.

Third, God's provision for His creation. Four, God's delight in the godly. Five, God's blessings on the nation. Six, God's rule over creation. And seven, God's revelation of Himself to Israel. These titles, if we use those titles for the various stanzas, like the Psalm, focus our attention on God entirely. Now, let's start at the beginning, stanza one.

The very first verse draws on several other Psalms: Psalm 33:1, which says that it's fitting to praise God, and Psalm 92:1, which declares that praising God is good, and Psalm 135:3, which says that praise is pleasant. In other words, in the first verse of this Psalm, all three of those adjectives are brought together: "How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and how fitting to praise Him."

Well, we ought to ask at that point, "Why is it good and pleasant and fitting to praise God?" and that's what the Psalm goes on to answer in verses 2 and 3. It uses four verbs to record what God has done for His people. It says He builds up Jerusalem, He gathers the exiles, He heals the brokenhearted, and He binds up their wounds. Quite a few of the commentators suggest that if this really is a post-exilic Psalm—that means one that was written after the deportation of the people to Babylon and their return—it may well have been a Psalm that was composed on the occasion of the dedication of the walls in the days of Nehemiah.

It would certainly have been fitting to have been composed for that kind of an occasion, especially because of the reference to Jerusalem that occurs not just in the stanza and verses I've read, but later on in the Psalm as well. That was a great occasion. If you read about it in the 12th chapter of Nehemiah, you'll find that the Levites were brought back to the city from all over the land. And then the professional singers were collected, and those who were able to play musical instruments—cymbals and harps and lyres.

When all this group was together, the singers were divided into two choirs, and these led the people along the walls, one choir proceeding in one direction around the wall and the other choir proceeding in the other direction around the wall. And when they had collected on the far side and met again, they proceeded to the temple and there they led the nation in a great time of singing and praise under the direction of Jezrahiah, who was the choir master.

This singing and rejoicing was so loud that it could be heard far beyond the bounds of the city. Now, we don't know if Psalm 147 was composed for that occasion, but it may well have been. It would certainly have been appropriate. And if that was the case, we can sense how good, pleasant, and fitting it would have been for the Jews on that occasion to sing these words: "The Lord builds up Jerusalem. He gathers the exiles of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds."

Now, God had done exactly that in bringing the exiles back to their own land. As far as we're concerned, we have no continuing earthly city here. We have no earthly Jerusalem. But we are citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, and we praise God for gathering us from this perishing, sinful world, binding up our hearts, healing our wounds, and building up our city, which is the Christian church. And when we think along those lines, we ought to be able to say how good, pleasant, and fitting it is for us to sing the same kind of praises to our God.

Now, we go to the second stanza. The writer has reflected on how God brought the exiles back from distant Babylon and has established them in a rebuilt Jerusalem. That leads him now to reflect on God's power, which brought them back and is, as he says in this stanza, seen in His numbering and naming of the stars. It leads him to say, "Truly God's understanding has no limit."

Now, the major point of this stanza is not that God cares for the stars, of course, though He does. But rather that the one who is great enough to number and name the stars actually concerns Himself for us, who are insignificant and weak by comparison. We would expect God to have created the stars. Who else could have created the stars? Of course God did that. We praise Him for that.

But what should sustain even the most humble of His creatures is that God shows an interest in us, saving us from the wicked while He casts the wicked down. And this is so remarkable that it becomes the subject of this stanza. Now, you find that again and again in Scripture. I think of one great example, and that is the Magnificat of the Virgin Mary. Do you remember how she sang, "He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich empty away."

I think also of the theologians, the greatest theologian of the church all down through the Middle Ages, perhaps to the time of the Reformation, and that's Saint Augustine. Saint Augustine drew on this verse at the very beginning of his Confessions. He joined the second half of verse 5 with the first half of Psalm 145, verse 3, and started his Confessions this way: "Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised. Great is Thy power, and of Thy wisdom there is no end."

In other words, brilliant as he was, Saint Augustine was identifying himself with the humble of the earth whom God had raised up, and he was praising God for that. Now, we come to the next stanza, and this is the point at which many of the commentators begin what they call a second section, because in verse 7 we find another invitation to praise God, in this case to sing to Him with thanksgiving. So we ask the same question we asked when we were in stanza one: "Why should we do this?"

The answer's given in verses 7 through 9. It's given in addition to what has already been said: that God cares for His people and that He cares for the least significant among His people. This is because, the Psalmist says, God cares for the animal creation too. It's an interesting sequence of thought. First of all, God covers the earth with clouds. Secondly, the clouds give rain. Third, the rain causes the grass to grow.

Four, the grass is food for the cattle. And therefore, five, not only are the cattle provided with food, but all other creatures too, including even the baby ravens. It's an interesting example of a delicacy of thought where the creation is concerned. And it's something that many of us, probably most of us, especially those who live in an urban environment, really don't have. Psalmist is also concerned for the city.

We've already seen him talk about Jerusalem. He's going to do it again in verses 12 through 14. He's going to rejoice in the security and peace of the city. But before he does, here in these verses, he thinks of the animals and how God cares for them. A few weeks ago, when I was preaching on Psalm 145, I called attention to something David said about praising God forever and ever.

What I said as I was teaching that is that he didn't mean, "I want to praise God until I die," but rather forever and ever, that is, even beyond my death with God in heaven forever. Well, after the service, a woman who's an artist asked me if that meant that there would also be animals in heaven. Because, since the last verse of the same Psalm says, "Let every creature praise His holy name forever and ever."

Well, I'd never thought about that before. And while I was hesitating, she reminded me that in Revelation, it says that Jesus comes riding forth out of heaven on a white horse. So, did I think there were going to be horses in heaven? Well, I didn't know the answer to that question. I still do not know the answer to that question. I think that most of the figures in the book of Revelation are just images.

I don't find anything in the Bible that suggests that animals have eternal souls and will survive death. But I suppose God can create animals in heaven for variety's sake, just the way He creates them here. But that's not really the point of my referring to the conversation. What interested me, as I got past that Psalm and came onto this one, was the sensitivity this woman had for animals. Something I don't have.

And she was closer to the Psalm than I was. And indeed, she's closer to the Psalm than I still am. She's very close to the writer because here in addition to his concern for the people and the insignificant people and the city, this man is concerned for the animal creation. Now, we go to the next stanza. And at first glance, verses 10 and 11 seem to be a digression because here the writer is reflecting on the value of godliness rather than physical strength.

But it's not really a digression. He's still thinking about God. And what he's saying about God here is that He's not like most of us who are always impressed with physical things, that is, what we can see. We are impressed with people who are strong, we are impressed with people who are good-looking and all of that, not with things like godliness, which seem to be intangibles and at any rate are invisible.

But here's what the Psalmist says. He's talking about the Lord, and he says the Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love. Well, we should be reminded of that. As we praise God for it, we should also recognize that that's what God cares about. And if that's what God cares about, we ought to give more time to trying to be godly, more time for spiritual things than for worldly concerns.

There's nothing wrong with the worldly concerns. God has placed us here. And there's nothing wrong with strength or physical beauty or anything else, but all those things are going to pass away. While the Bible tells us the one who does the will of the Lord is going to abide forever. Next, the Psalm talks about God's blessing on the nation. This is what some of the writers call the beginning of a third and final section of the Psalm.

But it really ought to be broken up because verses 12 through 14 actually stand apart from those that follow, since here the Psalmist is thinking about Jerusalem again as he did at the beginning. And after this, he goes on to talk about creation and finally another blessing too. What he writes about Jerusalem here is that God has done four important things for the city. He says that God has strengthened its gates.

You'll remember that in the days of Nehemiah, the final thing they had to do was build the gates. He said He blesses its people. He says that God grants peace to the nation. And finally, he says that God satisfies its residents with good food. Now, those are great blessings for any people. So if we've enjoyed the same blessings as we have, we should be praising God in this area as well.

We need to remember that a great blessing for any nation is its safety. And the reason is because we tend to forget that. We forget that it comes from God. People who have lived through times of war think differently. They know differently. War is terribly destructive, both of lives and of wealth. So when a country is secure and at peace, as ours is, then the people who live there prosper and they're able to enjoy what we call the good life.

To use the language of the Psalm, they enjoy the finest of the wheat and many other great blessings too. So if God gives us peace, we ought to be thanking Him for it. And then verses 15 through 18. He's returned to the care of God for nature again, in this case to His rule over it through the weather and through the recurring seasons. It's part of a pattern here, isn't it?

What the writer is doing in the Psalm is talking about Jerusalem and its people, and then the earth and its creatures, and then Jerusalem and its people, and the earth and its creatures all over again. Verse 18 became of special interest to the English in the 16th century after the defeat of the Great Spanish Armada. It's an interesting story. The Spanish were planning to invade England, and so the Armada was finally launched after several years of preparation in the summer of 1588.

The Navy was to transport the Spanish army to England from the Netherlands, but first they had to defeat the English Navy. The Armada consisted of 130 great ships. It had 7,000 sailors and 17,000 soldiers. The English had 90 ships under the command of Francis Drake. The battle was fought out for days, the English maintaining their distance and bombarding the Spanish fleet with alternating broadsides from their smaller and quicker vessels.

They fought wisely and well, but the decisive factor in the battle was a strong wind that churned up the English Channel and drove these great unwieldy galleons of the Spanish up the channel into the North Sea, where many of them were wrecked and destroyed. Some of them tried to return by going around Scotland and Ireland and coming back to Spain and Portugal the other way, but many were wrecked on that return voyage too.

Less than half of that great fleet actually made it back to their home bases. The victory for England was complete, the Spanish defeat was total, and the English celebrated their deliverance by striking a new issue of coins that bore on the coin the Latin motto "Aflavit Deus", which translated means "God blew". And it comes from this Psalm: "He stirs up His breezes and the waters flow."

In that day, there was at least one nation that knew how to thank God for its deliverance. Now, one reason why it's been best in my judgment to handle Psalm 147 the way the New International Version does—that is in seven stanzas rather than in three parts—is that verses 19 and 20 really do stand by themselves as a climax. If you know anything about the Bible and its concern for the word of God, if you've studied Psalm 119 and other Psalms like it, you know how important that is.

Of all the many blessings for which the people of God should be thankful, the greatest is that God has established a personal relationship with them by means of a verbalized and written communication. This says, "He has revealed His word to Jacob, His laws and decrees to Israel. He has done this for no other nation; they do not know His laws." Now, that is exactly the same thing the Apostle Paul says in Romans.

Do you remember how he writes about it in the third chapter? He's talking about the advantages of being Jewish, and he says this: "What advantage then is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision?" And here's his answer: "Much in every way. First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God." And so I ask the question, can any of us experience a greater blessing than that? Anything greater for which we should thank God?

And the answer to that is of course not. Without the word of God, without the Scriptures, without the Bible, we are utterly confused and adrift where all of the great questions of this life are concerned. Is there a God? If so, what is he like? Who are we? What are we here for? If there is a God, how can we come to know him? What's the problem with human life? How is our sin to be dealt with? What way of life is best? And does what we do here actually matter?

We can never find an answer to those questions by ourselves. But God has revealed them to us in the Bible. He has told what He is like. He has told who we are, what we are here for, how we can be saved from our sin, and why what we do really does matter. You know how John Wesley wrote about it, that great evangelist of the 18th century? In his journal, at the very beginning—it's the fifth volume of his collected works—Wesley wrote this:

"I am a creature of a day, passing through life as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit, come from God and returning to God, just hovering over the great gulf till a few moments hence I am no more seen. I drop into an unchangeable eternity. I want to know one thing, the way to heaven, how to land safe on that happy shore. God Himself has condescended to teach me the way. For this very end He came from heaven. He has written it down in a book."

"Oh, give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God. I have it. Here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be *homo unius libri*, man of one book. Here then I am, far from the busy ways of men. I sit down alone; only God is here. In His presence I open, I read His book for this end: to find the way to heaven. Is there a doubt concerning the meaning of what I read? Does anything appear dark or intricate?"

"I lift up my heart to the Father of Lights. Lord, is it not Thy word? If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. You have said, if any be willing to do Your will, he shall know. I am willing to do it. Let me know Thy will." Well, that should be the cry of your heart if you truly value the Bible and want to thank God for it. Only the spirit of God working through that book will bring you to spiritual life and give you peace with God.

Only the spirit of God working through that book will make you like your Savior Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our Father, we come Sunday by Sunday to thank You for Your blessings and to praise Your name. You are a great God, and You have acted in great and gracious ways toward us who are Your people. We're glad we have opportunity to praise You here, but even as we do, we know how inadequate it is. Even eternity itself will be insufficient to fully praise Your name.

But our Father, what we do know, we appreciate, and who You are, we are thankful for that. And we acknowledge You to be our Savior through Christ, and that You have made that known to us through the Scriptures. So Father, bless us as together we try to study Your word and grow by it, and grant that we may be like Christ and so bring glory to His name. For it's in His name that we pray. Amen.

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