Hallelujah! Praise God from heaven,
praise him from the mountaintops;
Praise him, all you his angels,
praise him, all you his warriors,
Praise him, sun and moon,
praise him, you morning stars;
Praise him, high heaven,
praise him, heavenly rain clouds;
Praise, oh let them praise the name of God—
he spoke the word, and there they were!
He set them in place
from all time to eternity;
He gave his orders,
and that's it!
Praise God from earth,
you sea dragons, you fathomless ocean deeps;
Fire and hail, snow and ice,
hurricanes obeying his orders;
Mountains and all hills,
apple orchards and cedar forests;
Wild beasts and herds of cattle,
snakes, and birds in flight;
Earth's kings and all races,
leaders and important people,
Robust men and women in their prime,
and yes, graybeards and little children.
Let them praise the name of God—
it's the only Name worth praising.
His radiance exceeds anything in earth and sky;
he's built a monument—his very own people!
Praise from all who love God!
Israel's children, intimate friends of God.
Hallelujah!
What first got my attention about the Psalm is that no where is God's preferential option for the marginalized mentioned. No where does the poet say that God is looking out for those who have been lost or experienced loss.
It helps to approach the lesson with suspicion, suspicion that the way we have always read it has been in the interests of the status quo. I can almost hear a sermon about the importance of coming to church to praise and worship God. And it is that suspicion that allows me to hear in the words of the Psalm that the Psalm writer is one of the forgotten people, left out of the status quo, marginalized. And the writer is standing off, away, giving us an important message if we might listen.
Because this psalm is "good news" to our culture's forgotten ones. For those who cannot find happiness in things, in shopping, in owning, in having everything that supposedly marks us as successful, yet they know precisely the message of joy in the passage. And the writer shares it with us.
Let them praise the name of God—
it's the only Name worth praising.
Will we try to build a monument of success? God's already built one
he's built a monument—his very own people!
Because what the marginalized would tell us is the very simple message that no other monument will last. And that joy trumps happiness (from the root word "happenstance"). And relationships are what bring joy.
So there they are, out there, left out, as it were, singing these words to us. And we are invited, not to invite them into our cultural complicity, but to join them outside. Outside of what we have conventionalized in our faith. Outside of our comfort, yes, but "inside" where God is at work, calling us to join God in building a city where no one journeys alone. Not even us.
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