Psalm Meditation 519
Trinity Sunday
May 30, 2010

Psalm 148
1 Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise him in the heights!
2 Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his host!
3 Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars!
4 Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens!
5 Let them praise the name of the LORD, for he commanded and they were created.
6 He established them forever and ever; he fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed.
7 Praise the LORD from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps,
8 fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling his command!
9 Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars!
10 Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds!
11 Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth!
12 Young men and women alike, old and young together!
13 Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven.
14 He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his faithful, for the people of Israel who are close to him. Praise the LORD!
(NRSV)

What would happen if we actually expressed the praise we feel bubbling up within us? I suppose we might sing or dance or laugh or cavort in ‘unseemly’ ways. And I wonder when it happened that began to see expressions of joy and praise as unseemly. When did we have it decided for us that anything that looks like celebration is a bad thing. The National Football League has even banned excessive celebration as ‘unsportsmanlike conduct.’ Yes, an in-your-face-I’m-better-than-you-are celebration is rude and unsportsmanlike. At the same time, most football players are really still kids with youthful enthusiasm. Is it possible to teach folks not to be nasty to each other rather than to say it is not nice to celebrate your accomplishments.?

All that to ask again, what would happen if we actually expressed the praise we feel bubbling up within us? We might actually be calmer, less prone to violence if we could burn off all of our excitement in praise instead of holding in every adrenaline based event until it explodes in an act of anger and violence. We might discover that dancing and laughing with gusto are not actually tools of the devil so much as they are expressions of vulnerability in the presence of the numinous, the holy. Some other emotional states that involve vulnerability might regain some of their respectability as gifts of God if we could see them as vehicles of praise rather than seeing them only as unseemly.

I don’t really expect any of us to begin using our bodies as vehicles of praise in worship this week. I do hope that some of us might be a bit less self conscious in our expressions of praise and that we might be a bit less judgmental around those who can and do use their bodies in giving praise to God. Some of us who are reluctant even to lift our hands as an act of worship might experiment in the privacy of our own homes. And those who will jump up and down and yell and scream as we watch a sporting event might wonder to ourselves what it would be like to express our praise to God in some like manner. And those of us who would rather take a beating than express any emotion with any more than a smile, a nod and maybe a wave, could go into the most private place we can find and raise a hand as if we were waiting to be called on in school just to see what it might feel like to praise God with reckless abandon.

© May 24, 2010