Psalm 150 "Learning Christ from the Psalms: Praise the Lord" Our Scripture reading this morning comes from Psalm 150. I will be reading from my own translation 1. Praise Yahweh Praise God in his sanctuary; Praise him in the dome of his power. 2. Praise him in his strength; Praise him according to the fulness of his greatness. 3. Praise him with the blowing of the ram's horn; Praise him with lute and lyre. 4. Praise him with timbrel and dancing; Praise him with stringed instruments and harp. 5. Praise him with cymbals of sound; Praise him with cymbals of the battle-cry. 6. Let all that has breath, Praise Yahweh. Praise Yahweh. How do you read the Psalms? Particularly, how do you read a Psalm like this? We don't normally blow a ram's horn during worship, and we don't have a group of Levites playing lutes and lyres, harps and cymbals, and we don't typically dance up and down the aisles while the pastor preaches, so how do you read Psalm 150? Is this just something "cultural" which we don't do, or is there something else? Or are we supposed to get together an orchestra, and dance around the sanctuary during worship? Today I would like to walk you through this Psalm, showing first what it meant to the Israelites who sung it in worship, then how it points us to Christ, and finally how it applies to today. First, I'd like to point out that this is the conclusion to the whole Psalter. The Psalter has five books within it-- each one ends with a doxology: for instance, Psalm 41 ends the first book with the doxology, "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen." Psalm 150 is a doxology to the whole Psalter-- a declaration of praise to Yahweh, and a call to all Israel to join in the praise due to his name. The last seven Psalms (144-150) all proclaim the praises of the Lord, building up the crescendo of praise and exaltation to the great God of Israel, climaxing with the jubillant exuberance of this Psalm. Notice that every phrase is in the imperative. This is a command that everything in heaven and on earth must praise Yahweh. Verse one identifies who is to be praised. "Praise Yahweh. Praise God in his sanctuary." The sanctuary is the temple--the holy place where God meets his people-- but the temple always is but a reflection of the high and holy place, where God dwells in heaven. Therefore the next line states, "Praise him in the dome of his power" Your translation may read "his mighty heavens" or "his mighty firmament". The word there is the word raqia--the same word which is used in Genesis 1:6-8, when God separated the waters above from the waters below by a "raqia", which has been translated firmament or expanse, but seems to mean "dome." The simplest way to understand it is by going outside and looking up. What do you see? A dome--right? What color is the sky? Blue. What color is a lake or ocean? Blue. So why is the sky blue? Because there is water on the other side. The biblical authors pictured the universe as one huge cosmic sea-- and that the raqia--the dome--is what God created to keep the waters above from overwhelming us here below. This is why when God opened the floodgates of the heavens in Noah's day, the earth was deluged with the great Flood. This shouldn't be a problem for us. Just like the Biblical authors say that the sun goes around the earth-- and just like they talk about the four corners of the earth, and the pillars which hold it up-- so also the Biblical authors thought of the sky as a solid dome. We see this in the book of Revelation, chapter four, verses 1-6. "After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first head speaking to me like a trumpet said, "Come up here,..." Okay--we've got a door in heaven, so John goes up there and sees in verse two, "a throne sitting in heaven"--while verse six tells us that "before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal." This is the same throne that Ezekiel saw in Ezekiel 10:1, where he saw "the likeness of a throne of sapphire above the raqia (the dome--same word) that was over the heads of the cherubim." In other words, If this is earth, and this is the dome above the earth, then God's throne sits on the top of the dome, and all the heavenly hosts look down through the sea of glass in order to see the earth. This is also what Isaiah is referring to in Isaiah 40:22 when he says that God, "sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in." God sits at the pinnacle of the dome over all the earth. This is a picture of his sovereignty and power. This is why the Psalmist calls it the dome of his power. All the area under the dome is under his control, and he alone is the true God who reigns supreme over all creation. This picture of God's sovereignty, is a direct challenge to the nations, because it affirms that there is only one true God. In verse two, however, the challenge becomes more strident: "Praise him in his strength; Praise him according to the fulness of his greatness." How did God exercise his strength on behalf of Israel? What was the demonstration of Yahweh's greatness? It was in his going before his people and defeating all their enemies. God is a Warrior, who goes out and demolishes Israel's foes. In other words, this Psalm is a victory Psalm-- a song which the Israelites would sing after God had given them victory over their enemies. This is confirmed by verses 3-5. Throughout the OT, whenever the army came back victorious, the people would all come out singing, and playing their instruments, and in the joy and celebration, it would only be appropriate to praise God for what he had done. The ram's horn was used for calling people to worship, but also for calling the army to battle. The other instruments would have been used for all sorts of celebrations, including the victory celebration. The most curious instrument in the list is the cymbals of the battle-cry. Most translations render this "the resounding cymbals", or the "clashing cymbals", but the word there is the word teruah-- which is used elsewhere in the Old Testament to refer to either blowing or shouting the battle-cry. Here, it would seem to refer to a kind of cymbal which was used either to call the people to arms, or as an imitation of the sound of battle-- like the clashing of swords and shields against each other. The Psalm concludes by commanding all that has breath to praise Yahweh, drawing our attention once again to the supreme sovereignty of the Lord over all his creation. Does it sound strange to call God a Warrior? Does that conjure up images of some muscle-bound Hercules knocking over everyone in his path? or some Arnold Swarzanegger who defeats a hundred soldiers single-handed? Well, . . . . . . . it should. Except our God can handle a hundred thousand soldiers with a flick of his wrist, while Swarzenegger builds up a sweat knocking out a measley dozen. Your God is a Warrior who goes out and does battle against your enemies, because you are too weak and too puny to defeat them yourself. He does this to show forth his glory--and to demonstrate his love for you. And if he didn't-- then you would wind up as slaves to the wicked kings of the Canaanites. But how does this point us to Christ? Well, what is our worship all about? Are we not here to celebrate the victory of Jesus Christ over our enemies? Are we not here to proclaim his praises? God is a warrior-- and his name is Jesus Christ. Just as God triumphed over Israel's physical enemies in the OT, so also God has triumphed over our spiritual enemies in the cross of Jesus Christ. Let us first look at this Psalm from Christ's point of view, and then from our own. When you read the Psalms, remember that they were the hymnbook of Israel. They are all ultimately about Jesus Christ, pointing to his coming, so when Jesus was on earth, Jesus was singing the Psalms about himself. Jesus knew that it was his task to defeat all our enemies, so when he sang this Psalm in the temple or in the synagogue, he sang it in anticipation of the victory which the Father had promised him. he was absolutely confident in the supremacy of God over all things, and therefore could praise his Father with all joy and faith. But the most fitting time for Jesus to sing this Psalm would have been after his resurrection-- because it was after God had given him that final victory: sin and death were destroyed-- God had shown forth the fulness of his greatness, and in the battle-cry of the Son of God--"IT IS FINISHED"-- the great act of God's deliverance was accomplished. Jesus Christ was sent by the Father on a solo mission to seek and destroy all the enemies of his people. He did hand-to-hand combat with the Devil during the temptation in the wilderness. He faced down sin and death all through his ministry-- driving out demons, healing the sick, raising the dead, even forgiving sins-- all as a part of his warfare. But all that was just preliminary skirmishes, staking out positions for the final battlefield-- When Jesus Christ came to Gethsemane on the night in which he was betrayed, the final battle began. Luke 22 records that Jesus told his disciples to buy swords-- apparently they already had two-- but Jesus was not referring to physical warfare-- he was referring to the violent struggle between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness which had already begun in the treachery of Judas Iscariot. Luke 22:43 tells us that in the middle of that battle, an angel came and strengthened Jesus-- even the Son of God needed assistance in the midst of that battle. Then Judas came and betrayed the eternal Son of God with a kiss, Jesus looked at his captors and said-- "this is your hour--when darkness reigns." There has never been a battle like that in the history of the universe-- the battle raged through the night, and the salvation of mankind hung in the balance as Pilate and Herod played political games with One who had the power to strike them dead on the spot. But they decided to crucify the Divine Warrior-- and in that final blow, they unwittingly sealed the fate of their Evil Master. For if the Divine Warrior died, he would forever destroy the power of sin, death and the devil. And in Christ's death and resurrection, all the forces of evil were dealt a shattering blow. God is a Warrior-- and his name is Jesus Christ. So now we too may sing Psalm 150 with the full assurance that Yahweh has won the battle for us in Jesus Christ, and that all power and authority rests in his hands. And remember that Christ's victory is also physical: He has not only destroyed our spiritual enemies, but he has promised to destroy our physical enemies as well. When he returns, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord. You can either praise him here with joy for the salvation he has brought, or you can praise him when he returns, with the fear of damnation upon your head, But one way or another, everything that has breath will praise the Lord. So the proper way to read this Psalm is as a song of praise for the victories of the Divine Warrior. When we come together to worship, we are here to celebrate what he has done. we are here to praise him in his strength-- to declare his mighty power, and to admire his glorious greatness. we are here as a firstfruit of the praise which his glory deserves, and we are here to rejoice because we have received the benefits of his victory. And even more, you can read this Psalm everyday, because Jesus Christ is still the Divine Warrior. He still goes before his people daily to do battle against their enemies. Ephesians 6 presents for us a picture of spiritual warfare, telling us that we still face the battle. After D-Day, when the Allies took Normandy during World War II, everyone knew that the Allies were going to win. But some of the heaviest fighting of the war took place after that, before the Germans finally surrendered on VE Day. Some of the bloodiest battles took place during the Allied drive from the coast toward Berlin. Even so, Jesus Christ accomplished our salvation on D-Day, 2000 years ago, but there is still some bloody fighting left before us. Paul tells us that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, and powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. There is only one way to survive in this war, and that is to put on the full armor of God. This armor was first described in Isaiah 49, 52, and 59 as the armor of the Messiah. the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit. This is what Jesus Christ wore into battle when he came to defeat our enemies. Therefore this is what you need to wear, if you are going to stand your ground in the evil day. And the only way you can can put on the armor of Christ, is if you put on Christ himself. And after each battle, as your victorious Lord goes forth before you, leading you from victory to victory, sing his praises and marvel at the glorious salvation which he has accomplished. Sing the hundred and fiftieth Psalm, and remember what he has done. And when you come together each Lord's day, remind each other that this is to be a day of celebration, because our God is a Warrior, and he has triumphed over all your enemies, and he will lead you safely home. In Conclusion, look at Revelation 19:11-21. Christ is portrayed as a warrior riding on a white horse, surrounded by the armies of heaven. The beast and the kings of the earth gather their armies to do battle against him. Picture that: two great and mighty armies facing each other-- Christ facing the antichrist at the final battle. But after the beast is captured and thrown into the fiery lake, it says that the armies of the Antichrist are killed by the sword that comes out of Christ's mouth. Christ brings a huge army with him, but ultimately, he does all the fighting. By the word of his power he destroys all his and our enemies. Take comfort, Christian, because your God is a Warrior, and his name is Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord!