Good morning.
My name is Matthew Capone, and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church,
and it's my joy to bring God's word to you this morning.
A special welcome if you are visiting or new with us.
We're glad you're here.
And as I say every week, we're glad you're here not because you are filling a seat,
but because we are following Jesus together as one community.
And as we follow him together as one community,
we are convinced that there is no one so good that they don't need God's grace,
and no one so bad that they can't have it.
And so everyone needs to hear what God has to say to us in his word.
If you've been with us this month, you know that we're in the season of Advent.
Advent is an English word that comes from a Latin word, and it simply means to come or to arrive.
And so the Advent season is when we celebrate what Jesus has done in the past,
what God has done by sending his son, that he came and arrived here in this world in real space,
in real time as a baby.
But we also have the task not just of celebrating what happened in the past,
but looking forward to what will happen in the future.
We have Jesus' first coming that we celebrate at Christmas,
but also his second coming that we look forward to.
And as we do that, we've been going through the Psalms.
And the Psalms are simply 150 different models of ways to talk to God, to talk about God.
And now we're at the very end.
We're in the last of our four Psalms that we're going through.
If you remember, we started with Psalm 13,
which talked about the struggle that we have when we feel the presence of sin and evil in this world,
but we don't see the presence of God.
It seems like he's absent, that his blessings have left us.
And so we sing our sorrow, but also our hope.
We don't get caught in one or the other.
We looked then at Psalm 72.
We talked about our longing for good leaders,
our longing for leaders who love justice and righteousness,
even as we live under, at worst, evil, at best, imperfect leaders.
And the Psalms there showed us that we continue to praise and pray to God
because he is coming as the perfect king.
He's coming as the ultimate ruler, the ultimate king,
the leader who will give us the justice and the righteousness that we long for.
And then last week we looked at Psalm 96, which was a hymn of praise.
And so we asked the question,
why do we praise God when we don't feel like it?
Why do we praise him?
What makes him more excellent than other things that we praise?
What makes him worthy and worth it?
And so we talked about different places that we see praise.
I mentioned to you the great Capone family tradition of Amazon.com reviews
and the need to find things that are worthy of praise.
Not just worthy of praise,
but people who are willing to tell us all the reasons that something is praiseworthy.
And so that's what Psalm 96 showed us.
It showed us the things that are praiseworthy about God.
And we're going to continue to talk about praise this morning.
We're going to be in Psalm 148.
And praise is something that we see all around us.
It's not just something that we see in Amazon.com reviews.
And as I mentioned before,
there are things in the Psalms that overlap with each other.
There's redundancies.
And so we were not able to talk about everything that was in Psalm 96 last week.
And we're not going to be able to talk about everything that's in Psalm 148.
So I'm going to jump back a little bit to 196 at points.
And we're going to look at 148 as well.
One thing we did not talk about last week,
we talked about praise in general,
but we did not talk about singing specifically.
Now the Psalms are not just a model of 150 different ways to talk to God,
but they were actually sung by God's people in the Old Testament.
And if you remember from the beginning of Psalm 96,
the very first thing we're told is not just to praise God,
but to sing to Him, to sing a new song.
And so while praise is something that we see all around us,
singing is something that is around us as well.
If you believe that singing praise is something that is limited to church,
that it's strange, that it's unusual,
then I would submit to you that you have never, ever,
once in your life seen a Disney movie.
Because half of the point of Disney movies
is that something or someone would be praised.
If you've watched Frozen,
you know that Elsa praises and celebrates individualism
and the freedom that she feels
when she casts off society's expectations for her.
If you've seen Aladdin,
you know that Aladdin and Jasmine in a whole new world
sing about and celebrate
the wonders of going on new adventures,
experiencing novelty,
seeing things for the first time.
If you have watched my favorite,
The Jungle Book,
you know that Baloo the Bear and Mowgli
sing the bear necessities
and they praise all the glorious things
that happen when you celebrate
the freedom and the happiness
and the peace that come from minimalism
and living off of nature.
And so praise and singing
are things that are all around us,
whether we want to believe it or not.
Last week we asked the big question
of why is God worthy of praise?
And now we're going to focus in
even more specifically,
why do we sing to God?
We saw in Psalm 96
that there are many reasons we praise God.
First and foremost,
his salvation for us,
that he has saved us
from the penalty and power of sin.
Secondly, we praise him as the creator.
He's made the heavens and the earth.
And then third,
we praise him as the sustainer.
He's the one who keeps the world moving and going.
And so those were our answers.
That was how we were supposed
to stir up our emotions
if we did not feel like praising God.
But what if even that
is not enough for us?
What if we're at the beginning
of Psalm 13, for example,
and we don't see any of those things,
we can't feel them or experience them?
How and why do we continue
to sing to God nevertheless?
What if we are unmoved?
What if we're still stuck,
as we've talked about before,
stuck with cynicism,
unable to see hope?
That's the question
we're going to take with us
to Psalm 148.
I'm going to read Psalm 148 for us now.
And remember that this is God's word.
And God tells us
that his word is more precious than gold,
even the finest gold,
and that it is sweeter than honey,
even honey that comes straight
from the honeycomb.
And so I'm reading now,
starting with verse one.
Praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord from the heavens.
Praise him in the heights.
Praise him, all his angels.
Praise him, all his hosts.
Praise him, sun and moon.
Praise him, all you shining stars.
Praise him, you highest heavens,
and you waters above the heavens.
Verse five.
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for he commanded and they were created.
And he established them forever and ever.
He gave a decree,
and it shall not pass away.
Praise the Lord from the earth.
You great sea creatures in all deeps,
fire and hail, snow and mist,
stormy wind fulfilling his word.
Verse nine.
Mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars,
beasts and all livestock,
creeping things and flying birds.
Verse 11.
Kings of the earth and all peoples,
princes and all rulers of the earth,
young men and maidens together,
old men and children.
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted.
His majesty is above earth and heaven.
He has raised up a horn for his people.
Praise for all his saints,
for the people of Israel who are near to him.
Praise the Lord.
Lord,
please pray with me as we come to this portion of God's word.
Dear Father in heaven,
we thank you
that you've given us your word,
first and foremost,
that you have not left us
wondering about what we should do
or how we should do it,
but you've instructed us like a good father.
Father,
we thank you that you have provided for us
in such a way that you are worthy of praise,
and so we ask that you would help us.
You would help us understand your word,
that you'd help us to know you better,
and you'd help us to do what you call us to do,
what you command us to do,
that you would help us to praise you.
We ask all these things in the name of your son.
Amen.
Now,
if I were to summarize this psalm,
it's pretty simple.
There's a picture that's being given for us
in Psalm 148,
and it's this.
There is a choir.
There's a choir that is singing,
and they're singing in different sections.
They're responding to each other.
First,
there's the heavenly portion of the choir.
That's the part that starts out,
so not every part of the choir is singing at once,
but we have the heavenly portion singing at first,
and they have their reasons,
the reasons that they're singing.
These are things that we talked about last week,
verses 5 and 6.
They're praising because God created them.
So that's the reason that part of the choir is singing.
And then the other part of the choir,
the earthly part of the choir,
responds in song.
So you can imagine there's the heavenly choir up high,
and they sing out God's praise.
Then there's the earthly choir down below,
and they answer in praise.
But it's not just that.
They're then joined,
not just by the heavens and the earth,
but then by the people who live in it.
And these people are not just one section.
It's not just some people,
but everyone,
kings of the earth and all peoples,
young men and maidens,
old men and children.
So the powerful are praising God,
but also those without power.
The old are praising God,
but also the young.
Men are praising God,
but women are praising him as well.
And they're praising them again
for what we talked about in Psalm 96.
They're praising him for his salvation.
And so we're seeing here the repetition
of what we've already seen,
that God is praised.
He's praised for his salvation.
He's praised for his creation.
He's praised for his ruling
over everything in the world.
There's also a bookend.
If you have listened to me teach before,
especially in the book of Matthew,
you know that I'm a huge fan of bookends.
Whenever we're reading the Bible,
if we see something that appears
both at the beginning and at the end,
we know that it is incredibly important.
In fact, often it is the primary point
of the passage.
And here our bookend
is what is also repeated
over and over and over again.
Praise the Lord.
And so it's not just something
that is good for us.
God is not just something
that might move our emotions
as we see what he's done
to recognize that he's worthy of our praise,
but it is something
that God has told us to do.
He has commanded it.
And so God telling us,
in and of itself,
should be enough for us to praise him.
But C.S. Lewis tells us
that when he became a Christian,
one of the things
that was most challenging for him
as he read the Psalms
was seeing the command to praise
over and over.
Because he thought,
who is this God
who just needs our praise?
This seems like something that's petty,
something that's needy.
And then as he began to think about it,
he realized what we've already talked about,
that this is something
that permeates all of our lives.
And so C.S. Lewis realized
that people who do not praise,
people who do not glory in God,
are the same as people
who've never been in love.
He compares it to people
who've never been in love
or people who have never read a good book,
people who are deaf
and are unable to hear music.
And then he realizes and recognizes
that praise is what we do
for anything that we find good.
When we see a movie that we appreciate,
when we read a book that we love,
it's the natural response of humans
to praise the source of it.
And so if we are not praising,
then we're like someone who's deaf
and can't hear music.
We're like someone who's unable to read
and cannot appreciate a wonderful book.
We're like someone who's blind
and is not able to see the glory
that God has given us in this world.
And so God's command to praise here
is God telling us to do
what we would naturally do
for anything else.
And so first of all, we praise God.
We obey his command to us
because he tells us.
But we praise him
because we're doing and recognizing
what we would do
with everything else in this world.
And so as we struggle at times
with the idea of praise,
the concept,
when we hit up against the fact
that we often don't feel like praising,
Psalm 148 first and foremost
reminds us that this is God's command for us.
He wants us to praise him
because it is for our good.
This praise that comes from the choir, though,
is not just praise in general,
but it is praise that comes
from every portion of God's creation.
Everything is praising God.
It is the entire earth.
It's not just God's people,
but his animals that are praising.
It's the heavens.
And if you think this is strange,
I would also submit
that you haven't seen a Disney movie
to see animals and creation praising.
But I would also remind you
of Jesus' words in Luke 19.
If you remember the story of Jesus' death,
he begins by entering Jerusalem.
And as he enters Jerusalem,
many people come and are praising him.
They're laying down palm branches.
And so some leaders come to Jesus
and tell him to stop it.
They want him to stop all the praise
that's going on
because they find it inappropriate.
Do you remember what Jesus says to them?
He essentially says,
yes, I could do that.
But if they didn't praise me,
the rocks would cry out.
In other words,
God's praise is so necessary.
It is such an obligation
and a duty for the people that he's made
that if we fail in it,
the creation itself
will have to step in to fill our place.
But these parts of creation,
everything praising God at once
reminds us of a second thing about praise.
Not just that it's God's command to us,
but this full-bodied,
whole creation praise
that happens in Psalm 148
shows us a picture
of what happens to us as well.
That when we praise,
when we sing to God,
singing is something more than anything else
that engages every single part of our body.
When I preached on Psalm 13,
I mentioned a quote by a man named Andy Crouch
talking about the people in Haiti who sang.
He also says this about singing.
Singing may be the one human activity
that most perfectly combines heart,
mind, soul,
and strength.
Almost everything we do
requires at least one of these fundamental human faculties.
But singing,
and only singing,
combines them all.
In other words,
just as all of creation
is combined in praising God in Psalm 148,
so when we obey God's commands in Psalm 96
to sing a new song,
and His command here in Psalm 148
to praise Him,
we are also doing the one thing
that allows us to give our whole person to Him.
And not only are we giving our whole person to Him,
but we are engaging our whole person.
And so if we find ourselves
like someone who's deaf and can't hear music,
or someone who's blind
and can't see the world that God's created,
singing is the instrument,
it is the tool that God has given us
to be able to begin to see again,
to be able to begin to hear again.
It's an activity that God has created
and He's given to us for our good.
That if we find ourselves stuck,
when we find ourselves numb or cynical,
when we find ourselves grieving or hopeless,
if we're unmoved by all the things
that were listed in the review of God in Psalm 96,
this is our way out.
God has given us singing as the tool.
And so He commands us to do this,
first because He is worthy of praise.
He's more excellent than anything else
that we would give praise to.
But second of all, it's commanded here
as it is in all of the Bible,
because this is the thing
that allows us to grow more and more
in our love for God.
And so if you are burnt out,
if you need Jesus and His grace,
if you feel the darkness of this world
creeping in on you little by little,
if you're not looking forward to conversations
on Christmas Day,
if you're afraid of the division in your family,
if you find your world slowly shrinking,
God has given us this
as His way to care for us,
that we would praise the Lord
along with the rest of creation.
As I mentioned last week,
this is how we actually come back in tune
with what is real.
When we praise God,
we are doing what the rest of creation
has already done before us.
We're reconnecting with reality.
And so the application is simple.
Praise God.
Praise God by being with us here
on a Sunday morning.
Praise God by singing loud,
even if it annoys your neighbor.
Praise God by singing loud
because you know that this is what's going
to re-energize and reorient
your mind and your heart.
And so sing with us,
not because we need you to,
but because you need it.
Knowing that this is the way
that you cultivate your love for God.
What we praise, we end up loving.
There are lots of different ways
to figure out, diagnose our health
as a culture or a society.
I know one pastor who says
that he can quickly tell
the health of a congregation
by the quality of their singing,
but we could also tell
the health of a culture.
I recently listened to someone
who made the observation
that more and more in our culture,
and he was speaking especially
of North America,
we are not a people that sing.
There are not many places left
in our society
where there are people
who don't just sing alone
in their cars to the radio,
but people who come together
and sing as one body.
And so if we want to be healthy
as a church,
if we want to be healthy
as a culture,
then we have to be people
who sing together.
Singing not because
we are trying to do
what's excellent,
not because we want to
be on tune,
but singing because
that is how we join with God
with all of our heart
and soul and mind
and strength.
And this isn't just something
in the Psalms.
In the book of James,
the author asks,
he says,
is anyone cheerful?
And then he says,
let him sing praise.
And so this is what we do.
This is how we bring ourselves
to God.
This is how we express
our love for him,
but it's also how we grow
our love for him.
And so come and sing with us.
Sing when you're here
on Sunday morning with us.
Sing as loud as you can.
Name God's praise
throughout the week.
When you're at the
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo,
remember that these are
the animals that God made.
When you're driving
and you see the mountains,
remember those are the mountains
that God made.
When you see your own growth,
as we talked about last week,
in holiness,
loving more and more
the things that God loves,
and seeing the presence
of evil diminish
more and more.
Praise God.
Name the fact that God
is the one who has done
that in your life.
And then we can truly do
what we're commanded here
in Psalm 148,
to praise the Lord.
this psalm, however,
doesn't just show us
a choir that's singing to God.
It also shows us
a destination.
You may have noticed
that as we've gone
through the psalms,
we have gone through them
in chronological order.
In other words,
we started with Psalm 13.
We did not start
with Psalm 148.
We're doing them in order.
We went from Psalm 13
to Psalm 72
and then Psalm 96
and now Psalm 148.
And there's a reason for that
because the psalm's structure
itself teaches us something.
When we get to the very end
of the psalter,
many people have observed
that there is no psalm
of lament here.
In fact,
the last six psalms
of the book
are all psalms of praise.
And they become more
and more ecstatic
as it goes on
until we end
with Psalm 150.
And not just ecstatic,
but saying the same thing
over and over
and over again.
And so the point
that the psalmist
is making is this.
As we live
the Christian life,
as we sing
the psalm of lament
in Psalm 13,
as we look to God
as our great king
in Psalm 72,
what will happen
more and more
is what happens
in the psalter,
that we will more
and more
grow in our praise.
And not only that,
but as we look forward
to Jesus' second coming,
as we look forward
to that end,
that will be the same end
as the psalter,
that it will be
an end of praise.
And so praise
is not just
how we stir up
our love for God.
It's not just
the tool that God
has given to us.
It is not just
a strategy,
but it is our destination.
That we're moving
closer and closer
to God
and His praise.
That the trajectory,
the path of the psalms
is our path
as well.
That we move
in and out
of various situations
and trials
and griefs.
But at the end,
when we make it
to the end,
what we're left with
is praise.
And so what happens
in the last six psalms
here in this book
are what are going
to happen to us
this life,
in this life,
more and more
as we follow after God
and we see Him
and His provision.
But it's also
what's going to happen
to us at the end,
at Jesus' second coming.
When we look
at the book of Revelation,
what we see
at the end of time
is everyone
around the throne of God
praising Him
and singing.
And this is not
some boring activity,
but this is people
finally recognizing
and seeing
what is most beautiful
more clearly
than they've ever
seen it before.
There was a
time in my life,
probably a three-year period
where I had a stint
of running half marathons.
And this was mainly
with my dad.
There was only one time
I ran one with friends.
I refused to run one
by myself.
So it was a social activity.
But one thing
that you'll know
if you run enough
half marathons,
this will be true
for marathons as well,
is that when you start out,
things are very exciting.
There's loud music playing,
just pump up,
work out songs.
And then there will be
other places along the route
depending on which one you run.
This is more true
of ones that happen in cities.
But there will be other places
along the route
where there will be bands
there for you playing.
And so there are many times
as you're running,
you'll come across
someone cheering you on
or a band playing out loud
to encourage you,
to lift your spirits,
to help you keep going
when things are hard.
But then there's times
where there's no music.
And you're just plodding away
one foot after the other
on your race.
And that's much like
the Christian life.
That there are times
in our lives
where we feel
the presence of God.
We can see
and experience praise.
things are exciting.
Maybe it's the beginning
of our new family.
Maybe it's a new chapter
at a church.
Maybe it's the excitement
of being in a certain period
in our lives
where we feel like
we're growing
and learning so much.
But then there's other times
where there's no music at all.
Times where we're filled
with grief.
Times where we're filled
with doubts.
We're not sure
if this is the right race
that we're running.
Times we're filled
with discouragement.
And yet we know
when we get to the end.
When you're at the end
of the race,
at the end of the half marathon,
all the best music
is saved for that.
That's where the biggest band is.
No one puts their biggest band
at the beginning of the race.
And no one puts it
at the middle.
It's always the greatest
and largest band
that is waiting for you
at the end
that when you've finished
your race,
then you can celebrate.
And so first of all,
that is the future
that's put forward
for us here.
That as we go along
in the Christian life,
we go along
looking at music
in the past
that has cheered us on.
When we find ourselves
alone
with no music playing
one foot after the other,
we look forward
to the great praise
that awaits us
in the future.
But there's another trick
as well.
I've only run
half marathons,
but my father
has become
an avid marathoner
and just finished
a multi-year journey,
multi-year struggle
to qualify
for the Boston Marathon.
And if you know
anything about running,
you know this is
the great goal
of many runners.
It's competitive.
It's hard to achieve.
You have to reach
a certain time.
You have to keep
making your miles
faster and faster
to be able to meet
the qualifying time
to run
in the Boston Marathon.
And my dad's finally
going to be able
to do it this spring,
so we're excited for him.
But there are many times
that my father
is on the race
and there is no music playing.
So do you know
what he does?
My dad has figured out
which songs
have the right rhythm
for him to keep going.
And so when he is
on the race
and there is no music playing,
he sings the songs
in his head.
He picks songs
that have three-quarter time
or six-eight time
because he says
those are the best
to keep his breathing
under control.
He'll sing
my favorite things
from the sound of music
in his head
to make sure
he's going
in the right pace.
He told me
another one
is 10 minutes ago
from Cinderella.
He and my mom
watched that recently
so now that's one of his.
But as he finds himself
in a place
where there's no music playing,
as he's going along
in this great struggle
to make it all the way
past 26 miles,
when the music
is not playing around him,
he plays it
in his own head.
Because that is how
we know
and pace ourselves
even when the finish line
is so far away.
And so as we finish
our series on the Advent,
as we come to the end
of Psalms,
we on the one hand
are celebrating
what has happened
in the past,
looking back
to Jesus' first coming.
And we are looking forward
to what he will do
in the future
and yet right now
we're just running.
We're just putting
one foot
in front of the other
in faith,
knowing
and hoping
and looking forward
to what God has
for us in the future.
And so how do we make it?
How do we make it
through the in-between time,
the tension
of not living
in the past
when Jesus came
and not living
in the future
when he's coming again?
The answer's here
for us
in Psalm 148
and it's this.
Praise the Lord.
When we can't hear
or see the music,
God has given it to us.
And so we keep on praising,
we keep on running,
pursuing everything
that God has given for us.
Please pray with me.
Dear Father in heaven,
we thank you
that you're worthy of praise.
Thank you that you've given us
a race to run,
a race of faith
that involves your praise
and will end in your praise.
We ask that you would help us now
as we live in between
everything that you have for us.
That we would keep praising you
even when we can't see,
even when we feel stuck.
That we would understand
our need for your grace,
but we would also see you
meeting us
at that very same point of need.
We ask all these things
in the name of your Son.
Amen.