The first casualties of upheaval can be love, kindness, and patience. But crisis is also a moment when love for God & one another can spring up. For 150 days, starting on 17th March 2020, I will write 300 words based on one of the 150 psalms in the bible. How can I find and give love in the midst of coronavirus?
When I was at college, the Christian Union organised a talk from one of the professors in my department called “God is a biologist, and I believe in him.” Sam, the professor, said that in the sense that God must be a physicist, an architect, a German and an Englishman – he was happy to say that God is a biologist too.
However, I’m not so sure that God is an Englishman. Why not? Because when I read the psalms I remind myself that these were written in Hebrew and in the Middle East – not in the Cotswolds in English.
So when I read verse one of Psalm 147, I need to remind myself that this is an enthusiastic Jewish song:
1 Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!
Pleasant and fitting! In English, this sounds like a polite comment to someone who has made a little speech at someone’s retirement party: “Lovely words, so pleasant and fitting.”
No, and it’s a big no! This is a Hebrew praise song that goes on at some length about all these reasons we should be praising God. There are loads of them. Here’s a flavour:
2 The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the exiles of Israel. 3 He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds. 4 He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. 5 Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit. 6 The Lord sustains the humble but casts the wicked to the ground. 7 Sing to the Lord with grateful praise; make music to our God on the harp.
The list carries on. But there’s a lot of reasons here to be praising. What does the Lord do?
- Builds up Jerusalem
- Gathers exiles
- Heals the broken-hearted & binds their wounds
- Names all of the stars
- Is mighty in power
- His understanding has no limit
- Sustains the humble
- Throws the wicked down
So we sing. We sing gratefully. We sing like we mean it.
A few times, I’ve suggested to our congregation at church that we put up a large mirror facing everyone and ask the question “Are we having fun yet?”. Meaning, that for those of us who are English, we may have to learn to be a bit more Hebrew in our praising. Why? Because God is so good and does such amazing things.
So come on – let’s PRAISE THE LORD today.
Love, Matt