Psalm 148

Christmas 1 - Years A, B, C
Easter 5 - Year B


If written in post-exilic times (best bet) this Psalm has one feel. If written during an exile it has another. And, there is still another sense to it in pre-exilic times.

Can you imagine Joseph and family heading off to Egypt humming this tune?

There is something lamentable about the after-birth story Matthew tells. Just look at the political deceit around the Magi and Herod, the dislocation of families, the violence of power and control, the death of Herod still not bringing security for families and a relocation of home.

There is also something very upbeat. A fulfillment motif helps us ride any and all such bucking bronco disappointments without being thrown off. Angels are heard; next opportunities are set in motion; an arc of hope keeps sparking.

And so, in the midst of run-of-the-mill pre-exilic times such as a Pax Romana and American Peace, extravagant praise such as this isn’t real to the controllers. It is labeled enthusiasm and dismissed.

In exile it is all that we have left, an old song of Zion. We hold to it as a promise that will come to pass as this exile passes away. A freedom to move on to a promised land of new creation will eventually trump any and all attempts to keep it at bay.

After exile it is our emotional response to everything that comes our way.

But where a line between the end of one exile and the beginning of another lies is a mystery. At some point things change from a natural praise to a forced praise.

Even though it may not make any sense, I suspect Joseph and Mary sang lullabies to Jesus on their way to Egypt and this was one.

 

As found in Wrestling Year A: Connecting Sunday Readings with Lived Experience

 


 

The mysterious “us” and “our image” from Genesis 1:26 is called to honor one who acted.

Subsequent or contemporaneous angels are called to attention as an honor guard.

All the various fiddly bits bring their own honor through being what they are.

Yes, even the monsters and storms offer their honor by being who they are created to be.

Those in power and those out of power are ultimately going to have to serve someone and honor that which beyond themselves.

The next time you are called to praise something, try honor instead and see if that brings a better taste to your mouth. Find the necessary action and join in. Honor is due those who participate, regardless of the outcome.

Honor, instead of praise, opens us to relationship, transformation, and new insight. Praise, instead of honor, separates life from life, wears thin, and traps us in the past—praise for the future just doesn’t substitute for hope for the unseen.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/04/psalm-148.html

 


 

The word "praise" comes from older words related to "price."

What price do you put on praise? This is an important question. Is it what keep you from living praise - the cost to some part of you is too high?

What price would be too high for having been created (Ps. 148.4)? for having been incorporated into neighborhood (Ps. 148.13)?

What price do we charge others to praise? Do they have to say things a certain creedal way? Must they experience glossolalia? Will they have to agree to a particular polity? Has status, power, class, education level, income or other mark become a hurdle to their ability to ante in?

What keeps you from praise and what keeps others from praise and how are these realities related?

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/december2002.html

 


 

Life is made up of small details and small decisions that add up.

Back in Psalm 89, concluding the third of four sections of the Psalms, there was reference to a horn of anointing for David, individual and king.

Here that horn of anointing is for Israel, corporate and friend.

Surely kings are anointed and surely kings are a source of the need for a savior. Surely the people need a savior and are anointed.

So often we find ourselves conflicted about these issues of individual and community, of leaders and people. That very conflict blinds us to the presence of GOD as we focus on issues of power and justice. Who might legitimately use power, a leader or a union of people? Is justice for me really justice for all or just a frame for me to justify getting what I want?

Kings, presidents, princes and rulers; folks in their prime, past it and yearning for it (dying and newborn); knowing a Hallelujah relationship with creation sets their context well. For this Christmas Eve day we hear "herald angels" sing, - Hallelujah - a newborn king.

You may want to play a bit with this hymn and contrast it with what Charles Wesley first wrote:

Hark, how all the welkin rings,
"Glory to the King of kings;
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!"

Click here to find the rest of the original (scroll down past current hymn).

Thank goodness for the gift of community able to build on beginnings. What we now sing has moved beyond a king of hymnody through others altering and arranging what was begun. One source notes: Text: Charles Wesley, 1707-1788; alt. by George Whitefield and others - Music: Felix Mendelssohn; arr. by William H. Cummings. This is an example of anointing horns moving from kings to the people.

Let loose your own fledgling attempts to assign meaning and see where others will take them. You will be amazed.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/december2003.html

 


 

Psalm 148: Praising God.

Given the ways of biblical translators, when "LORD" (all caps) appears in the Hebrew Scriptures it is a literary substitute for the name of an ancient near-eastern god that is not supposed be uttered (or, presumably, printed) because it is so holy. The name that cannot be named is often named by the transliterated consonants YHWH, or even blenderized into "Yahweh" or, even more inaccurately, "Jehovah."

I shall name the name, since it is highly specific to a small, ancient, tribal people who lived in a particular time in history, in a particular area we now call the "Middle East," and all this specificity is part of what is chewing on my soul these days.

Given the ways of ancient Hebrew poetry, it seems clear that those for whom YHWH has "raised up a horn" belong to a highly specific subset of the whole created order: they are the people of Israel... and not even all of them, but "those who are close to him" (a "horn" is the symbol of strength and power).

It seems clear from the Psalm that all created things (from sun and moon to sea monsters to trees, kings, princes, women and men) ought to praise the god "YHWH" for their very being, but only those people of (ancient) Israel who are close to YHWH get the special strength and power.

The two lines
    "for all his faithful"
    "for the people of Israel who are close to Him"

do not refer to two different groups of people. In ancient Hebrew poetry like the Psalms, the repetition is intentional, meant to add emphasis and clarity.

The Psalm is clear, and consistent with most of the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures in it's specificity. For the ancient Hebrews, chosenness was a scriptural given. For the rest of us, it is a remarkable, and maybe even arrogant, presumption, since few of us are ancient Hebrews faithful to the religion of the ancient god YHWH.

How is it that we, living in the 21st century, in techno-industrial North America, so far from the tribal beliefs and ancient values and mores and theologies of the ancient Middle East, presume to claim ourselves as equivalent to that ancient tribal people who wrote prayers about their unique possession of YHWH's strength and power?

Thomas D'Alessio
(filling in during General Conference)

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/may2004.html

 


 

The best song of General Conference was the response of Janet Ellinger from the Wisconsin Annual Conference. This shortened version was reported in the Daily Social Questions Bulletin published by the Methodist Federation for Social Action. It is presented in prose fashion but it is poetry of the best kind.

- - -

Identity Theft

We live in a time when we have daily warnings about "identity theft." It occurs to me that The United Methodist Church has participated in identity theft for decades and centuries. We did it because of the beautiful color of people's skin. We did it to others because of their gift of gender. But - it couldn't be done.

The United Methodist Church as continued, since 1972, trying to steal the identity of homosexual persons. We do it as boldly now as we have with others in the past.

Earlier in this conference we were invited to "get our heads out of the sand and into the Gospel." The people this church excludes are people who try our cases in court, teach our children, and work for affordable housing in our communities. They fill our prescriptions, rotate our tires, compose our music, and fix our food. They are senators, plumbers, therapists, nurses, steel workers, day care providers, and more.

And, yes, they baptize our babies and grandbabies. They sit our loved ones in nursing homes, and visit those we love who are in prison. They sit on all levels within and outside of the bar of this General Conference - they are beloved children of God, each one. So, if you read this, I proclaim that this church shall never legislate away your identity. That's not up for a vote.

I look to the day when we will truly be Christ-bearers in this world – not for our own sake, but rather for the sake of the Gospel. And for the sake of this world's children.

[in oral presentation, Janet went on to sing the song, "You've Got To Be Carefully Taught"]

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/may2004.html

 


 

If written in post-exilic times (best bet) this Psalm has one feel. If written during an exile it has another. And, there is still another sense to it in pre-exilic times.

Can you imagine Joseph and family heading off to Egypt humming this tune?

There is something lamentable about the after birth story Matthew tells. Just look at the political deceit around the Magi and Herod, the dislocation of families, the violence of power and control, the death of Herod still not bringing security for families and so leading to a relocation of home.

There is also something very upbeat. The fulfillment motif helps us ride any and all such bucking bronco disappointments without them throwing us off. Angels are heard, next opportunities are set in motion, an arc of hope keeps sparking.

And so in the midst of run-of-the-mill pre-exilic times such as a Pax Romana and Americana extravagant praise such as this isn't real to the controllers. It is labeled enthusiasm and dismissed.

In exile it is all that we have left, an old song of Zion. We hold to it as a promise that will come to pass as this exile passes away. The freedom to move on to a promised land of new creation will eventually trump any and all attempts to keep it at bay.

After exile it is our emotional response to everything that comes our way.

But where the line between the end of one exile and the beginning of another lies is a mystery. At some point things change from a natural praise to a forced praise.

Even though it may not make any sense, I suspect Joseph and Mary sang lullabies to Jesus on their way to Egypt and this was one.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/december2004.html

 


 

More than Simeon is looking for an expression of G*D that will be recognizable and establish the dignity of the people, people beyond the rulers. Here all of creation is on tiptoe, the manger scene many times larger.

One of the questions regarding our hope, what it is we are looking for, is what we anticipate our response will be to finding evidence of things coming 'round right. Do we expect to be thankful with such evidence? Will we use it to be able to say, "I told you so," to those without the same picture of a preferred future? Will we accept it and humbly, or not, ask for more evidence to corroborate this beginning piece?

Another way of addressing this is to wonder about the absence of some folks and how that holds rejoicing at bay. This Psalm is inclusive. Praising is a unifying factor and takes unity to pull off. Who is not on board because they have learned from the rest of us that they are not welcome? It is time to change that message and start by joining them in whatever praise they have that the praise of the rest of creation might be brought to bear and join them in rejoicing.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/january2006.html

 


 

. . . praise the name of the Lord . . . for . . . created . . . bound[arie]s . . . . (vss 5-6)

Just how far can this be condensed?

If "created" is but another way of saying, "current", as all boundaries ebb and flow according to new occasions and new duties they face, we might delete "created" and simply be thankful for boundaries.

If there is some legitimacy to this picking of a pattern, how thankful are we for boundaries? What do they show us about the past (we can look back in sorrow at how long some boundaries have continued - racial, economic, gender, national, sexual orientation, science, and so much more) and how they have shifted? What do they suggest about a fatalism regarding today's boundaries of war, health coverage, and various demographics? Do they help us refocus images of a future for all people?

As we run into boundary questions we not only have implications of what lies on either side of a given boundary, but those soul-searching questions from living within or upon a boundary. Holding contradictions within ourselves can drive us crazy or finally sane to recognize the boundary we thought so strong was but another passing moment.

What boundary are you exploring these days and how does your accumulated faith help you stay there long enough to learn rather than simply react?

- - -

learning about our sexuality
from the birds and bees
which are not sexual together
reveals an unhelpful boundary
of technique and function
rather than conjoined conversation
leading to deepening and widening
community of com-passion

in today's lexicon we find ourselves
straddling boundaries
as we explore and define
trans-sexual, intrasexual, intersexual
and so much more

for some this is terror producing
for some freedom
so it is with lived boundaries

other boundaries of behavior
reveal other limitations
of what it is to be a
human creation
bounded differently
than mountains and goats

rejoice in boundaries
that make naming possible
and overcoming of them a joy

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html

 


 

Psalm 148
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Galatians 4:4-7
Luke 2:22-40

"For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations." [Isaiah 61:11] An echo of this can be found with Malvina Reynolds' God bless the grass (sung) [MISSING URL] and <a href="http://web2.wku.edu/~smithch/MALVINA/mr053.htm">lyrics)</a>.

Another echo is in Luke's recording of Simeon's experience, "It has been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's grass growing in the present garden (otherwise translated as the Lord's Messiah).

Messiah often gets narrowed down to one example. A particular one is claimed as true because of the results, as many are named along the way and were found to disappoint. Sometimes, though it is helpful to think of a messianic imperative, that will simply bring to fruition all the potential that has lain fallow.

Taking both these later echoes into account, we might read the vindication/righteousness/justice of Jerusalem to be her finally living up to her name without being distracted by who is occupying her now or promises of sitting at the head of the table of nations.

In the fullness of time we rather see all peoples and all rulers, men and women, old and young - together!

When the fullness of time came G*D seeded the world with grass - a babe and a woman to break through the cement of law to adopt all into a new togetherness.

- - -

god bless
grass
worms
cow fodder
fish food
dropping nutrients
for more
worms
grass

blessing that echoes
through generations
through spacious time
through one life
through all life
through to new blessing

god bless
grass messiahs
wriggly messiahs
dopey messiahs
silent messiahs
lamed-waw messiahs
sacred-cow messiahs
denied messiahs

god bless
one messiah
all messiahs

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html

 


 

Psalm 148
Isaiah 63:7-9
Hebrews 2:10-18
Matthew 2:13-23

There is an image still being held - we will not deal falsely. In the meantime we cause distress and need healing.

Are you holding an image of the one who sanctifies being so yoked with the one who is sanctified that they have all things in common, that they are able to take turns sanctifiying until who knows where sanctification first began or will ever end?

Dealing falsely is shown in what we search for and how we respond to false dealing. Herod searched for destruction; Rachel for restitution. Neither found consolation, healing, safety, salvation, sanctifying. Herod's destruction finds him dead. Rachel's weeping finds her isolated.

Joseph's avoidance of death for Jesus as a babe doesn't avoid death on a cross by Herod's successors. False dealing lives on and on, generation and reign to generation and reign. Eventually the serpent's wisdom turns into an innocent dove and at that point vulnerability to false dealing cannot be avoided or further delayed. Ramah still weeps over how our spirits continue to be killed by one another.

And yet, to see one another as those who "will not deal falsely" is background to every sanctifying event, to every experience beyond fear of death. Those who find themselves with this vision refuse to out-Herod Herod or to out-weep Rachel. As a brother or sisters with sisters and brothers we work to transform the false within ourselves and allow the result to echo, "Peace on Earth . . . ."

- - -

Rachel wept as thought there was no tomorrow
wept and wept throughout Ramah
wept and wept beyond Ramah
wept and wept for all children
wept and wept for legal and illegal violence
wept and wept through all generations
wept and wept without consolation

finally there is no consolation
no healing, no saving
only weeping

only weeping come sweeping o'er the plain

and then the seeds that were sown in weeping
watered by the tears that ne'er cease to flow
begin to sprout

still no consolation for past distress
still weeping and weeping

no consolation
only clear-eyed, weeping-eyed vision
children will not deal falsely
wept water will part to free
slavery by fear of death

come unconsoled Rachel
come unconsoled weepers of Ramah
come unconsoled friends today
be unconsoled and come

do not deal falsely with hope
weep and hope
do not deal falsely with faith
weep and believe
do not deal falsely with love
weep and love
do not deal falsely with false dealing
weep unconsoled and live

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html

 


 

Praise G*D! What is created is created. This is a reason for praise - creation has happened. The response of the created to be as they were created, is high praise.

A second stage of praise goes beyond being as we have been created. A "horn" (figuratively, first chair of the trumpet section) has been raised to move into what it means to be created in G*D's image. Here we have a foretaste, a prefiguring, of themes yet to come.

Praise G*D! What is created is not all that is created. This is a reason for praise - creation is happening and will yet happen. As is repeated several times in the recent movie, Meet the Robinson's, "Keep Moving Forward."

- - -

Today, instead of using your eyes on word phrases, listen to the following soundclip of "Breathing Earth". Listen until you hear more than you hear. You may have to slow down your hearing, as this clip has been speeded up, to have your thinking slowed down. But down there, deep down there, when you can hear praise, you will have a new definition of that wondrous word that goes beyond our ability to define it.

Breathing Earth (02:02 / 1.9MB)

In this clip, we hear a swarm of Indonesian earthquakes as recorded in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (left channel) and Tennant Creek, Australia (right). Many of these quakes are large enough to set the planet "ringing" in its natural modes of vibration. One the most fundamental of these modes is the so-called "breathing" mode (oSo), in which the entire planet expands and contracts rhythmically once about every 20 minutes. I've accelerated this recording to bring this "breathing" mode in synch with the average human respiration rate (once every 5 seconds). As you listen, know that your breath rises and falls along with the rising and falling of the Earth itself.

Time-acceleration = x245 (1 second = ~4 minutes Earth time; this 2-minute recording captures about 8 hours of real Earth time).

Listen to more sounds of earth.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html


 

In the back of comic books, in days of yore, they used to sell X-Ray Glasses that would let you look through that which you consider to be in your way of seeing what you wanted to see. Mostly that barrier was clothing.

Hormonally that has a built in appeal for adolescent boys to see through dresses (the dress of that day) and glimpse naked girls.

Relationally it has an appeal that we can get to the reality of the person under all the masks they have put on.

Here, Praise is the equivalent of X-Ray Glasses. Praise allows us to see behind any phenomenon to some early creator. In so seeing we are made part of the powerful (yet another appeal) who are raised up and become close or equivalent to God.

While practicing praise can increase the odds that it will be a first response to any number of circumstances, there remains a question about its sustainability over the long haul. It doesn't take long to figure out the <a href="http://www.blamepro.com/how/how4.htm"> gimmick of X-Ray Glasses </a> and to set them aside. It does take longer to figure out the gimmick of Praise. Both are good for the bottom-line of their originators and leave their practitioners with a faint distaste – is this all there is?

To praise God in the face of Herod and contemporary Slaughterers of Innocents is questionable. When Acts of Piety, such as required praise, trump Acts of Mercy there is going to be hell to pay.

Perhaps the next time around we will rejoice in being able to rejoice in all things, but the context of intentional inflicting of pain doesn't let us travel that path this time.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html


 

Compare verses 14:

NRSV – 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!

The MESSAGE – . . . he's built a monument—his very own people! Praise from all who love God! Israel's children, intimate friends of God. Hallelujah!

Two quickies:

Are you being done unto (NRSV) or are you among the doers?

Are you close to God (NRSV) or an intimate friend thereof?

I've not delved into the Greek enough here but I do have a preference for the latter perspective. An Active Intimate Friend of God and Neighbor – there's meaning to be found here.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_12_01_archive.html

 


 

What is your horn? Your power?

Is it external to you, raised, for you?

Is it internal to you, growing in wisdom and stature, in stature and favor with G*D?

Celebrate all of creation operating from its source of power (rejoicing, praising) and remember to do the same - basing your praising and rejoicing on your power, your growth your gifts.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_12_01_archive.html

 


 

There are two different praise rationales here. First for the grand immensities that stand as contexts for each passing fancy – height, host, stars, beyond heaven. These praise for G*D commanded their presence and creation occurred.

We find ourselves within the second level of praise, along with monsters, fickle weather, trees, creepy things, flighty things, young and old together. Here praise is for the exalted glory above them, not for themselves alone, regardless of their yellow hair.

All have been watered from above heaven and yet there are choices to be made regarding praise. Will they or won't they? Will you or won't you? If we are feeling favored in the moment we are likely to praise. If, for whatever reason, we are unaware or dismissive of our intimacy with having a moment in which to shine (perhaps not content with a moment when the first group has a sense of forever about them) then we praise not.

Do you buy this bi-level praise platform. How would you rephrase things?

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/04/psalm-148.html

 


 

From Walter Brueggemann's, Israel's Praise, we hear about a process moving from transformation to order:

     The Psalm is basically a set of imperatives mobilizing all of creation to affirm, praise, and legitimate. The reasons are compelling, but they are nearly smothered beneath the succession of imperatives.
     The loss of reason and the preoccupation with summons reflect a shift in theological sensitivity that begins to cut off the worshiping community from its own experience.

It is this cutting ourselves off from our experience by our doctrinal affirmations that begins to set us up for another round of repentance.

What is your experience of Christmas? This, as differentiated from what you think your experience of Christmas should be.

Brueggemann concludes his analysis of hymns of praise with this schema:

      I have identified three rather different ways in which the shift is made in the hymns of praise, from authenticating experience to legitimated world:

  • A shift in the balance between the rhetoric or reason and summons. Israel loses its concrete memory and experience, and ends with no reasons for the praise that is compelled with an imperative. The summons to praise becomes absolute and unjustified.
  • A shift from specificity to generalization. Israel loses it specificity and recites generalizations which have a bite of neither affront nor energy.
  • A shift from the motif of liberation to the motif of creation. This shift softens the memory of displacing transformation which is both threat and gift, and evokes a happy, organic world of harmony and well-being.


     These three shifts, I submit, reflect Israel's move away from a radical world of disciplined obedience and imaginative commitment to a new community of humane possibility, to a world of complacency, triumph, prosperity, and self-sufficiency. In this world obedience is not as urgent, human possibility is not as cherished, hope is not as defiant or dangerous.
     In addition to these three changes in rhetoric, I should mention a fourth dimension of such an adjustment which I shall not pursue. There is, I believe, a reduction of language so that the great narrative accounts of God's activity are reduced to barren adjectives and finally to comforting nouns.

The account and experience of Ramah doesn't just jump to the praise of this Psalm. Too much is lost if a call to transformation of violence to mercy simply becomes expected praise with no connection to our experience.

- - -

Bonus Christmas Story: Gifts of Life.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/12/psalm-148.html

 


 

The New Interpreter’s Bible reflects: “While the songs of praise generally push toward universality (see Pss 67:1-7; 100:1; 103:20-22; 117:1;...), Psalm 148 takes inclusivity to the limit, surpassing even the final climactic verse of the psalter (150:6). The inclusivity of the invitation to praise God has profound implications that demonstrate the inseparability of theology and ecology....”

And the question of the day: Is there a limit to inclusivity?

If “yes”, what is it?

If “no”, why do we keep playing the same discriminatory games against people and creation?

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/12/psalm-148.html

 


Thank G*D.
With more than I have, I thank G*D.
We are where we are, with options yet available.
We are where we are, for the moment and a bit more.
Indeed, “thanks” is an appropriate response to the surprise of life.
Possibility has been risked and raised and won.

The above is from an experiential approach to Christmas or other thin event. It does vary from an assigned liturgy giving direction and interpretation to yesterday and today. How would you transform an apology for G*D into a paean of moving on? To not make an attempt at a translation is to get lost in the some shouldness of what Christmas ought to be without actually moving it into place as an on-going birthing leading us to a next plateau.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/12/psalm-148.html

 


 

The very stars announce a very present time of Thanksgiving. All who hearken unto these messengers become messengers of joy.

In a time of turmoil and travail the background and hope is that of joy, of blessing. Rachels everywhere, mourners in their specific reality of loss, need to weep so well that tears tear at a given facade of intended and unintended suffering.

This psalm is not to cut grief short, but to remind us of a key ingredient of creation, a fecundity of thanks that eventually re-places lives into good soil of connected community after they have been plowed up and left to molder on the surface of events.

With birth begun and short lives cut short, we are in another Saturday before Easter Sunday time of emptiness. On the horizon of every time of dismay, Joy still beams down a far-broadening way. We can not only tell our story as it has come to us, but to begin telling it as it might yet be.

Courage folks, the Church year is just beginning. It will call for your body to be engaged until it is worn away or taken away.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/12/psalm-148.html