Sermon 2019.08.25
Praise the Lord!
(Psalm 150; music celebration Sunday)

1. A faith that sings.  “Praise the Lord,” cries the psalmist! “Hallelujah!” In fact, our English word “hallelujah” is just an update of the ancient Hebrew phrase meaning, “praise the Lord!”

Music has always been part of the Christian faith, and before that the Jewish faith. While Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, his sister Miriam led the singing (Exodus 15:21). When King David brought the ark of the Lord into Jerusalem, where the temple would be built, he led the procession with singing and dancing (2 Samuel 6:14). When Paul wrote encouragement to the early Christian church at Phillipi, he quoted an already well-known song (Philippians 2). The solemn chants of the monks carried the faith through the dark ages. The great composers – Mozart and Bach and Beethoven – wrote their music for the church.

2. O For a Thousand Tongues U57.  And when the Wesley brothers, John and Charles, founded a church renewal movement called Methodism, they knew that many of their followers would experience and learn about God as much through music as through preaching. And so they created a soundtrack for the church. Charles alone wrote several thousand hymns blending scripture and theology and joy, and has been called “perhaps the great hymn writer of all the ages!”

A great example is the Wesley hymn that leads off our United Methodist Hymnal, “O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing.” Let’s join our voices…

O for a thousand tongues to sing
my great Redeemer's praise,
the glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of his grace!

Jesus! the name that charms our fears,
that bids our sorrows cease,
'tis music in the sinner's ears,
'tis life and health and peace.

Charles wrote dozens of verses, tracing his own journey to faith and sharing his powerful call to praise the Lord (UMH 58). When we go to Annual Conference and almost a thousand voices join together in this hymn, it lifts the whole room closer to God in praise!

3. Come and Find the Quiet Center T2128.  Music can lead us to praise, and it can invite us to reflection. Our next song, “Come and Find the Quiet Center,” is a relatively recent contribution to Christian hymnody. The author, Shirley Erena Murray, was raised as a Methodist in New Zealand and married a Presbyterian pastor. She used an old folk tune to lend a timeless quality to the invitation of her words.

Let’s sing Murray’s verses and let them lead us into peace…

Come and find the quiet center
in the crowded life we lead,
find the room for hope to enter,
find the frame where we are freed:
clear the chaos and the clutter,
clear our eyes, that we can see
all the things that really matter,
be at peace, and simply be.

The lyrics, almost without us realizing it, invite us into contemplation and openness to God’s presence, so we can be at peace, and simply be.

4. It Is Well with My Soul U377.  Music helps us to experience the comfort of God, the peace that passes understanding, in the face of unimaginable tragedy. Perhaps one of the most famous of these comforting hymns is, “It Is Well with My Soul.”

In 1873, Chicago lawyer Horatio Spafford sent his wife and four daughters across the Atlantic on the French ship Ville du Havre. Unfortunately, the ship sank and only Spafford’s wife survived. Spafford’s faith in God’s love and resurrection helped him through the tragedy. When he later sailed to join his wife in England, he wrote the verses that would become this beloved hymn mid-ocean. His friend Philip Bliss composed the tune, which is named for the ship that sunk.

Let us sing Spafford’s amazing statement of faith and peace in the midst of stormy life:

When peace like a river attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
"It is well, it is well with my soul."

It is well… (it is well)
with my soul… (with my soul)
It is well, it is well
with my soul.

5. Grace Alone T2162.  I mentioned earlier that good songs often teach us deep truth. One of the core convictions of Christian faith is that we are saved by the grace of Jesus Christ alone. Nothing we do or say earns us God’s favor… and in fact, everything we accomplish is built on God’s grace. As 1 John 4:19 says, “We love because [Christ] first loved us.”

Baptist singer-songwriter-pastor Scott Wesley Brown embedded this concept into his song, “Grace Alone.” Let’s sing our faith in God’s gift of grace…

Every promise we can make,
every prayer and step of faith,
every difference we will make
is only by his grace.
Every mountain we will climb,
every ray of hope we shine,
every blessing left behind
is only by his grace.
Grace alone which God supplies,
strength unknown he will provide.
Christ in us our Cornerstone;
we will go forth in grace alone.

Everything we do is based on the grace of God. When we leave this place of worship, we will go to face the challenges of the world armed and strengthened by grace.

6. He Keeps Me Singing U380.  Whether you love the old hymns or the new praise music, there’s no denying that great music is the soundtrack of faith. Music helps us to praise the Lord, music leads us, music comforts us, and music teaches us.

New songs become old classics, but every hymn is heartfelt for someone at some time. You may or may not remember what the pastor says any given Sunday, but music finds its way deep into our hearts and souls and implants the durable seeds of life-long faith. 

In the 1980s, I grew up in a little country church with the old brown Cokesbury hymnal from the 1920s. When that hymnal was first published, Luther Bridge’s song “He Keeps Me Singing” was a brand-new praise tune. I sang it often as a kid. I couldn’t tell you what I ate for lunch yesterday, but there is, indeed, still within my heart a melody! Let’s sing…

There's within my heart a melody;
Jesus whispers sweet and low,
"Fear not, I am with you, peace, be still,"
in all of life's ebb and flow.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
sweetest name I know,
fills my every longing,
keeps me singing as I go.

Feasting on the riches of His grace,
resting 'neath His sheltering wing,
always looking on His smiling face,
that is why I shout and sing.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
sweetest name I know,
fills my every longing,
keeps me singing as I go.

Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! The melody of God’s love lives in our hearts, and keeps us singing as we go.

- Amen.