Psalm 150 * June 3, 2005 * Trinity Sunday * Pastor Brett Naumann

^{Psalm 150} Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

This past Thursday evening here at St. John’s another group of 8^th grade children received their diplomas. On May 19^th, another group of Seniors from Martin Luther College received their diplomas. On May 25^th, the Graduates from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary received their diplomas. And today at 2:00 PM, the graduates of WISCO will walk across the stage and receive their diplomas. Graduation season is in full swing. Now for those students who have done exceedingly well, there might be some very special words on their diplomas. It might just say, cum laude, magna cum laude, or even summa cum laude. It is interesting, but that word, laude is the same word that comes up time and time and time again here in the Latin translation of our Psalm for this Trinity Sunday. Laude means praise. And it is appropriate at graduation time, especially for those students who have demonstrated distinction, to praise them for a job well done.

This year is St. John’s 125^th Anniversary, and I can’t think of a better Psalm to pick for this special occasion because of that special word, laude, which means praise. Now the important thing is to realize who we are praising here this morning. We are not praising some super pastors that shepherded the flock of St. John’s to where it is today. That’s not why St. Johns has endured the good times, and the not so good times. We are not here praising some amazing musicians that make every worship service absolutely awesome and edifying. We are not here praising a talented group of lay leaders who have handled maturely the decisions that have come before the congregation. We are not even here to praise the wonderful altar guild that continues to beautify this place. We are here this morning to praise our Triune God, who for the past 125 years and every year before that has guided the events of the world for the good of his people and for the good of his church. This morning we center our thoughts around the theme 125 Years of Praise… See What the Lord has done for you… See what the Lord has done for your church…

While we don’t know who wrote Psalm 150, we do know that it is the grand finale to the God inspired concert of hymns. The Psalm begins with the phrase Praise the Lord. The Hebrew word for praise is Halal which is where we get the word Halleluiah. This word has behind it the idea of being sincerely and deeply thankful for the superior quality and the great acts of the Lord. The Lord, that is the name Yahweh, the God who keeps his promises, the God of free and faithful grace.

The psalmist goes on, Praise God in his sanctuary, that name for the Lord is the one that brings to mind the Mighty one. We are to praise this Mighty God in his sanctuary. I am sure that the original psalmist had in mind the temple when using that word sanctuary, but this still applies to us today even though we don’t worship God in Solomon’s temple. Praise the Lord in his house, in his church, that building that when it was dedicated, was set aside for the praise, honor, and glory of our almighty God.

So we don’t get the wrong idea, the psalmist also tells us that church shouldn’t be a one our a week deal, and we shouldn’t just praise God there, where else are we to praise our God? In his mighty heavens. Don’t praise God just here in church, praise him anywhere and everywhere in heaven and on earth.

What are we to praise him for? The Psalmist continues… Praise him for his acts of power: praise him for his surpassing greatness. Think for a moment dear brother or sister in Christ what our almighty God has done for you. He has created this… the world. Our Triune God is the one who put the planets in order. Our Triune God is the one who made the beautiful oceans and mountains. He is the one who made the Grand Canyon and the beautiful Northwoods. Our God is the grand architect of it all. He simply said Let there be and it all happened in just the right way. Our God is the one who made you—complete with an amazingly unique DNA and all.

What did we do? We messed it up. We fell into sin. But yet, even when our great ancestors Adam and Eve plunged this world into sin and brought death and damnation upon themselves and the whole human race, God’s power still shone forth. He promised to send us his son. And send Jesus he did. Jesus completed the full work of redemption for you. He lived the life you couldn’t, died the death you deserved, rose to life to shatter the shackles of your sin and death so that we know that because he lives we too shall live.

What did he do in you? Think of your baptism. It wasn’t your great ability to think and make a decision to live for Jesus that made you a believer, it was God’s power that shattered Satan’s hold. In the midst of being completely dead in our sin, the Holy Spirit worked faith in your heart and created a new man inside of you.

In response to God’s love for us and for his might acts of power, what is that new man to do? How are we to praise our God? The psalmist says: Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute, praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Now what in the world does this mean for us? There are 8 different kinds of instruments listed here. But you know I didn’t hear a beautiful Cassavant Organ listed in that list. Does that mean we aren’t doing it right? Absolutely not. The point here is not that the Lord is to be praised with these specific instruments and only these instruments, but rather that he be praised with whatever music we use.

I hope that you all appreciate and praise God for and with what you have here. Not every congregation has a amazing organists to sit on the bench at a festival service and make the organ sing. Most congregations do not have16 piece brass orchestra complete with a phenomenal string section and timpani to give honor glory and praise to our God. It is my hope and prayer that you as a congregation will continue to do what you have done—pursue excellence in worship. Now the important issue here is the motivation behind that. It isn’t so that you can pat yourself on the back and puff out your chest and stick your head way up in the air and say, look at me I go to St. John’s Wauwatosa and we have some really amazing and spiffy worship services, my how great are we. Not at all… Why do we pursue excellence in worship? Because we have an almighty Triune God, who is so majestic that he deserves it, and all the praise honor and glory goes to him. He deserves our best, because he has given us his best—his son.

Consider how our Amazing Triune God has blessed your congregation. What an amazing thing it is that at St. John’s even though we are all sinful people, God has put in place pastors and teachers and lay leaders that have remained true to what the inspired and inerrant Word teaches. God has moved his people to build and maintain absolutely beautiful facilities. Everything from a gorgeous church to building a new state of the art school. The triune God has also blessed St. John’s outreach efforts, the Lord has led you to even call Pastor Yu and has blessed the Chinese ministry. The Lord has led you at St. John’s have a very active senior ministry. We have such an amazing God. That Triune God has blessed St. John’s for the past 125 years and will Lord willing continue to shower his blessings down upon his people and his church for many more years. To Him alone be the praise.

My dear brother or sister in Christ, when you consider what our Triune God has done in you, a worthless rotten sinner, and yet has given you Jesus to be the atoning sacrifice for all your sins, when you consider what the triune God has done for your church and seeing it through all of the good and all of the bad times, how can you not help but conclude with the Psalmist, Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. AMEN!