Word of Salvation – Vol. 40 No.34 – September 1995

 

Peculiar Honours To Our King

 

Sermon by Rev. M. C. De Graaf on Psalm 72

Scripture Readings: Psalm 150

 

Brothers and Sisters.

They’ve changed it in the Book of Worship, but as a kid, growing up with the Psalter Hymnal, the old version of this Psalm used to fascinate me.  The fifth stanza used to say: Let every creature rise and bring peculiar honours to our king.  I now know what that word “peculiar” means, but as a kid we used it to mean ‘strange,’ or ‘weird’, or in some way offensive.  If your friends called you ‘peculiar,’ they would do it with a sneer.  It most certainly was NOT a compliment.

And yet, here we were, in church, singing that all God’s creatures were going to come and bring Him peculiar honours.  I had visions of them doing all these OUTRAGEOUS and STRANGE things before the throne with God sitting there and kind of wondering what was going on.

I guess some people in the Church today, when they look at what’s happening in the area of worship, would feel that perhaps the committee should have left that fifth verse the way it was.  When they look at liturgical movement, or puppets, or hand raising, or clapping, or whatever – they feel that much of this truly is PECULIAR, strange, offensive.  They might feel themselves as if lost in a strange land, worshipping amongst aliens.

BUT, OF COURSE, that word PECULIAR means a lot more than STRANGE!  Now that I’ve grown up, I can look up an Oxford Dictionary and it tells me that the word means “to belong to a person in a UNIQUE WAY!”

With that understanding in our minds the image of the song (and in this it reflects this psalm) is of each creature on this planet coming to God and worshipping Him in a style that is unique to the way in which God has created it.

GOD IS NOT THE GOD OF THE COOKIE CUTTER APPROACH.  Just look at the diversity in the animal kingdom — from Aardvark through to Zebra – 100s and 1000s of different species and sub-species – each one different, each one with its unique way of dealing with the world, each one part of an intricate web connecting together with the broader creation.

If all God cared about was providing us with food He could have created a hundred million cows and made our tastebuds to want nothing more.  But instead, THE DIVERSITY GOES ON AND ON FOR EVER and somehow it is in the VARIETY that God is glorified.

Same with people, the crown of creation.  They have different cultures, different ways of looking at the world.  This is not just part of the curse, it is part of how He made us, how He is glorified through us.

PART OF THIS IS BECAUSE in this we reflect the fact that we are created in the image of a TRIUNE God, a God within whom there is even diversity and interaction and difference.  A God who made us to need relationship with people who are different than ourselves and who recognised that it is in those relationships that we become whom He truly wanted us to be!!!

EACH PERSON ON THIS PLANET IS UNIQUE – they have gifts and viewpoints and ways of dealing with this world that are PECULIAR to themselves.

There is no question that at times this can be difficult to understand.  The other night I was watching a Chinese movie on SBS about an opera singer.  While he was singing the whole audience burst into tears – they were obviously moved.  And yet, I felt like crying for another reason: to my Western ears it was some of the worst music I had ever heard.  It sounded just like screeching.  This doesn’t mean my taste in music is better than one billion Chinese.  But we are different.  And we need to respect our differences.

THIS NEEDS TO BE REFLECTED IN WORSHIP!  ANY ATTEMPT TO STIFLE THIS, leads to RITUAL that is not WORSHIP at all.  That’s what the Roman Catholics tried to do.  In their structure everyone had to use Latin.  They tried to force uniformity across the world.  But all that uniformity killed diversity, and by doing that made it impossible for people to truly worship in SPIRIT and TRUTH – with hearts, souls and minds lifted up before our Maker and Saviour

The Psalm speaks of a great king.  In its immediate context it was referring to Solomon, but the church has always also seen Christ clearly reflected in these verses.

Though Solomon was a great king, this prayer was never fully answered for him.  It was, or at least will be, for Jesus.  He will judge the poor with justice; He has already brought righteousness and delivered the needy, brings freedom for the oppressed; in Him we find a peace that passes all understanding; and the time will come when at last He will have total dominion over all the heavens and the earth.  HIS name will endure for ever, and all nations will be blessed in Him.

IN THE CONTEXT OF WONDER OF WHO JESUS IS AND THE WONDER OF WHAT HE HAS DONE, verse 11 speaks of all nations bringing Him service; and we think of Isaiah 60, with its image of every nation, every culture, every sub-culture, every generation.  So filled with wonder and praise that it cannot help but overflow with worship IN THEIR UNIQUE WAY.  Every one in their own way putting a new colour in what will become a great mosaic of praise.

LET EVERY CREATURE RISE AND BRING PECULIAR HONOURS TO OUR KING!

This is not something you can do in a shallow way; it is not something you can do by simply moving through the rituals of a dead religion.  It requires real people, being real about who they are, what God has done in their real lives and then obediently bringing those real lives as a gift to God.

BECAUSE OF HOW GOD HAS MADE US THAT HAS GOT TO MEAN DIVERSITY!!

Each generation represented here, each culture, each level of education, each occupation, etc, coming to God with its own gifts.  NOT LOOKING AT EACH OTHER and judging, or looking down on each other, but hearts lifted up to God and eyes focussed on Him.  Each person DIVERSE but UNITED in praise of Him who is above our diversity.

As anyone who works in REAL CHURCHES nowadays knows, this is easier said than done.  We aren’t always as tolerant of one another as we ought to be.  The conflicts of Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 12 are still very real for us.  We don’t always have the patience to allow the diversity to shine through.  We find it hard to celebrate our differences in a communal way.  Many churches are splitting up services into different age groups.  We can’t even sit and join with each other in worshipping in our own unique ways.

NOT JUST TOLERATING but actually CELEBRATE our differences AND THE GOD OF DIFFERENCE.

EITHER that or we demand that everything happens at the point of the lowest common denominator – which makes for worship that is flat and bland.

The psalmists speaks of singing a NEW SONG to the Lord… and that’s not about change for its own sake or throwing out the past all the time.  Each generation must build and use the past, each cultural group needs to be measured against others.

BUT it’s about dealing with GOD in a real way, in a real world, with real people – constantly learning new ways to express our praise to God who is new every morning.  Anything less is not true worship – it is simply RITUAL for its own sake.

Amen.