Psalm 148 verses 7-12

Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds, kings of the earth and all nations, you princes and all rulers on earth, young men and maidens, old men and children.

This is God’s Word!

People of God—rescued from the flaming lake of fire in hell by the innocent blood of the very Lamb of God:

There are in The Library of Congress in the capital of our nation some seventeen volumes--huge moss green covered books called The Slave Narratives. When the Civil War ended in the year 1865 do you know how many slaves were set free? Some 4 million slaves were set free. By the 1930s—during the great depression—there were only about 100,000 ex-slaves still alive—only about 100,000 people still alive who had been born in slavery. The American Writers Project sent writers out. They interviewed some 2,000 people who had been slaves. They wrote down—they typed out the words they spoke—not with spell check—but with the spelling that reflected the sound of their voices as they recalled what it was like to be a slave. One little grandma—her eyes kind of a frosted fog and film over them said she had a very hard life. That she didn’t know what rest was. That all she did was work and work and work—working in the fields—chopping wood—hoeing corn. She worked from the time the sun came up until past the time when the sun went down. She worked so hard it actually felt like her back was breaking! There is the interview of the slave who was whipped—tied up and whipped by his angry master—his abusive owner—whipped again and again. But even as the slave’s back was cut and wounded—he would not cry out. This made his owner even more angry—and he beat him still more—again and again he hurt him—until at last the slave’s trembling lips said, “Master, please have mercy!” As painfully pitiful as that must have been—it is not nearly as pitiful as our slavery to sin—our slavery to the fear of death—our slavery to the grave and eternal destruction. Our Heavenly Father had mercy on us for Jesus’ sake. The LORD—the Holy One of Israel had mercy on us. Jesus was whipped and beaten. Jesus was crucified—died—was buried. Jesus took to the grave our guilt and sin. On Easter Jesus rose from the dead. And because Jesus lives—we are heirs of eternal life. And so this Sunday—this Transfiguration Sunday—the last Sunday before Ash Wednesday and Lent—the long walk to Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and Easter we praise the LORD.

Praise the LORD

1. God’s Creatures praise him

2. God’s People praise him

Today the altar cloths are white. That happens only a few times all year. White altar cloths means today is a day like Christmas—like Easter—like Maundy Thursday—when Jesus established Lord’s Supper. Today is a wondrous day—and yet how many people knew that? How many of us remembered that today is Transfiguration Sunday—the day Jesus stood and shined with all his holy brightness and glory as the very Son of God? Moses and Elijah stood beside Jesus—reflecting his wondrous brightness. Peter, James and John where on their knees—their faces pressed into the dust—their hearts racing—their breakable bodies trembling—because they were in the presence of such bright sinlessness. They were painfully aware of their wretched sinfulness in the light of Jesus’ great glory! This was like a peek into Heaven. And yet—as glorious as that was—Jesus’ shining so brightly—the most wonderful part of all—was the fact that Jesus didn’t stay on that mountaintop. Jesus walked down that mountainside—all the way back up—up to Jerusalem to be arrested and condemned. Jesus went up a hill shaped like a skull there to die to wash away all our sins. That’s how much Jesus loves us. So this Transfiguration Sunday we praise God—we worship him—we glorify him. I am afraid—sometimes—in this consumer driven country even Church has become a sort of commodity. People will talk about “church shopping”! People will point blank ask, “So why should I join your church? What’s in it for me? What programs do you offer? Do you have support groups for grief, for singles, for the elderly, for single parents, for people with special needs? What education opportunities do you have?” We have parking? The fact is—as nice as lots of “programs” might be—when we think about programs—and start to talk about being consumer friendly—I’m afraid we lose sight of a very important part of what being a child of God is all about. It’s kind of like what President Kennedy said, “Ask not what your Church can do for you; ask what you can do for your Savior!” I have said before—if you come to this building and you find it too hot or too cold—too drafty or too stuffy—the pews too soft or too hard—the readings too confusing—the prayers too long and wordy—the sermons too long or too short or too impractical or too irrelevant. If you walk out of here on a Sunday morning grumbling to yourself—I didn’t get anything out of that—it’s still important for you to come to Our Heavenly Father’s House of Prayer—to worship—to thank and praise—to honor and glorify—to bow before Father, Son and Holy Spirit in humble worship and praise!

When I was at the Seminary—one of the most special days of all—was the day you went to your Prof. home—the one who taught the course in Psalms. You would prepare for weeks and weeks. The first thing you do is pray—pray long and hard that Jesus would help you really understand this particular part of God’s Word. Then you translate your Psalm from the original Hebrew. You would do word studies. You make copious notes. You read commentaries. You think you know everything there is to know about your Psalm. Then comes the big day—you go to your professor’s home. You enjoy peanuts and root beer and learn that you have only scratched the surface of all the law and gospel that God has packed into a small hand full of words. So it is with Psalm 148—the middle verses. God’s Word says, Praise the LORD from the earth… Praise the LORD—the Great I AM—the Holy One of Israel! The LORD—the I AM—is the one who changes not! When you wake up in the morning—do you take a good careful look at yourself in the mirror? Look at your eyes! Some mornings they look bad. Sometimes they look worse. Look beside your eyes. See those little wrinkles beside them. Oh, you can put lotion on them. You can put lotion all over all the time—and still the wrinkles come. Look at your hair. One or two little grey hairs—one or two little white ones—you can pull them out. But pretty soon they are everywhere—everywhere! You can buy all those different systems that are supposed to make your teeth white and bright—you can have your teeth made nice and straight—but still your smile changes—your joints begin to ache—your back begins to stoop—your hair thins and your waist grows. We change. Sometimes that change is good. Sometimes we grow—grow in our faith—our understanding deepens—out acts of kindness multiply. And sometimes—in some ways we grow worse and worse. Only the LORD—the Great I AM is the same yesterday and today and forever. Only the LORD—the Holy One of Israel loves us with a whole and complete love now and forever! He never ever changes. His forgiving love will never fail!

And so we praise him. Praise the LORD From the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths… I heard the other day about an octopus—a five-month-old octopus in the Munich Zoo named Frieda. Every morning this zookeeper named Frank Muller lets himself into the tank by Frieda. He brings this jar of canned shrimp—opens the jar—unscrews the lid and feeds Frieda the shrimp in the jar. One day Frank dropped the jar—accidentally dropped the jar. Frieda picked it up—unscrewed the lid herself—and fed herself the shrimp. Ever since—Frank drops the jar—Frieda finds it—picks it up—and unscrews the lid herself! Pretty neat. But that is only one example. They have porpoises that are keeping watch around US Navy ships—keeping watch for terrorists who might try and rig explosives to our ships. The porpoises can not only punch these terrorists with their bottle shaped snouts—they can clamp handcuffs on them—and tow them to shore where the terrorists get arrested. There are more examples. There was a while when lobster fishermen were concerned that the supply of lobster was diminishing. They set their traps—those little traps made of wood slats and netting with bait inside. The deal was—the lobster would climb in to get the bait and couldn’t get back out. Well there is no shortage of lobster. And it isn’t that somebody is stealing them either. They put video cameras by the traps and discovered the lobster have figured out—how to get the bait—and then get back out—without getting caught! Sea creatures give glory to their heavenly Father by doing what he designed them to do.

How sad when lobsters figure out the trap. And yet again and again we stumble into the devil’s traps. We grab for the devil’s bait and are caught again and again. We are caught in the trap of materialism—the love of possessions—things and stuff. It has been said our houses are but lids over the pile—the heap of all our things and stuff. During days when people have plenty of money—they use that money to buy more and more things and stuff—the very latest—the very finest—the best that money can buy. People have so much stuff—so much useless—broken—unneeded unwanted stuff that whole industries—whole companies have grow up because of all our stuff. There are stores that sell nothing but containers—boxes and buckets—bins on wheels—bushels and barrels with lids and labels to hold all our stuff. There are storage companies—garages you can rent to pile up all the stuff that won’t fit in your garage—already so full of stuff you can’t hardly fit your cars inside. There are companies called Got Junk? For a fee—like $144 they will come to your home and haul away dumpsters full of your junk. Broken college stereos and 8-track tape players—that haven’t worked for years—but you hang onto for sentimental reasons? Our lives become cluttered with things that moth and rust corrupt—and thieves could break in and steal—while we remain spiritual paupers—beggars and street people?

Praise the LORD from the earth…young men and maidens, old men and children. The Slave Narratives—tell the story of slaves working in the field when the ram’s horn sounded—again and again in the middle of the morning. This wasn’t the time for the horn to sound. But in from the fields they came. Standing on the porch of the mansion was a man with a black hat and soft grey hair and soft grey beard down to his chest. He asked them—do you know what day this is? Today is—June 4, 1865! Never forget this day. This is the day you are set free! I pray that you will always be as happy as you are this day. One lady wrote—that day I began to live—I began to live! We are free. Free from sin and guilt. Free from shame and blame. That means we can really live. It means we have life—and have it more abundantly! What we will do with that life is praise the LORD. We will praise him—in the entryway of this building. We don’t have to just stand there—wondering when is somebody—anybody going to come up to me and talk to me. You can be like my God-father Mr. Lamke. My Uncle never ever said he had ever been at an unfriendly church—because whenever he was a guest or a visitor he would walk up to anyone and everyone and say, “My name’s Joel Lamke—I teach shop at Horlick High School—woods and metals. What’s your name? What do you do?” And my Uncle made a new friend. Sometimes he’d bump into someone who’d say—I’m just a visitor here. He’d say, “Me, too!” Nice to meet you! We can do that! We can visit with anyone and everyone—because the joy of the Savior will just overflow—from our hearts into our lives every day for Jesus’ sake. All creation will praise the LORD and we will too. Amen!

To God alone all glory!