Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: — | Date: October 2, 2022 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

In 1 Chronicles 16, you’ll remember we were here a couple of times, and I just want to point out again that here in this passage, when David established psalm singing as a formal part of temple worship, notice in verse four it says, “He appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the Ark of the Lord to invoke, to thank, and to praise the Lord, the God of Israel.”

What we have here is—it was centuries later when Old Testament scholars began to recognize that there are formal classes of Psalms, and that’s actually what we’re looking at in this part of the series. It was some centuries later when they realized that David had already classified at least three classes of the Psalms for us. He appointed some of the Levites to act as ministers before the Ark of the Lord to invoke (petition, that’s what that is, that’s what would be our petition psalms, our lament psalms); to thank (those are our psalms of grateful praise, our psalms of thanksgiving); and to praise. These are praise psalms. So there are three categories of psalms that David divided up.

Now remember, we have just introduced these and I tried to give you the way quickly to recognize these three different classes of psalms. We’re going to go a little bit more into detail on that tonight, but just quickly: To invoke, that is our petition or lament psalms. All of the lament psalms contain a petition, so they are sometimes called laments, sometimes called petition psalms. And we saw that the identifying mark of a petition or a lament psalm is the opening direct address to God and the cry for help. So these petition psalms or lament psalms typically begin with something like, “O Lord, how many are my foes?” Or, “O shepherd of Israel, hear my cry.” Or, “Give ear to my words, O Lord.” Some direct appeal to God, and then he begins to explain his position before God and the circumstances, complain about it sometimes, protest them sometimes, and then make his petition. So that’s the first one there, to invoke.

To thank, this is our psalms of grateful praise, and that would be psalms of thanksgiving, praise for what God has done. This is more declarative praise. This is a psalm that thanks God for a particular work that he has done for the psalmist himself, and we’ll look at that in time to come. But we saw that the identifying mark of these thanksgiving psalms, as they’re called, is the opening proclamation of praise. Sometimes it’s an expression that he intends to give praise. “I will bless the Lord at all times.” Something like that is how these psalms begin.

And now tonight we’ll look at this third class, the praise psalms, to praise the Lord, the God of Israel. And these praise psalms are sometimes called hymns. Typically they’re descriptive praise, they’re called, describing something about God that is worthy of praise. God is creator, God is sovereign over the world, God is judge over everyone. This is not the personal touch of praise as the thanksgiving psalms. This is praise for God as who he is. And the identifying mark in these psalms, you’ll remember we saw, was the formal call to praise. Not all of the psalms do this, not all of the praise psalms, but typically the praise psalms begin with an opening call to praise. So it’ll be something like, “O come, let us sing to the Lord,” something like that; a formal call to praise.

All right, now you have those three generally in mind. Tonight we’re going to look at, as you have on your handout, the identifying marks of the praise psalm. It is the call to praise. So I’ve given you some examples there. Psalm 95: notice how the psalmist calls the congregation to praise. “O come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us make joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving. Let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise.” Notice that he’s not just praising the Lord himself. He’s calling people to praise. It’s the first mark of these praise psalms. Psalm 96, the same: “O sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name,” and so on. Psalm 98: “O sing to the Lord a new song.” He’s calling the congregation to give praise to God. Psalm 100: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth.” Psalm 103: “O my soul and all that is within me, bless his holy name.” Psalm 113: “Praise the Lord.” Hebrew here is just “Hallelujah.” “Praise the Lord. Praise, O servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord.” So the tip-off, the mark that we’re dealing with a praise psalm, is this opening call to praise. And this typically happens in this category of psalms.

Now, when we look at these praise psalms, what I want to do tonight is show you some of the other markers, and not just markers, but this, I think, what is so valuable about this, it helps us to understand what the psalmist himself is thinking and intending to do as he structures his psalm.

Components Of These Praise Psalms

I have there in your outline the components of these praise psalms, and it’s very simple. First of all, there’s a call to praise. Second, there’s a cause for praise or a reason for praise, and that’s the main body of the psalm. And then last, it concludes with a renewed call to praise. So typically in these psalms, you’ll see this as the structure of the psalm: a call to praise, cause for praise or the reason for praise, and then the renewed call to praise.

Bruce Waltke puts this this way, that here we get to get into sort of behind the psalm and into the mind of the psalmist himself to see what he’s thinking as to how he structures his psalm and his flow of thought. I found this immensely helpful. So we see these psalms, the signal right up front, there’s a call to praise. And then typically you’ll see “for,” “Come let us praise the Lord for his,” and it’ll give some reason for praise, and then at the end, it’ll be another call to praise. And so you see then the flow of thought in the psalmist’s mind.

So let’s take some samples of these. First of all, Psalm 117, I have there on your outline, we saw this, we spent a little time with this last time. First of all, a two-verse psalm. We saw first of all in verse one, a call to praise: “Praise the Lord, all the nations, all nations, extol him, all people.” And then the reason for praise: “For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.” So we’ve had the call to praise, then he gives reason for praise, and then renewed call to praise: “Praise the Lord.”

I want to give you a bunch of examples here just so we can get this into our minds to recognize how these Psalms work. Psalm 96, we have a call to praise: “O sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name. Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all people.” So here’s a call to praise. Now in this case, notice there are some hints of the cause or the reason for praise already in the call to praise. Verse 2: “Tell of his salvation.” Verse 3: “Declare his marvelous works among all people.” So we have some hints already of what the substance of the psalm is going to be. But first of all, we have the call to praise, verses one to three.

Then beginning with verse four, we have the reason for praise. And again, it tips us off with the word “for.” “For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised. He’s to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.” So, a call to praise. Why should we praise? In this case, because he’s great, he’s to be feared, and so on.

And then he starts, in this case, we have a repeat of the same stanzas. Verse 7 begins another call to praise: “Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the people. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Tremble before Him, all the earth.” So he’s calling people to praise again. And now the cause or reason for praise. Verse 10: “Say among the nations, ‘The Lord reigns.’ Yes, the Lord of the world is established. It shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity.”

And then he comes again with a call to praise: “Let the heavens be glad. Let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all that fills it. Let the field exult and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy.” And now verse 13 again, the reason for praise: “Sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes. For he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in faithfulness.” Now in this case, we don’t have a renewed call to praise; rather, what we have is a repeated pattern: the call to praise, the reason for praise, the call for praise, the reason for praise, call for praise, reason for praise—and now you’ve got the structure of the psalm and what the psalmist is trying to say. Now typically in these “reason for praise” sections, this is where we’ll find the theology of the psalms; this is where we find the real meat of why should we praise God, and we’ll see more about that in a couple of minutes.

Take another example, Psalm 98, another praise psalm. Starts out again with a call to praise: “O sing to the Lord a new song.” And then the reason for praise: “For he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” And then again, another call to praise: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Sing praises.” And then verse six: break out the musical instruments. Verse seven: even creation itself is called to praise. “Let the sea roar and all that it fills it. Let the rivers clap their hands,” calling the whole earth to praise. And then again, verse nine, the reason for praise: “For he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.” Again, there’s no renewed call to praise, just the repetition of that pattern.

Let’s look at another, Psalm 103. Again, it starts calling the people to praise, only here the psalmist is addressing himself: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” And now here, with the reason for praise, we have the other that is not as frequent, but it’s frequent enough in the Psalms. The reason for praise begins with the pronoun “who.” “Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.” And then verses 7 and following all the way through verse 19, he continues his reason for praise of what the God does, His saving works, His steadfast love to His people, and so on. So, verse one: “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” Why? Verse three: “He forgives your iniquity, He heals you, He redeems you, He satisfies you,” and on the list goes.

We come to verse 20, and now we have another renewed, another call to praise: “Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers who do his will. Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion.” And then finally, a renewed call to praise: “Bless the Lord, O my soul.”

Well, I could multiply the examples. I don’t have time to do that, but I think you can see it then. These psalms are marked by a call to praise, and then it gives a reason for praise, and then another call to praise concludes with just a simple renewed call to praise. Well, in this you see, again, the mind of the poet, and you see the progression of thought, and this will help you read the psalms with more understanding.

Call To Praise

Now what I’d like to do now is examine it a little bit further. Let’s look at each of these components. You’ve got a call to praise, you’ve got the cause for praise or the reason for praise, and then the renewed call. And let’s look at these a little bit more. I have this on your outline for you.

First of all, the call to praise is a command. It’s in the imperative mode; it’s a command. It’s an obligation. Even the word “Hallelujah”—that’s just a transliteration of the Hebrew, “Praise the Lord.” It’s a command, it’s an imperative mood, calling people to praise the Lord. It is an obligation, a duty of all to praise God, and so the command is issued.

Now what’s interesting in this command is that often in this call to praise, it is stated that the praise must be with enthusiasm. It’s not just, “Praise the Lord.” But it’s “Praise the Lord,” Psalm 81: “Sing aloud to God our strength. Shout for joy to the God of Jacob. Raise a song, sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp. Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon on feast day.” So there’s this note of enthusiasm often in the praise psalms. It’s often just “Praise the Lord,” but very often it’s with some note calling to praise with enthusiasm. So Psalm 100: “Make a joyful noise.” The idea there is that of a shout. “Make a joyful shout, a triumph shout to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come into his presence with singing.” So you typically have in these calls to praise, not just saying, calling us to praise the Lord or bless the Lord, but do it with enthusiasm. And you often find that in the Psalms. So you have shout for joy, make a joyful noise, sing aloud, break out the musical instruments.

It occurred to me years ago before I understood even the structure of the Psalms—years ago, it occurred to me that in these Psalms, it’s clear that God likes loud singing. Now that’s good for me. God likes loud singing. Why do you suppose he likes loud singing? It’s an indication of enthusiasm. If you’re singing like this, “praise the Lord, praise the Lord,” it doesn’t say much. One commentator I read, an older commentator, makes a wonderful remark. He says, tepid, or let’s just call it half-hearted praise, defeats its own purpose. If you can approach God in praise and it’s half-hearted, it’s unworthy of Him. And the psalmists are onto that. So approach God with loud praise, loud singing, enthusiasm, with the kind of praise that is worthy of Him.

I was writing, emailing with a well-known theologian one time, and emailing, and I wrote a little limerick about him, and I made some funny comment about how he’s not a bad teacher, and his sermons are not quite a disaster, something like that, and he wrote back, and said his remark was he’s been “damned by faint praise.” That’s the idea here. To praise God with something less than enthusiasm is unworthy of him. There’s something practical to take away from this. When we meet together and sing, I understand you come and you’re tired and we don’t always have the—we’re human, okay? We come and we’re tired, we don’t have the energy and we stand to sing and it’s hard. I get that. But we should keep this in mind, that our praise ought to be with enthusiasm. Praise that is worthy of God.

All right, so these calls to praise, they’re commands. They are commanded to be with enthusiasm. Another thing you’ll find in these calls to praise is that praise must be universal. The calls are universal. So Psalm 117: “Praise the Lord, all nations; extol him, all peoples,” which is interesting in the setting because here we have Israel, the only ones to whom God has revealed himself in a special way, and yet they’re calling the nations who don’t know God to praise him. Psalm 100: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth,” that’s the nations. Psalm 66: “Shout for joy to God, all the earth.” Psalm 96: “Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice.” And here it’s the created order itself that is being called to praise God. “Let the sea roar and all that fills it. Field, exalt, and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord.” So it’s not enough that the psalmists give praise to God. It’s not enough that the choirs at the temple give praise to God. It’s not enough that Israel sing praise to God. It’s not even enough for all the nations to sing praise to God. Even the created order itself owes God praise. And so these psalms call all to praise.

And I think I’ve mentioned to you before that the way Isaac Watts picks up on these psalms often in his rendering of these psalms for metered singing that was so revolutionary back in his day, he uses the word “pay.” And it captures the idea here: pay your praise to God. This is the obligation of everyone and everything to give praise to this God who has made them. All right, so you praise God; the call to praise is to be universal. One, because it is deserved universally. But there’s another note to this, and that is these calls to praise—”let the nations praise,” “let the nations give him glory”—it reflects God’s global saving purpose. And there is reflected in these Psalms, willing praise presupposes redemption.

Cause Or Reason For Praise

So here we’re into why should we praise? Why should the nations praise? Because God has a global saving purpose. He announced it back in Genesis chapter 12 and his promise to Abraham. It expands throughout the Old Testament and the psalmists pick up on that and call the nations to praise. Like in Psalm 100: “Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Come into his courts with thanksgiving.” This is temple language. “Come into his presence at the temple with thanksgiving.” Calling the pagan nations to come into the presence of God—it has to have this eschatological prospect that one day will be the case when all the nations, and not just the psalmist and not just Israel, will willingly and from their hearts give God praise.

All right, so the call to praise that is commanded, it’s to be with enthusiasm and it’s the universal obligation of all people reflecting God’s saving purpose. All right, that’s the call to praise. Next, let’s look at the cause or the reason for praise. And this now brings us to the main body of the Psalms. The call to praise calls us to give God the praise that is due Him, but in this cause for praise, or reason for praise, here we have the focus on why God should be praised. And so the focus here is on God: his attributes, his kingdom, his gifts, his power, his electing love, his steadfast mercy, his glory.

And what’s interesting about this then, and this is the body of the psalm—why should we praise God? Because he’s steadfast love, because he made the world, because he’s judging the earth. All of these things—in all of this, Israel is learning their theology, they’re learning about God, and what they’re learning about God, they’re learning in the context of praise. Now that’s important. Theology—what we learn about God—is not just abstract theory. It is ground for praise. And the Psalms teach us that’s the value of a good hymn today. We learn theology from them in the context of praise, and that’s what the Psalms do. So here we have theology, but in the context of enthusiastic worship.

So Psalm 117 again: “Praise the Lord all the nations, extol him all peoples.” Why? “Because great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.” Psalm 103: now this one I don’t have in your notes, and I think I’d like to take the time quickly for you to turn to it. I do have it in your notes, okay. No, I don’t have all of it. Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 103. Again, here the psalmist addresses himself, calling himself to praise God. Let’s take our time and go through this psalm.

First of all, the call to praise, verses one and two: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” Why? Here we come with a reason of praise, and here it’s set off by the word “who.” “Bless the Lord, O my soul, forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with goods so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love to those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows his compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field. For the wind passes over it and it’s gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to his children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.”

Now this is a wonderful example then of how the “reason for praise” section of these praise psalms are the meat of the psalm and teach us our theology in the context of praise. So verses one and two: call to praise. Why? Verses three to 19. He forgives your iniquity. He heals your diseases. He redeems you. He crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. He satisfies you. He works righteousness and justice. He reveals himself. He doesn’t always chide. He doesn’t deal with us according to our sins, thankfully. He won’t remember our sins forever, but as far as the East is from the West, so far will He remove our transgressions. This is language of forgiveness. This is why God is to be praised. Verse 13: because He’s compassionate. Verse 14: He understands that we’re just creatures. Verses 15 and 16: we fade, we grow up and die. God is not like that, and his steadfast love is forever and ever unceasing. Common theme in the Psalms. Here’s the reason for praise.

Renewed Call To Praise

And then he comes back again, typical of the form of the praise Psalms. Verse 20: “Bless the Lord, O you his angels.” And here he broadens the call. “Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying his voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers who do his will. Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion.” And then finally, the renewed call to praise: “Bless the Lord, O my soul.”

Now it’s in this section then that we learn, as I say, something of the theology of the Psalms. Why praise God? Or what is it about God that is praiseworthy? That’s in these sections of the Psalms. So we read the Psalm and we immediately see a call to praise. Okay, we got a hymn here, a praise Psalm. We see the call to praise. Why should we praise? And inevitably you’ll find “for,” or “who,” and he lists the reasons why God is worthy of praise. And there’s your understanding of the psalms, and it becomes very simple.

All right, then our last component of the psalms, of these praise psalms, is the conclusion or the renewed call to praise. Often, this will take the same form as the very beginning of the psalm, like here in Psalm 103: “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” That’s the way it begins, that’s the way it ends—renewed call to praise. Not necessarily that way all the time. Sometimes the psalmist will say in this renewed call to praise that so much more could have been said; kind of a note, there’s more to praise God for than this little psalm will allow. Say something like that. Sometimes in this renewed call to praise, the psalmist will express some hope that his words of praise will be found acceptable to the Lord. Psalm 19: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my Redeemer.” Psalm 104 has the same; it ends up, “May my meditation be pleasing to Him.” And sometimes they end up with that, but this renewed call to praise then concludes the psalm.

All right, one more time then before we close, we have the Lord’s Table coming. Let’s take just a couple more minutes, look at Psalm 117 again. This is the shortest of the Psalms, and it’s a nice, crisp example of a praise psalm. We have the call to praise in verse one, the reason for praise in verse two, and then the end of verse two is the renewed call to praise. “Praise the Lord, all nations. Extol Him, all peoples. Why? For great is His steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord.”

So here’s the flow of thought, and in this psalm in particular, we have themes that are common throughout the Psalter. First of all, the call to praise is universal. All the nations, all peoples, come and praise God. Why? Because great is his steadfast love—not just as a God of mercy, but great is his steadfast love toward us, and his faithfulness endures forever. You’ll find this often, these two key words. Throughout the Psalms, his steadfast love, his faithfulness—these two things, two terms go together frequently through the Psalms. Actually, this reaches back to Genesis, when God revealed himself to Moses. He’s a God of steadfast love and faithfulness, and that is a theme that runs through the Old Testament and finally comes crashing into the incarnation of Jesus, who is full of grace and truth.

Call the world to praise because of God’s steadfast love. And here, of course, we find then the connections that will bring us to the New Testament and how all of these wonderful themes of God’s steadfast love and his faithfulness find their culmination in the coming of Jesus and his redemptive work. All of us then ought to praise the Lord because of these things that are revealed to us, his steadfast love and his faithfulness.

Now, as I’ve mentioned before, these psalms have these typical forms. Don’t think that all of the psalms follow a prescribed form. The psalmists were not enslaved to these forms. They could sometimes alter them. They could sometimes just have it something else altogether. But very often, praise psalms are marked this way. And I think it’ll help us to read with more understanding if we recognize that.

All right, let’s be dismissed with prayer.