Psalm 148 is an all inclusive “Praise the Lord!” song but
unless “Sweet Jesus!” or some other less than pastor- like expletive counts as
praise I've not appreciated the tempestuous wind doing God’s will on Mustang
Island, TX. But maybe that’s the point the psalmist wants to make. Even the
things we think of as less than praiseworthy when they address us – fire, hail,
creepy things, sea monsters – have to bend the knee, albeit a fin in the case
of sea monsters, to the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. Sun, moon, stars, mountains, hills, all
creatures great and small, all of creation praises God because “the Lord has raised
up strength for the people.” But here’s the thing even the creative psalmist
could not imagine. God’s strength would be made manifest in weakness. The praise
of the sovereigns of the earth, at least a Roman governor named Pilate and a
Jewish high priest named Annas, was to silence God’s strength by nailing Jesus
to a tree but surprise (!) even the grave was compelled to praise the
one it could not hold. We too are compelled to praise the One we cannot
contain or confine in our holy houses of wood and stone, theologies and
rituals. That’s because God is always coming to us in new and surprising ways not
unlike a tempestuous wind that long ago blew through a house in Jerusalem depositing
fire on the heads of young men and maidens so they could praise God in
languages they had never learned. So praise the Lord in whatever way you can
which means that even the song of sea monsters is pleasing to the one who
“created the Leviathan for the sport of it.”
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