https://joelssermons.files.wordpress.com/2017/08/20170813sermon.mp3
Twelve Hymns Project: Praise God from whom
Text: Psalm 148
Psalm 148 is like one of those emails you get where the sender entered all the recipients in the To: box rather than Blind Carbon Copy. This Psalm is the text we used for our Call to Worship this morning. It’s an invitation to what theologian Douglas Ottati refers to as “the party of existence.” And we are invited. Only rather than simply getting our own invite, with all the other recipients hidden, like that lovely Blind Carbon Copy feature allows, we get the full catalogue of invites, which we scan through first before getting to our part.
The sender must have had two lists going, and begins with the first: those in “the heavens” or “the heights.” It includes things unseen and seen: angels, hosts; sun, moon, and stars; the waters above. The second list is “you who are on earth.” It ranges from sea monsters to winged birds, wild beasts to domesticated animals to creeping things to fruit trees and cedars. To make sure we get the message that we’re all invited, it names kings and peoples of the earth, young men and...