I know we all have a sleepless night or two.  Well, back in May I had a run of non-sleepers.  On one particular night, or morning really, rather than calling one of you to share in my wakefulness, I took the opportunity to go channel surfing.   I stopped on the Actor in Studio with host James Lipton.   They were showing a clip from the 1993 movie “MALICE” with Alec Baldwin and Nicole Kidman.  Alec plays Dr. Jed Hill who as a surgeon has saved many lives.  But he makes a wrong decision during one surgery which is now leading to a trial.  During a pre-trial deposition, one of the several people present asks a bit under his breath and facetiously, if Dr. Hill has a God complex.   Alec’s close up shows Dr. Hill’s intensity as he says: “You ask me if I have a God complex?  Let me tell you something…I AM God!”

            Obviously, Alec, or his character, would be just a tad mistaken in his self-exaltation.   None of us is God.  Even though we act like it at times or make god smaller to fit our own thinking.  But we all sure want to know what God is like, don’t we?   And yet because God is in a category of His own and is unique, we have nothing with which to compare God.  So we talk about God by drawing parallels from what we do know.  We say – He is like…. – still inadequate – but appropriate.  We can say, “God is like a loving parent.”  “He is like a great king.”   Or we talk about what God has done by saying, “God is the Creator of the heavens and the earth.”  Or, “God is our Savior through the work of Jesus Christ.”

            I believe God has always known we would be curious and want to know about Him.  After all, He is our Creator.  So He inspired writers of His Word to give us glimpses of Himself.  Psalm 113 is just one of those inspirations.   The psalmist draws his own parallels and also tells what God has done.   And after he has said what he needs to say the psalmist still knows that God can never be adequately described.  As I read Psalm 113, pay close attention to verses 5 and 6: “Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?”   The answer clearly is no one.  No one and no thing is really like God.   READ Psalm 113

            This particular psalm is the first of six psalms (Pss 113-118) that were commonly sung by Jews at the time of the Passover.  These are called Hallel psalms – meaning “praise.”   These praise psalms were sung at three great feasts:  the feast of dedication, the feasts of the new moon and at Passover, at which time they were sung by families around the table.  I think it is fitting we share in this psalm as we celebrate a feast, and come to this Table.

            This Psalm is a great example of what our praise of God should be.  We, as God’s servants, are called to praise the name of the Lord.  To us today our name is probably just that – a name.   Our name is something by which to call us to dinner, do our chores or be included at a party.   “Janet” is a convenient tag to identify me apart from Pam or Sheri.  In the case of God “the name of the Lord” is all important.  God’s name has to do with the revelation of who God is…all of Who God is.  It is not just any God we are to worship.  You and I are to praise and worship the one true “Lord.”   That is why we are not to take that name – God’s very being - in vain…in any way.  We are to praise and lift up and bless the One who has revealed Himself in creation, on Mount Sinai , and then in the person of His only, specially begotten Son, Jesus of Nazareth.    We are to praise God from the beginning of the day, all day long, to the end of the day.  We are to praise God in good times and in times of trouble.  We are to praise the Lord’s name here in this place as we worship God.  We are to lift our hearts, our very souls to praise the whole character and will of God.  Will this be enough?  No!   To praise God adequately, would take the rest of time and each and every creation on earth.  But like those gathered those many years ago, you and I are to do our part here and now and every day.

            We are not just to praise the Lord’s name.  We are to praise God directly.  We are to praise and glorify Him as the one who is raised up and honored over all nations, all people.  Just like then, we today, know mighty nations, and human powers.  These are just as imposing today – perhaps more so – than in the psalmist’s day.   However, none of these powers compares with the great Lord of creation and history.  And so we are to exalt the exalted.

            This very One we are praising is the same one who is so high and lifted up that He must stoop down in order to even look into the heavens.   Wow!   God stoops to view the heavens.  How much lower this exalted, supreme King must stoop to look on us, to notice us, to save us.  But stoop He does.   Those of you who are parents know the feeling as you stoop down to be eye-to-eye with your child, to hold and comfort and help and kiss away a hurt, to hear what is being said, to mend a broken heart.  It is one of the most beautiful scenes.   And yet it does not compare to what God chose to do and continues to do for you and for me. 

It was God’s choice when He came to earth to save us from ourselves, from our sin.  This is what the Apostle Paul tells us about in his letter to the church at Philipi.  Chapter 2 verses 5 through 8 of Philippians tell us what Christ did for us.   READ

Some might think that the fact that God stoops down “is what God should do.” Meaning He should come to society’s outcasts, the homeless, and friendless; to those who seem valueless in our communities and nations.  But this most high Lord does not stop there.  He stoops to our places of brokenness.  Yes, He takes notice when we are poor in mind and spirit and needy, not just physically but spiritually.  He lifts us out of the garbage heaps and filth of our lives.   You and I can never sink so far down – emotionally, physically, or even spiritually – that God cannot lift us up.   He restores us to the honored life.  This is the place of His original intent for us.  He gives us a more exalted place than the royalty of earthly kingdoms.   Because Jesus does all this and more for us we are to return the same to others:  READ Verses 3 and 4 of Philippians.  

How do we treat the unwanted in society?  Do we look at them as better than us?  Do we treat them with value?  You know we are to be God’s arms, feet and love of His action.

            Now, to be honest, verse 9 of Psalm 113 feels like a scribal miscopy.  However, when we remember that in many countries – then and now – not to have a child is considered a curse.  And how we rejoice with each one as she becomes pregnant and then a happy mother.   And since we are drawing parallels, the parallel here is Christ’s church.  At the point of the writing of this psalm the Gentile church was hopelessly barren; unknown.  Even though we have our work cut out for us it is now an example of a wonderful gift of fruitfulness and blessing around the world.  As individual believers many of us often feel spiritually barren…perhaps for many years.   Whether the barren woman, the barren church, the barren individual – each one needy and lowly, and often feel cursed.  Yet each is God’s concern.   Each one He stoops to elevate, to fill with His power and love and life. The exalted One exalts.

            We, like the psalmist look, and realize that God’s glory is greater than anything that can be seen…with or without a telescope.   That’s the wonder of our God.  Another wonder of God is that through Jesus Christ, He offers us the opportunity to become His children, where He sets us among royalty.  He exalts us.  READ Verses 9-11 of the Philippians passage.

            This is how we can praise the Lord along with psalmist.  As we gather around this Table, share in this feast, we gather together because god stooped down, became one of us, died and rose again.  He lifts us up and helps us pass His good news and wonder on so that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord – giving glory to God the Father.  Praise the Lord!