The Hallelujah Chorus – Psalms 146-150
May 1, 2016Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Speaker: Jerry Cisar
The book of Psalms, which began with a call to walk in God’s ways and meditate in God’s laws in order to find the blessed life, in Psalm 2 immediately introduced the opposition to God’s kingdom—earthly kings who stand against the reign of Christ. Throughout Psalms we have a mixture of prayers and praises that demonstrate life in a fallen world surprisingly heavy on suffering, with victories sprinkled in along the way.
Now we arrive at the end. As R. Davidson writes in The Vitality of Worship, “Much that we have heard in other psalms now fades into the background. Here there are no urgent questions – no “Why?”s or “How long?”s, no puzzling doubts, no talk of threats from enemies, no wrestling with what authentic worship means. There remain only “Songs of Praise” which put everything else in perspective.”
Like the whole of Scripture that begins with the Law and ends with heavenly, triumphant praise of God, and in between we find love and hate, conflict and resolution, suffering and healing, faith and doubt, despair and hope. Likewise the book of psalms which began with the law, has all those in between things, now ends in a universal, even heavenly, triumphant praise of God.
Join us as we explore this “Hallelujah” Chorus which is a most appropriate place to finish our series in the book of Psalms reflecting on the ultimate triumph of God in history.