Joy – Psalm 150

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Psalm 150. I'm sorry, I don't know what page number in the Bible it is. Does anyone give us a.

Oh, right. Okay. Hallelujah. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in his mighty heavens.

Praise him for his mighty acts. Praise him for his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the horn. Praise him with the harp and the lyre. Praise him with tambourine and dancing.

Praise him with strings and flute. Praise him with clashing cymbalse. Praise him with resounding symbols. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Hallelujah.

That is on page 634 of your bibles. Do grab them in front of you. Six, three, four. Do open them up to that page. It's going to be useful for you.

If you're one of the young ones, why not come on out here so you get a better view? If you need to grab a grown up and bring them with you, feel free to do that. But it will help me and it will help you if you want to come and sit up here. He says, eyeballing his daughter. Great job.

Fantastic. Do. Coming up. That's brilliant. And wonderful as well.

That is good. Welcome up. Come on up. That's good. If you need to grab a grown up and bring them with you, you can do that.

They love it almost as much as you do. And that is good. Let me lead us in a prayer as we look at that Bible passage. Father God, thank you so much for a bit of your Bible that calls us to praise you. Thank you.

That praising you actually completes our joy in you. Just like praising a beautiful view or a lovely piece of cake. As we eat it, we go, mmm, this is great. We praise it. Help us, Father, to be those who find our joy in praising you this morning.

Amen. I don't know if you've ever been around somebody who is really excited. Sometimes they're almost slightly embarrassingly excited. Have you been around somebody who's embarrassingly excited? Yes.

Maybe one of those people can be our very own Neil Hayden.

Like a packet of wood. Mine. Like a good pinch of snuff. Like a. Okay, that's enough about.

I was just getting going. I can tell you, Neil, you're wearing what looks like a hideous top there. How dare you? But why were you singing about filling up our senses? What's that all about?

That's about Sheffield United making you feel good. So on Sundays when Neil goes to Sheffield United, he sings and he wears embarrassing things and he waves his hands around the place. He's a little bit embarrassing when he goes to Sheffield United. Maybe you've been to a football match and you've cheered and shouted like, Neil. Thank you very much, Neil.

Do you grab a seat, I'll borrow you again in a moment. Maybe that's not you at all. Maybe you're somebody who would know who this is. You hopefully know who that is. But the next person you will hopefully know as well.

Oh, no, that's.

Let's try that one again. Go back.

Excellent. Is there not another slide on that one, Bentley? There we go. So hopefully you might know who this is. Anybody want to tell me?

No prizes here, but anybody want to tell me who it is? Go on. Safes. Taylor Swift. That's absolutely right.

And maybe you don't just know who Taylor Swift is, but maybe you've read this book. It's quite small on there, but it's a book that I found on my holidays. It's called Taylor Swift is life. I know, right? And in her was.

No, no. Taylor Swift is life. Maybe you are one of the people who thinks Taylor Swift is really exciting. I think they're called swifties. This book, in fact, was on a stand.

If we can have the next shot. That stand was like a shrine to Taylor Swift there in the music store. It had all of her books, including how to dress like Taylor Swift. Swifties today. I kid you not.

They were all there. Imagine that you were that into Taylor Swift. Okay? And you go to one of her concerts and she starts playing your favourite song. How would you react as a swiftie who's hearing your favourite song, wearing an outfit identical to her, jumping around and singing?

Do you know what? I think I would do the same if I was into Taylor Swift. Probably not wearing outfit exactly the same as her. But anyway, let's move on quickly past that one. See, when people get very excited about Sheffield United, they sing and they dance.

When people get excited about Taylor Swift, they might scream and shout and sing. Do you know? Let me tell you about a very embarrassing day in my life a few years ago. I was at home and I was about some of your age, and the television was on. It was summer, and so it was Wimbledon that was on the television.

And I had some friends around to play, and we were playing in the room with Wimbledon on. And it was one of those really good days because it was raining at Wimbledon and so there wasn't actually too much on. But my mum used to watch it religiously. And then somebody stood up in the rain. And the person who stood up in the rain was one of my mum's.

Favourite people. It was this guy. His name is Cliff Richard. And he began to sing. And do you know what?

Oh, no. My friends are there. My mum starts singing Cliff Richard loudly in the living room while my friends are there. And my face did this. I went, it was awkward.

It was really awkward. Now, I wonder, when we listen to psalm 150, if we think it's a little bit awkward. You see, we've heard that psalm and it's told us a number of times to praise God. In fact, who here counted? How many times did that psalm tell us to praise God or praise him?

Go on. This. Eleven. I think it was more than eleven. I think it was more than 1213.

Henry, good job. Give yourself a pat on the back. That means that more than. More than twice every verse this psalm has said, praise God. Praise God.

Praise God. Praise God. And this praising God is quite loud. Do you notice any instruments that they're told to use in the psalm? Any instruments?

Do shout them out. The cymbals. Yes. The tambourine. Yes.

The guitar or the strings. Yes. The trumpet. Yes. The flute.

Yes, sorry, the tuba. Well, yes, the trumpet. Or the tube. Yeah. Yep.

That's good. Any others? I think we've got lots of them. But this psalm is like the culmination of the Book of Psalms. In fact, if you.

If you are growing up with your Bible, just very quickly, look with me. And this 13 times of saying praise God comes after the end of a whole bunch of other psalms that start and end with that phrase. Flip back a page. Psalm 145. I will exalt you, my God and king.

I will praise your name forever. Or at the end of that, let every creature praise his holy name. Look at psalm 146. It starts. Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, my soul. How does it finish? Praise the Lord. Psalm 147, how does it start? Praise the Lord.

Brilliant. How does it finish? Psalm 148. How does it start? And how does it finish?

Psalm 149. How does it start? And in the end, how does it finish? And then psalm 150 is every verse. Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. And we see that we are to do it loudly with all sorts of different instruments. Let's pop up just a few different instruments that we're told to use in the psalm here on the screen. And as that's going up, do follow along with me in the Bible.

So we're told to praise him. Verse three with the sound of the trumpet. Now, I don't have a trumpet. Can anyone hear? Make a good trumpet sound.

Matthew, Gavins and Grace are making a good trumpet sound. Go on really loudly.

Brilliant. Fantastic. You guys doing great job. In fact, can you come and stand here for me? Is that all right?

Brilliant. Okay, so we've got a trumpet sound. We're to praise him with the harp and the lyre. Now, the lyre is like that little harp that you can see up there on the screen. I need a volunteer who can play a harp for me.

Does somebody want to volunteer for me? Great. Come on up then. And I want you just to move, just to press a few of these keys for me as hard as you like.

Brilliant. Can we have that through the speakers, too? And again, brilliant. It feels like we're there. A harp.

Great. You stay there. That's brilliant. So we've got a harp and a lyre. And we've also been told to praise him with the timbrel, which is like a tambourine.

Now, I don't have a tambourine, but I do need a volunteer. Bethany's the first with a hand up. I've got a pan and a stick, which is kind of like a tambourine or a cymbal there. So you take that. That's good.

I'll tell you what, Joshua, do you want to hit that for Bethany? That's good. Great. And again, wonderful. You guys stay there.

That is brilliant. What else have we got? We've got the strings. Let me see. Can I borrow somebody who will happily play some strings for me?

Come on, then. Safe. See your hands up. You come on out here, you grab some strings. I knew I left this at church for a reason.

That's good. You can sit on this chair if you like. Don't drop it. I've borrowed it from a friend, friend of mine. That's good.

And then if you play that for me.

Brilliant. That's great. So we've got the strings going and the pipe. Now, I don't have a flute with me. Oh, wait a second.

I do have some more strings, though. Henry, have you got some strings with you? Henry, can you bring your strings out? That's great. And can you play them nice and loudly for us?

Those strings.

Beautiful. That's the most in tune of all of them. That's great. Do you want to come out and stand here? That's good.

And you want to wait there? That's good. The pipes, the pipes, the pipes, Danny boy. I need. Excellent.

Do you want to come on out? Fantastic. I've got some big pipes that are up here, so come on round. That's good. We're going to get these big pipes at the front going wonderful.

If you want to sit on that bench and just press one of the keys and see what the pipes do, I'm hoping it will work. Oh, yeah, sounded good.

Brilliant. You got yourself a job. Can you come back at Christmas? That's great. Wait there for a moment.

That's good. Okay, so we've got the pipes, we've got the strings, we've got the timbrel, which are kind of a bit like cymbals. I don't have cymbals. I thought that would be too loud and. Oh, and there's some dancing.

Neil, come on up. Brilliant. Now, in a moment, I'm going to ask everybody here at the front to play their instruments. And you guys aren't exempt either, because it'd be great if you guys were happy to either join in with an instrument or when all these instruments are playing, I imagine there might be a bit of a cheer, so we'll get some cheering going on as well. Now, it's important that we're not going to do that until I lift both my hands in the air.

When I lift my hands in the air, that's when we're going to play. When I put my hands down, that's when we're going to be quiet. But there are two more things. The first is that at the back we've got Andy Cattrall. Andy Cattrall's a great friend of mine.

Andy Cattrall's going to go up and stand at the end of the drive and we want to see if Andy can hear us at the end of the drive. Ok? So off you go, Andy. That's great. Yeah, that drive there.

Come back. But, you know, just. Okay. And for the rest. Oh, let me give you your.

That's for your trumpet. And for the rest of us, this bit might be a little bit loud, so if you don't like loud noises, you can put your hands over your ears. Just until I put my hands back down again. Okay, are we ready? Everybody ready?

Ready on the organ there. Brilliant. Okay, put your hands over your ears if you need to, and let's go.

Brilliant. Fantastic. Let's give our people a round of applause. Do you come and take a seat back down here for us?

That was beautiful. Thank you so much. That's lovely. Great. You're right there.

Good job. Now, why are we doing that? Well, in a moment, Andy Catrell's going to come on back in and we're going to find out how he. Whether. Yeah.

Do you want to wave him down, Matthew? Thanks. So much.

Here's the thing that you may have picked up. That noise was quite loud, wasn't it? It was quite a loud noise. And maybe part of you, as you are hearing that especially, perhaps if you're one of our grown ups, you might be sitting here going thinking, it's a bit cringy, isn't it, doing that in church, having people dancing at the front, having people making lots of noise. It perhaps didn't sound as beautiful as I'd like it to.

But it did sound loud, didn't it? Andy, could you hear us from the top of the driveway? Only about halfway. Okay, so halfway up our drive, Andy could hear us. Now, there's lots of other things to say from this psalm.

But one thing I'd like us just to think about is the question that's going to come up on the screen. Do people notice that you praise God? If people have been walking past as we have been doing that, they would have noticed that there was something going on in church, wouldn't they? Let me ask you, in the way in which you live your life. Do people notice that you praise God?

Maybe not just through playing instruments and shouting. Maybe it's through the way you use your body, like Neil dancing. Maybe it's through the way that you use your mouth and the way that you speak. Are you living a life of loud praise to God? And a great way to answer that is, do people notice?

A good question for us to listen to. But here's the thing. It might be that as you were listening to that, you thought it was too loud. It might be that as you listen to that, you thought it was cringey. Next slide.

Next slide. It might be, though, that as you're listening to a psalm like this. There's a bit of you that thinks, this isn't for me today. This sounds really joyful and exciting and loud. But actually, right at the moment, I don't really feel like that.

Maybe you feel a bit like this guy. Oh, back one. This guy here, he's saying, no, thank you. Not for me. Not for me.

Today. It feels a little bit like when you're at the football match and the other team's supporters are all cheering. I had that on Friday night as Leeds United fans were singing away. And do you know, I didn't want to join in because my team were losing. But do you know, our psalm tells us why they're to praise God.

Did you notice in verse one and two it says, praise the God. Praise the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary, in his temple. Praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for his acts of power and for his surpassing greatness.

You see, the people who are reading this knew that one day God was going to send a saviour, somebody who was going to make this world right. King Jesus, who will make this world right. Only this morning I was praying with somebody, somebody who's going through quite a lot of pain at the moment. And we thought about this promise. One day, King Jesus is going to give us bodies that don't break anymore.

And we look forward to that day, and we long for that day. And the people here that they were looking forward to this day. But do you know, the people here, they may well have been a bit like that lemur, that person saying, I don't. I can't really sing this at the moment. You see, it's saying, praise God 13 times.

But God's people who are singing this are in a time when their country has been invaded by somebody else. And the temple that they were going to be praising God in the very sanctuary that it talks about is a piddly little temple rather than the big temple they were used to. So how can they sing this song? How can you sing this song if today is hard and difficult, and actually you're more likely to cry than you are to laugh and dance, how do we sing psalm 150?

I've got here a very expensive talk illustration. This is a lamp. Okay. And when I turn it on, what does it do? Naomi, what does it do?

Lights up. Lights up. Yeah, that's absolutely right. It lights up. Now, here's a question.

You. If I do this, is the light still on? Yes, the light still on. Can you see it clearly? Some of you can.

I'm really glad somebody said that. You said that. You can see it clearly, can't you, from over there? Well done. Well done, Jesse.

Jessie can see it clearly from over there. But you guys who are here, you can't see, see it very clearly, can you? The light's still on. But we can't see it very clearly, not all of us. God's promises have been made.

One day, he's going to make this world right. King Jesus is coming back. Sin will be no more. And for some of us, we're in a place where we can see that really very clearly. For others of us, it's slightly harder to see at the moment.

There's all sorts of stuff going on in our lives that make it harder to see. And do you know what we need? We need the people who can see it clearly. To help us to know that the light is still shining. We need the Jessies of the world to say, hey, do you know what?

God's promises are still true. We need the gaze of this world, the Eileens of this world, to say, do you know what? God's promises are still true. King Jesus is going to come back. And it might be really hard for you to see that at the moment.

You might have all sorts of things that are clouding your view of God right at the moment. All sorts of hurt and pain, all sorts of ways that feels like he's let you down. But we need each other to tell us these truths are true. King Jesus is coming back. And do you know what we sometimes need to tell ourselves?

Even though it looks like the light is obscured, the light is still shining. God's promises are still true. And you know how we do that? One of the ways that we do that is by praising God. It's by praising God together.

It's one of the reasons why being part of a church family is so important, because you're going to be with other people who are going to appoint you and praise God with you and tell you of his promises.

So my final question for us to think about today is, does our praise, does our praise encourage others? And I'm talking about the way in which we sing. Does the way in which we sing and the way in which we use our bodies when we sing, is that encouraging others to believe the truths of God? But I'm also talking about the way in which we speak. Does that encourage others and the way in which we live our lives praising God?

Does it encourage others to say, do you know what? Those promises are true? I'm going to finish in just a moment, but I just want to tell you a story, and it's a story, a true story, that I was told this week. Story of a lady who went to church and she sat next to one of her friends and very sadly, her friend had got cancer and wasn't going to live on this earth very much longer.

This lady was telling me, sitting next to somebody who knew that she was going to be with Jesus in two or three weeks, who is singing about the promises of God, helped her to trust in Jesus even though her life was hard. I can testify to that. I've sat with people from our church family as they've gone to be with Jesus. And the way that they speak of going to be with him, the way they've trusted in his promises, has helped me to trust Jesus promises. So what praise the Lord.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Let me lead us in a prayer. And then we're going to sing of the way in which we can look back and know God's promises are true. We're going to sing about Jesus, our great high priest before the throne of God above. Heavenly Father, thank you so very much indeed that Jesus has already come once.

Thank you that he died and was resurrected. Thank you that you give us, people around us who remind us of that even when it feels like the light is blocked out. Help us to trust you and in praising you, help us to encourage others and find our joy. Amen. Amen.

Well, let's stand and let's sing together before the throne, God above.

Before the throne of God above I have a strong and perfect plea. A great high priest whose name is love. Whoever lives and pleads for me. My name is graven on his hands. My name is written on his heart.

I know that while in Henny stance no tongue can bid me thins dead part. No tongue can bid me things.

When Satan tempts me to dismantle tells me of it guilt within upward I look and see a man who made an end to all my sin. Because the sinless saviour died. My sinful soul is counted free for God, the justice satisfied to look on him and pardon me. To look on him and pardon me.

Behold him and the risen land. My perfect, spotless righteousness, the great, unchangeable. I am the king of glory and of grace, one within self. I cannot die. My soul is purchased like his brow.

My life is hid with Christ on high. With Christ my saviour and my God. With Christ my saviour and my God.

Please be seated as we're going to be led in prayer.