Psalm 145:1-5;17-21 “The Tehillah of David”

I will praise you to the heights, my God, the king;I will bless your name forever and ever.2 Every day I will bless you;I will praise your name forever and ever.3 Great is ADONAI and greatly to be praised;his greatness is beyond all searching out.4 Each generation will praise your works to the nextand proclaim your mighty acts.5 I will meditate on the glorious splendorof your majesty and on the story of your wondersADONAI is righteous in all his ways,full of grace in all he does.18 ADONAI is close to all who call on him,to all who sincerely call on him.19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;he hears their cry and saves them.20 ADONAI protects all who love him,but all the wicked he destroys.21 My mouth will proclaim the praise of ADONAI;all people will bless his holy name forever and ever.

Becoming a Child of the Future!If you’re looking for a way to stay relevant; if you’re looking for a

way to survive becoming an embarrassment to your children and grandchildren; if you’re looking for a way to become a child of the future, I have very good news for you this morning! But, quite honestly, it’s news that’s been around for thousands of years.

Long before there was anything called “Contemporary Worship” and Praise Bands with Praise Songs there was the Tehillah. A Tehillah is a praise-song and as old as the Psalms themselves.

Earlier this week, Pastor Zach tried to tell me that he thought Tehillah was a town in Alabama, but I knew he was wrong…. He might have had me halfway convinced had he said a town in Louisiana, but he didn’t. I knew better!

For you see, I’d sneak through Tallulah many times on my way down to Disney World driving late at night and hoping to arrive at the pearly Cinderella gates by morning to delight my children of the 80’s. Oh… but I digress.

Long before the 80’s, long before there were worship wars about traditional worship and contemporary worship there was the Hebrew Praise Song, the Tehillah, which is what that Hebrew word means. And Psalm 145 is chief amongst the praise songs. In fact, there’s an old Talmudic tradition that says “Everyone who repeats the Tehillah of David (Psalm 145) thrice (3x) a day may be sure to be a child of the world to come!”i Thrice a day, you say? Imagine that!

Everyone’s always touting a “formula for success” but I think this is the first I’ve heard of something that makes you ready for the future! Most of us baby boomers can hardly believe the words coming out of our mouths these days. We find ourselves saying things we thought we’d never say; making comparisons we thought we’d never make… in short, we find ourselves becoming our parents! We pull up to a gas station and say to ourselves “I remember when I could get 4 gallons of gasoline for a dollar!” We drive up to a Sonic and say to ourselves, “I remember when we could get a burger, fries, and Coke for a dollar!” We hear stories about how the kids or grandkids are doing at school and reminisce about how the only really big problems in school were getting caught chewing gum or smoking cigarettes. But now… we are dumbfounded to hear about the trials and tribulations; the woes and travails of what it means to be a high school student in the 21st Century. If we’re unwise enough to blurt out some of our “When I was your age…” statements, all it really serves to do is make our loved ones roll their eyes and say, “Oh Dad… you just don’t understand.” And we probably don’t.

If there’s a formula for how to become a child of the future, a person who leans forward into the future unafraid and someone of whom our succeeding generation could be proud and lean on, we ought to do everything in our power to find out what it is!

The ancient Talmudic advice is that reciting this Tehillah, this Praise Song; Psalm 45 is integral to tuning not just our voices but our very lives toward the future… or as the ancient advice says, “Everyone who repeats this thrice a day may be sure that he is a child of the world to come.” If you’re truly interested in staying connected to your children and their children; if you’re truly interested in staying connected to your community and your world and being relevant to what’s going on, this should be a wonderfully, interesting, and tantalizing prospect! Morning, noon, and night (that’s 3 times per day) what would it be like if your recited this Psalm?

It’s put together in what biblical scholars call an acrostic. It’s an acrostic poem… and that simply means it’s put together in such a way that (for the most part) each line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet.ii Or, in my crude way of understanding, it’s like singing the little nursery rhyme: “ABCDEFG HIJKLMNOP QRSTUV WXY AND Z. NOW I’VE SAID MY ABC’S NEXT TIME WON’T YOU SING WITH ME!”

So, to begin… listen to what the Psalm teaches: “I will extol You, my God the king! You are my God and the king. I am NOT the center of the universe. I am not the king, you, my God, are. Our strong temptation is to yield to that false notion that we are the centers of our own worlds and to grasp and claw; fight and scratch for our place. But doing so does not make us a fit “child of the future.” Doing so does not ensure that we will be relevant. Doing so does not guarantee that we won’t become an embarrassment to the generation that follows us. Reminding ourselves 3 times a day that we are NOT the center of the universe and that God is becomes a good way to start on the path of becoming a child of the future.

And we have a job to do. Our role, our purpose in life is to bless God. I’ve prayed prayers that don’t sound like that at all, and I can imagine you have too. “Lord… bless me today; bless my family; bless my children; bless my church; bless my business, bless my ….” And on and on and on until God must wonder if we think all God is is some sort

of cosmic Santa Claus! But that’s not our purpose in life… to get God to give us stuff!! Our purpose is to bless God!

Not just once in a lifetime when we find the perfect match. Not just once when we get the job of our dreams. Not just once when we escape terrific harm… but “Every day I will bless you; I will praise your name forever and ever!” And, the Talmud, that ancient Hebrew body of teaching that is so full of wisdom and experience would know that we are a very forgetful and impatient people. We’re the kind of people who are led out of Egypt and once we cross through the Red Sea our tummies begin to rumble and we want to walk right back into the bondage and inhumane life of the past. But our role every day is to bless God and praise God because God’s greatness is truly beyond anything we could ever imagine. Our purpose is to bless this God who is the center of the universe, our king who is greatly to be praised.

But it’s not enough to just hang out with our own kind and engage in such praise and adoration. It’s not enough… it’s never enough just to surround ourselves with our peers and talk about “the good old days” because The Tehillah of David teaches us that we are to teach the next generation. “Each generation will praise your works to the next (generation) and proclaim your mighty acts.” Think talking to your kids is hard? Wish you could just drop your kids off each Sunday and push them out of the car to go inside and let Bart give them a religion vaccination? Wish, somehow that all they ever needed to know about prayer and faith and God and Jesus could somehow be learned at youth group? In my opinion, despite the fact that Bart Patton and Michelle Wilkins are the “best in the business” that’s not their job. It’s YOUR job, it’s our job to “praise God’s works to the next generation and proclaim God’s mighty deeds.” Each generation teaches the next generation and on and on…That’s why I’m so thrilled to see men and women; dads and moms showing up to help teach Sunday School, to volunteer for youth trips; that’s why I’m so thrilled when grandparents and coaches; college presidents and faculty members, business owners and doctors lay aside what they’re doing and ask to help out with the children and youth of

any church… of this church of our church because “each generation must praise God’s works to the next generation!”

How do you even begin to know how to do that? Is there a rule-book somewhere that gives you a good “step one, two, three.” No. But you do have your imagination. You do have your blessed mind. It requires some slow-down time; some meditation time. Some time to pull back and ponder. Here’s how David’s Tehillah says it:Slide here

I will meditate on the glorious splendor of your majestyAnd on the glory of your wonders. (Psalm 145:5)

Cindy English, Face Book November

Linda Harding, Moonrise over Cadillac Mountain, MaineFace Book November

Judy Mattox, Boston Arboretum Face Book November

Get the picture? Meditate on the glory of God’s wonders. Fill your minds with some of the pictures of God’s grandeur and imagination. Let those grandeurs, quite literally, “blow your mind,” blow out some of the other negativity and trash. Let the meditation of who God is and what God powerfully does blow away some of the ugliness and unfairness that would seek to grab a foothold in your life and bring you down. Yes. Because there are 4 things that remain true forever… no matter what is happening around you:

(SLIDE TWO)(ONE) ADONAI is righteous in all his ways,full of grace in all he does.(Two) 18 ADONAI is close to all who call on him,to all who sincerely call on him.(Three) 19 He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;he hears their cry and saves them.(Four) 20 ADONAI protects all who love him,but all the wicked he destroys.

Just imagine taking the advice prescribed here. Just imagine taking ancient advice like you find here in the Talmud… “the one who recites The Tehillah (Psalm 145) 3 times a day is sure to be a child of the world to come… is sure to be a child of the future. There’s a prescription for what ails us, that’s for sure. The bigger question is, “Will we take our medicine?” I dare you to try it… take 3 Tehillahs daily and “call me in the morning!” You’ll never know if you don’t try it!

i P. 287, “Hear My Voice—Preaching the Lectionary Psalms” by James Evans, Stan Purdum, Carlos Wilton: CSS Publishing, Lima, Ohio, 2006.ii P. 437, “Interpretation—A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: Psalms” by James L. Mays, John Knox Press, Louisville, KT, 1994.