“He who sings, prays twice,” said the great church reformer Martin Luther. I’ve always thought that was kind of unfair to the people who, like me, are not particularly good at singing.  My mantra over the years of interim ministry when queried by each new organist has been:  “I shan’t chant!”

There is a person in the congregation to which I actually belong who does a lot of solos at the church and even when simply singing with the congregation is still singing a solo.  I do admire such individuals who have this ability,  it just isn’t mine.  So Luther’s comment is particularly convicting.  Maybe that’s why he is sometimes called the nightingale of Wittenberg  and I am stuck with what I’ve got (or more correctly—don’t).

According to Kelly J. Murphy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Central Michigan University– where she teaches classes on the Hebrew Bible—“the world in the text of Psalm 150 reiterates over and over again the importance of praise. From start to finish, Psalm 150 is solely concerned with the praise of God. In fact, every verse includes the Hebrew halelûyah, the plural imperative of the Hebrew verb hallel, “to praise” + yah (a shortened form of Yhwh, the divine name). The command is repeated often more than once in a verse in only six short verses.”  Having taken a pass on Hebrew in seminary, I will have to take her word on this.

Why all this praise? Many of the preceding psalms focus on the reasons to praise God, but Psalm 150, somewhat famously, focuses primarily on how and where to praise — not why. Each of the verses is an intensification of the previous — the praise seems to get louder and louder.

QUESTION FOR CONSIDERATION:  How do you praise God?