Mature Youth-hood: A
reflection on Psalm 148
Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise him in the heights!
2 Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his host!
3 Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars!
4 Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens!
5 Let them praise the name of the LORD, for he commanded and they were created.
6 He established them forever and ever; he fixed their bounds, which cannot be passed.1
7 Praise the LORD from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps,
8 fire and hail, snow and frost, stormy wind fulfilling his command!
9 Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars!
10 Wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds!
11 Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth!
12 Young men and women alike, old and young together!
13 Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven.
14 He has raised up a horn for his people, praise for all his faithful, for the people of Israel who are close to him. Praise the LORD!
(Psa 148:1-14 NRS)
Let us
meditate upon this Psalm
Psalm 148
falls in a collection of worship or liturgical psalms, believed to be from the post-exilic
period. As we can notice, the mention of the celestial bodies, heaven and earth
paint a vivid cosmology for us. What is a cosmology?
By Cosmology we mean a sense of an ordered world.
Gordon W. Lathrop in his thought provoking book Holy Ground suggests that it refers to an orientation
to the universe which has a public meaning and a lived personal importance.
It is an orientation or perspective of the world around us. For example, when
God tells Moses that he was standing on Holy Ground, Moses suddenly begins to
see the place he was standing the way God sees it. A new cosmology is given to
him. In this new cosmology, God is nearby and close to humans.
Another example for cosmology. For Canaanites
their land was just their country. But the very same land became a
"promised land", a gift of God' in the eyes of the Israelites!
Cosmology helps us see the world around us in different ways and make our life
meaningful. In our NithyaNamaskaraKramam,
we find the exhortation to pray facing the east since we believe that
Jesus, in his second coming will arrive from the East. This is another example
for how we make sense of our world using cosmology. So we face that direction
and pray. Thus cosmology is not only a
sense of direction and order of this world, but it is something that has a deep
impact on our lives.
The Psalm we just read constructs a picture of
the world for us. Coming from a set of liturgical collection of Praise hymns,
this Psalm creates a sense of ‘how the world is’ and a sense of its purpose,
for its reader. How does this cosmological Psalm speak to us? In what way does
it influence to grow towards mature youth-hood?
1. All creation exist to praise God the creator.
The Psalm begins by Praising God, or a Halleluiah
in the Hebrew Text. From a ‘Praise God from the heavens,’ the praise slowly
moves downward to the angels, then to the skies and finally reaches the earth,
its ocean and its depths and then all creatures. Towards the end we see the
whole earth, including young people like you and me praising God. You and me
exist to praise god through our lives. But do we live such lives?
2. This God comes down and lives among us.
If you
look at the structure of the Psalmic poetry here, we see the name LORD slowly coming down from the first
line (v.1), all the way down, and finally it rests among his people. This is
reminiscent of John 1. 14 (The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among
us). The name then goes even below the verse talking about the people. It
points towards the incarnation of our Lord, who became human c(v.13). This
means that we live in a world where God is present among us. This implies that
the earth is Holy Ground and the need
to live sanctified lives, in this awareness.
3. He
gives hope to those who are faithful to Him.
The last verse declares the raising of a horn,
which is a symbol for a lowly yet powerful Saviour and ends with another
‘Praise the Lord’. Thus the cosmology which this Psalm presents makes out our
God to be the Alpha and the Omega! This Sovereign Lord comes to dwell among His
people as the Immanuel. This was fully realized in Jesus Christ, the Incarnate
God.
A cosmological understanding of the world around
us in this manner is an important step towards mature youth-hood. This world is
not merely a creation of a distant God, but a place where this very God is
present. This presence demands our devotion and praise through our words,
worship and our whole lives. It calls for a reorientation of life in the light
of this cosmology; one in which God is Sovereign yet, one among us. To be
mature is to live our youth in that knowledge, so that we live like those
mentioned in Isaiah 40.31
but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their
strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be
weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Dear friends let me conclude with a poem. An
American poet named Babcock shares his cosmology with us, which he was reminded
of when he saw a mere loaf of bread.
Back of the loaf is the
snowy flour,
And back of the flour the
mill,
And back of the mill is
the wheat and the shower,
And the sun and the
Father's will. (Maltbie D. Babcock)
May our surroundings, our experiences, our daily
living remind us that we live in a sacramental world, made holy by the presence
of God! May our youthful vigour and enthusiasm bring Him glory!
Praise the Lord.