Christ the King Sunday Yr A, 26/11/2023

Ps 95:1-7a 

Pastor Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson

“Worship Christ our King with joyful, thankful hymns of praise”

Today is Christ the King Sunday—the last Sunday of our present church year. Our Psalm for today is Psalm 95:1-7a, which is a hymn of praise. However, it is also (according to my NRSV Lutheran Study Bible, pp. 849-850) an enthronement psalm, a festival psalm, and a liturgy. It is an enthronement psalm because it celebrates God as a great King. It is a festival psalm, since scholars believe that it was sung during all three of Israel’s major festivals. The rabbis who wrote the Mishnah in the 2^nd century A.D. stated that Psalm 95 was sung during the New Year’s festival. The Greek version of Psalm 95 connects it with celebration of the Sabbath. Psalm 95 is also regarded as a liturgy, and some scholars believe that the Jewish people started singing it as they processed into the Jerusalem temple. Pastor and Professor Eugene Peterson may have thought of it this way when he wrote verses 1 and 2 of The Message, which goes like this: “Come, let’s shout praises to GOD, raise the roof for the Rock who saved us! Let’s march into his presence singing praises, lifting the rafters with our hymns.” I like Peterson’s phrases “shout praises to GOD, raise the roof,” and “lifting the rafters with our hymns.” I think these phrases emphasize going all out, giving God everything we’ve got in worshipping the LORD. 

In Christian history, Psalm 95 was, and still is included as the psalmody in the daily office called the Matins, also known as Morning Prayer. (See Lutheran Book of Worship, pp. 132-133, andEvangelical Lutheran Worship, pp. 299-301). The Matins/Morning Prayer is usually sung daily by monks in monasteries. When I was a seminary student, we also quite often sang Psalm 95:1-7a during Matins/Morning Prayer.

So this psalm underscores the importance of worship. That reminds me of one of my parishioners, years ago, when I was serving Grace Lutheran Church in Medicine Hat. One day I was visiting Ray, and he told me the following story.

When Ray was a young boy, he was sitting with several other boys in the front pew during worship time. The boys were fooling around, and not listening to the pastor. Then Ray was tapped on his shoulder by his dad, who whispered to him to come out with him to the narthex of the church. Once in the narthex, Ray’s dad opened the door and said, “You can go home now.”

Ray replied that he would be good for the rest of the service if he could go back in. His dad, very wisely responded by stating: “This is not about being good, it’s about worshipping God. We come to church to worship God. When you’re ready to do that, you’re welcome here at the service.” 

Ray decided that he’d leave. He walked back home, which was about 3 miles. During that time he pondered what his dad had said. After that, he willingly went to church for the right reason, and he went pretty much every Sunday until his death. 

Coming back to our psalm, in verses 1 and 2, God’s people are invited to worship with these words, in verse 1, and repeated again in verse 2: “let us make a joyful noise….” A wise person once said: “Joy is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of God.” Joy is being in God’s presence—that means we can always be joyful, since God is always present with us, even as we face troubles, pain and suffering. 

In our psalm, joyfully worshipping God is also connected to thanksgiving. Once I found a nickel in the sand at the beach and thought myself lucky. I searched through the sand, hoping to find more treasure, but was not successful. Then I saw a man with a magnetic device on the end of a stick, which he used to draw metal objects out of the sand. He told me he often found coins and sometimes even jewelry. What it taught me is that we can search through life without getting much from it, but a thankful heart can be like that magnetic device. It draws the best things out of life. We worship in God’s presence with thanksgiving because of who God is, and what he has done, and continues to do for us. 

The psalm tells us that we worship God because he is: “the rock of our salvation, a great King above all gods, our Maker,” and our Shepherd. 

Rock is a symbol for God’s strength, protection and stability. As our great King, God’s power rules over everyone and everything—he is King of kings, and Lord of lords. As our Maker, the psalm reminds us he is the Creator of the depths of the earth, the heights of the mountains, the sea, the dry land—and of course everything else, including us. So as Maker of the whole universe, we are exhorted to worship, bow down, and kneel before our Maker, with joy, thanksgiving, awe and wonder. 

In verse 7a, the psalm reminds us of our covenant relationship with God: “For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.” So God is our Shepherd-King. Unlike the earthly kings who, more often than not, abuse their power and authority by oppressing their people—Christ our Shepherd-King is different. His power and authority as the Good Shepherd-King is rooted in sacrificial and unconditional love and servanthood. Just as a shepherd gains the love and trust of sheep by giving them food and drink, protecting them from predators, and mending their wounds—so Jesus our Shepherd-King cares for each one of us by forgiving us, and promising to be with us always, and showing us how much he loves us by dying on the cross, and being raised from death, and promising us that he is preparing an eternal home for us, where we will be with him in the fullness of his loving presence eternally. So, how fitting it is that today, in Christ’s presence, we worship Christ our King with joyful, thankful hymns of praise. 

That reminds me of the following story. A body is not crippled ‘til its heart has ceased to praise. Louis Albert Banks tells of an elderly Christian man, fine singer, who learned that he had cancer of the tongue and that surgery was required. In the hospital after everything was ready for the operation, the man said to the doctor, “Are you sure I will never sing again?” The surgeon found it difficult to answer his question. He simply shook his head no. The patient then asked if he could sit up for a moment. “I’ve had many good times singing the praises of God,” he said. “And now you tell me I can never sing again. I have one song that will be my last. It will be of gratitude and praise to God.” There in the doctor’s presence the man sang softly the words of Isaac Watts’ hymn, “I’ll praise my Maker while I’ve breath,/And when my voice is lost in death,/Praise shall employ my nobler power;/My days of praise shall ne’er be past,/While life, and thought, and being last,/Or immortality endures.”¹

May we too worship and praise Christ our King, God our Maker, and the Holy Spirit as long as we have breath! 

1