Old Testament: Psalm 150 (Easter 5: Series B)
Every Psalm is about adoration in Christ. This psalm, with its resounding, all-encompassing call to praise, forms a glorious doxology for our Easter preaching.
The dilemma in Eastertide for preacher’s hoping to use the Old Testament pericope is that there is of course NO Old Testament pericope. So, I suppose this could be the untimely end for this homiletical help! However, rather than capitulate and claim some hidden Machiavellian Pseudo-Marcionite motive behind the lectionary, we shall soldier on and see what we can do with this preaching challenge. Each week we are in Eastertide, the goal will be to preach the appointed Psalm of the day. This will keep us on track for the Old Testament and it will also help us exercise our homiletical skill on an all too often underrepresented category of preaching: Preaching Christ from the Psalms.
Of course, Luther famously pointed out that all the Psalms are about Christ. Therefore, the potential for gospel proclamation from these texts remains high. The following is a brief breakdown of the function of Psalm 150 throughout the entire Psalter.
Psalm 150 is the last of a collection of psalms beginning and ending with the words, “Hallelu Yah!” (Praise YHWH/the LORD). The final collection of Psalms is numbered 146–50. In addition, this psalm forms a bookend with Psalm 1, as Psalms 1 and 150 provide the introduction and conclusion to the whole Psalter. What is true about both Psalms is what is true about all the Psalms. It is not about us doing something right. Ultimately, it is about giving adoration to God and praising Him for all things. Every Psalm is about adoration in Christ. This psalm, with its resounding, all-encompassing call to praise, forms a glorious doxology for our Easter preaching. In fact, this may be the way to handle preaching Psalm 150.
What is true about both Psalms is what is true about all the Psalms. It is not about us doing something right. Ultimately, it is about giving adoration to God and praising Him for all things.
Start the sermon by reading the psalm. Then proceed to tell three stories which all end with the unified refrain “Praise the Lord.” Start by re-telling the account from our first reading in Acts 8:26-40. Once you end the retelling of that narrative, either Philip or the Eunuch or both say, “Praise the Lord.” Then tell another story, a personal one from the congregation is usually best, that culminates with the refrain restated: “Praise the Lord.” Now, share one more. This time it could be that embraces the further work of God in the world and draws our gaze out into God’s gracious working in His creation. That account concludes not unpredictably but gladly and expectantly with: “Praise the Lord.” Finish the sermon with a re-reading of Psalm 150.
This style of preaching follows the “Apocalyptic Style” of Jesus’ in Matthew 13:24-33. Here, Jesus weaves three parable stories together with the common refrain: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like...” Jesus does this again a little later in 13:44-50. This apocalyptic structure is the entire arrangement of the books of Joel and Revelation. In modern preaching, one cannot find a better example of this style than in the homiletics of Fred Craddock who famously preached his “Craddock Style Preaching” in the sermon, “When the Roll Is Called Down Here.”[1] There he uses serial story telling unified around a refrain to create meaning, cohesion, enjoyment, anticipation, and reflection as reminiscence. The only thing I wish to say about that sermon, which in my mind does not detract from the rhetorical brilliance of his work, is that it fails superbly to preach the Gospel.
That, in my mind, is the trap of this kind of sermon structure. The stories are really good, and the refrain is super catchy and memorable, but it is void of a true Gospel proclamation. It is a tragedy to mess up the text, but it is damnable to not preach the Gospel. Here we must use the better portion of caution. Only select narratives which have the full, explicit Gospel in the telling and use the refrain from the Psalm (Praise the Lord) as a response to the Gospel in the retelling. Your accounts, and by extension your hearers, must connect with the Law and Gospel moves in the story telling and then agree with praising the Lord, so to speak, as the only appropriate conclusion to the story. Here is the shape of the structure of this sermon:
This type of structure is usually known as a “Storied Discourse Structure.” In this style of sermon, we are using what is titled the “Multiple Story Format.”
“In this structure, the sermon communicates a central teaching or experience for the hearers by offering a series of stories that have been strategically placed next to one another to form the sermon. The strategic placement of the stories allows them to interact with one another, reinforcing experiences or themes for the hearers (for example, a contemporary story introduces the hearers to an experience that is then repeated in the biblical story) or qualifying these experiences or themes (for example, a biblical story might call into question the “resolution” of a contemporary story and thereby invite the hearers into further consideration). The multiple-story structure has two primary challenges for the preacher: The way each story is told and the way in which the stories are linked to one another.
In telling each story, the preacher seeks to maintain a specific and strategic focus in experience or thought for the hearers. Each story has the potential to distract the hearers from the intended experience or theme of the sermon. Therefore, the preacher uses narrative techniques (like a refrain) to implicitly direct the experience of the hearers within the telling of the story. Also, such direction can be explicit as expository material is used to clarify the meaning of the story (for example, “The reason I tell this story is...”).
As the preacher moves from story to story, he needs to be aware of the experiential or logical connection which holds the stories together (like, the first story raises a problem for which the second story provides a solution). Multiple story sermons often have an unstated propositional structure (for example, the first two stories depict two ways of encountering Jesus and the third story contrasts this with a depiction of how Jesus encounters us). Sometimes the preacher uses expository material to clarify these connections for the hearers.”[2]
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out out 1517’s resources on Psalm 150.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Psalm 150.
Text Week-A treasury of resources from various traditions to help you preach Psalm 150.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
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[1] https://youtu.be/X20Sd8NKLsk?si=fh-cilJT7ko0NWsG
[2] https://concordiatheology.org/sermon-structs/textual/genre/narrative/multiple-story-structure/
