Praise the Lord

Luke 1:68-75 "Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. ⁶⁹ He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David ⁷⁰ (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), ⁷¹ salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us-- ⁷² to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, ⁷³ the oath he swore to our father Abraham: ⁷⁴ to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear ⁷⁵ in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

It had been a year since Joel’s wife had died from breast cancer, but he was still bitter. He couldn’t get over the mix of emotions he had. He knew he shouldn’t blame God, or even be mad at Him. Still, the feelings persisted. All his friends were concerned, but they didn’t know what to say anymore.

One day Joel was going through some papers on his wife’s writing desk. There he saw a hand written letter. He was floored when he saw that it was addressed to him. With great care he felt the edges of the stationery. He savored the moment. Finally, he worked up the courage to read its message. As he digested the carefully crafted letter, each word became a ray of sunshine that broke through the darkness of his grief. The letter came to an end with the words, “Praise God” and a reference to Luke chapter 1.

Without hesitation he opened his Bible searching for the reference. It had been a year since he even thought about reading it. The words jumped off the page and touched him in a way they had never done before. Joel began sobbing because he had forgotten what the Lord had meant to his wife, and especially, what the Lord had done for him.

It is easy to lose sight of God’s compassion. Enduring stress. Sudden sickness. Prolonged pain. Imminent death. Each one seeks to rob you of your reasons to praise the Lord. Yet Zechariah’s words are not only eye opening, they are jaw dropping and tongue loosening.

Zechariah was a priest serving in the temple in Jerusalem. The holy messenger of God, the angel Gabriel, visited him in that holy place. Zechariah doubted the angel’s words that Zechariah’s wife, Elizabeth, would bear him a son in her old age. So the Lord struck him mute.

For nine months, Zechariah is absolutely silent. But then his miracle baby is born. The family and friends disagree with Elizabeth on the name for this child. She insists that it should be John. They are adamant that it should be Zach Jr. But then Zechariah writes on his tablet in big, bold letters “His name is John!” Immediately Zechariah’s mouth is opened, his tongue is loosened, and he begins to praise God with this song we call the Benedictus Dominus, which is Latin for “Blessed Lord,” which is how this canticle begins, “Blessed or praise to the Lord, the God of Israel.” Zechariah has not been able to speak for nine months, but now he’s got a mouthful to say, and it’s all good. Zechariah is filled with the Holy Spirit, and his prayer and his praise is not for his baby boy. Instead, Zechariah praises the Lord for the Child who spent three months visiting with him in his house, while still in His mother Mary’s womb.

Zechariah had a lot of things going on in his life. He probably lost much of his livelihood because it’s hard to be a priest and not be able to talk. He and his wife are old. They are now new parents. But who is going to care for their son when they could possibly die during his teenage years? John is going to be the great forerunner of the Savior, but Mom and Dad probably won’t live long enough to see their son in action. All of that is going on, yet Zechariah sets all of that aside in order to praise his God.

What about you? What do you have going on in your life right now? Uncertainty about the new tax laws. Melancholy that you weren’t as productive over the winter break as you had planned to be. Depression that your family is so fragmented. Work is piling up. Sickness in the house. Arguing with your spouse. Sadness that you are sending your kids away again to school. All these things pile up and can get in the way of praising your Lord.

That’s why it’s good to look at the words of Zechariah’s song, which we just sang in our Hymn of the Day, by the way, and apply them to our lives, as Zechariah did to his. “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us-- to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.”

• “He has come.” Many people feel alone, separated from their family by nursing home doors, by strained relationships or loved ones separated by death. Yet Jesus does not leave us alone and floundering. He has come into our lives as Immanuel, God with us.
• “He has redeemed his people.” Some of us know what it is like to need help with groceries and bills, others of us know what its like to be in the financial position to help others with a few canned goods or a few dollars. But Jesus didn’t drop a dollar or two or a few cans of creamed corn to help the needy. He dropped His precious blood from the cross to redeem us and set us free from sin.
• “The oath he swore to our father Abraham.” You count on people. But it is human nature to fail, to lie, to quit, to be selfish and make excuses. God, however, is always faithful to His promises. There is no evasion, no lying, no weakness, no quit in Him at all. What He says He will do, He does.
• “Salvation from our enemies.” Atheists and agnostics, doubters and deniers, the devil and his demons are all around you, trying to get you to question your faith, lead you astray and just be a plain old pain in your side. But God delivers you from all these enemies.
• “Show mercy to our fathers.” When people vandalize your flowers, break our windows or harm little children, we fantasize about divine justice coming down on them. We are all for quick and severe justice – but only for other people, of course. But God is always patient with us. He has shown us mercy and not treated us as our sins deserve.
• “To serve him without fear.” There are many things that we fear in this world – terrorists, dentists, the IRS, disease, death, etc. But Jesus has already rescued you from your fear.
• “In holiness and righteousness.” Your past bothers you. Your guilt burdens you. Your sin weighs you down. But Jesus has already declared you holy, righteous and without sin. When you find yourself being afraid or burdened by your sin, take a deep breath and sing the Benedictus. You are safe. You are forgiven.

You may think the Lord has forgotten you, or possibly forsaken you. You may even be mad at Him. It doesn’t change God’s great love for you.

This is what you need to remember in times of doubt or despair. You need to look to Jesus and what He has done for you. He came to this earth to free you from fear. He suffered to release you from despair. He died to free you from being rejected by God for your sin. Jesus gives comfort and hope. He gives every reason to praise Him as Lord, God, and Savior.

After reading his wife’s letter and God’s letter to him in Luke 1, Joel changed his mind about God, too. He once again came to understand God’s undeserved love in Jesus. As you understand that same love more and more, the same change will take place in you. You will come to the same conclusion to which Zechariah came. Then you will open your mouth. You will loosen your tongue. And you will praise the Lord for what He has done for you.

And what words will you use to praise the Lord? Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs are all great gifts to use in your singing to and praising of the Lord. But as we are still in the Christmas/Epiphany season, I would also encourage you to use the four Christmas canticles that have made their way into our liturgies. (By the way, a canticle is a non-metrical hymn or chant used for worship.) These four canticles are the Benedictus – the Song of Zechariah, the Magnificat – the Song of Mary, the Nunc Dimittis – the Song of Simeon, and the Gloria in Excelsis – the Song of the Bethlehem angels.

These are songs that we sing in our common liturgies. We sing both the Gloria and the Song of Simeon today in the Divine Service. We sing the Song of Zechariah in Morning Praise. And we sing Mary’s Song in our Evening Prayer. These are songs to learn, to love, to sing, because they are our songs.

They are the songs of a single, teenage girl, by an aged, muted priest, and by a patient, elderly man. They are songs sung in response to announcements of great joy. Mary embodies our faith. Zechariah embodies our doubt. Simeon embodies our trust. And the angels embody our exuberance. Their songs are our songs!

Their songs speak not of hope somewhere off in time, but they sing of the timeless hope that embraces us and redeems us from our lost condition. Their songs speak of the surprise of grace which is seldom where we expect to find it. These songs teach us to peer into the baptismal water and see God’s grace churning the water of life into which we cast the dead in sin, only to see them reborn to everlasting life. They teach us to give glory to God in the highest to our Triune God for the salvation and forgiveness He has given us in Holy Absolution. They teach us that we can depart worship in peace for in the Sacrament of the Lord Supper, we have seen the promised Incarnate Christ in the body and blood contained within the bread and wine. They teach us that we can minimize ourselves and magnify the Lord. They teach us to humble ourselves and praise our God.

Their inspired songs have become a part of our Lutheran liturgy because they speak to our own lives, so often filled with sadness, hurt, pain, disappointment, fear and death. But into the deadness comes the very life of God in Jesus Christ – the life that refuses to let tears flow, that refuses to let hurt steal our joy, that refuses to allow pain to preoccupy our hearts, that refuses to let disappointment take away our confidence in tomorrow, that refuses to let fear hold us captive anymore, and that insists that death must not and cannot have the last word in our lives.

Their joy is ours. Our joy is in the Son of Mary’s womb, in the Lamb that Zechariah’s son proceeded, in the Child Simeon held in his arms, and in the Babe of Bethlehem the angels announced.

These are the songs we sing. These are the songs of the Christian Church. Open your mouths. Loosen your tongues. Join your voice with the voices of the saints sitting around you, with the voices gathered around the throne of God, and with the voices of those who first sang these ancient canticles – the Virgin Mary, the muted Zechariah, the aged Simeon, and the heavenly host. Praise the Lord. Amen.