“From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the LORD is to be praised.”
~ Psalm 113:3
Hi James and Ellen,
Does your dad and/or ma praise you for doing well on a school assignment? Does your dad and/or ma praise you for making your bed and for keeping your bedroom looking nice? Does your dad and/or ma praise you for being respectful kids? Do you praise your dad and ma for the help that they give you with your homework? Do you praise your dad and ma for how they have made their home to be a safe haven for you? Do you praise your dad and ma for the ways that they are assisting you to be good kids? Do you praise God because there has never been and because there never will be another Being who is to be exalted? Do you praise God because He is insuring from where He is sitting on His heavenly throne that your lives are unfolding exactly the way that He predestined for them to unfold? Do you praise God because He will always make His home on high in heaven? Do you praise God because He is always stooping down from His throne high in heaven to keep a watchful eye on His specially elected guys, gals and kids? Do you praise God because He reaches down from His throne high in heaven to raise up out of the dust and out of destitution the lives of the poor who He places on planet Earth? Do you praise God because He stretches down from His throne high in heaven to lift up out of the ash heaps and out of misery the lives of the needy who He places on planet Earth? Do you praise God because He seats the poor and needy guys, gals and kids next to kings and princes because He sees all human life as being on a completely level and equal playing field? Do you praise God because He settles and gives comfort to desperate and hurting guys, gals and kids – such as gals who have never had the blessing of having kids like you be born to them? When God’s specially chosen guys and gals began their annual celebration of a feast – such as the Passover Feast, the Feast of the Tabernacles, the Feast of Weeks or the Feast of Harvest, the Feast of Dedication and the New Moon Feast, they would sing a praise hymn to God that included the words – ‘is exalted’, ‘sits on high’, ‘stoops down’, ‘raises’, ‘lifts’, ‘seats’ and ‘settles’. The seven verbs that are used in this praise hymn give this psalm – which is Psalm 113, a sense of completeness.
This psalm praise hymn begins six psalm praise hymns that are called the Egyptian Hallel or the Great Hallel. The first two of these psalm praise hymns were sung by God’s specially chosen guys and gals before each feast meal to celebrate God’s absolute majesty and mercy towards lowly and unloved guys, gals and kids. The nine verses of this psalm praise hymn are divided into a precise symmetry of three sets of three verses. Do you feel good inside when a teacher or coach or your dad or ma praises you? Do you feel good inside when you praise a classmate, teammate or friend for something that he or she has exceptionally or extraordinarily done well? Do you feel good inside when you praise God? Verse 3 says, “From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the LORD is to be praised.” When you are praising God – which God is expecting that you will always do, you will sense that you are doing the right thing – that God is being blessed by your sincere, unconditional praise for Who He is and for what He has done for you.
Have you ever found yourself someplace just as God was demonstrating His magnificent handiwork? Chochís is an isolated town in Bolivia. Except for a few months during the dry season, the easiest way to get to Chochís is by a freight train, rápido or ferrobús. Within the first year after your grandmaa and grandpaa arrived in Bolivia with your dad and Aunt Lynn, your grandpaa was asked by James Davids – who was Bolivia’s South American Mission Field Director, to go to Chochís regularly as a minor allocation. The first time that your grandpaa went to Chochís was after a natural disaster when torrents of water poured off the high plateaus that are located near Chochís that cut deep ravines into the ground beginning at the foot of the plateau’s steep cliffs as the force of the water pushed down the slopes. The first time that your grandpaa returned to Chochís after he had been asked by James Davids to make periodic visits to Chochís as a minor allocation, your grandpaa arrived in Chochís sometime around three in the morning. Because your grandpaa had not been told yet that he could kick open one of the wooden shutters that covered the windows – that had no glass or screens in them, that are in the church that is in Chochís, climb through the church’s window, turn one of the church’s benches around so that it faced the bench behind it, put that air mattress that he always took with him on top the two benches that were facing each other and . . . your grandpaa decided to blow up his air mattress and lay it on the ground next to the side of the church. As your grandpaa was resting inside his sleeping bag on his air mattress, he watched clouds scuttling over the top of the high plateau that shadowed Chochís to the north to play peek-a-boo with a full moon. Your grandpaa at the same time watched a thunderstorm putting on a show to the east. Your grandpaa’s witnesses of God’s private celestial show were a couple of burros that were hanging out near where your grandpaa was enjoying God’s majesty. One of the times that your grandmaa and grandpaa were in Chochís with a summer teams of college age guys and gals who would spend over seven weeks in Bolivia and as they waited through the night until early morning for a freight train to arrive, God entertained everyone with meteorites flashing through the sky in all directions. When your grandmaa and grandpaa were living in Concepción, Ñuflo de Chávez – in Bolivia, your grandpaa would go outside on pitch black nights to look at the wide river of stars that makes up the Milky Way – that flows from one end of the sky to the other end.
Psalm 113 (593)