Focus: As we exit 2007 and enter 2008, we shall continue to sound the horn of our salvation. Christ is our strength, and he will make all things new.
Function: To encourage the people to draw upon Christ and his work of salvation as our source of strength in the years to come.
This time of year, especially New Year’s Eve, brings back many memories of my youth. It was a traditional thing to do (and still is) to usher in the New Year with a huge display of firecrackers. As teenagers, we would spend a lot of money on all kinds of (I might add dangerous) fire crackers ranging from “gillende keukenmeiden” (shrieking kitchen maids) to “booming rockets”).
Then we would wait for the clock to strike 12, midnight. When that happened, we would wish each other a “happy new year” and we would go outside and terrify the neighborhood with our firecrackers. The entire dark sky would light up in the cities as well as in the country sites. We had a neighbor who was a welder by trade. He would go outside and weld some pieces of metal in the dark. Have you ever seen the light effects of welding in the dark? It was a glorious spectacle. But it would only last for 30 minutes or so. Then all would turn quiet.
Calvary Church does not make firecrackers available to her members. I’m sorry that I have to disappoint you on that score. However, let me introduce you to the horn of praise. For surely, as we are about to exit 2007 and enter 2008, it is appropriate that we make a lot of ruckus—the kind of ruckus that is loaded with “allelujahs.”
Psalm 148 crackles with “allelujahs.” Whenever you read the word “praise” in Psalm 148 you may substitute that word for “allelu.” So, listen to the Psalmist:
“Allelu the Lord. Allelu the Lord from the heavens, allelu him in the heights above. Allelu him, all his angels, allelu him, all his heavenly hosts.” You get the idea. Psalm 148 crackles with allelujahs. It is one great summon or call to sound the horn of praise to God!
Note, for example, how this psalm hangs together. There is a top frame: it says: “Praise the Lord.” There is a bottom frame: “Praise the Lord.” Then in between the top and bottom frame we have two scenes: the first one focuses on the heavens and the second one focuses on the earth. The heavenly scene includes angels and heavenly beings or heavenly hosts. It also includes planets such as sun, moon and shining stars. The entire universe, extending to the highest heavens, receives a call to sound the horn of praise. Why?
Well, the heavens are to praise the Lord because the Lord is their Creator. The Lord is the One who set the sun and moon and stars in their places. The Lord has put in place the laws by which the spheres and planets and galaxies display their glory and their raw power. With their radiating energy, they hum and make music unto the Lord. The universe crackles with praise unto its Creator. Such is the heavenly scene in Psalm 148.
The earthly scene is just as glorious. It includes sea creatures and valleys at the bottom of the oceans. Lightning, thunderstorms and hail, snow and clouds and stormy winds—they all make their own music unto the Lord. Mountains and hills, fruit trees and cedars, tigers and lions, sheep and goats and cattle—they too sound their horns of praise unto the Lord. And then there are the cardinals, the sparrows, the mice and the squirrels and all kinds of pesky critters. They, too, play a role of praise on this creation.
The earthly scene, however, comes even more sharply in focus, when the Psalmist points to the movers and shapers of cultures and peoples: Kings and queens, empires, princes, governors, including young men and maidens, old men and children. All of us receive the call to sound the horn of praise unto the Lord. Why?
Listen: “Let them allelu the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens. He has raised up for his people a horn, the praise of all his saints, of Israel, the people close to his heart.”
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Now if we are to toot the horn of praise as we enter the new year, we do well to begin with defining the reference to the “horn” in Psalm 148. So, let me ask you: what animal do you think has impressive horns?
I’ve seen steers from Texas, whose horns were massive. I’ve seen rams’ horns. Some of them are massive as well. The Shofar, for example, is a ram’s horn that is used for religious purposes in the Judaic faith. The priests would sound the Shofar to call the people for temple worship and sacrifices. They would blow the Shofar whenever a prophet or king would be anointed and consecrated in Israel.
The most impressive horn that I have seen is the one of a Rhinoceros. I would not want to cross the path of an ornery Rhinoceros. Its horn can do massive damage. And that’s my point: the horn signifies strength, power, or might.
The horn
may refer to the strength of God’s people. In Psalm 92:10, for example, we hear
the psalmist say: “You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; fine
oils have been poured upon me. My eyes have seen the defeat of my adversaries;
my ears have heard the rout of my wicked foes.” And in I Samuel 2:1 we
hear Hannah, the mother of Samuel pray, saying: “My heart rejoices in the
Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for
I delight in your deliverance.”
Clearly, at times the reference of “horn” in the Bible applies to the strength of God’s people. Hannah finds her strength in the Lord. And the psalmist recognizes that his enemies are defeated because the Lord raised up his strength, his horn.
In Psalm 2, however, we learn that the “horn” is in reference to the King of Israel. God strengthens his people Israel by rising up and anointing leaders or kings. Listen: “The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. ‘Let us break their chains,” they say, ‘and throw off their fetters.’” Here the anointed one is Israel’s King raised up by God. He will make Israel strong. And thus the king is the horn of God’s people.
I think that this is the best explanation of the meaning of “horn” in Psalm 148. “God has raised up for his people a horn, [a king] the praise of all his saints, of Israel, the people close to his heart.” But for Christians, the horn in Psalm 148 is not an O.T. King. It is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. For Jesus fulfills the office of Israel’s kings. Jesus is the Messiah, the Anointed One by God himself. We pin our hope and our future on Jesus, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
As Christians, then, we join the heavens and the earth and toot our horn of praise, as we center our lives on King Jesus, the greatest of all horns. For in Jesus Christ, we have life and have it forever more! That’s why we face 2008 with booming voices and crackles of allelujahs.
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Now when
you ask Europeans today why they fool around with firecrackers and why they
party all through the night on New Year’s Eve, they will tell you: “because
it’s fun; because it’s part of our tradition,” or they might say, “Well,
what else is there to do?” So, what
would you and I say when people ask us, “why are you sounding ‘allelujahs’
as you enter the new year?”
The short answer is this: God has raised up for his
people a horn. That is, God has sent his Son, the Lord Jesus into the world, so
that whoever believes on him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
We live in a world filled with evil. Evil men and women
are bent on terrorizing people groups and nations with bombs and bullets. We
saw it again this week when the opposition leader of Pakistan—Benazir
Bhutto—was ruthlessly murdered. As a nation, we are deeply involved in
shielding parts of the free world and ourselves from senseless violence caused
by Islamic fascism. The prospect for evil to subside in 2008 is very slim.
That’s
why we focus on Jesus as our horn. For Jesus has overcome the darkness of evil
and sin. Jesus has conquered the power of death. Jesus makes it possible for us
to see death as a gateway into eternal life. Through Jesus, God “has
rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the
Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” In
the words of the Heidelberg Catechism, the only comfort we have (as we enter
2008) is that we “belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to our only
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” That’s why we may sing our “allelujahs” to
our God.
We
live in a world that is anxious about its future. Many nations and people
groups are in a panic mode when it comes to the earth and our environment.
Global warming and the feared demise of our world are top priority for many
governments. Topics of discussion and fierce debates range from managing
climate changes to preparing for natural disasters to potential meteorites
impacting the earth.
Panic
and despair accompany these discussions. Christians, too, of course enter such
discussions and debates. But we shall not despair. We shall raise our
“allelujah’s,” for God has raised up a horn for his people. He has sent his
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he will make all things new.
In Psalm 148 we note that the Psalmist calls the heavens
and the earth to praise the Lord. And we note that God has acted on behalf of
his people called “Israel” in the O.T. days and the “church” in our days.
Christ Jesus, the horn of God, is head of his body, the church, as well as head
of all creation. And the work of King Jesus includes the redemption or renewal
of all of creation.
In fact, that’s why the apostle Paul can say in Romans 8 “The
creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the
creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will
of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated
from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children
of God.”
Our
times, all of creation, and all of our lives are in God’s hand. Whoever looks
up to the Lord Jesus Christ as the source of strength and life and renewal, may
enter 2008 with calm confidence and a quiet assurance that God will lead us
into that glorious age, on that restored creation, when there shall be no more
sickness, no more death, no more crying. Sing your allelujahs to the King! Lift
up your hearts. Be strong! Christ is our strength, and he will make all things
new.