Psalm 148 | Jeremiah 30:18–31:9 | Matthew 20:29–34 ||Praise in the Wilderness, Mercy on the Road

January often feels heavy, doesn’t it? The Mornings are slow, the air is cold, and the house feels less vibrant than it did a few weeks before. Then, as we move into the day, it carries its own challenges - if we are willing to be honest. There is that feeling of anxiety at the till, as we hope our card will work; others find sleep comes, and tiredness remains as we wake. Christmas feels like a long time ago, and this new year somehow feels old. Still, almost without us noticing, the light is coming back! Did you know that since the 21st of December last year (the shortest day), we have gained nearly half an hour of light? The sun creeps in a little earlier than before, and the evenings hold out a little longer each day than they used to. It is not much, but it is enough to remind us that in this world darkness has not won, the light of the kingdom grows in the same way as the morning sun - quietly and steadily.

The Command to Praise

As I sat down to do my readings this morning, I was struck by the power of Psalm 148, the first passage I read. It is not that I have never read it before, nor thought about it. Yet, it felt new, and it felt like a challenge towards something I had not thought of today, and if I am honest, something I do not really feel like doing most mornings - Praising God, giving thanks, or remembering His goodness. Not because I do not believe in it, but because I am distracted by my own stresses and strains. Yet, our call to praise is not about whether this is a good time for us; it is to be our way of life! Psalm 148 begins with a command that cuts our moment apart, and cares not for our mood, or what is before us, not because God does not care, but because the Psalmist knows the importance of this command to - Praise the Lord. Does he say it once? NO! It keeps coming back to that call to Praise the Lord. In fact, the Psalmist call us to praise 11 times. The beauty is that the Psalmist creates a picture where it’s impossible to detach worship from the essence of the world God has created. How beautiful it is to be reminded of the power of Praise on a dull and weary January morning, to lift our eyes up to the heavens because praise rises from there, and yet to know that our praise from here to God is as valuable and powerful! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! The sun and moon, and the wind and weather; then, the mountains and animals. From all of creation is not enough, it should rise from our rulers and children; and then from young and old together, everything that has breath will one day praise the Lord. Do you notice how the psalm refuses to locate praise in place: this is not about a church building, at a certain time on a Sunday; this is not praise in the familiarity of a safe space. This is a psalm all about real life, and our ordinary lives, because praise belongs in the open air of the places we inhabit day by day, including the places we would rather avoid.

This kind of praise isn’t about ignoring problems or escaping reality. The psalm explains why praise matters as he calls us to a posture of praise, a life of praise: God speaks, and things exist; Thus God deserves our praise! It is He who made the world and sustains the world; thus, God deserves our praise! There is only one name that truly deserves to be lifted up by all that is, and ever will be - His glory above everything. Thus, praise is about remembering and honouring the work of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It is not about pretending life is easy, or that darkness is absent. It is instead by Grace in the worst moments choosing to remember what is true, that God is still God, still faithful, and sovereign over all. Thus, we praise him because there is nothing we can face or feel on this day, or in the moments ahead, that will affect that beautiful truth.

Grace in the Wilderness

Our call is to praise God, and in our praise of him, to make him known! This is the essence of what mission is, even when it does not feel like praise. I love how the words form another reading, which adds to this. As Jeremiah’s words spoke to people who had faced loss, fear, and exhaustion, God said something gentle and unexpected: “The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness.” Translation, a people who had been suffering found the Grace of God where they least expected it - in the barren wilderness, there the life of God was seen. Remember this day: Grace doesn’t wait for everything to be fixed; it shows up in the desert, in our wilderness moments when life feels uncertain. God meets his people there - he meets us there - and speaks the truth of his faithfulness despite our faithlessness. Remember how sinful the people of God had been; that is why Jeremiah was writing to them in their exile, and in Chapter 31, he records not just words from God, but the heart of God: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” It all flows from God, and to God and never with our effort and strength; It is God gathering, leading, comforting, and calling us his own.

Opened Eyes and Mercy

Praise, Mercy, and Grace are not far-off concepts that are hard to grasp; the gospel reading from Matthew shows us what grace looks like up close, as Jesus meets two blind men sitting by the road. Two men that the world would choose not to see Jesus makes them see! As they call out for mercy, the crowd tells them to be quiet; they are not worthy of the teacher's time, so they should not cause a scene. Yet, although they cannot see, they understand what Praise is all about, that it is amid the busyness of the world, and that it can often appear like a disturbance to the world. Praise is messy and interrupts the globe. Two men who know their need of mercy will not be kept from Grace, so they speak up even more! And to those who genuinely seek him, Jesus responds, as he always will, asking what they want. To their need, he responds filled with compassion, mercy, and grace - their sight is restored. Yet, more beautifully is the image of what Grace does, that amid the crowds of people who did not want to see them, there are two who see clearly for the first time who this Jesus is. Mercy has opened the eyes of their hearts, as by Grace they follow Jesus, because they have seen him. Mercy changes the direction of our lives, and praise helps us see.

There is a constant theme throughout all the readings today, because there is a constant theme throughout Scripture: Praise flows when our eyes are opened to mercy, and Worship rises when we give into the grace that has found us in the wilderness. God has not abandoned us in the dark, because from the manger we remember that he came into the dark to make it possible for us to praise him, to help us truly see. It is the mercy of the Cross that truly opens our eyes; that place where Jesus gives himself for us, and is so doing defeating sin, death, and darkness! Then, it is the Spirit of God who takes that mercy and works it into our hearts, our habits, and our everyday life, into the ordinary of our existence, into the stress of our city, and helps us to lift our heads in praise when the world would want us not.

A People Shaped by Praise

As we go through January and begin our 175th year as a church, our first call isn’t to try harder, but to be reminded about why we are here to praise God because of His mercy, because we have felt it in our own lives, by the holy Spirit who is shaping us more into the likeness of Christ. That mercy is the Cross, and it is that God’s Spirit takes and works it into our hearts, and the ordinary of our common life.

Thus, as Psalm 148 shows us, our full praise should be in its image of all creation praising, we are reminded about what this year looks like. Eleven times the command to praises lifts our hearts to heaven, in eleven different places: praise comes from the heights of heaven, the depths of the sea, from weather, wilderness, animals, rulers, young and old, from order and chaos. That image of all of creation praising is a challenge to us! If all of creation praises God, and God has made us, then should not every area of our lives reflect the world around us - praising God? This praise should flow from the ordinary of our lives, from our common experience together, not just from within church walls. It happens in common spaces of our normal, and even uncomfortable places - not because life is perfect, but because God is faithful, and we often find renewed grace in the wilderness places.

This is important for a community like ours. A life shaped by praise and the cross doesn’t avoid the real world; no, it is rooted in our world, our moment, and in this place, we learn to live in it differently! Praise is about Presence. This year is not simply about looking back, but about lifting our heads in praise with Hope and moving forward together in mission, because God will do it again. It means being confident in the power of God and the grace of God in the ordinary moment of our lives, in the darkness of our streets, even when it feels like our institutions would rather retreat and manage a slow withdrawal, we continue in the wilderness because that is where Grace is most realised. Our Praise is shaped by the Grace that carries us. That is our call, and simply it is how we give back from the gift of Grace we have received. It means bringing Christ’s mercy into places where pain, addiction, loneliness, anger, and grief are part of daily life, even as others seek to withdraw. It means being present where hope is fragile, where conversations are honest, and where people carry burdens to heavy to bare, it means seeing even as others might desire to no shut their eyes. Living this way is costly, patient, and a constant struggle, but it is where Grace is know, and it is our call in mission: to listens more than we speak, to fight for people our institutions would rather give up on. It means we stay even when leaving would be easier, and others tell us to go. Why? because this is our call, this is our place, and amid these people God is empowering us to praise Him, and to make Grace and Mercy known.

For 175 years, praise has risen from this place not because life was easy, but because God has been faithful in the midst of it, and it will continue to rise because God is faithful. Yet, if we are to see life, renewal, and people coming to faith in the year ahead, we must grasp how it will come! We must let our praise be known in the ordinary of our lives, and in the corners of our streets. We humble ourselves by knowing it will not come from confidence or cleverness; No, but in faith and by lives quietly shaped by the Holy Spirit, marked by mercy received and praise lived out. It all comes from God, and if we are to see it again it sill all flow from his working in our lives! As we keep praising, even when the light feels thin and the nights still long, eyes are opened, ours and others’, and people begin, often without spectacle, to see enough of Jesus to follow him.

A Hymn of Praise for Our Place

The light is growing, even now: so then let Praise the Lord. Let’s praise him from York Street and the roads that feed it, from the Shore Road to the edge of the City Centre. Let’s praise him in the early buses and late taxis, in the steady movement of those passing through and those lingering with nowhere else to go. Let’s praise Him amid our flats and terraces, in hospital wards and waiting rooms. Let’s praise him amid our need. Let’s Praise Him in community centres, and in the docks and warehouses, in shops lifting their shutters and cafés. Let’s praise him in the pubs and takeaways, in places of loud laughter and quiet grief.

Praise him in Tigers Bay and Duncairn, in New Lodge and among students moving between lectures at the Ulster University Belfast Campus. Praise him among workers and families, the weary and the hopeful, the settled and the unsettled. Let praise rise not only within gathered worship but in the ordinary pulse of life around us, in this place and among these people, for his mercy reaches here also, and his faithfulness does not fail.

Find Out What It Means to Praise

Praise is not something we figure out on our own. It is something we learn together in the power of Gor! Over time, as we share life with God and with one another. If you are curious, searching, weary, or simply wondering what it might mean to live a life shaped by mercy and praise in the Holy Spirit, you are very welcome to join us in our everyday life together. You do not need to have it all together. You do not need to know the words. Come as you are, and discover what it means to praise God in the midst of ordinary life, as we learn to follow Jesus together.

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