All Creatures, All Cultures

This post was originally published on a blog focusing on a devotional approach to the Psalms Honest2God. 

However, in light of recent ongoing racial tensions, it is appropriate to be reminded that the symphony of God's people includes and embraces all creatures and all cultures.

(Image painted by Hope G Smith www.hopegsmith.com)

This means that each individual creature and culture has value.

Psalm 150:1-6

1 Praise the Lord!
   Praise God in his sanctuary;
    praise him in his mighty heavens!
2 Praise him for his mighty deeds;
    praise him according to his excellent greatness!

3 Praise him with trumpet sound;
    praise him with lute and harp!
4 Praise him with tambourine and dance;
    praise him with strings and pipe!
5 Praise him with sounding cymbals;
    praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
   Praise the Lord!

Comments:

Wang Xi on Unsplash

Hallelujah! This is the final psalm of praise (doxology) in a string of praise psalms! More than that, this final psalm is a doxology for the entire book as well. This psalm starts with a “Hallelujah “ and ends with a “Hallelujah!” It is a very ancient Hebrew word expressing worship to Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God of Israel who is revealed in the Bible. It has been transliterated into most languages on the earth, it is a word that now transcends language and culture to express praise to the one true God, our Creator and Redeemer!

Within this inclusio (of just six verses) there are eleven more exhortations to praise the Lord.

The phrase in verse 2, "praise him according to his excellent greatness" always makes me think. What kind of praise could ever live up to that? Could our worship ever actually be "according to his excellent greatness"? Maybe one day in heaven when we can see him as he really is and have eternity to express it...but probably not till then. 

However, one way that we can begin to praise more in accord with his greatness is to allow each culture to express true praise to God from within their God-given culture, and in their God-given language. "Praise in accordance with God’s greatness" cannot be contained or monopolized by one race, within one language, one culture, or one musical style!

 

This psalm subtly makes this clear through the lists of instruments that sound like those of different cultures and generations, from the fanfare of announcing royalty and priesthood (3a) to the quiet and contemplative tones of lute and harp (3b), from the rollicking Hebraic tambourine and dance (4a) to the Celtic or Bluegrass sounding strings and pipes (4b); or even the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) head-flipping rock opera or college marching band sound of sounding cymbals and crashing cymbals (4b). Music is universal…just not the same music. So is praise. 

When we gather in heaven, we may not all be singing Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, Phil Wickham, or Hillsong, like I do, but we will join together nonetheless in that great hymn-dance of praise perfectly fitted to the greatness of our Savior. 

Could the new song that we raise be the choral tapestry of all languages, cultures, and styles singing their praise to our Triune God, blended together into one great multi-layered anthem by the love and wisdom of God? Very likely, for such is consistent with biblical teaching about the nature of the church!

I contend that these six verses also show us that, praise "according to his excellent greatness" would need to be praise that is offered everywhere, for all he is and does, on every instrument, with every living voice, from every culture and nation, with all that is in all of us! May it begin to be increasingly so in the church today and in the days to come!

This interracial and multicultural theme is echoed in the final book of the Bible, which in many ways serves as a doxology for the entire Bible and the plan of God in time and history. I will quote a couple of passages from the Book of Revelation that contain the praises of the church, that great multitude of redeemed humanity, to conclude this journey through the psalms. Amazing how familiar the language is and yet how unfamiliar the experience is to so many!

Revelation 7:9-12  ^“Hosanna!”

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”  

Revelation 19:1-2, 6-8 “Hallelujah!”

After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice 

of a great multitude in heaven, crying out,

“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
    for his judgments are true and just;
for he has judged the great prostitute
    who corrupted the earth with her immorality,
and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

...Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
    the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult
    and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
    and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
    with fine linen, bright and pure”—

for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

Hallelujah! Amen.

[See also Revelation 14:1-3 “A New Song”, and 15:2-4 “Song of Moses” for other great choruses in the Kingdom]

 

Gentrification of a Baseball Stadium

          Portland is a city that has been transformed by gentrification. While a complex issue that is as highly nuanced as it is emotionally charged, gentrification is perhaps better described than defined as it was in a classic PBS “Point of View” article on the documentary Flag Wars:

Although there is not a clear-cut technical definition of gentrification, it is characterized by several changes.

Demographics: An increase in median income, a decline in the proportion of racial minorities, and a reduction in household size, as low-income families are replaced by young singles and couples.

Real Estate Markets: Large increases in rents and home prices, increases in the number of evictions, conversion of rental units to ownership (condos) and new development of luxury housing.

Land Use: A decline in industrial uses, an increase in office or multimedia uses, the development of live-work "lofts" and high-end housing, retail, and restaurants.

Culture and Character: New ideas about what is desirable and attractive, including standards (either informal or legal) for architecture, landscaping, public behavior, noise, and nuisance. [1]

A number of once run-down and dangerous neighborhoods have been taken over by those trendy urban re-development people with mixed results. When the wealthy and powerful move in and take advantage of the disadvantaged and voiceless former residents. It is true that property values climb rapidly as undervalued properties are acquired and flipped by investors, but increased tax assessments often force long-time residents from their homes, churches and community without their having a voice in the process. It has been the heavy hammer of social injustice. As young, hip, wealthy, mostly white people crowded out the existing low-income and often ethnic communities, these changes also impacted America’s pastime…sports injustice.  

We should have seen it coming. Re-development always bites someone. Our class A Portland Rockies baseball team was moved out when Civic Stadium was redeveloped into PGE Park in preparation for the arrival of the AAA Portland Beavers. It really was a very nice, family-friendly, baseball venue in the historic heart of the city. But the developers were not through. In Portland, soccer is hip, soccer is cool, and soccer is supported by the downtown power elite. A new MLS franchise was used to push a very popular and family-friendly minor league franchise out of the city. The deal was supposed to include building a new baseball stadium elsewhere but in the face of obstacles that part of the agreement was abandoned. PGE Park was remodeled again into the soccer-and-football-only JELD-WEN Field and the Beavers were relocated to a former spring training stadium in Tucson, AZ then later moved again to El Paso, TX. It has now been three years since the Portland Timbers Soccer team forced our AAA Portland Beavers baseball team out of their stadium home. While not a hater, I must point out that the Timbers are the darling team of the gentrification crowd.

            I recently attended the home opener our new Class A minor league baseball team, the Hillsboro Hops. I was absolutely amazed to sit in a crowd of people who seemed to be finding their voice again. It was like a huge family barbeque celebrating the return of baseball yet without the constriction of the old venue with no parking. At the same time, the new stadium is currently not serviced by transit after games due to its “being on a low ridership route.” I know what that really means. It means that “since you baseball fans are not urban hipster gentrified microbrew swilling soccer zombies… so we feel no need to work with your kind of people.” Even without Portland-based development cooperation baseball is back. Despite the traffic, and having to work out the new venue issues, it seemed very liberating experience for young and old alike as they rediscovered the game they love and made new friends that somehow seemed like old ones in the process. I know I did.

Picture 1 Double Rainbow at Hops' Opener

            Sure there may be larger crowds of MAX-riding, chanting hip white people occupying Timbers’ games, and Portland may be featured on national television for it. I’m happy for them. But is the change better? Perhaps it is. But it was painful nonetheless. Yet out of pain and a community of shared sports suffering there came a beautiful evening in June, where all the storms and clouds only served to make it more beautiful. One sports writer commented that “if the Hops home opener was any better it would have had a double rainbow…and it did.” I agree and took a picture of it. With the light show of a sweet sunset in the west and black clouds with rainbows in the south, it’s almost as if God joined in the celebration.  

 

Picture 2 Hops' Opener Under the Lights

            It was a stirring time for this baseball fan, and a symbolic one as well. But after seeing the celebration of a community of hard-working families regaining their voice, while encouraging an international group of young ball players on a cool Monday night in June, I began to long for a time when the dislocated poor and ethnic communities of Portland might enjoy the same sense of homecoming and more, for their suffering goes longer and deeper than three years. Until then, they are welcome to come to Hillsboro and watch minor-league baseball with me.

---

[1]  http://www.pbs.org/pov/flagwars/special_gentrification.php