If you’ve never seen the Saturday Night Live skit about More Cowbell, you really should. The skit is about the band Blue Oyster Cult recording their famous song “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” which is one of very few songs to rather prominently feature the cowbell. In the SNL sketch, the band is working with famous producer Bruce Dickenson, played by Christopher Walken. The band begins to record, with Will Ferrell playing the cowbell. The other band members are kind of annoyed by the cowbell, particularly the lead singer. They stop the recording to ask the producer for his opinion of how it’s sounding. He tells them it sounded good but that he could actually use a little more cowbell. Will Ferrell’s character proceeds to get really into playing the cowbell, dancing around with it, bumping into the other band members. The lead singer starts getting really frustrated and calls the producer back in. He tells him the cowbell is too much. On the next take, Will Ferrell’s character plays the cowbell more quietly and right in the lead singer’s face, causing a bit of a fight between them. Bruce Dickenson re-enters and they have a discussion about the cowbell. It’s during that discussion that we get what has now become a classic line. Christopher Walken says, “I got a fever. And the only prescription is more cowbell.”

When I read Psalm 150 this week, the More Cowbell sketch came quickly to my mind. When I read, “Praise him with clanging cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that breathes praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!,” I thought about the joy and excitement Will Ferrell’s character exhibited as he played that cowbell. And I began to see a little bit of God in Christopher Walken’s character. Here is this great music producer, one of the best in the business, who all of the musicians look up to, and when all of the band members turn against Will Ferrell’s character, Walken not only stands up for him but lifts him up as the most important member of the group on this song. That just strikes me as the kind of thing that God does…to lift up the lowly, to make the weak strong, to bring joy to those in sorrow, to call us all to greater praise.

The Psalmist calls for praise to be made with all kinds of instruments: trumpet, lute, harp, tambourine, strings, pipe, cymbals. Sounds like a full band to me. I actually helped out with a band once. And for one song I told the drums and the cymbals and the xylophones and the bells and the gongs and the rattle players all to play their part twice…but they didn’t. So there had to be re-percussions. I know…all that setup for such a terrible punchline. I should be ashamed. But that’s actually a perfect example of what I’m talking about with Psalm 150. The Psalmist doesn’t say that it’s only praise if done well. It simply tells us to praise God with instruments and with dancing. That means that even my terrible jokes can praise the Lord. The Psalmist says, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” EVERYTHING that has breath.

Did you know that the Hebrew word used over and over again in this Psalm that means praise is halal? When paired with the word for God we end up with Hallelujah. Many of you are familiar with the great Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah, arguably one of the most powerful songs of praise to God ever written. There was a symphony preparing to perform the Hallelujah Chorus at an outdoor event in the middle of June. Unfortunately, the weather was not conducive as the choir was sweaty and miserable, the instruments were all going out of tune, and the crowd was getting very restless. They decided to cancel the performance, telling the crowd that it was simply too hot to Handel.

Hallelujah is a beautiful word. Every Lent, we bury the word until Easter when our Hallelujah’s rise again with Christ. And the Psalmist uses that word to lead us in praise of our God, not because we are worthy to praise God, but because God is worthy of our praise. And so the Psalmist proclaims, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” EVERYTHING. Not just the best and the brightest, not just the jocks and the cheerleaders, not just the valedictorians and magna cum laudes, but everything…every person, every animal, everything that has breath praise the Lord. God desires to hear praises from everyone. And when there are people being held back from expressing their praise, then God steps in and says, “I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell.” I want praise from everyone, everything that has breath. And God works to make it possible for all of those voices to be heard. And as God’s hands and feet on earth, we are called to do likewise. “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” AMEN!