Throughout the history of the church, the earliest hour for prayer upon awakening for a new day was called Matins with Lauds.  The worship at dawn is filled with psalms -- the songs of God's people. "O come, let us sing to the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our celebration."  This song and joyful noise is what we mean by lauds.

The Easter verses from Psalms 96 and 29 in Matins, "Sing to the Lord and bless his name, proclaim His salvation from day to day. Give to the Lord all glory and strength, give Him the honor due His name" is lauds.

The ancient song of the Christian church, the Te Deum, "We praise You, O God; we acknowledge You to be the Lord" is lauds.  "All the earth now worships you, the Father everlasting."  This is lauds. 

"To you all angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein.  To you cherubim and seraphim continually do cry, 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth; heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of your glory."  That is lauds.

"The glorious company of the apostles praise you. The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise you. The noble army of martyrs praise you. The holy Church throughout all the world does acknowledge you the Father of an infinite majesty; Your adorable, true, and only Son; also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter." 

All of it lauds!

Did you notice the identification of Christ as "the adorable Son"? 

By adorable we don't mean a snuggly, cute, pink baby Jesus over whom people melt and say "Ahhhh.  What a cutie."  By adorable we mean that this Son of God who is the Christ, is worthy of lauds ... of adoration. 

He is the Lord whom we adore.  That's why He is said to be the adorable, true and only Son.  Lauds are the praises of Christ.  Lauds are the eulogy of the church.

We eulogize and laud the adorable Son of God.  Most people don't actually know what the word eulogy means.  They associated it with funerals.  But the only true eulogy occurs with the proclamation of the Gospel of Christ. 

An eulogy at a Christian funeral is not making up revisionist history or walking down memory lane.  Literally, the word eu-logy means "good word."  It is the nearest synonym we have to the word Gospel which itself means "good message" or "the good news."  Eulogy and Gospel are identical.

The good word (eulogy), the good news (Gospel), is that the Savior of the world, the very Son of the living God is Jesus Christ.  He is the eternal God made flesh, who came from heaven, took upon himself a human nature in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and on our behalf lived, suffered, died, and rose again for our salvation. 

He took upon himself to deliver man; he humbled himself to be born of a virgin.  We laud Him by singing "When you had overcome the sharpness of death, you opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers." 

The new day, the eternal day, the day of new life and liberty from sin and death, bursts open with Lauds-- with the praises of saints and angels, prophets and martyrs, and the whole company of believers throughout heaven and earth.

Becuase of our union with our Lord in holy baptism, because of the redemption and blamelessness he earned for us before God, we live THE laudable life.

That is different from "A" laudable life.  "A" laudable life is merely someone's own accomplishments.  "A" laudable life points to a person's own success in business or society.  All such things make up "A" laudable life which is faint praise and far short of righteousness before God.

But we Christians take comfort from "THE" laudable life.  Just as Jesus is not "a" way or "a" truth, but "the" way and "the" truth, so THE life given us is THE life of Christ.

The psalm says, "I wash my hands in innocence."  But who washes their hands?  It is the one whose hands are soiled.

We may live what others regard to be "a" laudable life, but it is certainly not an immaculate one.  Every day our hands need washing.  And not just our hands but our head and heart.  We need a washing that removes sin, drowns death, and cleanses the soul.  That washing we received in our baptism.

St. Peter writes, "... baptism now saves you also-- not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ."   (1 Peter 3:21)

To "wash one's hands in innocence" is the acknowledgments of sins forgiven, of our foul nature replaced by the righteousness of Christ.  The world's sins and our personal sins were plunged into the innocence of Christ.

Jesus, the adorable Son, the one who truly lived "THE" laudable life, absorbed them, owned them, and admitted to them as through they were his own.  His innocent hands were washed in the stains of our sin so that we might wash our hands in innocence. 

"I wash my hands in innocence, and go about your altar, O LORD, proclaiming aloud your praise and telling of all your wonderful deeds."  That's lauds once again! 

What is the psalmist doing?  Just the mechanics of singing?  Not hardly.  Like someone who loves to sing in a choir, it is more than just that.  It is the fellowship.  It is the sharing of songs with others.  It is being part of something dear in which you belonged.  It is the sound of others all around you voicing the same melody and sharing the same familiar pleasure.  It is the gemutlichkeit afterwards and the history of time together.  It is the anticipation of sharing the music with others beyond the chorus.  It is the rehearsals and amity of the company.  It is enjoying the tenor's high accents and hearing the salvo of an entire bass section rumble deep in their chests.  It is all of it, the whole of it.

This is a small illustration of the way a Christian treasures the Gospel.  The Gospel of life is not merely religion any more than a choir is merely some people singing a song.  The Gospel of life is the entirety of Christ and His endless blessings. 

It is, "All glory, laud, and honor to You, Redeemer, King, to whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring.  The company of angels Is praising You on high, and we with all creation in chorus make reply, "All glory, laud, and honor to You, Redeemer, King."  [Hymn for Palm Sunday]

THE laudable life is the life we have been given in Christ.  It is "the multitude of pilgrims who sing their hymns of praise; To You, now high exalted, our melody we raise."

It is the sheet music text which declares the wonderful deeds of the Lord from creation to the cross, from the land of milk and honey to the paradise of the blest.  It is the fellowship of choirs of angels and the thunderous voice of the church lauding the Lord above. 

It is having union with children on Jesus' lap and with weathered shepherd by Christ's own cradle.  It is being one with Christian believers around the world from every age and every climb who also know the peace of sins forgiven and the promise of eternal life. 

It is our anchorage in the momentous work of Christ culminated by his sacrifice for us at the cross.  It is the Easter acclamation and angelic aria, "He is not here.  He has risen as he said.  Go, tell." 

It is the liturgy and hymnody of the church which lauds Christ in every word and tone and rejects shallow sentimentality because it cannot match preaching the power of Christ crucified.  It is the truth of His resurrection, the security of Christ's arms around us to lift us up at the last day.

And what will begin the new morning of that great and glorious day when Christ returns?  It will begin with Lauds and echo of praises which recount the wonderful deeds of God.  It will be...  Revelation tells us, "the song of the Lamb."

For St. John wrote, "Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.  In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" 

That's lauds!

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!"  Amen.

We too will forever join the chorus in praise of the Father everlasting, the adorable Son, and the Holy Spirit who gives us His eternal Word to sing the soaring eulogy of Jesus Christ in an everlasting song.   

That is the laudable life!