TO CHEW ON: "O come let us sing to the Lord!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms." Psalm 95:1-2
When were you last at a sporting event or concert where you restrained yourself from shouting? Probably not for a while.
"If we can shout at other public events, surely we can give loud and enthusiastic praise to God when with His people," says Dick Iverson, in a footnote to Psalm 95 (New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 770).
According to the psalmist, we come into God's presence with thanksgiving. [It is the word todah derived from the verb yadah: 'To give thanks, praise.' The root of yadah is yad - "hand.] "Thus to thank or praise God is to lift or extend one's hands in thanks to Him" - New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 760.
The psalm-writer tells why we would do that - "For (or because):
- God is superior - "The King above all gods."
- God is creator and holds in His hands every segment of creation. Whether the day ahead involves activity in the earth's depths, or the mountains, on the water or anywhere on land, God is present and directs destinies in all those places.
- God is "our God." Even though He is the great creator, He also sees and knows us as personally as a shepherd knows the members of his flock.
If you're like me just transporting yourself to church doesn't eliminate the preoccupations that fill the mind and drown out those songs of thanksgiving and shouts of praise. Let's join the writer of the old hymn and ask God to "tune my heart to sing Thy grace" by ordering our thoughts along the lines of this psalm. And then let's enter in wholeheartedly, joyfully, thankfully, and physically with "...songs of loudest praise."
PRAYER: Dear God, thank You for inspiring Bible psalmists to turn our eyes toward You with reminders of Your greatness and personal care. Help me to worship You today with enthusiastic songs and shouts of praise. Amen.
PSALM TO PRAY: Psalm 95
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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
