Daily Devotional for Saturday, November 23

Praise the Lord for His Mercies

“Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King,” Psalm 149:1, 2.

If you put one hundred Baptists in a church building, you will be lucky if you get an “amen.” Somebody, somewhere, must have made a rule that to express joy in the house of God is somehow out of order. After all, “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40). Place that same one hundred Baptists in a stadium for Friday night football, and it would be a case of, “And the crowd goes wild!” Nobody is advocating for wild behavior in church, but this does seem odd, and maybe we should consider a balanced approach to this issue.

A recurring theme as we have moved through the Psalms is a sense of joy while praising the Lord. People sing, and people play instruments. In this psalm, it seems we are instructed to dance. I ask that you not kill the messenger, as God wrote those words, not me. Now, having said that, going crazy is not the answer either. God did say to do things decently and in order. As with any theme in Scripture, we have to look at the total picture.

In many of these psalms, we see the praise of the people moving in a process of sorts; the “Songs of Ascents” comes to mind. People would make their way to the Temple, singing psalms along the way, instruments playing and even dancers dancing. Finally, there would be a crescendo of praise and worship by the congregation. Reading almost gives the sense of the congregation being one body, with one heartbeat, all focused on praising God. I ask you, what could possibly be wrong with that?

JUST A THOUGHT
 

A man once said, “If that does not light your fire for the Lord, then your wood might be wet.”

Wally Fry