Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2183117951984132/?source_id=181918175166472
May 6
Our Bible reading today is in the Psalms...89,96,100,101, 105, 132.
I will use the “Old 100th” to grace our podcast together today. “Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth...”
What kind of noise? A JOYFUL noise...full of gladness...full of joy...the fruit of the Holy Spirit at work...that inner assurance of happy contentment that starts with “ALL is WELL” with our soul and rises from within to an outward expression of thankfulness to God for everything He does for us...from our birth and our rebirth in Christ...all the way to heaven.
Let’s listen to the chronicler...he tells the faithful that God uses the nature that He created to praise Him. 1 Chronicles 16: “The seas roar...the fields exult...and the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord”.
Listen again to Jesus address the scribes and Pharisees upon arriving in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday...”If these people keep silent, then the ROCKS will cry out in praise of what God is doing in your midst.”
The people roared like the seas...they stood in exaltation waving their branches as the wheat waves in the sunny breeze...and they sang joyfully like the trees in the forest anticipating the change in seasons coming.
The Father of English “hymn writing” was Isaac Watts of the early 1700s. The studious son of a reformed pastor in England complained to his father concerning the singing in church. He said, “It’s so sad and the members’ faces are so sad too. The Bible tells us to make a joyful noise, doesn't it?”
The elder Watts told his son, “If you think you can do better, you write a church song.” And he did...750 of them...like Joy to the World and Marching to Zion and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.
Words like “joyful” and “glad” in the psalms reached out to the youngster’s heart and held that heart throughout his 70 years. And Watts testified to his desire to help “ordinary” church members to worship God “extraordinarily” with glad hearts and faces and yes, joyful noise.
“Make a joyful noise” reminds me of what Israel did when Samuel introduced Saul as their king...” the people “shouted”, “Long live the King! Long live the King!”
Doesn't that remind us of the coronation of Jesus as King at His resurrection over death and His Ascension to His throne in Heaven? I think so.
I'm a sinner saved by that King of glory that laid down his life at the cross so that I could have His eternal life...including forgiveness of sin and a right standing before God and a home in heaven when I die. “Long live the King..King Jesus”.
The psalmist exhorts “every land”, “every nation”, “every people group” to raise their voices in thanksgiving and praise to God who made them and sustains them.
And what’s the name of that God? Let’s listen to the Gospel of John...chapter one...“In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
