Friday 21 November, 2014

1 Sing a new song to the Lord. All you people of the earth, sing to the Lord. 2 Sing to the Lord. Praise him. Day after day tell about how he saves us. 3 Tell the nations about his glory. Tell all people about the wonderful things he has done. 4 The Lord is great. He is really worthy of praise. People should have respect for him as the greatest God of all. 5 All of the gods of the nations are like their statues. They can’t do anything. But the Lord made the heavens. 6 Glory and majesty are all around him. Strength and glory can be seen in his temple. 7 Praise the Lord, all you nations. Praise the Lord for his glory and strength. 8 Praise the Lord for the glory that belongs to him. Bring an offering and come into the courtyards of his temple. 9 Worship the Lord because of his beauty and holiness. All you people of the earth, tremble when you are with him. 10 Say to the nations, “The Lord rules.” The world is firmly set in place. It can’t be moved. The Lord will judge the people of the world fairly. 11 Let the heavens be full of joy. Let the earth be glad. Let the ocean and everything in it roar. 12 Let the fields and everything in them be glad. Then all of the trees in the forest will sing with joy. 13 They will sing to the Lord, because he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the people of the world in keeping with what is right and true.

With the season changing to spring there are an unimaginable number of noisy birds that love to sing their heads off outside my bedroom window as the sun comes up. It’s as if they feel it is their job to tell the world that the night is over and the day is here. They rob me of sleep as it is impossible to drown out their singing with my pillow or my quilt! They demand my attention. That’s the picture I have when I read the beginning of this Psalm. The psalmist exhorts us to sing, sing, sing, sing – to tell, to declare, to call out, to praise our great God. Imagine if the people of God (that includes me too!) couldn’t stop singing, telling, calling out, praising and declaring who God is and what He has done? Would we wake anybody up – would they realise that something good has happened – better than just the sun rising another day – the King of Glory is alive and well and at work in the world – bring hope and restoring joy, setting the captives free and putting a new song in our hearts. That would be amazing.

Lord I want to sing out your goodness – I want to announce daily who you are and what you have done and what you are doing? May it be music to your ears and a wake up call to those who do not know you yet!

Written by Ps. Linda Quinn