Burunche’s Blog

Make a Joyful Noise

(Psalm 100:1-5)For the choirmaster. A song. A Psalm.

“Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth! Sing the glory of His name; make His praise glorious. Say to God, “How awesome are Your deeds! So great is Your power that Your enemies cower before You. All the earth bows down to You; they sing praise to You; they sing praise to Your name.”

Selah

Come and see the works of God; how awesome are His deeds toward mankind. He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the waters on foot; there we rejoiced in Him. He rules forever by His power; His eyes watch the nations. Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah

Praise our God, O peoples; let the sound of His praise be heard. He preserves our lives and keeps our feet from slipping. For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us like silver. You led us into the net; You laid burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water, but You brought us into abundance.

I will enter Your house with burnt offerings; I will fulfill my vows to You—the vows that my lips promised and my mouth spoke in my distress. I will offer You fatlings as burnt offerings, with the fragrant smoke of rams; I will offer bulls and goats. Selah

Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will declare what He has done for me. I cried out to Him with my mouth and praised Him with my tongue. If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But God has surely heard; He has attended to the sound of my prayer. Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld from me His loving devotion!”

“Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth! Sing the glory of His name; make His praise glorious. Say to God, “How awesome are Your deeds! So great is Your power that Your enemies cower before You. All the earth bows down to You; they sing praise to You; they sing praise to Your name.” Selah When it comes to praise songs, David is still one of the greatest song writers of all times. Here we are not glimpsing David the king but David the shepherd boy who has witnessed thousands of sunrises and sunsets and has seen the light of God illuminating the hills and everything in them.

“Come and see the works of God; how awesome are His deeds toward mankind. He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the waters on foot; there we rejoiced in Him. He rules forever by His power; His eyes watch the nations. Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah” Here David is referring to the miraculous deliverance of Moses and the Israelites as they crossed the Red Sea on dry land, only for the entire Egyptian army to be wiped out when the water surged back, covering that path. A God who can defeat the strongest army in the world is certainly a God of power. 

“Praise our God, O peoples; let the sound of His praise be heard. He preserves our lives and keeps our feet from slipping. For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us like silver. You led us into the net; You laid burdens on our backs. You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water,

but You brought us into abundance.” At no point has God ever promised any of His people that they would remain free from suffering and trials. The ancient process of refinement means that the silver is heated repeatedly until all the impurities are gone and the refiner can see his reflection in the silver.

“You led us INTO the net?” Does God allow us to become entrapped? To bear burdens on our backs? To let men ride over our heads? To go through fire and water? Yes to all these things. Sometimes God sends us through hellish experiences BUT He can also bring us into abundance. I’ve said it before, but it’s still true: In the middle of a trial, I don’t want to hear comments from anybody who has not earned his/her PhD. in suffering. Those who have never suffered are the very ones who will smugly give glib advice from the depths of their ignorance. Those who have endured hardships are the ones who can give true encouragement. As an example, experienced parents will never give pat answers to other parents struggling with disobedient teens; they’ve made too many mistakes themselves.

“I will enter Your house with burnt offerings; I will fulfill my vows to You—the vows that my lips promised and my mouth spoke in my distress. I will offer You fatlings as burnt offerings, with the fragrant smoke of rams; I will offer bulls and goats. Selah” We read these words and think “burning flesh-EWW!” But for David and his people, offering the most perfect animals they could find is a very big sacrifice; after all, these are the best breeding animals and these animals will have the choicest meat. Sacrifices that don’t cost you anything are a sham.

“Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will declare what He has done for me. I cried out to Him with my mouth and praised Him with my tongue. If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But God has surely heard; He has attended to the sound of my prayer. Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld from me His loving devotion!”  God wants us to come to Him, but He doesn’t want us to come with ulterior motives. God is not a vending machine nor a computer; He cannot be manipulated. When we come to God purely to worship Him, He knows. And when we come hoping to trick God into giving us things, He knows that also.

APPLICATION: If you’ve ever heard seagulls, you know their cries are anything but melodic; in fact, a flock of seagulls can raise enough noise to wake the dead. So why has someone used a photo of a seagull to illustrate making a joyful noise to the Lord? Face it; some of us produce more melodic results than others. Attend enough services in small churches and you’ll find that some worship leaders are much more talented than others. Some worship efforts can set the hearers’ teeth on edge as the musicians hit one wrong note after another. But what does God hear?

Several years ago, when I was living in West Virginia, there was a Christian blue grass music group whose program aired on Sunday mornings. Possessing a keen sense of pitch, I could scarcely stand to listen to those folks, until the morning God stopped me as I was about to change radio stations. “I want you to hear what I hear,” God said. So I listened. There were still just as many sour notes and quavering chords, but now I heard the love those folks had for the Lord.

None of us praise God the way we should or as much as we should. But God is a Divine Parent who loves his children’s efforts, even when they are far less than perfect. Parents posting their children’s art work on their refrigerators aren’t worried about that those drawings aren’t masterpieces. When a child creates something and gives it to you in love, you accept it and show the child how thrilled you are. In the same manner, God accepts our praises. Some of us are better musicians than others. Some of us can’t carry a tune in a bucket if someone gives us a bucket. But when we praise God from our hearts, God receives our praise gladly. And the praise we give when we are under struggling is particularly precious to God. Remember, “It’s not a sacrifice of praise until you’re pushing it out through clenched teeth.” (Quote from the late Harold Hill, How to Live Like a King’s Kid.)

If you can’t make music, don’t worry. You can still share the thoughts of your heart and God will hear your love for Him.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to praise You with everything that is in us. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

This entry was posted on November 17, 2023 at 12:01 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.