Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth.

 

Monday, June 12, 2023


Psalms 99; 100

1 Samuel 11

Acts 8:4-13


Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth.


It’s a bit difficult to get up for in time to watch during these cold winter mornings, but those minutes before dawn feel like this opening line from Psalm 100. All the nocturnal animals have returned to their holes in the ground, the evening feast over for another night. The land goes silent, just for a short while, being still for the presence of the Lord. Then, in a tree on a hill, a bird wakes up – one cries out to another, and soon the land itself is singing as the first rays of light beam through the darkness. All the earth is making a joyful noise to the Lord.


The morning symphony is an easy example of this. Spending some time watching insects around a body of water is another one: some bugs swim along the surface, others buzz up and down over the air just above it, other critters dive right in. The best word to describe it is a dance.


Magpies dancing across the road out of the way of the car; dogs jumping with excitement when the family gets home; cats purring in the sun; clouds stretching out and striking poses in the sky. All of creation is making, in their own particular and various ways, a joyful noise to the Lord.


We humans have been given particular senses and abilities that make us slightly different to every other thing in the universe. We can admire the Lord in creation’s worship of Him. We can choose to join in the dance. God is holding out His hand, inviting us onto the dance-floor: “Worship the LORD with gladness; come into His presence with singing.”

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