Clap your hands, all peoples!
Shout to God with loud songs of joy! Psalm 47:1
I love to watch small children when they hear a song. They grin from ear to ear and bounce. They giggle and twirl and clap their hands. I can’t help but laugh, and want to join in with them. They seem so uninhibited and joyous in the moment. They don’t care what others may think.
Reading this verse, I have to ask myself, when was the last time I clapped my hands and shouted songs of joy to my God (besides being one in a crowd in worship or at a concert). Honestly answering that question with I can’t recall, I had to ask why? I can definitely remember when I went to Him in tears. I know the last time I came before Him with anger in my heart and asked why things were as they were.
The closest I come to shouting songs of joy is in my car, listening to Christian praise music, zipping down the highway at 65 mph. Perhaps because I don’t know any of the the people in the other cars and trucks I feel less (do I dare say it?) embarrassed. Locked in my own A/C controlled box on wheels with the windows rolled up, I can belt out a off key tune and no one’s the wiser.
Music moves me, it always has. I find comfort, peace, reassurance and renewed faith through singing songs. Do you? Perhaps you have an angelic voice and are comfortable singing to the Heavens. I sound like a squawking frog. But deep down, I know my voice, when raised in joyous song, tickles God’s ears with pleasure.
Lord, help me sing and clap to You more often and forget my self-consciousness. In fact, let me forget myself in all I do for you.
