There are two passages assigned for today!

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 47
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Come, everyone! Clap your hands! Shout to God with joyful praise! For the Lord Most High is awesome. He is the great King of all the earth. [Psalms 47:1-2]
This psalm is an exuberant demonstration of praise – clap and shout because God is awesome!
Now I grew up in a church that did not clap or shout – apparently we didn’t take the bible that literally, or at least not those verses, other verses we did.
Today I am comfortable with clapping in church, but I am still hesitant about the shouting thing.
What would it take for me to shout? I would really have to be in a place where my experience of the awesomeness of God demanded such an exuberant demonstration.
In this psalm, the writer is urging us to see the greatness and awesomeness of God as reason to clap and shout, to sing and the praise.
That is the focus – we are so impacted by God that these responses just follow.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. [Mark 12:30]
Is there a connection between this statement of Jesus, and this psalm?
The connection that came to my mind is that this psalm is a heart, soul and mind response to God, a wholehearted expression of love and wonder and delight.
Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises! [Psalms 47:6]
I love how he doesn’t say it once, not twice, not three times but four times, to make his point.
As I consider my own heart response to the Lord, I realize that my upbringing has shaped me to be reserved in my expression of love for Him.
Heart and soul and mind and strength, this is so extreme, so complete… so exuberant!

I guess what I took from this psalm was a desire to give myself over to exuberant demonstration of my love and praise to the Lord, to clap and shout and sing!
Not as desirable things in themselves, but as the overflow of a heart that is gripped by love for Him – heart and soul and mind and strength.
I do not want to clap and shout, I want to love the Lord so that clapping and shouting will come naturally, for Him!
For He is awesome, He really is; He desires our wholehearted response?

How about you, are you able to express yourself in exuberant praise and worship?
Was your upbringing like mine, or were you encouraged to clap and shout?
What helps you to express yourself in worship like this? What hinders you?

PRAYER:
Lord, I want to love You so much that singing and praising and clapping and shouting just overflow from me. I want to love You with my heart, soul, mind and strength!