A Word from the Word

Appropriate Response

 

Psalm 47:1, 5–6

Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. God has ascended amid shouts of joy, the Lord amid the sounding of trumpets. Sing praises to God; sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises.     NIV

That’s the Bible’s picture of the response that’s appropriate to God in His power and in His glory. The one specific word that sums up that which God’s greatness, grandeur should provoke from you and me is the word praise, but a very all-inclusive kind of praise, a praise that occupies every part of our physical body, a praise that occupies all our faculties.

“Clap your hands all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy.” That’s something more than just religious respectability. That’s a total response of our redeemed being to the Lord in His greatness. Clap our hands; shout to God.

Then it says, “God has ascended amid shouts of joy, … amid the sounding of trumpets.” Shouts and clapping of hands and musical instruments are all required to sound forth the praise of God.

And then it goes on, “Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises.” You know, it’s a theme, “Sing praises, sing praises, sing praises.” That’s how we have to respond to God.