Observation: What grabs me most about this Psalm is the first verse, "Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth." Throughout scripture, a recurring image of the noises of God's creation--the sea, the animals, the wind, the trees--as not just random chatter, but a song of praise to God.
Application: It's been a while since I chanted the Communion liturgy. I remember that especially in the Easter season, I would feel a special sense of anticipation as I would sing, "And so with Mary Magdalene and Peter, and all the witnesses of the Resurrection, with earth and sea and all their creatures, angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim,we praise your name and join their unending hymn..." To which the congregation immediately would respond in joyous song, "Holy Holy Holy Lord, God of power and might! Heaven and earth are full of your glory!"
There's this beautiful sense of a group of people kind of "tuning in" to a praise song which the entire cosmos has been singing for all time: indeed, a song that exists outside time. In its own way, every creature, both those we can see, and those we can't, those we know of, and those far beyond our knowledge, is making a joyful noise to God. And though we mostly don't hear or acknowledge it, now and again we tune into it and try to sing in harmony. Hopefully, after eating this meal of forgiveness and mercy, we can walk back out into God's creation better tuned to its harmony, and make our own joyful noise through the week.
Prayer: God, tune us to the joyful noises of your creation. Help our voices and our actions not to drown them out, but to compliment them. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment