Come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. For the Lord is the great God, and the great King above all gods. (Psalm 95:1-3)
This is the sixth of eleven psalms said to have been written by Moses and is a call to God’s people to offer praise and thanksgiving to the Most High. It should go without saying but Moses acknowledged the reason we should do this — because the Lord is the great God having no rivals. If the heathen can willfully praise their nothing gods fashioned by their own hands, should not those who serve the living God offer Him shouts of praise and songs of adoration?
Think of this: Moses is the one who spoke to God face to face as a man speaks to a friend and then delivered to Israel instructions directly from the mouth of God. In other words, most of what we connect to Moses, scripturally speaking, is commands, statutes and judgments — things that don’t necessarily prompt one to think in terms of singing praises. To the contrary, those things tend to make us think in terms of Godly fear, the need to obey and thus the necessary self denial that is critical to our faith. But my point is that Moses, the one we typically associate with laws and judgment, invites us approach God with joy, with thanksgiving; if anyone would understand what the Creator wants from His people, it would be Moses wouldn’t it?
Obviously God expects us to walk upright before Him in humble obedience but don’t miss the reason — because He desires that we live an abundant life. Everything He presents to us is for our good, and when we realize that, we should be grateful and express our gratitude in psalms, in songs and words of thanksgiving. If men can laud praises upon athletes and entertainers for doing nothing more than amusing us, should not the great God and King of Kings — the One who breathed life into us and who sustains us each day — be glorified through our offerings of praise? Let’s make certain to do just that today and every day.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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