Psalm Devotional
Make a Joyful Shout!
Do you remember times when you literally shouted for joy? I remember shouting for joy–and jumping up and down–with 60,000 other Scots one Saturday in 1964, when big Jim Telfer sealed a famous Scottish rugby victory over England with a glorious touchdown under the posts.
I daresay, however, you and I are more restrained in church. Maybe we let out a quiet amen once in a while, but rarely, if ever, do we raise a shout. This psalm is in two parts, exhorting us respectively to joy and thanksgiving.
“Make a joyful shout to the Lord all you lands”–that is, all those everywhere who love the Lord. Elsewhere the psalmist says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy” (Ps. 107:2). Do you joyfully shout to the Lord for His free grace and daily mercies? Do you bring joy in your heart to public, private and family worship? Or do you excuse your coldness by saying that church is boring or by blaming something or somebody else?
