Shout your praises to God, everybody!
Let loose and sing! Strike up the band!

Round up an orchestra to play for God,
Add on a hundred voice choir.

Feature trumpets and big trombones,
Fill the air with praises to King God.

Let the sea and its fish give a round of applause,
With everything living on earth joining in.

Let ocean breakers call out, “Encore!”
And mountains harmonize the finale –

A tribute to God when he come,
When he comes to set the earth right.

He’ll straighten out the whole world,
He’ll put the world right, and everyone in it.
(Psalm 98: 4-8, MSG)

I open the pages to read this, yet again. I have read it several times over the last few days. The words draw me in each time, causing me to return repeatedly. This time I dwell on two words … applause and encore.

Applause has been defined as, “hand clapping as a demonstration of appreciation or acclamation”.

Every living thing on earth is being called forth to give a round of applause to its Maker and Sustainer. God is not in need of our applause. We are the ones who need to offer it. The very act of applauding causes appreciation to well up in our souls. As applause is offered, it often increases in volume and gusto, lengthening in time. As applause continues, hand clapping seems no longer sufficient. We begin to shout and whistle.

And then it happens. No longer able to contain ourselves in our seats, we rise to our feet. We demand an “encore”.

Encore … a demand made by applause for a repetition.

In offering our applause, we recognize our desire for more of the same. We want to experience greater depth, more meaning and longer duration. We simply do not want it to end.

It’s been days in which I have been dwelling on all of this. And to be honest, I cannot even fully put it all into words. But this I can express …

God is good.

God is faithful.

God loves us more than we can comprehend.

God is worthy of our thanks. It is we who need to offer our thanksgiving. We need to applaud Him for all He has done in our lives. And then, let’s shout to our God, “Encore!”

As we shout, “Encore” ..

He might just show us more of Himself …

again and again.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf9x9zXUPHQ&w=420&h=315]

Today I am joining … Three Word Wednesday and Tell His Story and Wedded Wednesday and Women With Intention and #DanceWithJesus .