shout

Psalm 100:

"Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations."

This short Psalm is one I grew up with.  As I read it over the years, there are words that seem to leap off the page, words I understand but that sometimes just aren't me. Words like shout, worship, come, know and enter are action words that call us to worship individually and collectively. And words like joy, gladness, joyful songs, thanksgiving and praise describe how we should worship.

I confess that I struggle with joy. I'm not gloomy, but I am restrained. I control my emotions and how I display them. As a result, at those moments in life when something inside me surges up, I tend to keep it inside. I'm more a practitioner of the understatement than a shouter of joy.

But the reason given here is definitely one for joy: the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Part of my service to God and others is not just to see the good and feel the joy, but to share it. That's something I need to work on.