praise songs

There’s a right way to respond when God does something.

Exodus 15:19-21: “When Pharaoh’s horses, chariots and horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought the waters of the sea back over them, but the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground. Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women followed her, with timbrels and dancing.
“Miriam sang to them:
‘Sing to the Lord,
for he is highly exalted.
Both horse and driver
he has hurled into the sea.’”

Miriam was echoing a verse from a song Moses led, sung for the same purpose: to give God the glory for their deliverance.

Since I’m Dutch, I rarely burst into song when I feel grateful. I’m more likely to mask what’s inside by being totally cool and saying something really understated like, “Nice!” But that’s one way that my Calvinist forebears didn’t do me any favors.

I think people who openly praise God, and let their emotions show when they do, experience something wonderful that I don’t. I think it would an amazing feeling to be so grateful that I want to sing without caring who is watching or listening, or what they think.

I’m not there yet – in fact, I’m a long way away. But I have gotten to the point where I can publicly break with the local baseball/seed corn cap fashion stricture enough to put on hats I like better. I’ve endure the ridicule that goes with wearing cardigans and sport jackets. So maybe I’m getting to the point where a little song and dance once in a while won’t intimidate me.

More than that, though, I want to feel like praising, like it’s bubbling out of me. I want to see God working, and be overwhelmed by it. I think if I really felt it, I’d find a way to show it.