Make a Joyful noise!!!! That means you

Do you know what has really bothered me about the church for the past several years? The apathy (or at least the look thereof) on peoples faces as they sing songs about the love of God and the joy they have in their lives.

On any given Sunday look around the congregation; look at the people as they sing about how happy they are. Is this what you see?

Why are people so "hum-drum" about their relationship with the GOD of the universe? Can they not see that God loves them so much that He was willing to give his most precious son to die for us? Have they forgotten that we do not live for rules and regulations, but we live for a relationship with a personal God who wants us to call him Father? Have they forgotten that he came that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly? (John 10:10)

Let me show you just a few verses of how we should worship:

Psalm 66:1Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands:
Psalm 81:1Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

Psalm 95:1O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

Psalm 95:2Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

Psalm 98:4Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

Psalm 98:6With trumpets (not a very quiet intsrument is it?) and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.

Psalm 100:1-2Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

Do you see a trend here? JOYFUL NOISE. I love it. No where does it say that you have to have a musical degree or trained in music. No where does it say to have a stoic face and to be quiet. No, quite the opposite. Joyful noise to me means to open my mouth and let the other side of the room here my deafening shouts of praise. Joyful noise to me means that I sing like I am in the shower. You know what I mean by that? We sing to our hearts content, we are not worried about who is listening or watching. We just want to sing.

But when we get to church we sit or stand and we follow along in our hymnals or we look up at a wall with and stare at the lyrics going by us. We are not thinking about the words of these songs. We are not thinking about our relationship with the Father. We are not thinking at all sometimes. We are just going through the motions.

STOP IT! Stop going through the motions. THINK. Think about why you are singing. PRAISE. Once you stop going through the motions and stop just giving lip service then you can think about why we sing in church. You can understand that we sing to praise the Creator, the Savior, the Holy Lamb of God. When we can do this, then we can make a joyful noise.