MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE

Thursday: 3rd January, 2018

Reference text: Psalm 98

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

Amongst the myriad of definitions available for the word ‘NOISE’ which I checked the dictionary for, the one which stood out is that which we simply consider ‘off beat’, in technical terms: ‘Noise is the auditory experience of sound that lacks musical quality’. So in effect, once sound appears dissonant to anyone, it is noise.

The reason why this definition caught my attention stemmed from the invitation of the Psalmist ‘make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth’. That call is to all and sundry, young and old, poor and rich, male and female, for all to make noise joyfully to the Lord. I know this can be difficult in moments when our wells of joy seem to have dried up.

But, what do we consider as the sources of joy? Our families? Our relationships? Our businesses or sources of income? Beloved, if these are the only triggers for a joyful noise from us, then we do have some way to go. We appear to have forgotten these words: ‘the joy of the Lord is my strength’. A joyful noise does not look at how grim the current situation may be, it considers God, the source of joy as the reason to make noise.

Others may hear our sound as lacking musical quality, but sweetheart, the focus of our joyful noise is not to exhibit to the world how melodious our voices are. It is to reveal how much our hearts are bursting with excitement and anticipation in spite of the doom and gloom the world around presents.

Remember # make a joyful noise to the Lord.

#sly