A Joyful Noise

by Paula McBride

What joyful noises have you heard recently? Perhaps it was the squeals of school children greeting their friends after summer break. Perhaps it was your grandchildren calling your special names as they raced to hug your knees. Perhaps it was as simple as the wind chimes on your patio or the splash of oars as you kayaked on the lake. Because I live next to a park, I hear joyful noises every day: the slap of tennis balls, the shouts of family cheering soccer or baseball players, children calling to each other on the play equipment, and sometimes even conversations as couples walk their dogs.

In addition, what joyful noises have you made recently? Were you the one on the lake with the paddles? Are you the grandparent greeting those precious kids of your kids? Did you reach up and activate the wind chimes, cheer your loved ones on the sports team, or speak affectionately to your walking companion and the dog?

Aren’t you glad God created us with the sense of hearing? Whether you hear naturally or with medical assistance, I believe God intended us to hear “noises” associated with joy and make those noises from our hearts. In fact, joyful noises are to be first directed to the Lord. It’s the King James version that gives us this translation: Make a joyful noise unto the Lord…serve the Lord with gladness: come before His presence with singing. Why? Several reasons follow. First, because the Lord is God. He made us. We are His. We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Therefore, joyful praise should emanate from us, for the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations (Psalm 100).

“That’s all well and good,” you might say. “You don’t know what I’m going through. How can I possibly be joyful?” There is only One who fully knows what we go through, and He is the One who empathizes with our weaknesses because He was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He is also the One, who, “for the joy set before Him endured the cross…”(Hebrews 12:2). He

Now you are saying, “I just don’t feel like it! Any noise I make certainly won’t be joyful!” Is it possible to be joyful without being happy? External circumstances may not be giving you any reason to be happy, but as blood-bought children of the One who suffered for us and who has great plans for our future, we have enormous reason to be joyful. It’s an inside decision to look upward toward God instead of downward at our circumstances.

One day God’s plan to defeat everything that hurts us will come to pass. In the meantime, we can say, like Habakkuk, “Even though I have nothing, ‘yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation’” (3:17-18). God’s hears our hearts, not our tunes, so let’s boldly make joyful noises to the Lord!