'Open Wide Your Mouth'

Photo by Shane Rounce on Unsplash

“The Lord makes us strong! Sing praises! Sing to Israel’s God! Sing, accompanied by drums; pluck the sweet lyre and harp. Sound the trumpet! Come to the joyous celebrations at full moon, new moon, and all the other holidays. For God has given us these times of joy; they are scheduled in the laws of Israel. He gave them as reminders of his war against Egypt where we were slaves on foreign soil.”—Psalm 81:1-5, Living Bible

On the way to church (sometimes this is my story, but thank God, not today. But it might be yours)…

I like to sing, but sometimes I don’t like the sound of my own voice.

I am a musician, or at least I like music, but sometimes the song within can seem silent.

I am tired. Who isn't?

All the more reason to let this new day remind your soul all over again what God says:
“It is good to praise the Lord and make music to Your Name, O most high.”—Psalm 92:1

“But good for who? God has everything, does He really need my praise?”

Good for you!

It's true—God doesn’t need it, and certainly doesn’t need it to make Him feel good

But He really wants praise—your praise, even this morning.

Because you need it.

Not to go through the Sunday morning motions, or follow a neat and tidy program

But to wake up the wonder again within you...and then stand back and see what God does!

To be filled up again with what is True and good in a world gone mad.

Because, as Dwight L. Moody once said…

“If a man just stops to think what he has to praise God for, he will find there is enough to keep him singing praises for a week.”

So let the praises ring. Remind yourself all over again.

And while you’re at it

Fight to engage your heart with His—even if it’s only your first cup of coffee

Fight against the adversary’s lie: “Pft, it doesn’t matter.”

Because he knows that it really does.

Since ancient times, God has ordained praise from His people to confound enemies, make darkness flee, lift heavy hearts, fuel amazing signs and wonders, and most of all build up His Church.

You.

And not just when you're in church but for your everyday crazy life, and for those He brings into your everyday crazy life.

You know this. You just need to put on the garment of praise all over again.

As the psalmist says in Psalm 81: “The Lord makes us strong! Sing praises!”

So sing and don’t hold back, because God says it is good.

And let the praises remind your soul, and the accuser of your soul, that God through Jesus Christ has forever set you free when He brought you out of Egypt from the bondage of sin:

“I removed the burden from their shoulders; their hands were set free from the basket.”—Psalm 81:6

You can sing your heart out about that forever!

And let your praises remind you that it keeps your focus in the right place of true satisfaction in life and off the cares and idols and temptations of this world:

“I AM the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it!”—Psalm 81:10

And that is just the beginning, because as you know but may have forgotten in the insaneness of this world's events:

Praise is the Song that will never end and cannot be contained.

Not even by darkness or unrest or pandemic. So…

"Doth not all nature around me praise God? If I were silent, I should be an exception to the universe. Doth not the thunder praise Him as it rolls like drums in the march of the God of armies? Do not the mountains praise Him when the woods upon their summits wave in adoration? Doth not the lightning write His name in letters of fire? Hath not the whole earth a voice? And shall I, can I, silent be?"

—Charles Spurgeon