Wednesday,
April 21, 2021
Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heaven! Praise him for his mighty works; praise his unequaled greatness! Praise him with a blast of the ram’s horn; praise him with the lyre and harp! Praise him with the tambourine and dancing; praise him with strings and flutes! Praise him with a clash of cymbals; praise him with loud clanging cymbals. Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord! Praise the Lord! Psalm 150:1-6
The picture of a three-ton elephant next to a two-pound egret
is a perfect symbol for this last chapter of the Psalms. Juxtaposition, seeing the contrasting difference
between two or more of anything placed together, is today’s word for
praise. To paraphrase the Psalmist’s encouragement,
let’s just say let everything that breathes praise the Lord, however that
creature can offer praise, no matter how much they differ from one another.
The juxtaposition of different kinds of praises are represented
in the Psalm-writer’s musical instruments.
Ram’s horns blasting and cymbals clanging are what they do…loud,
bombastic, and overpowering to declare God’s majesty. The contrast of strings, flutes, and harps,
so gentle and lilting, are just as authentic paintings of God’s beauty and
kindness. And then, there is dancing to
the beat of drums and tambourines, a frenzied release of the heart’s joy to
celebrate the goodness of God’s mercy towards His created universe, and all its
inhabitants.
Praise to God comes in so many differently-wrapped packages it is difficult to even have a category list, let alone a comprehensive dictionary of the ways creation offers praise. But, maybe the juxtaposition of church and cicadas come close. Church services lift praise in song, and many other ways.
The eggs from
which cicadas hatch were buried 17 years prior in the ground. Somehow God awakens them all at the same time
in 204 months, and they come out of the earth like…well….locusts. They do the locust thing, eating like they’ve
been stuck on a diet for decades. The sound
of their wings and hind legs rubbing together is an opus dei similar to a
thousand lions roaring for dinner. The
sound is the male mating call, which is followed by more millions of cicada
eggs buried in the ground.
And in just a few
short weeks they’re gone, leaving empty shells of bodies strewn all over, stuck
to tree trunks, on patio floors, gutters, and every other nook or cranny you
can imagine. Their song of praise is always
short, loud, unstoppable, and no mistake.
In this dance of praise to their Creator’s design they serve a purpose, pruning
mature trees, aerating the soil, and, when they die, returning vital nitrogen
to the soil from whence they came.
Now, stand that
image of annoying cicada bugs in your mind against a four-year-old child
singing “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so”. And there it is, juxtaposition! They’re so different…and so alike…offering to
God the praise He placed within them.
The
next time you see a hurricane building in the tropics, or watch on tv as a
volcano erupts, or the 17-year-locusts return, try to remember God’s creation
doing what the Almighty hand has given them to do…praise His holy name. And while you’re at it think of your neighbor,
or that person on the other side of town, or the other side of the world, and
how differently he may offer praise than you do. And then offer the praise he put inside of
you, in just the way He designed it.
For You Today
Whether you’re an elephant, an
egret, or a cicada, or just somebody who happened to wake up today in God’s
universe, there’s a song inside you.
Sing it loudly or softly, on-key or off, but don’t keep it to
yourself. Offer it to Him!
[1] Title Image: Wikimedia Commons Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
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