Daily Devotional

-November 20, 2020-

Good morning, happy Friday,

-Let Us Join Together To Praise And Thank The Lord-

“Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.”

(Psalm 95:1-2).

Thanksgiving Day is less than one week away. With the Coronavirus spiking all over the world, our country, our state, our county, and our town, Thanksgiving Day will not be the same this year. We won’t be able to get together to share it with family and friends outside of our immediate households. Millions of singles will be alone; couples will miss their children and grandchildren and vice versa. Friends will miss friends, loved ones will miss loved ones, and brothers and sisters in Christ will miss each other.

Just because we can’t be together for the health and well being of all, we can still join together in spirit, over Face Time, Zoom, or Skype. The main thing is that we praise and thank the Lord joyfully. The author of this beautiful psalm is unknown. He uses the word joyfully twice. Nothing, not even the Coronavirus can silence our praise and thanksgiving to the Lord.

We also notice how the writer uses the expression, “let us,” four times in these two verses. He doesn’t want to praise and thank the Lord by himself but wants every believer in Jesus Christ to join him. The Lord is so worthy. One day when the disciples were praising our Savior with loud voices as He entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey at the Triumphal Entry, the Pharisees complained and told Jesus to stop them. His answer was appropriate and perfect, “…I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.”

1. Let us sing to the Lord – I love to sing hymns and spiritual songs to the Lord. I grew up on the hymns and I know so many of them. Paul wrote, “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19). We can sing wherever we go, alone or together with others.

2. Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation – The hymn writer Augustus Toplady wrote, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in Thee; Let the water and the blood, from Thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure.” May we all make a joyful shout to the Lord!

3. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving – We should thank the Lord daily for what He has done for us, not just on Thanksgiving Day. The hymn writer said, “Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings see what God has done. Even in the midst of a pandemic we have so many things to be thankful for! It is always a good idea to write them down and praise them up!

4. Let us shout joyfully with psalms – There are 150 psalms, written by mostly by David but also by Moses, Solomon, Asaph, the sons of Korah, and others we do not know. The Book of Psalms is the biggest hymn book in the world. The joy in the Psalms is amazing and wonderful.

May we remember to sing and shout our praises and thanksgivings to the Lord. When we do so joyfully all creation will hear and join in. The joyful Christian is the grateful Christian, and the grateful Christian is the joyful Christian.

Have a blessed day and weekend praising and thanking the Lord. Stay safe and healthy.

Dean