Yes! There is Good News! February 3, 2018

Sally and I are in the process of reading through the Psalms together. Reading in God’s word by yourself is always a good thing to do, but reading out loud with another is a wonderful way to gain understanding and share the blessings of God’s word. The Book of Proverbs 27:17 says this, “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” As one of us is reading, the other might ask to stop because something caught their eye: A discussion follows and both of us have learned something new.

God’s word is amazing, in that when this happens, there is an inner joy that nothing in this world can duplicate. My prayer for you, my readers, is that when you pick up God’s word to read the next time, you will find a brand new nugget of wisdom and knowledge and have this same joy.

Do this sometime soon: fathers and mothers, read to the family in the evening after supper. Turn the TV off, put down the phones and tablets, etc. and pick up God’s word. Read to the whole family and make it a fun time! But you’re not sure where to start? Let me help with that. Start with Psalm 66. You don’t have to read the whole thing, then close the bible and let everyone go their own way. No, just start with a portion of this Psalm – a few verses perhaps (you don’t want to overwhelm anyone); and close with a short prayer. Perhaps the kids may even have a question or two for discussion. Honoring God in this way as a family will reap some very precious blessings.

Well, let’s look at Psalm 66 and see what we may find: “Shout with joy to God, all the earth! Sing the glory of His name; make His praise glorious!” This is verse one and two. What a beautiful start to a Psalm! We have three verbs here: shout, sing and make. That first verb is expanded in the King James Version of the bible to “Make a joyful noise.” First of all, I must confess, my northern European background seems to inhibit me from literally shouting for joy. But I know that God hears my heart and in my heart I have often shouted to God with joy.

The second verb is “sing” or as in the KJV “sing forth.” Now here is where I can follow the instructions. I like to sing! I do not have a great voice but as someone once said, “God gave me this voice and He’s going to have to listen to it!” God is pleased with song and especially ones that give “glory to His name.” The Psalms have many places where we are admonished to sing.

The third verb is “make.” But it is not just make anything, but “make His praise glorious.” This is an interesting Hebrew word. The basic meaning of “to make” is to “put something somewhere.” And what does this Psalm tell us to put somewhere? We are to put our praise for Him in a glorious way.

We will (God willing) look into this some more next time.