Rejoice! ... and Wait
Psalm 33 opens with these lines:
"Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!
Praise befits the upright.
Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;
make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts."
And it closes with these:
"Our soul waits for the Lord;
he is our help and our shield.
For our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
even as we hope in you."
When we gather on Sundays as a church, it's important to remember that we're called to a variety of actions and responses. There are times for rejoicing and praise. There are times for praising and loud shouts. There are also times for waiting on the Lord and quietly hoping in his steadfast love.
Depending on the season of your life, any given Sunday, the Lord may be calling you to loud shouts of praise and rejoicing, or He may be calling you to quietly hoping and waiting on Him.
One of our goals in our music ministry is to provide contexts every Sunday for a variety of personal responses of worship to the Lord. We want to have songs that support "loud shouts of praise" and songs that support the posture of a soul that "waits on the Lord".
But we can't do that alone just as a band. God designed the local church to be a mutual means of support. We can encourage one another by participating in the full spectrum of responses even if they don't all represent the primary emotion we're feeling on a given day. If you're in a place of really desiring to praise the Lord with loud shouts of joy this Sunday, we'd encourage you to do so! And we'd encourage you to also actively participate in the moments designed to support those who are in more of a place of quietly waiting on the Lord.
If you're in a place of desperately waiting on the Lord and desiring to put your hope in Him in spite of difficulty you're facing or a specific hope deferred, we'd encourage you to do that! But we'd also encourage you to actively participate in the moments designed to support those loud shouts of praise to the Lord.
In both cases, the emotion and response that comes less naturally to you on a given day is still one that is supported by the truth of who God is, and is encouraged in his Word. Actively pursuing those varied responses helps you to speak Truth to your own soul, to affirm God's character, and to encourage those God has placed in the body with you.
So rejoice! And wait! Do it all for the Glory of God and the good of others, and trust that God will meet you where you are and bless you as you stretch outside of your natural state to honor him and serve your brothers and sisters.
This Sunday, the service will include these Scriptures and Songs: