Praise God!

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing,

Call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet,

Sung by flaming tongues above;

Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,

Mount of God’s unchanging love!

I’ve been humming this hymn all week. This morning, after a fabulous two mile run at our local park, I walked out to the end of the dock to take in the lake and the trees and the morning sun. It was just me and a couple of geese. It was beautiful. So I sang a little…Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace… The geese didn’t seem to mind.

The scriptures are constantly calling upon us to praise God. In the Palm Sunday text for this week Jesus says that if we don’t praise God, then the stones will do it for us. Apparently, God is meant to be praised. Not so much for God’s sake, though, as for ours. Standing at the end of that dock, I noticed my beautiful surroundings. But when I started singing, it was more beautiful. I’m not sure how to explain it exactly, but it seems like praise helps us notice God more, it “tunes our heart” to God’s amazing presence and grace. We enjoy God more fully when we lift our voices, our hearts, our minds in praise. Jesus refused to silence the whole multitude of disciples who were “praising God joyfully with a loud voice.” And why would he? Why would he take that moment away from them? Why would he keep them from fully enjoying their God ?

May the words of my mouth, the meditations of my mind, and the feelings of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.