From Psalm 48:
1 Great is the LORD and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God!
His holy mountain, 2 beautiful in elevation,
is the joy of all the earth,
Mount Zion, in the far north,
the city of the great King.
3 Within her citadels God has made himself known as a fortress.9 We have thought on your steadfast love, O God,
in the midst of your temple.
10 As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is filled with righteousness.
Psalm 96
Bravo, GOD, Bravo!
Everyone join in the great shout: Encore!
In awe before the beauty, in awe before the might.Bring gifts and celebrate,
Bow before the beauty of God,
Then to your knees--everyone worship!Get out the message--GOD Rules!
He put the world on a firm foundation;
He treats everyone fair and square.~~Verses 7-10
As we go about our daily lives, when we react differently to situations around us, we shout out a message. When we get up early on Sunday morning and drive to church while everyone else is either sleeping in or just going to get donuts, we shout out a message. When we don't get drunk on holidays, we shout out a message. (I'm not condemning drinking, here...I like to share a bottle of wine with my wife from time to time, and a shot of peppermint Schnapps in my hot chocolate...) Point is, we shout with our lives. You don't have to confront everyone you meet with the gospel to be getting the message out. Some people are gifted with "evangelism." More power to them. But we don't all have that gift. Nevertheless, we get the message out.
God loves it when his people celebrate. I truly believe that. I believe that there is great joy in heaven every Sunday morning, when millions of people all over the world (I know...Sunday morning happens at different times everywhere) worship God together, within a few hours of each other. Actually, if you go across time zones, there might be continuous worship for quite a few hours running. Anyway, we are admonished here to bring gifts and celebrate. I don't have any trouble picturing God getting a great deal of pleasure from this.
What are the gifts? Could be several things. I think we give ourselves. We sacrifice just by being there. We also bring our tithes, our offerings. I, personally, don't like to show up empty handed, so I always have a monetary gift in hand, no matter how small. When it comes to tithing, I'm not in the camp of believing that it has to be a strict ten percent. But I don't really want to get into that discussion here. Suffice it to say that "God loves a cheerful giver."
One attribute of God that comes to mind right now, that I could celebrate, is his faithfulness.
I praise you, Father, for your faithfulness! For you are faithful when I am not. You are steadfast and sure. No matter what I do, you still love me. I can't make you love me more; I can't make you love me less. This is amazing knowledge to me! Mainly because I'm not like that. Other people can do things that make me not like them as much, so it is hard for me to imagine that you, O God, are not like that. "Your faithfulness stretches to the skies." That means there is no limit to it.
I plan to spend some time worshipping at work tonight. Hah. Yes, I can do that. I'll get interrupted from time to time, of course, but I have the freedom to listen to whatever I want to while I'm working, so I'll listen to worship music.
Grace and peace to you!