A Word from Psalm 47

When’s the last time that you remember being so moved by something that God had done in or around you that you wanted to give him a round of applause?

Well, I’d like to say that happens to me all the time. But while I am grateful for all the things that God has done in my life and in the world…if I’m honest, it can be awfully easy to take for granted all the small but unending demonstrations of God’s love and goodness that fill our lives.

And maybe that’s why my heart is drawn today to a small but thought-provoking word from Psalm 47. “Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. For the Lord Most High is awesome, the great King over all the earth.” (47:1-2; emphasis added)

G. K. Chesterton was a journalist and author back in the early 1900’s, and when he reflected on our ability to be moved by the constant faithfulness of God, he said this:

Because children have abounding vitality…they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never gotten tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. (from Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton)

So, may we have today that “eternal appetite of infancy” that allows us to see and celebrate the demonstrations of God’s love that are all around us. Amen.