Shout!

Shout!

O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph. Psalms 47:1 KJV

The sons of Korah are attributed with the Psalm before this one and today's extract. The 2 chapters speak about God's amazing power seen in the victory He gives his people. God is called a Man of War because He has never lost a battle, and in every generation, God continues to prove himself as King, Warrior, Lord and Master. His people Israel are the first recorded subjects and beneficiaries of his power and might, but by faith, we also have come to enjoy all that this God is.

That's the basis of the call here for us to clap our hands and shout to God. Clapping and shouting are outward expressions of an inner witness: that God's power and might are fully resident and expressed in us. If you were dealing with man, you can never predict the outcome, but when you are dealing with God, you are certain of both the process as well as the outcome. Even when there are problems and mountains in front of you, the call is to shout with triumph, because by faith, we see God, the One who never loses a war, fully in charge of our lives, and working out his own perfect will and purpose in and through us. It is not ignoring the problem, but acknowledging that there is a greater power at work.

That's the basis of joy: not that all is perfect, but that even in difficult times, nothing shakes our confidence in the God we have come to know and believe. Do you have this confidence? Do you truly know this God made known in today's extract? You can claim all you want; what you get is a function of who you know. His time of favour is here.