Why We Praise Him?

Hear, O LORD, and be gracious to me! O LORD, be thou my helper!" Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing; thou hast loosed my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, that my soul may praise thee and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to thee for ever.

Psalms 30:10-12

In the story of the prodigal son, I have always been intrigued by the interaction between the father and the older son as told by Luke in Chapter 15:

"Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant. And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.' But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, 'Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!' And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'"

While many can identify with the prodigal son, I think the church is often like the older brother. We have remained in the house of our Father being faithful to do the work. But, somehow we missed the point of the relationship? When the big brother was in the field he heard "music and dancing". His brother had come home and there was a party going on! But, instead of joy, what welled up inside of the older brother was resentment and anger. Instead of feelings of love for his brother, he was focused upon his loss of position and concerns for the inheritance. After all, his brother had already blown his share of the inheritance on prostitutes and here he was back again. There is something about sibling rivalry that is so insidious. It was the original evil crouching at the door that enticed Cain, in his anger, to slay his brother Abel. It pops ups so quickly inside of us that we don't recognize it until after the word has been spoken or the deed has been done. So what can counteract the poison? Love.....and, music and dancing.

The secret is that God has created us to overcome all the adversity that life can throw at us. Even in the midst of mourning, we worship a God who has overcome death! He has the ability to take us from mourning into dancing. You want to talk about Dancing with the Stars.....try being girded with gladness in perpetuity. That is why we praise Him! And, we need not to be silent about it.