[Please join me in praying for the Church on Sundays this year.]
“Shout joyful praises to God, all the earth!
Sing about the glory of his name!
Tell the world how glorious he is.
Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
Your enemies cringe before your mighty power.
Everything on earth will worship you;
they will sing your praises,
shouting your name in glorious songs.” (Psalm 66:1-4 NLT)
When do you SHOUT in life? Maybe at a sports game? To stop your child from doing something dangerous? In order to get the attention of someone who is far away? At church?
Wait a minute. “At church?” Who shouts at church? People shout at God? We shout to God? What???
“Clap your hands, all you people. Shout to God with a loud, joyful song.” (Psalm 47:1 GW)
The Bible repeatedly calls us to SHOUT for and to God. Sometimes we shout our praise, sometimes we shout in victory. No matter why we shout, it can’t be a quiet sound, can it?
“Come, let’s sing for joy to the Lord, Let’s shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.” (Psalm 95:1 NASB)
In the 1990’s and early 2000’s there was a popular and powerful worship song entitled “Shout to the Lord.” I never heard it shouted, only sung. In fact, until our present church, I’d never heard people shouting praise in a church service. Yes, I’ve experienced genuine praise in former churches, but had never been a part of a church body that regularly shouts praise to God. I have to admit it took some time to get used to this. I know the Bible repeatedly calls us to shout to God, but I had never had any practice in it. Yet, much like yelling your praise to a winning baseball team, shouting your praise to God has some great physical, emotional, and spiritual benefits! The Shout releasing praise also gives the shouters (us!) a new boldness and confidence.
Consider the stories of Joshua at Jericho and Gideon in battle. In each of these stories, God gave them VICTORY in the battles they fought because they followed his instructions to SHOUT.
“On the seventh day they got up at dawn. They marched around the city seven times the same way they had done it before. That was the only day they marched around it seven times. When they went around the seventh time, the priests blew their rams’ horns. Joshua said to the troops, “Shout, because the Lord has given you the city!”…So the troops shouted very loudly when they heard the blast of the rams’ horns, and the wall collapsed. The troops charged straight ahead and captured the city. They claimed everything in it for the Lord.” (Joshua 6:15-20 GW)
BOOM. God says to SHOUT, they do, and the walls collapsed so they could capture the city.
“Gideon and his 100 men came to the edge of the camp. It was the beginning of the midnight watch just at the change of the guards. They blew their rams’ horns and smashed the jars they were holding in their hands. … They shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” While each man kept his position around the camp, everyone in the Midianite camp began to run away, screaming as they fled.” (Judges 7:19-21 GW)
BOOM. God tells Gideon to have the men blow the rams’ horns, smash their jars, and SHOUT, and the Midianites run away in terror. Battle won. The SHOUT won.
Before you chide me for using TOO MANY CAPITAL LETTERS in this post, I want you to SEE the EMPHASIS on SHOUTING as praise, as worship, as declaration of victory over darkness. The Shout can’t just be a whisper or a gentle, calm, soothing word. There are other places for those things. The Shout must be LOUD!! The Shout is a gift God gives us to use to praise him and to use as a weapon against our enemies. When we follow God’s instructions – when we SHOUT to him – we praise him and can know victory.
If you have never before shouted to the Lord, give it a try. Find an empty room or empty car or a friend (!) or your whole local church (yes, really!!!) and try it. Shout loudly, boldly, and with confidence to the Lord your God. Shout with joy and praise. Proclaim the Lord’s goodness and redemption not just with songs or with words, but with LOUD SHOUTS.
Thundering God,
We give you the glory your name deserves, worshipping you in holy splendor. Your voice rolls and thunders, and is powerful and majestic, breaking strong things and making the wilderness of this world tremble with your presence. You are enthroned as king forever. You give power to your people and bless us with peace. We know that because of Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross we who believe – we who are made in your image and who are temples for the Holy Spirit – are given the gift of the Shout to use for spiritual warfare and for praise. God, teach your Church to use The Shout as a tool of praise and victory and to tell of your glory and greatness. Take away our fears, our “we’ve never done this before,” and our inhibitions. Show us how our Holy Spirit-directed Shout can have the same powerful impact today as Joshua and Gideon saw long ago. We know that there are times to be quiet and times to shout, and we pray you will give your people wisdom and discernment to know when to use our voices. But when it is time, give us courage, strong energy, and boldness to SHOUT unto our God with a voice of triumph! Free us to shout our God-praise, our triumph over the works of the enemy, and our God-songs at the top of our lungs! Use the Shouts of your Church to proclaim your Victory and your Praise!! We ask in the strong and triumphant name of Jesus Christ our Lord, AMEN.
Everything has its own time, and there is a specific time for every activity under heaven:..a time to keep quiet and a time to speak out.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 7 GW)
“Shout God-songs at the top of your lungs!” (Psalm 47:1 MSG)
“Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph!” (Psalm 47:1 NKJV)
“Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians! Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it. Send it out to the ends of the earth; say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.” (Isaiah 48:20 NIV)
1 “Give to the Lord, you heavenly beings.
Give to the Lord glory and power.
2 Give to the Lord the glory his name deserves.
Worship the Lord in ⌞his⌟ holy splendor.
3 The voice of the Lord rolls over the water.
The God of glory thunders.
The Lord shouts over raging water.
4 The voice of the Lord is powerful.
The voice of the Lord is majestic.
5 The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars.
The Lord splinters the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He makes Lebanon skip along like a calf
and Mount Sirion like a wild ox.
7 The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning.
8 The voice of the Lord makes the wilderness tremble.
The Lord makes the wilderness of Kadesh tremble.
9 The voice of the Lord splits the oaks
and strips ⌞the trees of⌟ the forests bare.
Everyone in his temple is saying, “Glory!”
10 The Lord sat enthroned over the flood.
The Lord sits enthroned as king forever.
11 The Lord will give power to his people.
The Lord will bless his people with peace.” (Psalm 29 GW)