To Shout or Not To Shout?

A couple of days ago I was reading Psalm 32 during my time with the Lord. While reading it I came across verse 11, which is the last verse in chapter 32. There I read a few commands. One, 'to be glad in the Lord'. Two, along with being glad we are to 'rejoice' in the Lord. And three, 'shout for joy'.

Now that jogged my memory, because a year ago I preached Psalm 100 and in that Psalm we are also commanded to 'shout joyfully to the Lord'. After doing a word study on 'shout' in Psalm 100, I learned that the Hebrew word for shout is 'ruwa' which means to 'cry out' or 'to give a war-cry of victory'.

Having never really 'shouted' in this way, and to be honest, I was feeling a little weird teaching this, but I knew I had to teach what Psalm 100 was saying. But unfortunately it still remains unpracticed in my life.

Well today I came across a post by Mark Altrogge at his blog The Blazing Center, where he describes in one of his posts, his process of obeying this one command from the Lord. I found it interesting and thought you might as well.

I wonder....do you shout for joy in this way? Is this a normal practice for you in your time alone with God? In your corporate worship with your church?

Mark writes,

"I’m not a particularly emotional person. At football games I’ve never shouted and high-fived. I never danced or moshed or sang along or held up my lighter at concerts. And I was raised in a church in which the most expressive thing we did in worship was exchange the sign of peace with our neighbor - my brother and I would give each other a sideways glance and a smirk, then give each other the peace sign.

When Jesus saved me, I became convinced from preaching and the Word that God desires expressive worship. But for me to raise my hands or shout to God or sing with gusto was like telling me to do an Irish step dance at an opera."

You can read the rest by clicking here!