Last Thursday night the Cleveland Browns won a football game, one that looked like they were about ready to lose. Now that may not sound like such a big deal until you know that the Browns hadn’t won a regular season football game for about 635 days. They didn’t win at all last year and their record the year before was almost as miserable.
Thursday night the starting quarterback was having a rough night and the crowd was calling for Baker Mayfield. He is the reigning Heisman Trophy winner from Oklahoma who was drafted No. 1 by the Browns. When the starter went out with a concussion, the crowd got their wish. Mayfield came in and led the team to a comeback. The crowd was wild. They were shouting for joy! Finally, a win.
Psalm 95 begins, “1 Oh come, let us sing to the LORD! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. 2Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.” [NKJV]
See that wonderful little word “shout.” It is the same word in both verses 1 and 2. It is ruwa. It is sometimes translated as “make a joyful noise.” It comes from a root word meaning “to split the ear with sound.” It is a word that is often used for “blow/sound the alarm.” It is what we might call an intense word. Not only that, it is a word that we’d think might be much more at home on the football field than in a church worship session.
Cleveland was alive with joy, shouting intensely in triumph last Thursday because they were winners for the first time in two years. As children of God, we are winners every day. We won the ultimate battle when we gave our lives to the Master of our soul, Christ Jesus our Lord. That “Let us … shout joyfully” should ring out in every church, every time we meet.
