Celebrating the Good

"Then Miriam, the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her, with tambourines and dancing."  Exodus 15:1

Celebrating the Good
By Rev. William Dohle

How do you celebrate??

When life is going good, when you've received good news on a stress test, or when things aren't quite as bad as you thought, how do you rejoice?

Is it a quiet celebration?  "Horray," you say to yourself.  Is it a simple Facebook post?  "Hey everyone!  Good news!"  Or is it a full-on, drag your friends and neighbors and family out of their homes, celebratory event?

How do you celebrate the good?

And who do you give credit to?  It is: "Yeah!  I did it!"  Or "Thank goodness."  Or is there a God-element there?  Did God do the good thing in your life?  Is there someway that you acknowledge His hand at work?

As much as I roll my eyes when someone catches a touchdown and then kneels down to thank God, there is something to be said about giving credit where credit is due, especially when things are going well for you.
  
The people of Israel, as the Red Sea was coming down on the Pharaoh's army, took time out to praise God.  In the first psalm of the Bible, written well before the psalms of David were, the people of Israel stop to celebrate what God has done and to anticipate what God will do.  They bring out tambourines, lead by Miriam, and they sing praises to God for all that God has done!

"The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.  He is my God and I will praise him...The Lord is a warrior; the lord is his name...Who among the gods is like you, O Lord?  Who is like you--majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? ..The Lord will reign for ever and ever."(Exodus 15)

Israel could have gone on without praising.  Or they could have limited their praise to Miriam's song, "Sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted.  The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea."(which is, by the way, the oldest Hebrew song in the Bible!)

They could have limited their praise...or not given praise at all.

But they didn't.  Instead, they sing on the shoreline to the Lord for all that He has done.  They sing to God because they know that God is the one who delivered them.  God is the one who sustains them.  God is the one to whom praise and glory and honor is due, for everything good and bad is from God's hand.

I wonder if we see our own good as God's work how that might change our celebration.  If we can just notice that...

• The cancer in remission was defeated by the Lord!
• The good test score was because God helped us learn the knowledge.
• The peaceful family is because of his peace that passes all understanding.
• The long life we enjoy is because God has blessed us with it.
• The job promotion came from the gifts God has given us.

If we see the good coming from God(and not just the bad that we so often attribute to him)...maybe then we might find ourselves like the Israelites singing God's praises as the waters cover both horse and rider and we are redeemed once again.

For God has acted in this world.  Acted in ancient Israel.  Acted in Jesus Christ.  And through the Holy Spirit, God is still acting in our lives today.

So rejoice!  Give thanks!  For there is good that God is doing in all the crazyness around us.

Open my eyes that I may see your deliverance, O Lord, and that I, like the ancient Israelites, may sing your praises for all you have done.  Amen.