Psalm 5

Psalm 5

1Give ear to my words, O LORD; consider my meditation.2Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King and my God, for unto Thee will I pray.
3My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto Thee and will look up.
4For Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness; neither shall evil dwell with Thee.
5The foolish shall not stand in Thy sight; Thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
6Thou shalt destroy them that speak lies; the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.
7But as for me, I will come into Thy house in the multitude of Thy mercy, and in Thy fear will I worship toward Thy holy temple.
8Lead me, O LORD, in Thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make Thy way straight before my face.
9For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is exceeding wickedness. Their throat is an open sepulcher; they flatter with their tongue.
¹⁰Destroy Thou them, O God! Let them fall by their own counsels. Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against Thee.
¹¹But let all those that put their trust in Thee rejoice; let them ever shout for joy, because Thou defendest them; let them also that love Thy name be joyful in Thee.
 ¹²For Thou, LORD, wilt bless the righteous; with favor wilt Thou compass him about as with a shield.

 To me, this Psalm is a prayer.  I love the last two verses.  My favorite is that when God saves you, you are so happy you want to shout!  So why do we hush up in church?  Why do we not just yell out and praise God?  Because I believe there is a time and a place for joyful shouting, and a time and place for reverence and quietness.  Which do you prefer?  For me it is whatever atmosphere I am in.  I love to hear children at camp shouting, dancing, singing, just generally having a great time.  But I also like the solitude, quietness, and solemness of a prayer service.

I think it is very important to teach your children both.  They need to know how to sit, listen and be quiet during a church service.  I also think they need to know it's okay to shout, sing, and praise God for all their worth.  For a long time, I didn't realize that I could be anything but solemn at church.  I love that I could go off to camp and praise God a different way.  It's okay to have a good time and bring everyone to their feet, with their hands in the air worshipping our God.  Saying God's name, thanking him for his love, makes me thankful.