Written ~ 09-08-2023
Luke 19:37-40
“When He reached the place where the road started down the Mount of Olives, all of His followers began to shout and sing as they walked along, praising God for all the wonderful miracles they had seen. ‘Blessings on the King who comes in the Name of the Lord! Peace in Heaven, and Glory in the Highest Heaven!’ But some of the Pharisees among the crowd said, ‘Teacher, rebuke Your followers for saying things like that!’ He replied, ‘If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!’”
Think about when Jesus was walking on the earth, so many people thought He was just an ordinary man, a good teacher, a passionate teacher, and nothing more. But to those whose eyes and ears were opened, they knew the Messiah was walking among them. Having that knowledge, they couldn’t help but shout and sing praises to His name. Even though we may not have Jesus here on earth, walking among us, we do have Him living within us. As soon as we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, we have Him with us every step of the way. And having Him within our very hearts and souls compels us sing and shout His praises! The only difference is we can’t touch Him, we can’t see Him with our physical eyes, and we can’t hear His voice with our physical ears. But we do feel His touch on our lives, we do see the beauty of His creation, His wonderful Glory, and we hear His voice speaking to us through the Holy Spirit, through the Scriptures. If you turn to the Book of Psalms, within its pages we see David and a few others writing about the beauty of our Lord and writing songs about His Glory. If you’re ever at a loss to how you can praise the Name of the Lord, check out Psalms for inspiration!
Psalm 9:1-2
“I will Praise You, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things You have done. I will be filled with JOY because of YOU. I will sing praises to Your Name, O Most High.”
Psalm 34:1-3
“I will praise the LORD at all times. I will constantly speak His praises. I will boast only in the LORD; let all who are helpless take heart. Come, let us tell of the LORD’s greatness; let us exalt His Name together.”
Psalm 47:1-2, 6-7
“Come, everyone! Clap your hands! Shout to God with joyful praise! For the LORD Most High is awesome. He is the great King of all the earth. Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King over all the earth. Praise Him with a psalm.”
In Luke 19 we have the Lord’s followers doing just that, praising His Name, worshiping Him, and singing about His greatness. So, when the Pharisees (a member of a Jewish sect noted for strict observance of rites and ceremonies of the written law), came to Jesus asking Him to tell His followers to be quiet, I love His response!
Verse 19:40,
“He replied, ‘If they kept quiet, the stones along the road would burst into cheers!’”
I gotta tell ya’, I would love to witness that! Could you imagine, if the people of the earth stopped praising the Name of Jesus, then suddenly, every rock, every stone started praising the Lord with a mighty cheer! That would be a glorious sound!! The only unfortunate thing about that kind of scenario would mean the people of the earth are no longer praising the Name of the Lord. And well, we would not want that. Let’s remain a people of praise, let’s remind ourselves over and over again how awesome our Lord and Savior is, let’s lift our voices with shouts and cheers of praise. Jesus Christ the Messiah is our King. He is the Son of the Almighty God; He is worthy of ALL our praise.
~AMEN~