Have you every played the tambourine? It’s tremendously fun. When you hold a tambourine, you can’t help put shake it around and try out some rhythms. They’re loud, they’re fun, and they make music more exciting. Some people even bring their own tambourines to church.
In these three psalms, we see a clear theme: Praise the Lord! These psalms encourage all of creation to praise God with everything we’ve got.
3 Praise him with trumpet sound;
Psalm 150:3-6, ESV
praise him with lute and harp!
4 Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
5 Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!
Trumpets! Strings and pipe! Lute and harp! Loud clashing cymbals! Tambourine and dance!
I do not think this is an extensive or exclusive list of tools we can use to praise our God, but it is a great frame of reference for how we should approach worship. Worship should be exciting and celebratory because God is worthy of that response and so much more. The references to praising Him with tambourines in Psalms 149 and 150 give us a great parallel for our worship today. When you’re holding a tambourine, you can’t help but play it. When you behold the glory of God, you can’t help but praise Him.
VC Devotionals 