Clap Your Hands

A Reflection on the Psalm for May 24th, 2020:
The Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

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Psalm 47

R. God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.

Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy. For the Lord, the Most High, is awesome, a great king over all the earth. 

R. God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.

God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. 
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R. God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.

For God is the king of all the earth; sing praises with a Psalm. God is king over the nations; God sits on his holy throne. 

R. God has gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.

Pause. Pray.

And then read more...

"Clap your hands all you peoples" (Psalm 47:1)


When I think about clapping my hands, I immediately think about joy. I clap when someone has done or said something that excites me: my child has taken his first step or my friend got a job that she really needed. Or maybe I strongly agree with what I am seeing or hearing, like when the speaker at a conference says something that resonates with me. Sometimes it’s a natural instinct, and most times the clapping of hands is accompanied by a smile, an expression of great joy.

There are also times when I clap my hands just because everyone else is clapping. Sometimes clapping can even annoy me, especially when it goes on too long. If I strongly disagree with something, I sit with my arms folded and refuse to clap. Clapping, or lack thereof, has the power to convey strong emotion.


“Clap your hands all you peoples:
Shout to God with loud songs of joy.
For the Lord, the Most High, is awesome... ” (Psalm 47:1-2)


The emotion that the psalmist is trying to convey here is the awe-struck feeling we can have in God’s presence. “Sing praises with a psalm”, he says, “God is King over the nations.” (Psalm 47:7-8)


This is a good reason to clap my hands. It’s a good reason to shout for joy.


This Sunday is the feast of the Ascension of the Lord, the day we celebrate that, “Jesus Christ, the head of the Church, precedes us into the Father's glorious kingdom so that we, the members of his Body, may live in the hope of one day being with him forever.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 666)

This is also a good reason to clap my hands. In fact there are so many good reasons I should be constantly clapping!

So why aren’t I? If I’m honest, I’d say that sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the day to day routine of my life and forget all the reasons I have to be joyful. It’s easy to grow complacent and forget what my life was like before I took a radical step towards Jesus. It’s easy to take God’s promises for granted. It’s easy just to sit with my arms folded.
 
My prayer today is that we can remember all the good things that God has done for us. I pray that as we go about our day we will be awestruck by all the blessings we have been given. I pray that we will have many reasons to clap our hands today and that we won’t be afraid to do just that.




Maxine Brown
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Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash

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