OUR DAILY FESTAL PROCESSION

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The Lord is God, and He has made His light shine on us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar.

You are my God, and I will praise You; You are my God, and I will exalt You.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.

Psalm 118:27-29

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

When I was younger, I remember my parents taking me to parades. We would always get there early to get a good seat so we would be able to see and I would have a good vantage point to run and grab candy that was thrown from cars and floats.

These parades were always festive celebrations with bands and other marching groups. The police and fire departments would drive their vehicles in the parade and turn on their sirens as signaled, giving kids like me a thrill. 

Yes, I always enjoyed the parades as they were fun and brought me a lot of joy. Maybe you have had the same experience in your life.

Well, as we look at the end of the 118th Psalm, we find where parades were also happening in the Old Testament times only they were referred to as festal processions. Look at these verses:

The Lord is God, and He has made His light shine on us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar.

You are my God, and I will praise You; You are my God, and I will exalt You.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.

The parade the psalmist wrote about was far different than the parades I enjoyed as a child. For at the heart of the festal celebration in the psalm, there were no bands or floats or fire trucks. No, there was only God. He was the focal point then and He should be our focal point today.

The Israelites celebrated the Lord because they realized that He was ever with them, not just some of the time but all of the time, ever shining His light upon them. Indeed, the Lord would light their path and guide their steps. His love and goodness endured unto them and so they responded in a spirit of thanksgiving, forming a festal procession and proceeding to the horns of God’s altar to worship, praise, and exalt Him.

Friends, the same Lord who cast His light on the Israelites is the same Lord who illuminates our lives today. He is the same Lord who has displayed His love and goodness to us each day we have been blessed with. Given this, every day we should walk through life with a spirit of thanksgiving, joining other fellow believers in a festal procession of worship and praise unto the One who has given us life abundantly. For He and He alone is worthy of our fullest reverence and respect.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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