Praise of the Saints

Just last week I had the distinct privilege of attending an evening worship service held at the RP Home (a nursing facility for members of my denomination) where my dad was scheduled to preach.

To start things off we arrived an hour too early. I hunkered down, pulled out my Bible and prepared to spend the upcoming hour preparing my heart for worship (a practice, which to my great shame, I was dreading at the time). But lo and behold, we were soon joined in fellowship by a few unexpected residents who noticed us sitting alone and came to see what we were doing.

Time flew from that point onward, which really shouldn't have surprised me given how wonderful and edifying my trip to the Home was last summer while I attended TFY. The fellowship was deep and the company very amiable. It was a joy to experience.

But as my dad started the service I noticed something even more amazing. It really seemed to catch my attention during the congregational prayer, as numerous voices gave verbal and genuine agreement to what was being lifted before the Lord by way of a hearty grunt of approval, or a warm "amen". What I discovered was that these people were actually enthusiastic about their prayer!

I had made the mistaken assumption that because they were elderly, they would somehow be a dull crowd, barely able to stay awake past their six o'clock bed times. But to my shock they were more alert and responsive than I was being!

But it didn't end there. When the psalms were sung, though they were off key a few times, the emotion driving them was far more sincere than I have heard in a very long time. The experience of lives spent in service to our Lord and Savior in the deepest devotion rang out through the words of the psalmist...and thus, through the Great Psalmist Himself. It was truly a sight and sound to behold.

What I have taken from that very brief experience is a conviction that my own generation needs to be far more vocal in our own praise...and far more sincere. Truly, we do not have the experience of full lives lived in an attempt to fulfill our chief end of glorifying God by His grace, but we do have the advantage of youth and can surely muster more praise and enthusiasm in our worship by making use of that energy and the zeal that it affords.

Once again, I am dumb-struck by the simple wonder of just how much we can learn from those who have lived before us. Praise be to the God who created our fathers, and our fathers' fathers to give us a godly example to follow throughout the years.