Some homes have a front room that nobody really uses. The best chairs are arranged just so, facing a coffee table with a crocheted doily. The glass cabinet holds the wedding china. The children know not to run in there, and the grown-ups only sit in it when the pastor visits. It is the most carefully kept room in the house, and the least alive.
It is possible for a whole household’s faith to end up like that room. Respectable. Well kept. Quiet. Brought out on Sundays and put away again.
A loud little psalm
Psalm 150 is the last song in the Bible’s hymnbook, and it is anything but quiet. In six short verses it calls for the trumpet, the lute and harp, the timbrel and dance, stringed instruments and flutes, and cymbals, loud and clashing. “Praise Him with the timbrel and dance; praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!” (Psalm 150:4).
The reasons given are simple: praise him “for His mighty acts” and “according to His excellent greatness” (Psalm 150:2). And then comes the closing line, which sweeps in everyone: “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD” (Psalm 150:6).
Everything that has breath. Not only the choir. Not only the people with good voices or the ones who know when to clap. The toddler banging a pot lid. The teenager with headphones. The grandfather who can no longer stand but still taps his stick. Every lung in the house is invited.
Why our homes go quiet
Most Christian households do not decide to stop celebrating. It happens gradually. The early years in a new home may be full of singing, prayer meetings in the living room, children performing Christmas plays on the verandah. Then life fills in. There are bills, night shifts, exams, illnesses, disagreements. The radio is switched to the news. Family devotions become a quick prayer before bed, and then not even that.
Sometimes the quiet also comes from a kind of embarrassment. We live close to neighbours. We worry about seeming odd or showy. We think praise belongs in church, where it is expected, rather than in a kitchen where somebody might hear.
Yet the psalmist seems to have no such worries. He begins “in His sanctuary” (Psalm 150:1), but by the end the praise has spilled out to every living thing. It is not contained in a building.
Remembering the mighty acts
The psalm gives us a reason to praise that fits every household: God’s mighty acts. It can help to name them out loud, specifically, as a family. Not in grand theological terms, but in the language of your own house:
- The year the job was lost and the rent was still paid.
- The storm that came close and turned.
- The day the title finally came through.
- The son who came home.
- The test results that were clear.
Some families keep a list like this on the inside of a cupboard door and add to it through the year. When gratitude is written down, praise has somewhere to start.
Praise that looks like your family
Psalm 150 lists so many instruments that it almost seems to be saying: bring whatever you have. The praise of one household will not look like another’s, and it does not need to. For one family it is a hymn sung while washing up. For another it is a drum and a borrowed keyboard on a Friday night. For another it is a grandmother’s shout of “Thank you, Jesus!” when the water comes back on.
A few ways to let a home become a little louder with gladness:
- Play worship music while cooking or cleaning, and let the children choose the songs.
- Mark small milestones: a finished room, a paid-off loan, a good report card. Say thank you to God together.
- Invite friends from church for an evening of singing in the living room, not a formal service.
- Let the front room be used. Push the chairs back. Dance, if you want to.
Consideration for neighbours still matters, of course. Celebration is not an excuse for keeping the street awake at midnight. But a household that sings together is usually a gift to the people around it, not a burden.
For reflection
- When did your home last sound glad? What was happening?
- What is one of God’s “mighty acts” in your household that you have never properly celebrated?
A prayer
Lord, you have done great things for us, and too often we have been quiet about it. Forgive us for keeping our praise shut away. Fill this house with gladness again, from the youngest to the oldest. Let everything in this home that has breath praise you. Amen.
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