Tambourines are fantastic.
First, they’re simple to play. If we can make a fist, we can play a tambourine. All we need to do is hold on and shake. Of course, the more we play, the better we’ll sound, but even a child can give it a good rattle.
Second, they’re unmistakable. There’s no other sound like a tambourine. It’s bright and cheerful, and it catches everyone’s attention. If we’re playing a tambourine, everyone knows.
Third, there’s more than one sound we can get from a tambourine. Give it a good shake, and the multiple sets of jangles (or cymbals) strike one another with a bright sound. Tap the membrane of the head, and we get a resonant thumping noise. Vary these, and the cymbal can produce all sorts of rhythmic sounds.
Fourth, tambourines come in a number of shapes and forms. Some are little more than leather straps. Others resemble drums. Some are on stands, no more than a metal ring with attached jangles we can jar with a drum stick or our foot. It’s the variety that makes them so special.
Here’s another thing about tambourines: We can hardly listen to them without breaking into dance.
Psalm 149:3 encourages us to dance before God:
“Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!”
Ecclesiastes 3:4 says we should set aside a time to dance:
“A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.”
Jeremiah 31:13 tells us dancing makes other people happy:
“Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.”
Psalm 30:11 promises us we will one day dance in the sunshine:
“You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.”
2 Samuel 6:14 wants us to put everything into our dance:
“And David danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod.”
Psalm 150:4 sums up the rest:
“Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!”
Believers come in all shapes and sizes. We’re as different from one another as one style of tambourine is from another. Yet, we are all equally equipped to bring joy into the lives of those around us, and they will want to dance at our side.
Life’s too short for sad faces. Let’s dance before our King.
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