"Balls To The Wall"

"Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto Him with the psaltery and an instrument with ten strings." (Psalms 33:2) Having studied a little bit about the entertainment industry, especially that of live entertainment, there is something to be said about giving it all that you got, and then some; something commonly referred to as a "throw down" in some circles, meaning, we are going to show up and throw it all down, leaving nothing inside. The word "praise" literally means "to throw down", and in the art (if you will) of worship, it means to praise God with everything that have, giving Him everything you got, and then some! Great entertainers are those that go beyond just the basic act of entertaining people, they try to amaze with talent from deep within; stuff that even amazes themselves in the process of trying to amaze others. The greatest feeling that can be felt is that of loosing yourself in the art of worship before the God that formed you in your mother's womb! There is nothing that compares to free, unadulterated worship; worship that is not hindered by fear of what others might think, nor concerned with the environment or the people around you, but just focused on God, and Him alone! When I was first home from the Navy, I was living at my mom's house, and I stayed in a camper that was sitting on the ground in the back yard; and before leaving the Philippines, I bought and shipped the top of the line stereo system to my mother house, and had set that system up inside of that camper; it was basically me living inside of a speaker; some pretty awesome speakers with 16" woofers and able to take 600 amps of power without getting distorted. My favorite group at that time was Rush, and you can bet I played it loud; so loud; the camper sounded like it was busting at the seams, and the cymbals of Neil Peart's drums would make the shell of the camper tingle as if electrified. It was so loud, that my mother was outside banging on the camper for me to turn it down, and I never even heard her attempts until the song was over: we are talking about something intense, where you actually feel your temperature rise, and your tent becomes just that, an empty shell filled with nothing but pour adrenalin. Anywho, I wanted to share that, only because in my BC days, that was the closest thing that I can point to that even comes close to "throw down" before God, and what it means to worship God with everything that is within us. Another meaning for that same word, is that of giving thanks; to praise God with a heart of thanksgiving and to celebrate the benefits of the forgiveness of sin that comes through confession...
"Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words on the God of Israel, because of the transgression of those that had been carried away; and I sat astonished until the evening sacrifice. And at the evening sacrifice I arose from my heaviness; and having rent my garments and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God, and said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to Thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens. Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand on the kings on the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil and to confusion of face, as it is this day. And now for a little space grace hath been shown from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in His holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage." (Ezra 9:4-8)