Learning to Sing a New Song

It has taken me a while to warm up to singing as a form of praise and even prayer.  Growing up, the songs I sang at church were very somber affairs – played on an organ with a heavy feel to them.  I imagine that was to lend them an air of sacredness and solemnity.  But they were far from a joyful noise to the Lord, like David talks about in Psalm 100:1-2.  Add to that the hurtful comment a voice teacher made many years ago that silenced my voice for decades, and you begin to see why music at church was just something to get through.  But God, who is the great healer, has helped me regain my voice, and while He was at it, He has been teaching me a thing or two about music as a form of praise and as a deep type of prayer and communion with Him.

God is shouting and singing with joy when we are saved!

What really got me thinking about music as a form of communicating with God was when I discovered Zephaniah 3:17 (ESV):  “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”  I was captured by the picture of love and care from God that I saw in this verse.  My mind immediately jumped to the image of a parent holding a child, comforting it by rocking and singing.  It brought tears to my eyes to think of God quieting us just like a mother quiets a crying infant with a lullaby.  But when I looked again, the singing here is no lullaby.  This is God singing loudly over us with exultation.  This is a victory song!  The Hebrew word used here for exult is gil and it means to rejoice or to cry out in gladness.  God is shouting and singing with joy.  And what is He so joyful over?   Let’s look at the beginning of the verse.  He is the God who saves.  He is shouting and singing with joy when we are saved!  What an amazing picture that He shares with us of Himself as the God who loves us so completely and so overwhelmingly that He is overcome by joy when we choose to give our hearts to Him.

What is a proper relationship with church music?

So then that got me thinking about how I sing to God.  If He sings so loudly and joyfully to me, how should I be singing to Him?  All of a sudden, phoning in half-hearted attempts at hymns because they were just part of the routine of church services felt disrespectful and distancing.  What is appropriate when raising hymns to God?  I certainly don’t want to turn my worship music into something too far on the other side – a time to rock out in front of everyone else because the song has a good beat, but with no connection to God.  What is a proper relationship with church music?  I decided to start with turning to David.  After all, he was the most famous and prolific musician in the Bible, having written most of the songs that are recorded in Psalms.  Besides, God called him a man after His own heart and who wouldn’t want God to say that about us, too? 

Singing should be about salvation.

Psalm 98:1 says we should: “Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.”  Singing should be about salvation.  The Lord said it in Zephaniah and now David says it in this psalm.  We sing because we are saved.  We sing with awe and reverence because we could never save ourselves, and we don’t even deserve to be saved, but God offers salvation to us anyhow, and that through the death of His own Son.  That is a lot to be joyful about.  So sing with gratitude and thanksgiving.  Sing with a full heart and offer that heart up while you offer up notes.  Psalm 71:23 says, “My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you – I whom you have delivered.”  It’s pretty obvious how David felt about it – He talks about singing to God so many times!  But sometimes it is easy to write David off with his singing because he was a musician, after all.  How about the rest of us who are not?  How about those of us who are not so talented or confident in our musical abilities?  I was there.  I quit singing for three decades because of a cruel comment.  The last thing I wanted to do was lift my voice loud anywhere, let alone in a worship service.  Let the Davids in the group do the singing.  I was content to sit back and listen.

Singing is a joyful event and a commandment.

Imagine my surprise when I ran across a verse about singing by one of the last people in the Bible I would ever expect – Paul.  Now to be honest, I have no idea what Paul’s singing ability was.  He might have been very talented.  But that is not the picture I get of him.  He is the ex-Pharisee tentmaker – the unstoppable and fearless apostle.  His words can cut to the quick when needed and he never stopped speaking them.  He just doesn’t feel like much of an artistic soul.  But he sang.  Colossians 3:1 says, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”  There it is.  Worship and even teach with songs of gratitude.  Singing is a joyful event and a commandment, even to Paul.  Even in his darkest hours.  Even in prison. 

Even in our hardest moments, our hearts can raise songs of gratitude and praise to our God.

When Paul and Silas were sitting in prison in Philippi, they sang.  There wasn’t a lot to be thankful for in that moment.  Not a lot of gratitude and joy involved in sitting in a first century prison, having just been brutally beaten with rods.  Yet Acts 16:25 says, “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.”  Even in our hardest moments, our hearts can raise songs of gratitude and praise to our God.  And how did God respond?  He sent an earthquake that would have released Paul and Silas from prison.  They could have escaped, but with gratitude for their own salvation still singing in their hearts, they stayed.  And because they stayed, the jailer was saved and entered into a relationship with Jesus.  Not only that but the jailer took them to his own house, washed their wounds, fed them, and shared the good news with them that the magistrates wanted to let them go free.  Talk about something to sing about!  But Paul and Silas were already singing in gratitude before all the good things started to happen.  They were singing when it was hopeless.  

My singing never should have been about what anyone else thought.

I want to sing like that – prayerfully and yet powerfully and with great joy and thanksgiving, no matter my circumstances.  But first I had to overcome my fear of singing.  I had to get my voice back from decades of believing one person’s hatefulness.  It took time and a lot of encouragement from my friends in the band I play with.  But slowly I regained my voice.  I am not the world’s best singer.  I will never go on American Idol.  But my singing isn’t about that anymore.  My singing never should have been about what anyone else thought.  It should always have been a prayer of gratitude raised to my Savior.  And as I started singing out more, I came to realize that I am good enough.  I am not perfect, but even with a few imperfections, when I am singing with others I blend in just fine.  I can make a joyful noise even in the imperfection.  I can sing loudly and confidently with others who are singing loudly, and it is all good to the ears of the Lord.  Or I can sing softly and with tears when times are hard, and it is even better. 

They are pouring their hearts out in prayer that happens to be set to notes.

Recently, I have gotten to participate in worship singing across many different events in different churches.  It has opened up a whole new world of experiencing communion with God.  I have watched and listened as a crowd of sincere believers begin singing a song, only to hear their voices raise louder and louder as they are filled more and more with God’s Spirit.  I have seen them lift their hands and their hearts to God in prayer as the song moves them to pure praise and thanksgiving.  I used to be a little suspicious of people who got into the songs that much.  I didn’t understand why the arms went up and the volume increased.  I get it now.  They aren’t singing as much as they are pouring their hearts out in prayer that happens to be set to notes.  I praise God in my quiet prayer time, but it is nothing like how I can release pure praise and joy to Him in the middle of a group of fellow believers who are literally pouring their hearts out.  And what happens in those moments is nothing short of miraculous.  The sound of those voices raised in song becomes a heavenly choir that puts to shame any earthly singing group.  I would almost believe the angels join in and help us along.  Even though the people are not professional singers and sometimes the notes that come out are off key, you wouldn’t know it.  It sounds as if we have practiced for weeks.  It is not only a joyful, but a beautiful noise to the Lord.  The church buildings actually reverberate as the song comes to an end.  It is in those moments that I feel a touch of heaven.  My heart bursts with the thought that this – this joyful, whole-hearted love and adoration for our God – is how I will spend eternity.  Singing praise has become an activity I seek out and anticipate, rather than hiding from.  It has become one of my deepest forms of prayer.

Even if you don’t sing loud, please sing.

I know it is hard.  It is hard to make yourself that vulnerable when you don’t believe you have a singing ability.  I know you aren’t going to go to worship service and immediately be willing to belt out a hymn.  But it isn’t about that either.  I believe those times when the volume increases in those worship meetings happened without anyone consciously thinking about it.  I know I didn’t.  I just realized towards the end that I was singing louder and more sincerely.  But even if you don’t sing loud, please sing.  I promise I won’t make that rude comment to you that I heard so many years ago.  I won’t turn and glare at you.  Anyone who does, is not worth your time.  It isn’t about them.  It is about a God who sings to you and over you.  It is about a God who loved a broken, sinful man named David who couldn’t stop singing to Him.  And it is about a God who wants you to open up your heart in a song of praise and gratitude for the free gift of salvation through the suffering of His Son.  May all of your songs rise as prayers made of joyful noise to the ears of our God who hears you and loves you intensely.

I hope today’s message touched your heart, increased your understanding, and encouraged you.  Praying the peace and comfort of Christ Jesus on your life.