Okay, okay I know what you're thinking... I couldn't believe it either when I first read it myself. But it's right there in the opening line of Psalm 33 verse 1;
"Sing for Joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones; Praise is becoming to the upright." (NIV)
As one reads this passage it would seem that singing makes us beautiful in God's eyes (or "becoming" as the NIV translation reads - and "comely" in the King James) and therefore he looks upon us in a different way - it makes us pure and holy in his eyes... a spiritual "face-lift" you could even say. (Wow, I'll bet if I shared that scripture this week, it might get a few of my folks singing even louder and stronger on Sunday morning don't you think?)
God loves for us to sing to him. God even takes great pleasure in our devotion of singing, so much so, that he leads us by example - In the book of Zephaniah it says - "…He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. "
What, God sings to us? Doesn't that just blow your mind? It's like driving down the freeway and seeing a sign on the side of the road that causes you to do a "double-take." Did I really read that correctly? Could that be true? God loves to sing over us? Absolutely!
The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." (Zeph. 3:17 NIV)
There is a song I've been teaching my church to sing the last few months - It's called "Mighty to Save" (Hillsongs)
I recall the line from the bridge of the song that goes like this;
"Shine your light and
let the whole world see,
We're singing for the glory
of the risen King"
I guess that really sums it all up right there... the what, how and why we sing on Sunday mornings. We're singing for HIS glory! Now, to be honest with you - you will always have a few "fuddy-duds" who are in your church every week - great and wonderful folks bless their hearts - BUT they are just determined and stubborn to NOT learn any "new songs." (Dealing with them will have to be another future chapter in my blog I suppose!) They will only want to sing the songs "they already know." Some will even refuse to try... (Oh, if they only knew - some of those "old favorite hymns" of theirs are actually HARDER to sing than many of the newer songs and require some rather extraordinary singing skills! - but that's another blog too I suppose!)
Anyway, I tried to "google" and find out just how many times the Bible uses the phrase "Sing a new song" or "Sing unto the Lord a new song" is written and the only number I could find (although I think the actual number has to be higher!) was 61 times. (418 times for the word "Sing" - please let me know if you find a different number...)
God wants us to sing, and He wants us to sing to HIM and to glorify HIM. It makes HIM happy and pleases HIM!
I close with a simple thought to ponder... How would YOU feel as a father, mother, grandfather, grandmother - if your children or grandchildren just suddenly decided to start singing to you for no other reason but just to make you happy? How would you see them? How would they look in YOUR eyes?
Pray about that.
Blessings,
Dave
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