Sweet Singing!
Meditation for the week of May 1, 2011
Now these are the last words of David. Thus says David the son of Jesse; Thus says the man raised up on high, The anointed of the God of Jacob, And the sweet psalmist of Israel. (2 Samuel 23:1)
David had the ability to write songs and to sing. His songs were “sweet.” When he played with the harp, it soothed Saul’s troubled spirit. When we read his Psalms or songs our hearts are refreshed. We are brought into close communion with the Lord. His songs must have touched the hearts of those who heard them.
David was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22). I think that meant that he was always loyal to the Lord and was never tempted to serve other gods as most of the other kings of Israel and Judah did. While David made mistakes, he always loved the Lord with all his heart, soul and mind (Matthew 22:37). His love for the Lord made him happy and his songs reflected that. He wrote songs for others to sing but they were songs that reflected his own worship. The Lord must have really enjoyed hearing David sing. We may not be able to write songs, but I am sure that the Lord enjoys hearing his own people sing as well.
We are going to sing in heaven. Revelation 5:9 says, “And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation.’” We are told that angels don’t sing in spite of our hymnology. They were not redeemed from the slave market of sin, but we who are saved were. We have reason to sing that they do not have.
If we are happy, we are to sing Psalms (James 5;13). If we are filled with the spirit and if the word of God is dwelling in us richly, we will make melody in our hearts to the Lord (Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16). Our singing will be from the heart and while others may enjoy it, the real key is that we will be enjoying. I believe that the Lord is happy when He sees that we are happy. He is particularly happy when He sees that we are happy with Him.
Why is it easier to use our tongues to complain and gossip and slander others when instead we should be spontaneously breaking into singing when we consider that we are the redeemed of the Lord? The mountains and hills will be singing in a future day (Isaiah 55:12). Even if this prophecy is allegorical, singing is shown to be the normal, natural, and spontaneous response when we are overwhelmed with the awesomeness of God. Because singing seems so unnatural in our society, be warned that if you break forth into song people will wonder if you have “lost it.”
Today we have people sing to us and often it moves us. We have headphones on and hear good music. But do we sing? I remember a man who was working in a lumber store that was about to close many years ago. He was poor and needed hip surgery. He had every reason to be concerned and maybe even unhappy. One day, I stopped in to see him. He was at the back of the lumber store working. He didn’t see me come in. As I approached him, I realized that he was singing. There was no audience other than the Lord. He had no one to impress. But he was happy and he was showing it. I think the Lord was impressed. I know I was.
One of the best ways to attract others to the Lord is to be truly happy in the Lord. Surely in this day of trouble and calamity, we would like to have others find out what it means to be saved or born again. We would like to see them flee from the coming wrath and we would like to see them turn from sin and the worship of self and riches and false gods to the the Living and True God. We would like them to be saved because we believe eternity is long and time is short and that the promises of God are yea and amen. Perhaps if there were more heartfelt singing, there would be more people attracted to the Savior that we say we love. We don’t need actors performing for an audience as much as we need simple people who can’t help but sing because they are enjoying the Lord.
Bruce Collins