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In Christ, Mark
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
In Christ, Mark
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise Him. Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to Him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.
For the word of the Lord is right and true; He is faithful in all He does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of His unfailing love.
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; He puts the deep into storehouses.
Psalm 33:1-7
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
I have loved music for as long as I can remember.
I guess it started back in the 4th grade when I decided to start playing an instrument, choosing the trumpet. I would go on to practice and practice and practice, eventually getting to the Senior High band and sitting in the number one chair from my sophomore through senior years. I really enjoyed playing and performing, using the talents that I had been blessed with.
Of course, I loved to listen to music as well. Growing up in a small town in rural Western Pennsylvania, I was in the midst of a lot of rock music in the mid to late 70’s, lots of Boston and Van Halen and Queen and Heart to name a few. But I guess I never have really ever gone with the flow. I say this because as most kids my age and in my school were listening to rock, I was listening to WAMO-FM (pronounced WAMMO-FM) out of Pittsburgh which played a steady dose of R and B as well as Funk music. To this day, I still love the sounds of The Commodores, Earth Wind and Fire, KC and the Sunshine Band, and The Gap Band.
As I grew older, I stopped playing my trumpet but picked up singing instead. At first, I just sang like most people – in the car or at home or in the shower, but never in public. There was something about singing in front of people that kept me singing my songs in private. That was until I started singing a new song.
You see, after awhile, I experienced a new type of music, Christian music. This wasn’t your hymns from church, although I do enjoy the classic hymns, but rather modern music with eternal lyrics, lyrics that sand the praises of the God who created music just as He has created everything else. And something happened when I listened to this new uplifting and inspiring music – it left me not wanting to listen to anything else.
Yes, the old music I liked to listen to just couldn’t bring my spirit to the place that the Christian music did. I couldn’t listen to it enough. And as I listened to it more and more, I also began to sing it, lifting up my own voice in praise to the Lord. I would sing song after song after song after song until one day, the Lord spoke to my heart and called me to do something I had never done before. He called for me to sing his praises publicly, to perform the songs I had only sung in private before.
And so that’s exactly what I did. I remember my first solo as I sang “Lamb of God” by Twila Paris before my church congregation. I was a ball of nerves but just turned my focus toward the Lord and the Spirit sang out through my soul. The song went very well and led to more opportunities afterwards. That was just under 20 years ago and I’m still singing today, now performing free Christian music concerts – free because it’s not about the money. It’s about singing the Lord’s praises.
Indeed, God word tells us to sing praise unto the Lord. We find this as we observe the opening verses of the 33rd Psalm. David writes:
Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise Him. Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to Him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.
We’re to joyfully sing to the Lord and not just sing the same old, same old. No, God’s word tells us to sing a new song. That means we are to be open to new music being made, music that seeks to glorify and magnify the Lord most high. There are any number of Christian music stations you can listen to and with the Internet, nearly all stations are accessible for you to listen to the newest music being recorded. The Lord is always making new songs to bless and lift up His people and many of these songs are now finding their way into contemporary worship in our churches as congregations come together to sing joyfully to the Lord.
Of course, singing isn’t the only way to elevate joyful praise to the Lord. For David speaks about using instruments to praise the Lord, instruments that “sing” in their own special way. This passage speaks about the harp and ten-stringed lyre but it also speaks to all instruments that are used to praise – guitars and other stringed instruments, keyboards, or drums. Those given the gift of playing these instruments are exhorted to play skillfully for doing what God allows you to do for the best is what He deserves.
Yes, we’re to sing and play to praise the Lord and David goes on to give us some of the reasons why we praise the Lord so much. Go back to the scripture passage.
For the word of the Lord is right and true; He is faithful in all He does. The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of His unfailing love.
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; He puts the deep into storehouses.
Why do we sing the Lord’s praises? Here’s five reasons from this word of the God:
1. The word of the Lord is right and true.
We can’t go to the word of the Lord and not find truth. It is righteous in every way, the perfect word for our every need. It instructs, inspires, corrects, convicts, and reveals the heart of God to us every time we read it. There is no other word that can do this for us and so we should feel compelled to thank God and praise Him for providing us His word.
2. The Lord is faithful in all He does.
There is no one as faithful to us as the Lord. No one is ever present with us, no one is always ready to listen to us, and no one has the power to guide and help us in times of need. Family and friends may fail us but the Lord never will and that’s reason to give consistent and persistent thanks and praise unto His name.
3. The Lord loves righteousness and justice.
A perfectly righteous Lord loves righteousness and because He loves things to be perfectly right then we shouldn’t be surprised that He loves justice as well. We need not ever worry about the judgment of the Lord being unjust because He is incapable of injustice. With this, we need never question the Lord about His ways. God’s word is truth and a Lord who loves justice and righteousness would never opt to be unfair or wrong. That’s good news that should drive us to praise Him.
4. The earth is full of the Lord’s unfailing love.
It might not seem like it with the way the networks and web sites cover the news but we do live in a world full of love. The earth is full of the Lord’s unfailing love. We just don’t hear enough about the way that love plays out across creation each and every day. If we did, we would have a whole different viewpoint on the world we live in, a world that is too often portrayed as dark and evil in nature, but in reality is full of the love of the Lord – another reason for us to praise Him.
5. Every day, we experience the Lord’s creation.
David wrote, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; He puts the deep into storehouses.” We get to see this in our creation experience, the experience of observing and engaging in the handiwork of the Lord’s hands. As we go back to Genesis, Chapter 1, we’re reminded of God’s creative power and might – how with just a spoken word, God brought things to life, how He crafted and formed the heavens and stars and seas – as well as you and me - with His amazing hands.
How could we not praise a Lord who has done all this?
Today, and every day, let us sing and/or play praises joyfully, skillfully, and boldly to the Lord Most High. For truly He, and only He, is worthy of all our honor and glory, now and forever.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
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