Glory to God

Psalm 147:1

Praise the Lord!

For it is good to sing praises to our God;

For it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.

It is amazing to realize that there was a time when worship in song was debated in Christian churches. When the people of God wondered if it was sanctioned by him in the Church. Fortunately for all of us search was made of the scriptures and it was plain to them that any who would look upon the great blessings of the Lord would be compelled to “sing the wonderous love of Jesus, sing his mercy and his grace”, as the hymnist says. What a natural response it is to sing of the grace and mercy of those who bless us and no one has blessed us more than God himself.

Yet singing has fallen on hard times. The majority of us in the pews believe we are no longer able either to read music or carry a tune. We have begun to believe the falsehood that all God’s gifts come without work attached. Even believe that salvation can occur without sanctification to follow. As if you are given a gun and assume you can hit what you are aiming at. Becoming a good shot takes loading the weapon and firing it. Missing and doing it again and again. Such is the gift of salvation. We receive it then we work out our salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12).

Such is the majority of the Christian walk. God has given us men who can preach but not many start able to do it well. It is a gift that must be honed. God has given us men and women who can sing but that to comes with work. The Psalmist continues in this psalm to recount the greatness of the Lord and commands that we should “sing to the Lord with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre!” To be overwhelmed by God is to lose sight of yourself. Often, we become “self”-conscious when we first try to do things we are not good at. This word is just a cover though for our own “self”-centeredness, instead of “Christ”-centeredness. No, most of us will sing a little off key, or maybe not so “little”, yet who are we focused on?

We desire to sing well for the glory of God. Yet do we desire it enough to practice? To we desire to play the “lyre”, piano, violin, guitar, bass, that he might be glorified more? It is easy to bring worship into ourselves and make it about ourselves when our vision slips from him who saved us from ourselves. This then is the Christian’s constant battle to keep Christ in the center that we might learn how to praise him. Let us work at getting better at singing, at learning an instrument, at clapping on beat, that we might do it well. Let us not fall short and fail to try again. Just like walking and riding a bike, we will fall. Yet, if we are to do it well, we get up and try again until we stop falling as much or at all.

“I remember when I was a lad

times were hard and things were bad

but there’s a silver linin’ behind every cloud

just four people that’s all we were

tryin’ to make a livin’ out of black-land dirt

but we’d get together in a family circle singin’ LOUD.” – Jonny Cash

CURCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO