Psalm 95:1 -7 Common English Bible

Come, let’s sing out loud to the Lord! Let’s raise a joyful shout to the rock of our salvation! Let’s come before him with thanks! Let’s shout songs of joy to him! The Lord is a great God, the great king over all other gods.

The earth’s depths are in his hands; the mountain heights belong to him; the sea, which he made, is his along with the dry ground, which his own hands formed. Come, let’s worship and bow down! Let’s kneel before the Lord, our maker! He is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep in his hands.

____

I took a couple of years of voice lessons in my mid 30s. It all began in a music store in Madison, Indiana and a conversation I had with Archie Coons. Archie owned the store, was the Music Director at Trinity Methodist Church in town and taught music classes at a Bible College in Cincinnati.

During our conversation, I mentioned to him that I was tone deaf.

Archie told me that I wasn’t really tone deaf. He told me that, like many boys of my generation, I was embarrassed to sing in my early teens and thereby lost my ability to distinguish music notes. What I needed, was to re-acquaint myself to that natural ability.

So, Once a week for over two years, I met with Archie in his shop and he gave me voice lessons.

Some weeks we made progress. Other works we went backward. Archie was amazingly patient, encouraging and kind. He celebrated every step forward, and found reasons for every step back.

But, after about 2 years, Archie said to me, “You are right. You are tone deaf,” and I became an illustration in his voice class at the Bible College.

What lead me on the failed journey to become a singer (in my mid 30s)?

Well, I love to sing. Always have. But between my crippling self consciousness and less than stellar reviews of my singing, I count among these reviews the “D” I got in music class in sixth grade and the admonition from my kids as we did family sing alongs in the car together, “Hey dad, don’t sing, you should concentrate on driving,” I don’t sing- out loud, where I can be heard.

Still, I love to sing. I sing as I walk alone in the woods, I used to sing to my children when they were small before they became music critics, I sing to my dogs, I sing in the car as I drive. I love to sing worship songs, but if anybody is around I sing them at a whisper. As I think about it, I have to conclude that when I am alone, I spend considerable time singing!

Which leads me to a question. I should ask the question and then turn the microphone over to Brad to answer, because I am sure he can give a much better answer than me, but since its my job I will do the best I can to answer this question, which is, “Why do we sing?”

We sing to Celebrate!

when we win

In 1982, many will remember, the Cool and the Gang song, Celebration was adopted by Saint Louis Cardinals fans as their team won the World Series. For me, as a Cubs fan, it is the annoying little ditty sung after a win, Go Cubs Go.

Moses and Miriam sang a song when the Israelites, and not the Egyptians, made it through the Red Sea.

Tent peg wielding Deborah sang a song at the defeat of the Canaanite army.

Huge crowds sang songs of victory after David bounced one off Goliath’s head.

when we win

when we’re happy. Songs break out as smiles break out.

when we feel blessed and thankful.

We are right now, as part of our Daily Bible Reading challenge reading some of the powerful thanksgiving psalms, expressing gratitude that comes from grateful hearts.

Jesus and his disciples sang a tune as they left the room after the Supper. Makes me wonder how often Jesus and his followers sat around singing songs together- in thanksgiving.

Conversely, as we sing to celebrate, we also sing to lament. When our hearts break, we sing.

Have you noticed that within the Thanksgiving Psalms that we are reading daily, there is often lament paralleled in the same song. Lament highlights the struggles, the disadvantages, the broken hearted-ness that is what it means to be human.

From the

biblical laments, to

African American Spirituals, to

the Blues, to

Punk Rock, to

Country Music wherein my baby left me behind and drove away in my pick up truck with my dog and my last case of beer,

lament is a reason we sing.

One of my favorite psalms describes the despair of those who have been deported to Babylon:

By the waters of Babylon,

there we sat down and wept,

when we remembered Zion.

On the willows there

we hung up our lyres.

For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth,

saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”

Understand that while the writer of the song says we cannot sing because of our heartbreak, he writing lyrics to a song to be sung- because we sing to lament.

We sing to feel. Sometimes we sing because we feel something and sometimes we sing hoping to feel something.

Am I right is assuming, Brad, that you are more likely to sing with passion and conviction if the message of the song feels like it has eternal value, like a call for justice rather than, say, a jingle for beer.

And sometimes, we sing, hoping to be inspired in a way we are not as we begin. In the Television show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy sings a line that I think is telling. She sings, “Don’t give me songs, give me something to sing about.”

We sing to communicate something that simple prose can’t. The song in the Bible named the Song of Solomon is a romantic declaration of love that, I’m telling you, when young Solomon or whoever, sang it to their beloved, hearts were melted and tears were shed.

We sing to be heard. Some of us grew singing the hymn, “We’ve a story to tell to the nations.” Singing is a way of proclaiming. “Listen to me, I’ve got something to say.”

We sing to tell a story. I think my favorite songs are songs that tell stories. So many of the psalms are a recounting of the story of God at work in history.

While Ron Chernow’s 800 page book, Alexander Hamilton is good reading, telling the story through song turns out to be a phenomenon.

Judi and I recently watched a documentary titled the Ballad of John Henry. I always thought John Henry was a myth, but research has shown the man and the feat to be rooted in history. A story we would not know without the song. Singing can help a story stay current forever.

We sing to encourage. Paul would remind his readers, “speak to each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; sing and make music to the Lord in your hearts.”

We sing to pray.

We sing to entertain.

There are a million other reasons why we sing, but let me finish by saying,

We sing to acknowledge that there is something above and beyond us.

It is in this spirit the Psalmist sings,

“Come, let’s sing out loud to the Lord!

Let’s raise a joyful shout to the rock of our salvation!

Let’s come before God with thanks!

Let’s shout songs of joy!

The Lord is a great God,

the great king over all other gods.

The earth’s depths are in God’s hands;

the mountain heights belong to God;

the sea, which God made,

along with the dry ground,

which God’s own hands formed.

Come, let’s worship and bow down!

Let’s kneel before the Lord, our maker! The Lord is our God, and we are the people of God’s pasture, the sheep in his hands.

Amen.

____

Pastoral Prayer/ Lectio Divina

Psalm 100

Shout triumphantly to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with celebration! Come before him with shouts of joy! Know that the Lord is God— he made us; we belong to him. We are his people, the sheep of his own pasture. Enter his gates with thanks; enter his courtyards with praise! Thank him! Bless his name! Because the Lord is good, his loyal love lasts forever; his faithfulness lasts generation after generation.