Thankful, Day Sixty-Nine

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands!

Serve the Lord with gladness;

Come before His presence with singing.

Know that the Lord, He is God;

It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves;

We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

And into His courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

For the Lord is good;

His mercy is everlasting,

And His truth endures to all generations.

Psalm 100, NKJV

Is there a song in your heart today? I have to confess, there's not really one in mine. Yet. I've almost always got a song on my mind, but at the moment...nada. Well, that's not exactly true. I have the themesong from an '80s soap opera playing in my head, but that's a different story.

I'm an old soul, they say. My mother always told me I was a little old man from the day I was born. So when songs do pop into my head, it's not usually the latest hit from Chris Tomlin, Casting Crowns, or Skillet. I'm more likely to hum a Phoebe Knapp tune, or remember a Fanny Crosby lyric...and no, those aren't the hot young members of the newest worship band. My songs come from Songs We Sing...Complete, Hymns of Glorious Praise, or a Gaither Homecoming video. And every once in a while, some praise chorus from the '80s (yeah, I just called it a praise chorus) or perhaps the '90s will throw itself out there.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not one of those people that thinks "If Melodies of Praise was good enough for Paul and Silas to use in prison, it's good enough for me!" I don't think you have to have a hymnbook to worship God. Of course, I don't think the only good worship is the kind you sing off the wall using a video projector and an electric guitar either. Truthfully, I like it all (well, almost all...but I have a friend who is wearing down my resistance to Lecrae. I'm holding the line, though. For now.) I like variety in worship, and I think God does too. Take yesterday for instance. I led worship at church, starting with an old Southern Gospel hit Goodbye World, Goodbye. I followed that with My Redeemer Lives (Hillsong), Friend of God (Gungor), and then tossed out the first verse of What a Friend We Have in Jesus. Someone had requested It is Well with My Soul, and I'd had I will Rise (Chris Tomlin) on my mind all week long. So we did them all, with piano, bass, and drums. I hope I managed to satisfy everyone's musical tastes (except for those who would prefer Lecrae) and I think God was pleased with the mix. They were all great songs of worship.

I heard someone recently say that Church is the only event in the world where people gather regularly for corporate singing (I suppose they were leaving out choir class and Taylor Swift concerts). But corporate worship is part of who we are, of what the Bible gives us as a pattern, and what God desires from His people.

The Psalmist wrote that God inhabits, or is enthroned, in the praises of His people.

In Exodus, when the trumpets sounded, the presence of God came down on top of the mountain.

In the temple, when the choirs and orchestras led the people in the worship of God, His visible presence filled the Most Holy Place.

Jehoshaphat led an army of singers and watched God defeat their enemies.

Paul and Silas sang in jail, and all the prisoners were set free by God's accompanying percussion.

Paul also wrote that we are to encourage each other with songs, hymns, and spiritual songs, making melody in our heart to the Lord.

The first disciples worshiped God daily in the temple and going from house to house.

Paul wrote again that we should sing in the Spirit and with the understanding.

Even Jesus led the disciples in a hymn after the Last Supper.

And the Revelation's descriptions of heaven are filled with the worship of the Four Living Creatures, the Twenty-Four elders, the innumerable company of angels and saints, the 144,000, the Tribulation martyrs, and all the saints of all the ages assembled for the one and only time around the throne of God. Apparently, they are going to take a page out of Hymns of Glorious praise when they sing "Holy, Holy, Holy."

Okay, so this blog has been a little tongue-in-cheek. But I'm still thankful today!

I'm thankful for all the songs that have been written in praise and worship to God. I don't care who sings them, or what style they are done in, I'm just glad the whole world is filled with good songs being sung to God.

I'm thankful for all the songs I have committed to heart, so that when my CD player won't work, and my IPOD battery is dead, and there's nothing but talk radio to be found in the truck, I can pull up the verses and choruses from memory and sing my heart out to the Lord.

I'm thankful for God's response to my worship, that when I praise Him, He comes down and lives with me in that moment!

Thank you Lord, and I'm gonna keep on singing...