Those Who Willingly Sang

Scripture: Nehemiah 11:22

Now the overseer of the Levites in Jerusalem was Uzzi the son of Bani, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Mica, from the sons of Asaph, who were the singers for the service of the house of God.

Insights:  Music has an amazing way of connecting the heart of the worshipper with God.  It helps stirs our passions and assists us in releasing unhindered praise to the Lord God.  The problem, however, is that we have made worship about our desires and not the desires of the Father.  We sing songs of our pleasure without consulting Him to see what His preferences are.  James MacDonald in his book Vertical Church rightly declares that God inhabits the praise of His people.  In other words, God comes down when His children are offering to Him authentic praise and adoration.  The second problem with our worship, however, is that we give worship without actual conscience thought.  What I mean by that is we are so familiar with the words of our songs that they rarely are sung with affirmative assent.  Let me illustrate it this way, how many times have you sung an entire song and never thought one time about what you were singing?  Oh, I shudder to think how many times that has happened to me.  I have sung entire songs thinking about something or someone else.  When I or you do this it is unacceptable worship to the Lord and He does not receive it.  A third problem surrounding songs of worship is some people refuse to lift their voices to the Lord.  Or if they do, they sing so softly that no one can hear them.  At that point our own pride becomes the idol because we don’t want to look or sound foolish, therefore, we offer nothing genuine to the Lord.  I believe the Lord had this problem in mind when He wrote, “make a joyful noise unto the Lord (Psalm 66:1 KJV).”  Other translations of that verse read, “Shout joyfully to God.”  When one is shouting, rarely is it a pleasant sound, but we are commanded in this Psalm to make that noise to the Lord, because it is pleasurable to Him.  Beloved, if we are to experience the revival that took place during Nehemiah’s day, then we need to do the five things these unknown heroes did.  We must volunteer to go, we must serve in the church, we must witness outside of the church, we must pray, and we must sing!

Questions:

1. Do you sing unashamedly to God on a regular basis?
2. Has your worship in song just become routine?

Prayer: Lord God, forgive me for those times in which my singing to You is just rote and not sincere and authentic.  Stir in my heart a desire to sing loudly to You my great Master and King.  You alone are worthy of my worship.  May You be pleased when I sing to You.  Amen.