I'm Gonna Sing, Sing, Sing

tuesday

AUGUST 2

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   As you stand to sing a hymn with the congregation, do you feel all the cares of another long, tiring week melt away as you lift your voice to praise God? No matter how talented (or untalented) the congregation may be, your awareness shifts to something more important: worshiping God. While focusing on things that are good and just and pure, just for a second, there’s a little taste of heaven.

   “We should endeavor, in our songs of praise, to approach as nearly as possible to the harmony of the heavenly choirs. The proper training of the voice is an important feature in education, and should not be neglected. Singing, as a part of religious service, is as much an act of worship as is prayer. The heart must feel the spirit of the song, to give it right expression.”1
   From the beginning of the Bible through to the very end, God is praised for His goodness: “As morning broke it revealed to the multitudes of Israel all that remained of their mighty foes—the mail-clad bodies cast upon the shore. From the most terrible peril, one night had brought complete deliverance. . . . Jehovah alone had brought them deliverance, and to him their hearts were turned in gratitude and faith. Their emotion found utterance in songs of praise. The Spirit of God rested upon Moses, and he led the people in a triumphant anthem of thanksgiving, the earliest and one of the most sublime that are known to man.”2
   We will praise God in heaven, so we should learn to praise Him while we are on earth: “The days of pain and weeping are forever ended. The King of glory has wiped the tears from all faces; every cause of grief has been removed. Amid the waving of palm branches they pour forth a song of praise, clear, sweet, and harmonious; every voice takes up the strain, until the anthem swells through the vaults of heaven.”3

REACT

   How is praising God in worship different from singing along with your favorite religious track on your MP3 player?

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1. Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 594.
2. Ibid., pp. 287, 288.
3. The Great Controversy, p. 650.


Written by: Talitha Simmons, Melbourne, Australia