From: "Beverly French" <frenchb@vcss.k12.ca.us>
To: "Heritage" <gheritage@juno.com>
Subject: Sing to the Lord with Joy
Date: Sunday, July 22, 2001 8:05 AM

I have to believe that our God loves singing becauses there are so many
references to singing in the Scriptures.  Just look at the Psalms alone.
Are they not poems and are they not meant to be sung?  The language is
beautiful; majestic; it is a Book of worship.  Worship for our God who is
worthy of all praise just for who He is!
Let's look at some of the introductions to individual Psalms and to some
verses in individual Psalms to see if this is not so.

Introduction to:
Psalm 4: "For the choir director; on stringed instruments..."
Psalm 5: "For the choir director; for flute accompaniment..."
Psalm 6 & 12: "For the choir director; with stringed instruments, upon an
eight-stringed lyre..."
Psalm 7: "A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord..."
Psalm 8: "For the choir director; on the Girttith..."
Psalm 9: "For the choir director; on Muth-labben..."
Psalm 11; 13; 14; 19;  20: "For the choir director..."
Psalm 18; "For the choir director.  A Plalm of David the servant of the
Lord, who spoke to the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord
delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul."
(I wrote the whole introduction of Psalm 18.)

I have only noted the introductions from the first 20 Psalms here, but you
can see that God must love singing for the words of the Psalms were inspired
by Him.  As we see in  2 Timothy 3:16, "All Scripture is inspired by God..."
You can go through the Psalms yourself to see just how often there is a
direction
for the choir director.

Now let's look at some of verses in the Psalms themselves to see how the
Psalmist encourages our singing.

Psalm 33:1, "Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones;
                    Praise is becoming to the upright."
Psalm 66:1, "Shout joyfully to God, all the earth;
                    Sing the glory of His name;
                    Make His praise glorious."
Psalm 81:1, "Sing for joy to God our strength;
                    Shout joyfully to the God of Jacob."
Psalm 92:1,  "It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
                    And to sing parises to Thy name, O Most High."
Psalm 95:1, "O Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
                    Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation."
Psalm 96:1, "Sing to the Lord a new song;
                    Sing to the Lord, all the earth."
Psalm 98:1, "O sing to the Lord a new song,
                     For He has done wonderful things."

These are but a few of the verses in the Psalms encouraging us to sing to
the Lord and there are many more through the Bible.  (Notice they are only
verse 1; there are 67 references to singing in the just the Psalms alone.)
[Read more of the verses and be blessed.]

I know that many will say, "But I can't sing."  Never mind, just make a
joyful noise to the Lord.  The focus is not on us, but it is to praise our
good and loving Lord.  For it is from Him and in Him that we have life.

So let us do as the Apostle Paul exhorts us to do in Ephesians 5,
"...Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;
always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to
God, even the Father."  Vs 18-20

"Sing praises to God, sing praises;
 Sing praises to God, sing praises.
 For God is the King of all the earth,
 Sing praises to His name."
Amen