I love to sing. Every once in a while I get some funny looks from Serenity because I'm not very good. The difference between me and a lot of others is that I know I'm not very good. I have developed a routine for putting the kids to bed each night, and it includes three songs for each of them. I enjoy this time with them because I get to sing to my kids, as horrible as I am, they think I'm great. The lyrics to one of their favorites is:
I love You Lord
and I lift my voice
To worship You
O my soul, rejoice!
Take joy, my King
in what you hear
May it be a sweet, sweet sound
in Your ear.
I love the second verse because I get a smile on my face when I think that my King takes joy in my horrible voice, just like I take joy when my kids sing a song.
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The birth of Protestantism, set aflame by Martin Luther in the 1520s, was experiencing this new joy of singing and worshiping. Prior to this, in the Catholic church, only priests and friars would sing, and only in Latin. A hymn, sung in a church, by the people, was foreign and strange to most of the congregation, dubbed Lutherans. It was radical. Luther forced his congregations to sing, he held music as a "gift from God," giving it "the highest place and the greatest honor." I would probably be tagged as a "tone-deaf sluggard," as he titled many of his followers, but I also understand that it is a gift from God, and he does take joy in my worship of Him through singing. It makes me joyful to think what our worship will look like when all of eternity and all of creation bows before our sovereign God and praises Him with dancing and singing. Luther expressed this when he wrote, "If our Lord God has given us such noble gifts in the outhouse of this life, what will there be in that life eternal where everything will be perfect and delightful?"
I sing loud when I worship, that is one more reason to like the "contemporary" service at your local church. I won't ever sing solo for anyone except my kids and occasionally my wife if she accidentally overhears me, but trust me, Luther must have been listening to me when he related singing on this Earth and an outhouse. It doesn't matter though, to the Lord's ears I sound as good now as I will in Heaven, and that makes me want to sing louder!
I love You Lord
and I lift my voice
To worship You
O my soul, rejoice!
Take joy, my King
in what you hear
May it be a sweet, sweet sound
in Your ear.
I love the second verse because I get a smile on my face when I think that my King takes joy in my horrible voice, just like I take joy when my kids sing a song.
-----
The birth of Protestantism, set aflame by Martin Luther in the 1520s, was experiencing this new joy of singing and worshiping. Prior to this, in the Catholic church, only priests and friars would sing, and only in Latin. A hymn, sung in a church, by the people, was foreign and strange to most of the congregation, dubbed Lutherans. It was radical. Luther forced his congregations to sing, he held music as a "gift from God," giving it "the highest place and the greatest honor." I would probably be tagged as a "tone-deaf sluggard," as he titled many of his followers, but I also understand that it is a gift from God, and he does take joy in my worship of Him through singing. It makes me joyful to think what our worship will look like when all of eternity and all of creation bows before our sovereign God and praises Him with dancing and singing. Luther expressed this when he wrote, "If our Lord God has given us such noble gifts in the outhouse of this life, what will there be in that life eternal where everything will be perfect and delightful?"
I sing loud when I worship, that is one more reason to like the "contemporary" service at your local church. I won't ever sing solo for anyone except my kids and occasionally my wife if she accidentally overhears me, but trust me, Luther must have been listening to me when he related singing on this Earth and an outhouse. It doesn't matter though, to the Lord's ears I sound as good now as I will in Heaven, and that makes me want to sing louder!
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