Our singing must focus on God and not our enemies or the devil. Though we must not be ignorant of Satan’s devises, we must be more aware of God’s presence and power at work in and through us. “Give thanks to the Lord.” Thanksgiving is so fundamental to our worship yet so easy to overlook. Sometimes we get so overwhelmed by the present needs that we fail to thank the Lord for all the good things He has done for us. Singing thanksgiving songs helps us focus on the Lord and not on us.
“Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples! Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; talk of all His wondrous works!” (1 Chro 16:8-9). Our passage for today is part of a Psalm composed on the day David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. It was a day of high praises. The celebration involved a large procession of singers, instrumentalists, and priests. On that day, King David sang and danced like a shepherd boy before the Lord till his wife felt embarrassed.
“Call upon His name”. When we call on the name of the Lord, we announce Him to the world. A Christian song is an announcement of God’s presence. Have you ever travelled to a place far away from home or church and heard people singing a hymn or chorus? How did you feel? Most likely, you had a sense of God’s presence. Just hearing people call upon the name of the Lord in a song draws us close to the Lord. The angels of the Lord surround us wherever we are and go. If Christ is our Lord, there is never a time when He is not with us. That is why we can sing of His works in our lives even when surrounded by darkness. Instead of singing about the darkness encircling us, we rejoice in God’s light piercing through our darkness.
