Oh, sing to the Lord
a new song!
Sing to the Lord, all
the earth.
Sing to the Lord,
bless His name;
Proclaim the good
news of His salvation from day to day. Psalm 96:1-2
I love to sing. And
although I’m not that good at it, I still enjoy it. I love that we are commanded to sing (“Sing”
or “Singing” is mentioned 166 times in the Bible - New King James version).
Here are just a few from the book of Psalms:
Serve the Lord with gladness;
Come before His presence with singing. Psalm 100:2
Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song,
And His praise in the assembly of saints.
Let Israel rejoice in their Maker;
Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
Let them praise His name with the dance;
Let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp.
For the Lord takes pleasure in His people;
He will beautify the humble with salvation.
Let the saints be joyful in glory;
Let them sing aloud on their beds. Psalm 149:1-5
It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; Psalm 92:1
Just as I gave my top five favorite books in this post, I
thought it would be fun to share my favorite hymns. However, after sitting down and going through
my church hymnal, I realized that I have more than five favorites. Several more.
After I counted over fifty, I stopped….I’ll stick with five today. Since I’ve already shared some favorites in
these posts (For the Beauty of the Earth, I Know Whom I Have Believed, & How Deep The Father's Love For Us), I’ll choose different songs.
When my children were babies, Savior, Like A Shepherd Lead Us, brought tears to my eyes. When I would get to the stanza, “Early let us
seek Thy favor, early let us do Thy will,” I would silently pray that these
would be the words of my own kids, that I would be able to teach them God’s
ways, and that they would never stray from Him.
Now as they are well into their teenage years, I pray this every
day.
Be Thou My Vision
is another hymn that I love dearly.
Daily, my focus in life gets challenged.
My daily tasks, running my kids around to various activities, and ungodly
responses to small “mole hills” all muddy my focus on God. This song reminds me to keep my vision on Him
in everything that I do.
God places events in our lives to build us up, to strengthen
us, to draw us nearer to Him. A Mighty Fortress is Our God is one
that has always given me great comfort and peace during those storms. He is in control of everything and will never
fail us.
The song, Take MyLife, and Let it Be, is convicting. As I sing this song I am asking God to
use me for His glory, for His praise. Where
I go and what I say is to be pleasing to Him. All I do is to be done for
God. Sadly, it isn’t. Sin ensnares me. This song reminds me of my purpose in
life. I need to sing it daily.
Finally, Be Still, MySoul is a song that holds me in times of grief. A few weeks ago, a dear friend’s son lost his
life. I wrote the words to this song, as
well as several Scripture passages, in a card to her to give her comfort and
peace that can only come from God.
While I won’t write about them, here are a few of my other
favorites that rank right up at the top of my list, too:
