The Kind of Singing God Loves to Hear

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us and we are his
We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter the gates with thanksgiving
And his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him, bless his name!

For the Lord is good
His steadfast love endures forever,
And his faithfulness to all generations.

Psalm 100

When I first started college, I grew very sensitive to the subject of worship music. I had begun listening closely to the words of the worship music that was popular at the time and the songs that “all the churches played”. I was horrified by how little was being said and the errors they seemed to promote by omission and commission. Weighing all these things in my heart, I did something that I will never recommend to any Christian, no matter the circumstance: I stopped singing. For around 6 months, I never sang in worship.

During those moments I would stand and try to meditate on the lyrics, sometimes to see if they were correct, sometimes just to savor the truth that they held. It was a very instructive time for me. I was fully removed from the act that everyone else in the room was engaged in, and many of my friends did not appreciate my hesitations. In fact, I have received more criticism because of my strong stances on worship than anything else I have ever stood for (which has turned out to be a lot!)

While I still hold to similar views of worship, I see now that there was more to my problem than the lyrics or the performances. I was being hurt spiritual far more by an issue I was ignorant of than helped by not singing. While lyrics and music still need to be tested and carefully thought about, I realize that another part of my struggle during that time was resentment. I resented those around me who were lost in the music, some weeping, some swaying, all passionate. And there I was, heart like a block of ice or a cool stone. What was my problem? Why couldn’t I be genuine? Was it because I was too aware of the lyrical issues? Or was it something else?

I’m aware that what I’m describing is not everyone’s story. Many people do get lost in the music and are very passionate in worship. However, I believe that this Psalm holds the answers, not simply for those of us who can’t seem to get into the worship moment but also for those who lose not only their hearts but their minds in the music. We all want to be genuine. Psalm 110 tells us where to start.

The Psalter begins with an invitation: “Make a joyful noise”, “serve the Lord”, and most of all “come”! God has invited you to worship Him. In fact, this is one of the reasons He has saved you. For His glory and His namesake, that He might be renowned among the nations! Not only does he invite you to worship, the Psalter teaches us a basic aspect of Christian praise: it is joyful. Two keywords in the first stanza are “joyful” and “glad”. Before, when I spoke of worship being genuine, this is what I had in mind. We all want our worship to come from a place of joy, eager to sing to God. But this just leads us to another dead end. How can we find true gladness, not emotional deadness (like I found) or simple emotional release (as some of my friends have found)?

The rest of the Psalm teaches us a valuable lesson in these days of biblical illiteracy and elevation of the stage over the pulpit. To experience genuine and authentic worship, we must accept that authentic worship is grounded in knowledge of the truth! What is it that made the Psalter so glad to sing? Two things made this man crave worship and need an outlet for the joy in his heart.

The first was knowledge of who the Lord is! The Psalter writes out of great awe that the Lord is God! What an amazing fact. We should not take for granted the God-ness of God! Not only is He the supreme being of this world, but we were made by Him and are His! The Psalter cannot contain His joy at the fact that the most powerful being who is above all things is also intimately involved with His creation!

Not only that, later in the Psalm He speaks another unfathomable truth: God is good! Not only is He powerful and involved, He is also good! The Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology teach us the dreadful cost of an involved and powerful, yet imperfect and immoral deity. The Psalter ends His joyful song with the thought that God forgives and will always be faithful to His people. This is the first step to genuine worship. One of the most groundbreaking truths I have learned is from Bob Kauflin, the leader of Sovereign Grace music. He once said, “Sometimes, the application of a passage is simply ‘Behold Your God!’”

The second thing that Psalm 110 teaches us about genuine worship is that it is the result of a thankful heart. Not only do we need to know the truth about God, we need to connect that to our own state of forgiveness and love. We need to not only know but bask in the love of God. We must not simply sing or talk of His grace, but be immersed in it’s deepest waters. We cannot just know about God. Men who know about God find their lives to be worth very little in the end. We must know Him, and when we know Him, and our sorry state without Him, we will finally have struck that unending river of thanksgiving.

So, my Christian brothers and sisters, I exhort you. Know your God. Worship will follow. Seek Him in His word and then seek Him, full of thanksgiving, in all the activities of your life. You will find that when you have connected your heart to the truths of the Gospel, the songs of praise will no longer be an awkward or dangerous affair but an outlet for a very genuine and very joyful thanksgiving.

Lord, forgive us for our lazy singing and even lazier reading of your Word. Forgive me for any time that I read Your Word with little attention or with a cold heart. Father, teach us Your truth. Knit our hearts to Yours that we might praise Your name in full authenticity. Teach us, a selfish and unsatisfied generation, to know that we have received every blessing through Christ, our Lord. Invigorate us by truth to expend all our energy in thankfulness, for You are our chosen portion, our cup, and our only Rock. Amen.