Sing for joy to the Lord!

Deborah Bate July 25, 2026 2 1

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Psalm 95: 1-7 (NIV-UK)

1 Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
    let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before him with thanksgiving
    and extol him with music and song.

3 For the Lord is the great God,
    the great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth,
    and the mountain peaks belong to him.
5 The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land.

6 Come, let us bow down in worship,
    let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
7 for he is our God
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    the flock under his care.

Today, if only you would hear his voice,

Do you enjoy a good sing? A campfire collaboration with strumming guitars, or a choral evensong? How about a solo belt-it-out-in-the-shower number? I’m a karaoke-in-the-car kinda girl — give me Spotify and a stretch of road and I love the freedom of lifting my voice to the Lord where no-one else can hear. Singing just does something for me. I will sit down to play and sing at the piano, and when I get up half an hour later, I feel different. My spirit is renewed. If you are a musician or singer then I’m sure you understand what I mean.
 To me, music is a gift given to us by God, and we can, at times, experience His presence through it. Moments with music can feel so divine, that I could even be so bold as to suggest that it could even be a taste of heaven.

With the promotion of “wellbeing” in the media in recent years, singing, music and dance have all been referred to as mood-boosting activities, and many of us would likely claim to gain a sense of joy/wellbeing from engaging in music and/or singing.

Here, in Psalm 95, the writer exhorts us to “Sing for joy to the Lord…extol him with music and song”. Why? “For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods…” God is great; that’s a reason to sing to Him, plus it feels good! It’s a win-win situation. 

There’s another “win” too I believe — when we learn through song, it sticks. Ask any primary school teacher who has taught days of the week or seasons of the year to five-year-olds! The repetition of words set to a melody can be a powerful tool to remembering information. At around ten years old, I was able to memorise the names of the 39 books of the Old Testament, not because I learnt them as a list, but because we sang a song in kids’ church. What’s a song that you remember from childhood? Perhaps a school assembly banger? Might I suggest that when we sing out the truth of God, who He is and who we are in Him, it reinforces it in our very beings. The apostle James wrote about the tongue and its power to set “the whole course of one’s life on fire” (James chapter 3). Let’s use our tongues to sing truths that help us grow in the likeness of Christ. 
 
So, “Sing for joy to the Lord”, because it’s good for you, because it’s helping to transform you in the truth of God’s love, and because He is worth singing about. 
 
 

Let’s pray together:

Lord Jesus, you are more than worthy of every song we could ever sing. Thank you for the gift and blessing of music and songs. Help us enjoy making music in our hearts and aloud to You. Thank you that you are always a reason for us to sing — You are good. Amen.