Is Singing to the Lord a Vital Part of Your Daily Life?
Do you make singing to the Lord a vital part of your daily life?
My daily Bible reading brought me to the part of Acts 16 where Paul and Silas were singing to the Lord in a prison in Philippi. Their situation was really bad. They had been falsely accused, beaten, wounded, jailed, and even put into the stocks. But at midnight they were singing hymns of praise to God.
Acts 16:25 says,
“And about midnight Paul and Silas, while praying, sang hymns of praise to God; and the prisoners were listening to them.”
In their praying, they were singing praise to God. I don’t believe they could have done it that night if they didn’t already have a daily habit of singing to the Lord.
They must have learned this practice from the pattern in God’s word…
A Pattern of Singing to the Lord in Daily Life
In the Old Testament we can see such a practice of singing to the Lord.
For example, Psalm 42:8 says,
By day Jehovah commands / His lovingkindness, / And by night His song is with me, / A prayer to the God of my life.
The Lord’s song was with the psalmist and His song became the psalmist’s prayer. It should be the same with us. We should practice turning His songs into our prayers. We should practice to “pray-sing” psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and even singing God’s word in the Bible.
Pray-sing with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs
I like to practice this early in the morning–singing hymns and spiritual songs and turning them into my prayer. I’d also like to make it a nightly habit.
Such “pray-singing” helps me to be filled and supplied for the day and is one helpful way I’ve found to enjoy Christ as my life.
Exercise your whole being over the songs
Psalms 77:6 says,
“I remember my song in the night; / I muse with my own heart, and my spirit carefully searches.”
The psalmist remembered his song, mused with his heart and searched with his spirit. It was in this way, that his whole being was exercised in his singing.
May it be the same with us. When we sing, we need to not only remember the words with our mind and sing with our voice, but muse with our heart, and search for the Lord with our spirit…to look for Him in every stanza, phrase and word of a deeper song or hymn.
Each day may we have a song that we not only sing but muse upon and search for the the Lord in with our spirit. In this way we’ll make His song, our song.
Uplift the use of songs and hymns in Christian meetings
I’m afraid the Christian practice of singing—whether traditional hymns or contemporary songs—has become a formality of Christian worship for most of us. So how can we be delivered from such a routine and formal way of singing?
We need to follow Paul’s pattern of singing to the Lord in our daily life, beginning from early in the morning. Then we can continue to sing at any opportunity and end our days with songs of prayer, thanks, and praise.
In this way we’ll not only be filled with the Lord in our daily life, but bring our enjoyment in song into our fellowship with other believers. Then when we gather with other believers, we’ll have a song to share (1 Cor. 14:26)–one that’s our reality because we’ve been saturated with it in our daily life.
Such a practice will not only fill us with God’s life…but when shared, will vitalize the meetings we participate in. We can see this in Ephesians 5:18-20:
“Be filled in spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord, giving thanks at all times for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to our God and Father.”
Then when you share the song you’ve enjoyed with others there will be real impact. It won’t be a formality, but an imparting of the Christ you’ve enjoyed to your fellow believers for their enjoyment and the building up in their faith.
Try it. Make a joyful noise to the Lord starting in the morning, even if you can’t carry a tune. Speak a hymn. Sing a stanza. Turn the words into your personal prayer, thanksgiving and praise. Then share it with somebody.
If you’ve found benefit in singing, praying and praising with hymns, spiritual songs or Bible verses, please share it in a comment.
References and Further Resources:
- Here is some helpful ministry on speaking hymns or poems in Christian gatherings. You can read it freely online at ministrybooks.com.
- Here are a few of my favorite songs and hymns to practice pray-singing with:
- For more hymns for prayer, praise, and thanks I’d recommend looking on Hymnal.net
- If you’d like to listen to some of these hymns and spiritual songs online you may also like to try HymnsRadio.com
About Tom Smith
Hi. My name is Tom Smith. I'm the writer behind Holding to Truth in Love, and I love the Lord Jesus and His life-giving Word. Please feel free to send me an e-mail through the contact page if you have any questions. I hope you'd take a moment to subscribe to the Holding to Truth blog. Then you'll be sure not to miss a post. Thanks!
I’ve never noticed the part of Ps. 77:6 that “my spirit carefully searches.” What a precious portion! With our mind we remember, with our heart with muse, and with our spirit we carefully search for the Lord.
Yes, Psalm 77:6 was enlightening to me as well. I came across this verse via a Recovery Version cross-reference to Paul’s singing at midnight in Acts 16:25. Wow! we should exercise over the spiritual songs and hymns with our entire inner being–our mind, our heart, and our spirit. Lord save us from a routine handling of the songs and hymns that doesn’t fill us with Christ or feed Christ to others.
Singing and psalming with our heart to the Lord. May we all throughout each day make this another healthy practice like calling on the Lord.
That’s right. Singing and psalming to the Lord is such a healthy practice! Not only does it fill us with the riches of Christ but gives us healthy words to share with our fellow believers in personal contact, and in all kinds of Christian gatherings. May we learn to muse on proper hymns and songs, not only singing them in daily life but speaking them with other believers for the building up of Christ’s Body the church.
I was delighted to read your post and delighted to know what GOD says about when and how to sing. I must say, GOD has been giving me songs of Praise, Worship and Warfare for sometime. I always knew that those songs were inspired by His Holy Spirit but now it has been confirmed by through His Word. It is His songs that helps me daily to stay focus on the prize!
Pat, Amen. May our singing with a spirit of faith keep us focused on the prize. I pray that such singing to the Lord would enrich your Christian life and that of many other believers in Christ. May our speaking from our enjoyment of Christ in hymns and spiritual songs uplift our meeting life as it did for the believers in the early church.
Glad you enjoyed the post. Thanks for sharing a comment.
AMEN!
On the one hand we need to actively and willingly enjoy singing to the Lord both in season (in meetings, with other believers, at set times) and out of season (in the morning, on the bus, while walking, etc), and on the other hand it is very helpful to place ourselves under the hearing of the faith by listening to hymns. We are innundated and saturated – without our knowledge or consent – with all kinds of music from the world, so we need to make sure we willingly listen to hymns, singing, and praising the Lord, so that we may be infused with the Lord much more!
Brother, thanks for the encouragement. Oh, Lord, may we be such ones who practice to sing, pray, praise, and muse on the words of the songs!
Great point! Not just our singing…but also what we listen too. If we listen to hymns downloaded to our MP3 player or sites like hymnal.net and hymnsradio.com we can be infused with the Lord much more, even while doing the ordinary things in our daily life. Thanks for stressing this point.
I listen to song CDs when in my car. I often repeat one song many times. I have experienced some (not enough) times when these songs spontaneously come forth from within me.
Lord, grant us more filling in spirit by speaking and singing!
Don, Amen. I also have found listening to song and hymn CDs in the car to be a help, especially those that you can sing along with. With such CDs I able to stop daydreaming and turn to Lord, especially when I practice to sing along with the CD. Yes Lord, do grant us more filling in spirit by speaking and singing! Thank you for your comment.
I recently enjoyed Psalm 63:5 from BFA on the thanksgiving message. It says “My soul is satisfied as with the rich fatness, and my mouth praises you with lips of joyous shouting” it dawned on me from that posting from BFA that in our singing to the Lord He satisfies us with Himself as life so we are filled with Him within and are satisfied.so then our singing to the Lord is also our eating of the Lord Spirit as our real food and enjoyment. Oh Lord grant us a heart to eat you in the hymns and enjoy you our real satisfaction. Praise you Lord Jesus.amen.
Winifred,
That’s right! In our singing to the Lord he surely satisfies us with Himself as life so that we are filled more with Him. Ephesians 5:18-19 tell us to “…be filled in spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming with your heart to the Lord.” High standard hymns that fill us with appreciation for Christ and the experiences of Him can be very nourishing when we sing them, speak them to one another and even turn them into our personal prayer. Yes, may the Lord grant us a heart to feed on Him in hymns and enjoy Him as our real satisfaction. Thank you for your confirming comment.
Thank you for this post. It is very encouraging. I enjoy singing as a way to pray my Lord.
Glad you enjoyed the post. I also like to sing, both in the morning and in the evening. In the morning, it is a very helpful way to turn my heart to the Lord and to be filled with Him. In the evening, I find singing an excellent way to be washed from all the day’s preoccupations, to be refreshed and to draw near to the Lord Jesus again.
Also like you mentioned, it is more than just singing some songs. We can sing our prayer to the Lord or turn a hymn we’re touched by into a living prayer to the Lord.
Thanks for your confirming comment.