Praise music

I Will Sing!

/ pastorpete51 / 4 Comments 
Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.
Exodus 15:1 KJV

When the idea of singing is referred to in the Bible most of us think of David’s Psalms. Yes, the Psalms is virtually littered with incidences of David singing, but he was by no means the only singer/songwriter in scripture. Moses wrote the lyrics and then led millions of people in singing after God led them through the Red sea. (Exodus 15:1)Fast forward to the book of judges and we find Deborah and Barak singing together words they collaborated on after God had delivered them in battle. (Judges 5:1-2). Isaiah sang in his prophecies (Isaiah 5:1), Both Mary after the conception of Jesus and Hannah after the birth of Samuel composed songs. While they were in prison, Paul and Silas even sang in their jail cell at midnight, and then God sent an earthquake. (Acts 16:25). Of course we recall angels rejoicing as they announced the news to the shepherds and Revelation is filled with multitudes of saints singing in Heaven, but the most amazing singing I can think of is when Jesus led the disciples in a song at the end of the last supper.

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives Matthew 26:30

Can you even imagine Jesus leading you in song? Some of us (myself included) seem to have difficulty even singing in church. We reason that others are singing better so we will just listen, or we might not care to learn a new song, think it is too high, too low or too loud. The problem we are having is because we forget that singing to the Lord does not originate in our voice box, it begins in our hearts. As Paul tells the Ephesians believers, we are to be.

Addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, Ephesians 5:19 ESV

I hope that today, whatever your circumstances, whether you are in battle, in trouble, in prison or in church, that God will help you to focus again on Him. He is the inspiration for our song lyrics, our melodies and our praise. Why not sing to Him a new song or an old hymn. He is listening and best of all, He loves to join us when we praise!

The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. Zephaniah 3:17 KJV

I do hope you will like our singing of this hymn, which reminds of these truths and that you might even sing along a bit as we let the song that Jesus gave us, ring through our hearts in melody today!

Lively Praise at Assisted Living

/ pastorpete51 / 2 Comments

Not long ago, one of my fellow seniors in our Bible study group remarked that when the youth from the worship team do an occasional hymn, they sing everything soooo slowly! They must think that because we are older that we just can’t keep up a faster pace. Here is a pretty lively selection from a meeting a couple of weeks back at an assisted living facility that ought to put that idea to rest! I hope you tap your feet, clap your hands and sing along these three favorites which my fellow senior saints have no problem keeping up with!

Clap your hands, all you nations;
    shout to God with cries of joy.
Psalm 47:1 NIV

Living Through the Covid Blues

/ pastorpete51 / 3 Comments

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. Philippians 4:8 NKJV

With the death of a close friend, and both of us battling Covid (Thankfully not at the same time) the last seven days have begun to blur together. With hours of time and not a lot of energy, I have gone back to the project of digitizing our old family photos. First, comes the sorting process and deciding which of these can simply be retired. Then, I photograph each photo with our canon, upload and enhance those thousands of photos (Why did we take so many!?). By now I am up to the late 90’s and early 2000’s and the baby photos of our grandchildren are sweet. But as I see the thousands of faces, I also know the sad, sometimes tragic stories that replaced the smiles with tears. Some I simply delete, as the memories are too painful, others I preserve, because for better or worse these are the people who are part of our history. In a bout of depression, the other night, my mind turned back to the verse that has helped me so many times before. Our old friend, the Apostle Paul, sitting in his prison cell, writes to encourage his friends that when they face hardships, they need to remember the good things that God has done. No matter how low things appear, there are still things and people around us who have noble hearts. No matter how unfairly and selfishly people treat each other, there still remain things of true purity, loveliness and grace. As long as God sits on Heaven’s throne (Which is a long-long time!) – alongside the evil in this world and ruling over it are God’s goodness and glory. He is still good. He sees the whole picture and still loves and cares for each of us. It is up to me and you to decide what we allow our hearts and minds to dwell on and we can do this because our true life is in Christ and is hidden with Him in God.

One of the sisters from our prayer group sent us this song from Charity Gayle, saying it would give us something to praise God about. By the end, the ice in my soul began to melt and I was really blessed. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. There is no better way for us to set our minds on the good things God has done, that to take time out and give Him praise!