“Sing unto the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day.”–Psalm 96:2
When I was young, I had some Kid’s Praise cassette tapes that included music and stories, some of which I remember to this day. The main character was Psalty the singing songbook, who could, or course, sing. In one of the stories, Psalty encountered another character who loved to praise the Lord but wasn’t able to sing on key. The moral of the story involved the idea that not everyone is given the same gifts, but we can all praise the Lord, and He enjoys our praise regardless of what it may sound like to our earthly ears…just like there is much that we observe in the physical world that is nothing like how God sees it–His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8-9).
Whether we are gifted musically or not, this verse tells us to sing, praise, and proclaim God’s salvation. How we go about doing these things varies by the myriad number of people living on earth and who have gone before and who have yet to be born–evidence that God truly loves variety! This idea also confirms that we should not be caught up with comparing ourselves to others, whether it be their gifts, circumstances, relationships, or anything else we may be tempted to covet.
Believe me, I am preaching to myself here; it’s difficult for anyone to observe someone else easily achieve something that we strive to accomplish ourselves and yet we seemingly meet with insurmountable odds. We never know, however, with what other people are contending behind the scenes, and we must always endeavor to keep that in mind. Every one of our lives forms an intricate tapestry of circumstances, incidents, trials, victories, and challenges, but God is the designer of it all. He weaves together the perfect combination of threads that only He knows to bring each one of us to the place of trust and reliance on Him.
Music is powerful. It is a precious gift for us that we can also turn around and give back to God in praise. When my son was an infant, I sang to him when I rocked him to sleep, and there were some songs that made him smile, while others brought him to sadness. His bottom lip would push out and tremble whenever I’d sing “Hush, Little Baby,” and it wasn’t because of my lack of quality singing–it had to be from the mournful tone of that particular song because it was only that song that brought about this sorrowful response. Once I realized the cause and effect of that song, I chose not to sing it to him and only sang ones I knew would bring him joy. In the same way, we can sing, praise, and proclaim with how we live our lives–striving to love others with our words and actions, which in turn brings glory and praise to God.