"I will sing to the LORD"
A closer look at Psalm 13:6.
6 I will sing to the LORD,
because he has dealt bountifully with me. - Psalm 13:6 (ESV)
Introduction
Perhaps one of the better discourses involving singing was captured in the movie Elf. In this scene, Buddy tries to cheer up a co-worker and help her get into the Christmas spirit, and he thinks the best way to do that is by singing Christmas carols. As the co-worker tries to get away from Buddy, he drags her into a discussion of singing.
Buddy tells her that singing is “just like talking but louder and longer and move your voice up and down.” She replies that she can sing, but she does not want to do it, especially in front of other people. Buddy then tells her if she can sing alone, then she can also sing in front of other people, and to prove his point begins singing in the toy section of the department store where they work.
Besides being funny, this scene also captures the various views of singing very well. To Buddy, singing comes naturally. It is the obvious way to help him better express himself. To him, singing is simply another way to maneuver his voice and for him there is no difference singing alone and singing in a busy department store.
Jovie, his co-worker, is quite good at singing, but her attitude about it is different. For her to sing, she has to be in the right mood to sing and she prefers to be in the right place.
In today’s verse, the psalmist refers to singing to God and his reasons for doing so. And when we study this verse, it is easy to see how our approach to this - to singing to God - either resembles Buddy’s approach to singing or Jovie’s.
Let’s take a look at it together.
“I will sing to the LORD”
We previously discussed singing during our study of Psalm 138 as we looked at verse 1:
I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart;
before the gods I sing your praise. - Psalm 138:1 (ESV)
In this study of Psalm 138, we noted a couple of things related to the psalmist’s proclamation that he was going to sing about God before the world. The first thing that we noted is that singing to God is a command. For example, in Psalm 98:1, we are told to “sing to the LORD a new song.” Here are a few more thoughts on singing from that article:
In our world, many of us would rather have our fingernails pulled out slowly than to actually sing out loud and in public. It’s not something we are comfortable doing and we avoid it at all costs. But why is that? I think there are some pretty obvious reasons for this reluctance. It’s obvious that some people sound better than others when they sing. Not everyone sings like Charlotte Church and we don’t want to be embarrassed if we don’t.
Singing is also very personal and emotion-filled. By singing, many of us show the public a part of us that is rarely seen and many of us just can’t bear the thought of that happening. So we don’t sing.
But think for a moment about when we do sing, or when we don’t mind singing for others to hear.
We certainly don’t mind singing our favorite school’s fight song or cheer after a big win.
We don’t mind singing the happy birthday song for a favorite friend on special birthday at their special party.
We don’t mind singing silly songs with or to our children when they are too young to know that grown-ups aren’t supposed to sing.
The point is we sing, but we only sing when we want to sing. What does that say about how we are willing to worship the one true God?
The command to sing is a good one. Though it is not on the moral level with the Ten Commandments, God’s instruction to us to sing is good for us. Our hearts need to be tuned - and trained - to sing God’s praise. He is worthy to be praised. Based on what we know about singing, it is the perfect way that God creates within us to make a joyful noise to Him. And a command to praise the Lord is good for us and the perfect thing to do.
Yet there is somehow a difference between obedience that comes through following instructions and an action that flows from a desire to honor. Though neither is wrong, they can feel and look different. In this verse, the psalmist is not commanded to sing, but instead does so willingly and joyfully. Instead of being commanded to sing, he is singing by choice.
“Because he has dealt bountifully with me”
In today’s verse, the psalmist is choosing to sing to God “because he has dealt bountifully with me.”
He is making a choice for the present based on what God has done for him in the past and because of this he is confident about what the Lord will do in the future.
For many of us, however, this is not as easy as it seems because life is hard.
Theologically speaking, we may know that God is sovereign. We may know that He is over all things and holds all things together. We may know that God will work everything for the good of those who love Him. Yet, when something difficult happens, or when we think back and add up all of the difficult things we have gone through, it can be very easy to not sing to God or to not want to sing.
Yet it is also a part of our growth and maturity as Christians to look at whatever our situations may be - whether they are good or bad - and seek to praise God. Regardless of how our earthly conditions may appear, we should strive to develop an attitude that sings to Jesus “because he has dealt bountifully with me.”
Perhaps the greatest example of this in the Bible is documented in Acts 16 where we read about Paul and Silas being thrown in jail:
22 The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. 23 And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. 24 Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks. 25 About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. - Acts 16:22-25 (ESV)
Two innocent men were accused, attacked, beaten, and then thrown into prison. While in prison, their response was to pray and “sing hymns to God.” God would eventually free them from prison in a most spectacular way, and they surely knew God was capable of doing whatever was necessary to help them, but instead of freaking out or being lost in their emotions, they chose acts of faith. They chose to pray and sing.
This is the essence of what the psalmist writes in Psalm 13:6. No matter what has happened, no matter what we are going through at the moment, and no matter what is ahead, our eyes are fixed on Jesus. If we have trusted Him with our souls, we can trust Him with everything.
If we have trusted him with everything, we can sing to Him always because He has dealt bountifully with us.
