The Password is “Singing”
Psalm 100:2 ESV says, “Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!”
Several years ago, before COVID-19, I was on a missions trip in Butler, PA. It was an odd convergence of me coming from Illinois, the youth group descending from Michigan, and my friend, the speaker from Ohio. We spent the week doing projects, evangelism, VBS, and spending time in prayer and worship in the evenings. It was a fantastic time seeing God work in the students' lives.
Lately, I have been more aware of the memories preserved in my mind as snapshot moments. I don’t know if this happens to you, but short moments often come to memory long after the occasion. They are moments when I saw something or heard something that I believe God was preserving in my mind to teach me about his kingdom later.
One of those snapshot moments is about Psalm 100:2. The moment was as mundane as you could expect. While we were repairing a porch, I heard Tom, the ministry leader, come around the corner brazenly singing the wrong words to “This Is Amazing Grace” off-key. I’m sure it was humorous to some middle school kids whacking away at nails on a railing. There was something starkly holy about Tom’s song. Looking back, I realize he was desperately entering the presence of God.
I’m not saying you ought to bust through the door at work or school singing “Way Maker” at the top of your lungs. However, it stands out to me that living in the presence of God might be as simple as building a habit of singing. Perhaps the presentation of modern worship music makes us believe that we can’t worship without a praise band and a sound system. I want to bring you back even just one hundred years to a time when recorded music was scarce, sound systems were uninvented technology, and music was largely acoustic. Praise still rang out in the church.
In mundane moments singing a song is a powerful way to abide. I have a few choruses that I wrote for myself to sing in times when I need some help coming into God’s presence. One goes, “The joy of the Lord, it is my strength, it is my strength, it is my strength.” This one is often sung in moments where joy is not what I feel!
Try singing today if you don’t already. Maybe you can lift your voice briefly when you close the car door and start your commute home. Perhaps quietly singing to the Lord while you make your afternoon lunch. Sometimes we overcomplicate worship and living in God’s presence. Set your mind on the things of God and start to sing a prayer and make a melody of praise to God. Enter his presence with singing.
