Learning to Sing ~ Finding Joy and Peace

Art thou weary, tender heart?
Be glad of pain!
In sorrow sweetest things will grow,
As flowers in rain.
God watches; thou wilt have the sun,
When clouds their perfect work have done.
- Adelaide Procter

"It is the life closest to the "Man of Sorrows"
who was Himself acquainted with grief
that can bring blossoms of joy and peace.
If His joy is in us, our joy is made full."
- Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

The song I sing is faint and sad,
Yet 'tis of love I'm singing;
And soon it shall be strong and glad
Through realms of glory ringing.

A song of love and sighs today,
Of love and joy tomorrow,
To Him Who poured His life away
Upon the tree of sorrow.
- Anonymous.

"We must learn to sing - to sing as we enter the valleys of shadow.
We sing as we work.  We sing as we rejoice.
Can we sing as we suffer?
How difficult it is to sing when you cannot see beyond affliction.
But the secret is to look beyond the immediate circumstance
and behold the reward in glory."
- Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

~Brittany

Sanctified Gladness ~ Songs of Praise

"It is always beneficial to praise the Lord;

 it cheers the day and brightens the night;

it lightens toil and softens sorrow;

and over earthly gladness it sheds a sanctifying radiance

which makes it less liable to blind us with its glare.

Have we not something to sing about at this moment?

Can we not weave a song out of our present joys,

or our past deliverances, or our future hopes?

By the love of Jesus, let us be stirred up

to close the day with a psalm of sanctified gladness."

-- Charles Spurgeon --

~Brittany

Christian Cheer

"Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds."

~ Psalm 149:5 ~

"Yes," said Amos R. Wells, "let all Christians sing, even on beds of pain.  Let all Christians sing, even songs in the night, even songs in prison, like Paul and Silas.  Few lives are so songful as they might be and should be.  Most lives are groanful.  Most lives are full of complaint, meditated if not uttered aloud.

"As Phillips Brooks once cheerily said, ' True religion sings here, and will sing more hereafter.  Distrust your religion unless it is cheerful, unless it turns every act and deed to music, and exults in attempts to catch the harmony of the new life.'  We read of the mystical 'music of the spheres,' that unheard anthem of praise made by the stars in their majestic march through the sky.  May it not be made, not by the stars at all, but by praiseful human hearts?

"It is always possible to find an excuse for good cheer, a fine reason for singing.  Here is an excuse that Oliver Herford once thought up:

I heard a bird sing

In the dark of December;

A magnificent thing

And sweet to remember:

"We are nearer to spring

Than we were in September."

I heard a brid sing

In the dark of December.

"Yes, and in the same vein, however gloomy our surroundings may be, we can always remember that we are one day nearer heaven than we were yesterday - one day nearer our eternal joy and peace.

"What if it is dark around us now, and cold, and stormy?  The endless spring is drawing near!  Flowers are coming, bird songs are coming, soft breezes adn blue skies are coming!  Every dark day brings the bright days nearer."

",We cannont weigh or number our blessings, neither can we weight or number our feelings of gratitude to Thee, O God."

- Streams in the Dessert, Vol. 2, December 4th

~Brittany

Serving God Through Music and Singing

Some in our family is reading through the Bible chronologically this year, which is neat, because it provides a nice overall perspective.  This morning, as I was read in 1 Chronicles, I read some commentary notes on part of it by Matthew Henry.  It was very good, and brought out some really neat thoughts.  I wanted to share them here for all of you, hoping you'd enjoy reading it as well.  It was a great encouragement to be God-focused with our music, and to put our best into singing the praises of the Lord.  May the rest of your week be blessed!
~Brittany

Matthew Henry’s Commentary Notes on 1 Chronicles 25:1-7:

Observe, I. Singing the praises of God is here called prophesying (1Ch_25:1-3), not that all those who were employed in this service were honoured with the visions of God, or could foretel things to come. Heman indeed is said to be the king's seer in the words of God (1Ch_25:5); but the psalms they sang were composed by the prophets, and many of them were prophetical; and the edification of the church was intended in it, as well as the glory of God. In Samuel's time singing the praises of God went by the name of prophesying (1Sa_10:5; 1Sa_19:20), and perhaps that is intended in what St. Paul calls prophesying, 1Co_11:4; 1Co_14:24.

II. This is here called a service, and the persons employed in it workmen, 1Ch_25:1. Not but that it is the greatest liberty and pleasure to be employed in praising God: what is heaven but that? But it intimates that it is our duty to make a business of it, and stir up all that is within us to it; and that, in our present state of corruption and infirmity, it will not be done as it should be done without labour and struggle. We must take pains with our hearts to bring them, and keep them, to this work, and to engage all that is within us.

III. Here were, in compliance with the temper of that dispensation, a great variety of musical instruments used, harps, psalteries, cymbals (1Ch_25:1, 1Ch_25:6), and here was one that lifted up the horn (1Ch_25:5), that is, used wind-music. The bringing of such concerts of music into the worship of God now is what none pretend to. But those who use such concerts for their own entertainment should feel themselves obliged to preserve them always free from any thing that savours of immorality or profaneness, by this consideration, that time was when they were sacred; and then those were justly condemned who brought them into common use, Amo_6:5. They invented to themselves instruments of music like David.

IV. The glory and honour of God were principally intended in all this temple-music, whether vocal or instrumental. It was to give thanks, and praise the Lord, that the singers were employed, 1Ch_25:3. It was in the songs of the Lord that they were instructed (1Ch_25:7), that is, for songs in the house of the Lord, 1Ch_25:6. This agrees with the intention of the perpetuating of psalmody in the gospel-church, which is to make melody with the heart, in conjunction with the voice, unto the Lord, Eph_5:19.

This good work of singing God's praises Samuel revived, and set on foot, but lived not to see it brought to the perfection it appears in here. Solomon perfects what David began, so David perfects what Samuel began. Let all, in their day, do what they can for God and his church, though they cannot carry it so far as they would; when they are gone God can out of stones raise up others who shall build upon their foundation and bring forth the top-stone.