Take Joy, My King, in What You Hear

Day 8 of the Love Month -- Take Joy, My King, in What You Hear
Last week I posted about the love songs we enjoyed with our significant other, the love songs we sang to our babies, and the love songs God sings to us, but doesn't He Who is THE originator of music desire to hear love songs from us? The ONE who deserves our praise, adoration and our love.... because He FIRST loved us? Christianity is a singing faith. Why? Because it’s not about religion! It’s about a love affair; it’s about a relationship with God— God loves us so much that He sent His Son to die for us and He wants us to love Him back.

Here's one of the love songs I sing to Him:
"I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice, to worship You. Oh my soul, rejoice.
Take joy, my King, in what you hear. May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear."

Oh, that the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be forever making beautiful sounds and songs of love to my King. How often do I let my tongue slip with a careless word, complaint, concern, or woe....those sounds that I'm sure God must put His fingers in His ears and go "la la la la la" to hide those less-than-lovely sounds. But how He must lean into me when He hears me praising Him -- making sounds of gladness, joy, thanksgiving and gratitude. Psalm 22:3 says "He inhabits the praises of His people." He dwells there with us. He embraces our praises. He abides in our praises.

Nothing makes us more aware of God’s love and presence in our life than singing and praising. I know you may be thinking, “But you don’t understand. I can’t sing.” God doesn't look for virtuoso singing. He's quite okay with being off-key. “Make a joyful noise” (Psalm 66:1). We can all do that. When we cheer our favorite teams and players on, we make a joyful noise. So let's just let it out! We don’t have to hit the right notes; we just have to make a joyful noise of love and praise to God.

When we really think about all that God has done for us, we won’t be able to help ourselves. Those are the sweet times of intimacy (in-to-me-see) when we bare our hearts and souls to Him who knows us so completely anyway. Those are the times when we are so tight in our love for each other, that we can barely put into words all that He means to us. Quite naturally, our love songs will come pouring out of us like a fountain of unending flow. "I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice, to worship You. Oh my soul, rejoice. Take joy, my King, in what you hear. May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear."