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“I will declare Thy name unto My brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee” (Psalm 22:22).
“Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19).
It is a wonderful thing to be able to sing praises to the Lord! We see in our first verse that the Lord Jesus Himself is going to praise in the middle of the congregation. In fact, just before He went to the cross, it is recorded that the Lord Jesus and His disciples sung a hymn together. We might wonder how He could sing under those circumstances, but He looked beyond it all to the blessing that would come from His work on the cross.
The Lord loves to hear us sing too, but we should also be “making melody in our heart to the Lord.” If we are singing only because we like the music, then our hearts will not be right. But if our hearts are drawn out to the Lord, our voices will follow, and we will want to sing to the Lord. When we come together to remember Him, let us always remember too that it is a meeting FOR the Lord, not so much for us. Yes, if the Spirit has liberty to lead, we will enjoy it too, but the meeting is really for the Lord. Do you open your mouth and sing His praises when a hymn is given out?
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