Sing to God When Things Are Bad

Photo by Mark A, Wilson (PD)
Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts; his name is the Lord; exult before him!

Sing to God; make music to praise his name.  Make a highway for him to ride through the deserts.  The Lord is his name.  Celebrate in his presence.

Sing to God. Sing praises to His name. Make a road for Him Who goes through the deserts. The Lord is His name. Be full of joy before Him.
-Psalm 68:4 (ESV, God's Word Translation, New Life Version)

(This re-post, with added content)
When you are in trouble, sing to God.  There's no time like when we are under attack to praise the Lord.  

When we sing to God, we are opening a door to welcome the Lord into our presence.  We are making a roadway.  We are making a landing strip.  Singing to God and praising the Lord release faith, and God responds to faith.

The deserts are the dry places, the places that are barren and seemingly lifeless.  The desert is less civilized and is where outlaws go.  Most people do not want to live in the desert, because it is less habitable or hospitable.  

Being in the desert is like being barren. unfruitful, and dry.  In a word, uncomfortable.  When we sing to God and praise the Lord, we make a place for him to come into and through the desert.  

You start with singing in warfare and you end in celebration for his presence.  The enemy is routed.  God makes a way where there was no way, like a stream in the desert.  It looked impossible, but you exercised some faith and praised God anyway.

The enemy wants you to sink down to his level, to use carnal, fleshly weapons against him.  Singing to God goes around all of that and defeats him every time.  

The enemy also encourages us to turn against ourselves and grind on our problems, without God in sight.  Singing to God dismantles that and humbles the pride of thinking that we can think or worry our way to answers.

We worship, praise, and sing to God; because we do not know what to do and are at our wits end.  Sometimes, worship is expressing thanks, and reciting truths, that we are so glad have been revealed to us.  But, in the darkest or driest or most hopeless places; that might not be what our worship sounds like at all.  

God never elbows a severely depressed person and says, "chin up, cheer up, gotta praise me now..."  No, no, and no.  Singing to God can come from a devastated heart.  Lament is the highest form of worship.  

When the psalmist wrote, "you've turned my mourning into dancing", he meant it, that he had been mourning, before God met him and touched him.  It's not a cliche.  Mourning is real and lamentations are real.  Being sorrowful and filled with grief are real and part of the Christian's life.

When we are under attack or in a dry and lifeless place, or lonely "nowhereville"; sing.  Sing to God in that empty place, that depressed place, that hopeless place.  Sing to God in your mourning.  Sing your sorrows to God.

Sing, just sing.  Praise God.  Bless his name, no matter what.  It will change the atmosphere, annoy and rattle the enemy, and attract God to come through your situation.  You will end up in celebratiom and being an encouragement to others.

God is So Good, by Kevin Prosch
And God is so good.
And God is so good.
He rides upon the wings of the wind,
He is exalted by His name Jah.
He walks in the midst of the stones of fire,
To be His sons is our desire.
And God is so good.
And God is so good.
You reign on high in majesty,
And the widow's heart causes to sing.
You hear the cry of the fatherless,
And the depths of Your love who can Comprehend?
For the natural things speak of the invisible.
Look around and see,
Who could deny the wonders of His Love?
And God is so good.
And God is so good.

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