Over and over again the Psalms describe God’s people singing for joy, and even command us to sing and shout for joy:

• “[L]et all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy.” (5:11)
• “Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth.” (67:4)
• “My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed.” (71:23)
• “My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.” (84:2)
• “Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob.” (81:1)
• “For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.” (92:4)

These are just a few of the examples.

When we come to Sunday morning and our hearts are lifted up this is easy to do. The past week was filled with encouragement and excitement, so we come to rejoice in all that God has done. Circumstances and situations are favorable so we lift our voices in joyful praise to God. In these times we sing from joy.

But, if we’re honest, that’s not the posture of our hearts each week. Sometimes we come to Sunday morning and the last thing we want to do is get out of bed, talk to other people and sing. Maybe that’s because we’ve had a hard week and we’re exhausted and would like to hit snooze a couple more times. Or maybe it’s because something tragic happened just a few days before and God’s goodness is far from your heart and mind. Because we live in a broken world, there’s a myriad of reasons that can leave our hearts feeling joyless. Can we truthfully sing, “It is well with my soul” when I don’t feel like it’s well with my soul?

In these moments, we don’t sing from joy, but for joy.

On the blog, Doxology & Theology, Joel Limpic insightfully captures the need and essence of singing from joy and singing for joy.

Singing from Joy

At times, singing is like a dance that overtakes us and we can’t help but join in on. This is probably the most widely embraced understanding of worship, and should hold a rightful place in the Church. As God opens our eyes to His glory and redemptive work, how could we not be moved to respond in praise? As we sense His nearness in often tangible ways, how could we not be comforted and grateful? We can’t help but overflow in song! Our bodies can’t help but follow suit as our hearts leap for joy. We sing from already existing affection in our hearts, and it is right to express this.

Singing For Joy

At other times, singing is like a war that we must wage that feels less like an inspired dance and more like a disciplined trudge. The truth is most often we come into our gathering times feeling distracted, disjointed, and despondent! In our times of singing, we’ll be physically unexpressive because we don’t want to appear hypocritical. We justify this by reminding ourselves that Jesus told the Pharisees that their mouths were near and yet their hearts were far from him (Mark 7:6). We don’t want to be lumped in with that group, so we think by refraining from singing joyfully or expressing ourselves with our bodies, we somehow keep ourselves pure.

We unfortunately misunderstand a couple things when we do this: First, just because we may not “feel” a particular truth doesn’t somehow make that truth less true or worthy of celebrating. Second, simply because we may not be in a particular mood, we underestimate the role of our bodies when it comes to our affections. We are not Gnostics; what we do with our bodies matter! It’s precisely because we’re not feeling anything that we must sing… It’s precisely because our vision gets foggy that we should get on our knees in reverence and lift our hands in praise. It’s in the place of confusion and complacency where we must learn to sing for affection; to raise our voice and hands to tell our forgetful hearts that Jesus is King and not our emotions or mood.

Brothers and sisters, let’s sing from joy and for joy. With every song we sing we’re either celebrating what we know and feel to be true, or reminding ourselves what is true so that our affections might catch up.