Psalm 33:1-5, 20-22
With God

Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous.
    Praise befits the upright.
Praise the LORD with the lyre;
    make melody to him with the harp of ten strings.
Sing to him a new song;
    play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

For the word of the LORD is upright,
    and all his work is done in faithfulness.
He loves righteousness and justice;
    the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD.



Our soul waits for the LORD;
    he is our help and shield.
Our heart is glad in him,
    because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
    even as we hope in you.

New Revised Standard Version

It is just not enough for me to sing to the Lord.

I've been singing to the Lord for several decades now in many different forms. In a good many of those performances, I know I have given to God my best effort through my music, offering my most earnest praises to the One I love.

However, there is a gap I've inadvertantly created when I think, write, and speak the word "to." It is the difference between being on the stage and in the audience. It is the negotiated interaction implicit in the offering and the accepting of a gift. It is the same distance found between the "from" address and the "to" address, and I had not recognized this in my music until just recently.

This Easter Sunday, I had the wonderful experience of singing a duet with Melanie (of Melanie ~ Michael!) One of the church members gave me a videotape of the two of us singing, and as I was conducting my normal self-critique of vocal mechanics, I noticed how stiff I looked and how enthused Melanie looked. It was so easy to see that songs and praises offered with her physical expressiveness would do so much more to lead a congregation in worship.

So, the next week, I described for her what I had seen, and asked her for advice. I expected a discussion of technique and physical presence, or of the importance of knowing a piece well enough to get out of the printed page, or even a recommendation of exercises and practice motions.

No, she said. The key is to push out of your mind everything but the message in the song and God. The key is to experience God, in song, right there -- to sing with God. In that moment, she said, she offers up not a polished performance, but herself, allowing God to use her as God transforms the music into a living spiritual encounter for all present. All the preparations before are still essential. All the practice, talent, and skill of the musicians are needed to make balance, blend, ensemble, phrasing, and diction second nature -- so they can stay second nature, with the semi-conscious mind working on the details, so that in the forefront of the mind is only God.

The psalmist expressed the essence of singing with God in the final verses of his psalm. It is always God, and only God, in whom we put our trust, in whom we have our hope, in whom we truly sing!

Thank you, Melanie, for the divine insight God gave through you. Thank you God, for giving me the reason to sing, the tools to sing, and the blessing of singing with You.