Dear Church Family,
The second verse of 2 Chronicles 16:8-12 (the passage we are studying during Holy Week) reads, “Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell of all his wonderful acts.”
This reminds God’s people of our high calling to give praise to God. In the Hebrew language, when a word is repeated we must pay special attention to it for it means that God (the ultimate author of the Bible) has stated something that is to be emphasized. We are to sing and then sing.
God designed and created the human body to sing. A branch of physiology devotes itself to the study of the mechanics of singing. Clearly evolution could not produce such a complex system to sing praise to God or sing anything else. With the help of the ‘Google Machine” I found that to sing the body uses three subsystems. (My online search helped me, but I learned much about this from the director of the Men’s Glee Club at Wheaton.)
The sing process starts with a need for air. Count how many body parts it take to produce that air. The diaphragm, chest muscles, abdominal muscles and lungs along with the nose or mouth and trachea (that is six of seven parts) combine as the first subsystem to bring air into the second subsystem. There vibrations take place in the voice box. The larynx and vocal cords do amazing things to make the sound waves that have a pitch or tone. Those sound waves then head out of the throat. The pharynx, mouth, nasal passages and lips refine those waves and the result is music. Our ears and the ears of others hear that sound and are blessed by it.
This website neglected to mention that a song of praise to God starts in a heart that has been transformed by the saving work of Jesus Christ. The heart is “strangely warmed” and passes to the brain lofty thoughts of God. The brain then sends a message to those three subsystems with the result being a sound that is pleasing to God.
Verse 13 adds that our singing is to tell about God’s wonderful acts. John 21:25 tells us that if John had written down all that Jesus had done, “the whole world would not have room for the books that would contain.” So we obviously have lots to sing about. This Call to Worship and the remainder of the chapter is ‘republished’ as Psalm 105. There David details how God has worked to redeem a people for Himself ending during the exodus. We know there is more to the story. By faith in Christ we are the redeemed people of God. We can sing to Him with joy now and forever!
What are you waiting for? Start singing.
Pastor Gillikin