Does your soul sing for the Lord? Wait, what does it even mean for a soul to sing? What state do you have to be in to feel your innermost being sing, praise, and yearn for God? These are some of the questions I asked myself when I listened to the song My soul sings by Maverick City featuring Dante Bowe. I enjoyed the song but I couldn’t help but ask myself what my soul felt for Jesus, if the words were genuine in my situation or if I was just enjoying the harmonies and the rhythm of the song? I then remembered a shona catholic hymn sung in my church called Ini ndinokurumbidzai mambo nomwoyo wangu wose. It’s actually my favorite hymn to use to praise God during my worshiping moments because of how it just praises God and reflects Mary’s pure joy, humility and gratitude. The hymn is pulled directly from the magnificat, Mary’s song of praise found in Luke chapter 1 vs 47-55. The first verse of the song reads;
Luke chapter 1 vs 47
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
Now this is nice to read and it sounds amazing right? But why is she saying this? The next verse then addresses why she sings this song;
Luke chapter 1 vs 47
For he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
I’m sure we can all see that the 2nd line of the second verse is the one that sounds like it has some “benefit” for Mary. But it’s when you understand the glory of God, who God is, what He is capable of that you realize how precious the first part is. Mary was grateful and glorified God for looking at her, a mere human being, and blessing her with the amazing opportunity to carry the savior, our savior Jesus. Now was it an easy task, definitely not! I think we all have an idea of what Mary went through. It wasn’t going to be easy, but because she knew who God was, how great He was, she was humbled by the chance, she was grateful and rejoiced at the thought of God’s favor being with her. With all that you’ve been blessed with, have you had a moment to rejoice in God for it? Your situation may not be the best right now or even in a long time, but there surely has been some good in your life. The first sign of the goodness of God in our lives is the breath in our lungs, LIFE! I know this sounds cliche, but think about it, with life you can choose, you can love, you can be loved, you can live, you can do so many things if you choose to, the dead no longer have that chance. That alone should make us grateful and thankful to God. She goes on to say how God had done great things for her and how holy He was. From what we know, Mary wasn’t rich, she was at the time pregnant and unmarried, also uncertain of the future, but she chose to praise God for what she had and what she was experiencing at the time and also, to thank Him for His fulfillment of His promise to Israel.
Luke chapter 1 vs 49, 54-55
For the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.
So dear friend you don’t need everything to be working for you for your soul to sing for God. With all your heart praise God, for if you are reading this, you are alive and experiencing an amazing gift from God, he has done great things for you if you really look back and think. He will do even more if you let Him. The more you read the bible with a humble heart, the more you will understand who God is and why our souls and hearts should sing for God. It took me some time to get to this point of praise and worship, I prayed about it and asked God to help me understand Him more and get to that point. Now the hymns of praise & worship sung at church make sense (they really used to be boring when I was young to be honest, that’s because I didn’t understand who God was to me) and I enjoy them and participate fully with all my heart. At this point I even want to know Him more and sing more and worship Him more. It’s a blessing to know God, to know Jesus and to experience the presence of the Holy Spirit. I hope you get to experience that, if you’re already experiencing it please share what it’s like for you in the comments. If not, I pray that you ask God to help you (and trust me He will) experience it because it truly is a beautiful and fulfilling thing.