O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. O that today you would listen to his voice!
Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,
when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.
For forty years I loathed that generation and said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways."
Therefore in my anger I swore, "They shall not enter my rest."

Sing. We don't do much public singing anymore, except maybe at a rock concert where our voice is drowned out by the band. Maybe we sing in the shower because the acoustics are great. And maybe we sing in our cars along with the radio. We sing because it's fun to fill our lungs with air and shout out. And sometimes we sing because the song moves us.

We also sing in worship. Maybe the singing veers more toward the joyful noise than art. But then that would be the point: to make a joyful noise before the Creator of all there is, including you and me, to come with praise and thanksgiving, to sing from our heights and our depths, to be joyful - even in the midst of hardship ad sorrow - in God's presence, joyful because, amidst all the insecurities of this world, in Jesus we belong to God now and forever.

Such singing softens our hearts, hardened by wear and care. Such singing pulls us away from destructive inward spirals and propels us outward in mission and joy. Such singing is fun, and it moves us. Yes, unlike singing in the car, other people will hear us. But then not too many of them are going to make the cut on American Idol either, so who cares? Sing!