Together in Christ: 'Praise His Holy Name!' — Psalm 30:5-6

Saturday, November 30, 2024

A Year with Jesus - Holy Week

Spend some time with Jesus this week preparing for Resurrection Sunday.

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Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones! Praise his holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.
— Psalm 30:5-6 NLT

Key Thought

Singing is a great gift God gave His people to express themselves out of all sorts of circumstances in their lives. [1] Today's verses on singing center living and worshiping in relationship with God and each other. We sing to the Lord. We sing, speaking to one another. [2] Our singing helps us express our shared faith even when some of us are in difficult places — when we feel God's anger upon us or find life bone-wearyingly full of long nights. We sing with others who have faith and who can believe for us until we regain our own faith!

Our daily routines can sometimes be accompanied by a loss of resolve, weariness, hardships, struggles, grief, and discouragement. These challenges make our connections with other believers essential. We need to sing with others who have made it through similar hardships and found God's morning of joy again. We need to hear from brothers and sisters who have found themselves undeniably living in the favor and blessing of God after a time of struggle in life's spiritual deserts. Satan wants us to feel hypocritical when we praise God when we don't feel like praising. The evil one wants us to quit and wallow alone in our hurt, anger, and self-pity when our lives are in shambles. But, as I once heard it expressed, "Faith is the bird that sings, while it is yet dark, anticipating a new dawn." In dark moments of the soul, we need the faith of others to sustain us! We worship together and sing with each other to stir one another up in our faith. Rather than hide from other believers when our faith wanes and our doubts rise, we need each other even more. As the Holy Spirit says:

And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. [3]

Thankfully, when we praise God with other believers, we don't have to be the lone "bird that sings" in our darkness. We sing with others who help us anticipate better things. We praise God together so that the faith of our brothers and sisters can buoy us until we find our spirits rising on the inrushing tide of God's grace. We sing to the Lord with "His godly ones" because we trust the moments of anger and nights of weeping come to an end. Morning dawns, joy returns, and we have brothers and sisters who share the journey with us!

[1] The collection of lyrics and poems in our Bible book called Psalms contain many frank and passionate songs that come from many of life's good and bad circumstances. They give us honest words to speak to God when we don't have our words to speak or we fear our words are inappropriate or empty.
[2] Colossians 3:16.
Hebrews 10:25.

Today's Prayer

Father, thank you that I can sing with brothers and sisters who have passionate faith when my own may be lagging, and my heart is discouraged. Holy Spirit, I need Your help, strength, and courage to worship with my brothers and sisters in Christ when I feel down, discouraged, unworthy, and unholy. Jesus, please help me hear Your evaluation of me — "holy and blameless as you stand before [God] without a single fault" — and not the doubts I have or the shame I feel. Bring me joy, dear God, as I worship You with Your holy ones! Amen.

Related Scripture Readings

  • Romans 8:18-39
  • Ephesians 5:17-21; Colossians 3:12-17

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Illustration

Illustration of Psalm 30:5-6 NLT — Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones! Praise his holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.

About This Devotional

Together in Christ is a daily devotional that focuses on what Scripture teaches about godly living in relationships.

'Together in Christ' is written by Phil Ware.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.