Make a Joyful Noise

by Megan Crosby

Make a joyful noise to the Lord,
Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come into his presence with singing.
Psalm 100: 1-2

I love hearing my daughter sing. She has watched many a church service on the TV at home and she can sing the hymn of praise “Glory to God” quite well. Also, the upbeat Sanctus, when we sing “Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest.” It’s hard to beat the enthusiasm of children!

We are all invited to sing, to make a joyful noise, regardless of our talent or musical training. When we sing together, we are one. All those individual voices: young or old, trained or amateur, smooth or cracking, we create one blended voice and it is beautiful. While you hear yourself sing (and the voices next to you), up front I hear that one voice and it is magnificent, even powerful.

You may feel that your voice isn’t good enough. I’m here to tell you that it is. My mom was not a fantastic singer. She matched pitch sometimes and at other times the notes in the hymn would go too high and she would try to sing down the octave, creating some other harmony notes. Still, she sang at church and she didn’t care what anybody else thought about her voice. Singing at worship is not just for those that are the best. Singing is for all of us. At worship, we can set aside our self-judgements and sing together to our creator, who lovingly made us and comes to us as we are.

This Sunday we are having a hymn sing. Some songs are already in the bulletin, chosen from suggestions provided by the congregation. Some songs will be chosen “out of a hat” that morning, so fill out a slip of paper with your favorite song when you arrive!