Singing Happy Songs

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Proverbs 25:20 says, “ As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart.”

     I like music and probably always have  as far back as I can think.  I started out with the tonette in the fourth grade and soon I began playing the clarinet, and then a trumpet, and then a bassoon and then a Euphonium, and then a saxophone.  All the time I was doing that I was also singing in the “glee club” and doing a few solos here and there for some weddings.  My Fatgher once stated after a solo, “Well, it was loud.”   There have been, however, a few times in my life when I just didn’t feel like singing.  One such time took place about a month ago here as I was getting ready to preach the morning devotional.  I received some information that irritated me and I just didn’t feel like singing anymore.  An elderly lady, most of them are elderly here, came up and I prayed with her and afterwards she kissed my hand.  That began the transformation, but not quite.   At 50 minutes before the preaching time, I began to sing and for the first  20 minutes, I didn’t have the right spirit in me to sing but as I sang hymn after hymn, it began to take effect with me and soon my heart was in it and it was singing also.

     A song to a heavy heart is not always the best thing to do.  Solomon here compares the two to mixing vinegar with soda, or as it says here, nitre.  The two just don’t mix.  There will be an instant fizzing which will consume the soda and soon will be flat again.  A song  of merriment is not the thing to do when a person is suffering.  I was at a funeral home preparing for the funeral of one of my relatives and the funeral before me was going on and I heard a polka being played over the speaker in the parlor where the funeral was being held.  I went to the sound man and asked him why he was playing the “Beer ‘Barrel Polka.”  He said the deceased requested it because of the phrase, “The gang’s all here.”  It just didn’t seem to fit in my estimation and it seemed to be out of place.  There is a time to sing and there is a time not to sing. Even the Israelites once hung their harps on the willows and would not sing as they were being led into captivity.  I need to be more discerning as to when to sing and when not to sing.  If I was a poet, which I am not, today would be a day to write a poem expressing other feeling that are going on and maybe not a song of merriment.  I do, however, look forward to singing in heaven with a multitude of angels which is more in number than I can imagine and the songs will be beautiful and glorifying God.  Praise Him today for the songs that we will be singing in g lory.