When I was a teenager, my beloved Mamaw Linda needed open-heart surgery. Much as Paul traced Timothy’s “sincere faith” to his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice, mine originated with my grandmother Linda and my mother Elizabeth (cf. 2 Tim. 1:5). To have someone so important that I loved so much to be so very sick was a difficult moment in my young life. Do you know how my growing faith and still developing brain coped with it? I sang. I went out into my backyard, looked up into the starry sky, and sang hymns. I sang “Walking Alone at Eve” and “I Come to the Garden Alone”, and I prayed my heart out for Mamaw.
Without knowing it, that was one of the best things I could do. We are “fearfully and wonderfully made” to sing (cf. Ps. 139:14). The evidence is all over us. According to a 2015 study, singing can significantly decrease our levels of stress hormones. It also triggers the release of our “feel good” hormones, which increases our pain tolerance according to a 2012 study. More than just expressing emotion, singing shapes how we feel – and it is even better when we sing together. Recently bereaved adults who sang in a group every week experienced improvement in their feelings of depression while those who did not worsened. Schoolchildren involved in singing were found to have greater self-esteem and sense of belonging.
Long before research papers, the Spirit-inspired writers of the Psalms already realized this. The Sons of Korah sang their way through their stress and grief together: “My tears have been my food day and night…Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God” (Ps. 42:3-6). Singing helped David tolerate the pain of the wilderness: “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water…Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you” (Ps. 63:1-3). Beyond the physical benefits, singing these Psalms fills us with God’s Spirit (cf. Eph. 5:18-21).
God does not want us to bury our emotions or to be ruled by them. He invites us to bring our emotions to Him by singing with our spirits and our minds, allowing Him to shape us in the process (cf. 1 Cor. 14:15). He wants to deepen our joy and to comfort our grief, accomplishing something in us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We just need to sing.
All throughout the Bible, people experience God's presence, power, and joy when they sing together. It's time for us to join the song!