Colossians 3:16

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly

in all wisdom,

teaching and admonishing one another

in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,

singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord"

Colossians 3:16

This is such a beautiful verse.  It has such lovely words in it:  richly, teaching, grace and hearts are all words with a beautiful feel to them.  But the emphasis of the verse, to me, is about song, so the words that highlight that stand out especially, not only for their look and feel, but also for the wonderful depth of their message. 

First of all, the kinds of singing:  "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs".  At first glance it seems like the same thing, but together they convey the ideas of praise, repentance, acknowledgement and thanks ~ everything a song to the Lord should be.

Next, the way to sing:  "with grace in your heart, to the Lord".  Singing can be so pleasurable sometimes, that I can find myself enjoying the melody, or the rhythm, and forgetting that it's meant to be for Him.   By the same token, I can find myself getting all the words right, and hitting all the notes, but with my mind elsewhere, missing that grace that Paul mentions.  I like this reminder.

But my favorite angle to this verse is the idea of together.  The ideas of teaching and admonishing imply that there has to be someone learning and hearing.  Plus the words "one another," and the plural of "hearts".

Have you ever done any karaoke singing?  I've mostly only seen it on TV, but I was with a group of friends a few months ago, when the hostess brought out her family's karaoke machine.  Now, it was a good-sized group of women, of all personalities, so of course there were some who took to it readily.  Some people are just comfortable in the spotlight, ya know?

But most of the others would only venture to take mic in hand, if someone else did with them.  A sort of "safety in numbers" thing, I guess.  The other thing that mattered to the "shy" girls {which included me; I was incredibly reluctant} was what song they "performed".  I said no to the cajoling for quite awhile before realizing the songs included Broadway.  I'm not much for current music, but I love a good musical!  So I agreed to do one song with a friend.  And it was fun.  And I'll probably never do it again.

Alone, or with others.  Singing solely for Him, or leading others in worship, there is joy in song.  There is repentance and soul-searching.  Sing with grace, and sing in your heart, to Him.

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