Silence, Shouting, or Singing

My husband and I aren’t rah rah people. I didn’t care for pep rallies in school. We cheer at games, especially when our kids are playing. But otherwise, we’re pretty quiet people.

I’ve cringed when I’ve occasionally heard preachers rebuke people for being more excited at a football game than at church. I understand their point, but I’ve thought, “Do you really want the cacophony of a ball game in here?”

So I was encouraged when our Sunday School teacher recently pointed out a verse about silence.

She said that translations vary in how they render the first verse of Psalm 65. The ESV says, “Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed.”

But many other translations mention silence, like the NASB: “There will be silence before You, and praise in Zion, God, And the vow will be fulfilled for You.”

The difference seems to be in the word “awaits,” which means, in the Greek, “A silence, a quiet waiting, repose” (according to the bottom of this page).

Worship in silence.

Personally, I feel most worshipful in silence before the Lord. I resonate with David in another psalm when he says, “For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.
He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken” (Psalm 62:1-2).

But sometimes silence results not just from personality, but from awe. Job understandably cries out about his suffering and wonders what God is doing in his life for multiple chapters of the book bearing his name.

And then God speaks. He doesn’t answer Job’s questions. But He reveals his power and care over all His creation.

Job responds, “Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further.”

The only response to such majesty, power, and greatness was humility and silence. There are just no words. As God said in Habakkuk 2:20: “But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”

Sometimes silence before the Lord comes from depth of feeling, as when “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26).

Sometimes we’re silent in God’s presence because we have no excuses. We know we’ve done wrong and deserve whatever chastisement we’re experiencing. We understand the author of Lamentations when he says, “The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope” (3:25-29). He reminds himself just a few verses later, “For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love” (3:31-32).

We also need silence to listen and learn. As many a teacher has said, “You can’t listen while you’re talking.”

Worship with shouting.

But, as Ecclesiastes says, there is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak” (3:7).

David goes on in the psalm our class was studying, Psalm 65, to talk about the blessings of answered prayer, forgiveness, and God’s presence. He exalts God for His “awesome deeds,” for creation, for God’s care of all He has made. And then he mentions shouting: “You make the going out of the morning and the evening to shout for joy” (verse 8b).

Multitudes of verses talk about shouting, many of them coupled with joy:

Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart! (Psalm 32:11).

Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!
Praise befits the upright (Psalm 33:1)

Though I am not a shouter by nature, the closest I get to that exuberant joy that can’t be contained, that has to burst out somehow, is when someone is baptized.

Worship with singing.

Psalm 65 closes with singing in verse 13: “The meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.”

Perhaps we associate singing with worship more than any other activity, though all of a church service and all of our lives can be acts of worship if done as unto the Lord.

Of course, there are a plethora of verses that talk about worshiping the Lord through song:

Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day (Psalm 96:1-2).

But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
let them ever sing for joy,
and spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may exult in you (Psalm 5:11).

But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me (Psalm 13:5-6).

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God (Colossians 3:16).

I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise (Hebrews 2:12).

I especially love passages that say God is our song, like Isaiah 12:2: “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.”

Psalm 65 starts with silence and ends with shouting and singing. Sometimes our silent worship and contemplation of God’s word and character will erupt into boisterous praise. Sometimes singing God’s songs with other believers will give us something to take home and think about in silence. Some days, and some seasons of life, lend themselves to silence, others to loud praise. Whether we come before the Lord in silence or with singing and shouting, we know He is with us and will hear us.

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Barbara Harper is a “stay-at- home Christian mom” who blogs at Stray Thoughts. We republish her work with permission.

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Photo by jack atkinson on Unsplash