When suffering seems endless and despair kicks in, thoughts of “why” and “how long, oh Lord?” can permeate our thoughts. We fixate on circumstances, trying to understand them, and then stress multiplies even more.
Our songs of praise feel out of tune, inauthentic, cacophonous, ugly, filled with discord underneath.
Sometimes suffering threatens to silence our song because we just don’t feel like singing…and we sure don’t feel like singing praise to God.
And yet, honest laments in Scripture almost all include praise. We need His help to praise Him. We need His grace.
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace, Lord.
Let’s ask for His grace to help us sing praise to Him…FOR His grace, into our suffering, battling any feelings and thoughts of despair.
Lord, by Your grace, please fill me and my fellow sufferers with a song today. It’s only by Your empowering and indwelling Holy Spirit, illuminating Your living and active Word (Heb. 4:12). You promise Your Word “shall accomplish that which [You] purpose, and shall succeed in the thing which [You] sent it” (Is. 55:11 ESV).
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace, Lord
Come, thou fount of ev’ry blessing,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Eph. 1:3 ESV).
tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace (Eph. 1:6-7 ESV).
streams of mercy, never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise.
But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope (Lam. 3:21 ESV).
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
sung by flaming tongues above;
praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
mount of God’s unchanging love.
“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created” (Rev. 4:11 ESV).
Tune my heart to sing of Your help, yesterday, today, and in every tomorrow
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Then Samuel took a stone…and called its name Ebenezer, for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us” (I Sam. 7:12 ESV).
hither by Thy help I’m come;
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16 ESV).
and I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Tune my heart as Your sheep
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wand’ring from the fold of God:
He, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.
For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out (Ezek. 34:11 ESV).
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (Jn. 10:11 ESV).
Tune my heart to Your grace in my wandering
O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be;
let that grace now, like a fetter,
bind my wand’ring heart to Thee.
Prone to wander – Lord, I feel it –
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.
(“Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” Robinson, R., 1758)
You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 2:1 ESV).
Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Heb. 12: 1b ESV).
Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also (Jn. 14:1-3 ESV).
A Playlist To Sing of His Grace
This week’s playlist sings back to the Lord all of these Scriptural truths. In our singing, I’m praying God will tune our hearts to praise Him for truths we may not feel or see right now. As we praise Him, let’s believe, as He helps us endure our suffering with continued faith.
Oh, what a glorious gift of His grace!
If it would encourage you to be immersed in hymns and Scriptural songs that help you to sing praise to the Lord right now, sign up here and I’ll send weekly playlists to your email. How I pray it’s strengthening and edifying to you, beloved in Christ.
