Sinclair B. Ferguson

That would hardly be the case unless God has a desire to listen to us.

In fact, such a desire that He has provided us with the very words that we need for every season and every stage of life, from beginning to end, from gladness to sadness.

Yes, God wants us to sing.

And there's a third reason.

We know that the Lord Jesus, who always did the will of His Father and lived to please Him, sang praises to Him.

There's one place in the Gospels that tells us very specifically that he did so.

Amazing, at the end of the Passover meal, as he was about to go to the Garden of Gethsemane, he and his disciples, we're told in Matthew's Gospel, sang a hymn.

We know what it probably was, because Passover was one of those occasions when the same praise was sung year after year.

It was called the Hallel, like the word Hallelujah from the first lines of Psalm 113, with which it began,

Praise the Lord.

Praise, O servants of the Lord.

Praise the name of the Lord.

Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore.

From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised.

And to think that as Jesus was singing that, he was about to go and make that a reality.

Well, if the Son of God, whose knowledge of God is perfect, sang praises to God, then we can be sure that God loves to hear and enjoys the praises of his people, just the way a father loves the love of his children.

The upper room was not actually the last time our Lord Jesus would ever lead the praises of his children.

Do you remember the words of Psalm 22, verse 22?

Psalm 22 is the one that begins with an anticipation of Jesus' cry of dereliction on the cross.

My God, I'm forsaken.