Remember to Sing

Thanks for joining us for this Thursday edition of Our Daily Bread. Today's reading was written by Patricia Rabon, and it's titled Remember to Sing. Nancy Gustafson, a retired opera singer, was devastated when she visited her mother and observed her decline from dementia. Her mom no longer recognized her and barely spoke.

After several monthly visits, Nancy had an idea. She started singing to her. Her mother's eyes lit up at the musical sounds, and she began singing, too, for 20 minutes.

Then Nancy's mom laughed, joking they were the Gustafson family singers. The dramatic turnaround suggested the power of music, as some therapists conclude, to evoke lost memories. Singing old favorites has also been shown to boost mood, reduce falls, lessen visits to the emergency room, and decrease the need for sedative drugs.

More research is underway on a music-memory link. Yet, as the Bible reveals, the joy that comes from singing is a gift from God, and it's real. Psalm 147, verse 1 proclaims, how good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise Him. Throughout the Scriptures, in fact, God's people are urged to lift their voices in songs of praise to Him. Isaiah 12, 5 encourages, sing to the Lord, for He has done glorious things. And the writer of Psalm 40 rejoices, He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in Him.

Our singing inspires us, but also those who hear it. May we all remember, our God is great and worthy of praise. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Psalm 147, verses 1 through 7. Praise the Lord! How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise Him! The Lord builds up Jerusalem, He gathers the exiles of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name. Great is our Lord and mighty in power, His understanding has no limit. The Lord sustains the humble, but casts the wicked to the ground. Sing to the Lord with grateful praise. Make music to our God on the harp. Now let's pray. Dear Father in Heaven, we thank you for the gift of music and how it can lift our spirits and give us hope. And we thank you for the power it has on the mind of those experiencing dementia and other debilitating mental disorders as we age. We pray that you would remind us to sing praises to you in the good times and in the bad times so that we can be reminded of your faithfulness to all generations. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.