“How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise Him.” Ps 147:1

 An essential part of our worship and prayer life is singing songs of praise unto the Lord. They are powerful. It doesn’t matter whether or not we have a great singing voice. Praising God in song is something God wants us to do. Just like He rejoices over us with singing! (Zeph 3:17)

A true song of praise is the expression of our Lord’s joy on the lips of His people. It is the adoration that overflows from the hearts of people in love with their Lord and fully surrendered to Him. There is power in praise. When we sing to the Lord we are not just singing simple catchy tunes, we are making strong declarations of truth that resonate in the heavenlies, exalting our Lord and pushing back the enemy.

Praise songs are vital in our spiritual warfare. Scriptural examples abound of God’s people singing His praises. They even sang before going into battle and before victory was secured. In 2 Chron 20:18-22, King Jehoshaphat sent out singers ahead of the armies of Judah as they prepared for battle with the Moabites. The people praised God before the battle and He in turn ambushed and utterly defeated the enemy. Praising God confuses and confounds the enemy. The devil cannot function in an atmosphere of praise.

A good habit to get into is to sing God’s praises before we try to handle the battles we are facing in our lives. Can we trust God enough to praise and thank Him before we see an impossible situation resolved, an obstacle removed, or a difficult decision made? Can we sing when we are going through hardships and disappointments with no deliverance in sight? Precious to God are songs that flow from the hearts of those being severely tested.

Given the effectiveness of praise, we should never underestimate the enemy’s attempts to silence us. If he can do this he has won a key battle. His very tactics are aimed at getting us to stop singing. He tempts us to be taken up with our difficulties rather than with the Lord. And when we focus on our problems apart from Christ we really have nothing to sing about. Then without a song in our hearts we are impotent to fight our battles.

This being so, let us be on our guard continually against anything that would silence the songs of praise rising from our hearts to the Most High. Nothing takes the wind out of the enemy’s sails like the sounds of praise. How he must tremble and wilt when he hears God’s people singing and rejoicing in their Lord. Our praise songs affirm our allegiance, love and trust in the Lover of our souls who has set us apart exclusively for Himself.

Our songs also remind the enemy, much to his dismay, that it is Jesus Christ who has won our hearts and the hand of His bride in marriage.