Just this week, my dad sent me a link to an old song

sung by a gospel singer, who's one of his favorites.

Maybe you've heard the song, I would guess many in this room have not,

called His Eyes on the Sparrow.

Okay, so a few.

And the chorus goes,

I sing because I'm happy,

I sing because I'm free

for his eyes on the sparrow

and I know he watches me.

That is often the case that we sing because we're happy.

Song is often identified with joy.

But my question here for us in these few minutes is,

are there other reasons to sing than because we're already happy?

The book of Psalms gives us saint after saint

and psalm after psalm that weren't written from happiness,

not immediately, not easy circumstances.

They sang because they were sad.

They sang because they were grieving.

They sang from disorientation, from confusion, from fear.

They sang because they were lonely or guilty or ashamed.

Now, it's not all the Psalms.

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