“A Cheerful Heart Is Good Medicine!”

As I prepare for our worship services each week, I filter through many psalms, hymns and spiritual songs and try to put together the ones from each category that I believe will best lead us to the place that the Lord wants to take us on any given week. One of the criticisms of modern or contemporary (music of the day) specifically “praises choruses” is that many of them are repetitive. I heard someone once call them 7-11 songs - seven words sung eleven times! Admittedly, many of them are repetitive. The reason for this may be that most take their scriptural basis for the psalms. For instance, have you ever read Psalm 136? God wanted the first singers of this song to get the point—that “His love endures forever!” So much so that He repeated it 26 times in a row!

I’ve had many conversations with people about the strength and need for repetition and how our Lord used it throughout scripture, and have read much about it. I want to share with you one of the funniest illustrations I have ever seen regarding the subject. Enjoy.

An old farmer went to the city one weekend and attended the

big city church. He came home and his wife asked him how

it was. “Well,” said the farmer, “It was good, They did

something different, however. They sang praise choruses

instead of hymns.” “Praise choruses,” said his wife, “What

are those?” “Oh, they’re okay. They’re sort of like hymns,

only different,” said the farmer. “Well, what’s the

difference? “ asked the wife. The farmer said, “Well, it’s like

this: If I were to say to you, ‘Martha, the cows are in the corn,’

well, that would be a hymn. If, on the other hand, I were to say

to you, “Martha, Martha, Martha, Oh, Martha, MARTHA,

MARTHA, the cows, the big cows, the brown cows, the

black cows, the white cows, the black and white cows, the COWS,

COWS, COWS, are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn,

are in the CORN, CORN, CORN,” then if I were to repeat the whole thing two or three times, well, that would be a praise chorus!”

Go ahead and laugh. “A cheerful heart is good medicine!” Today, whether we say or sing, “God is good!” or God is good, He is good, He is so good, God is so, so, so, so, so, so good!”, our Lord is blessed as He hears His children singing His praise. In these day of uncertainty, keep repeating the truths of God’s word over and over again, your heart will gain from the repetition. “Sing them over again to me...wonderful words of life.” MJ