Everyone Burst Out Singing

As the elevator doors shut, the sounding bell served as my cue. “He’s so shy! That sweet little boy that caught my eye, he’s so shy!” The other guests at the hotel must have been amused at the seven-year-old serenading the elevator occupants for multiple floors. My parents, by this time, were immune to the reality of their only son continually breaking out into song and dance. Their looks, punctuated by shrugged shoulders, conveyed a definitive answer, “Yes, he does this all the time!”

I was always singing. While I was playing, I accompanied this imaginative world with songs. If ever asked to say grace before a meal, dinner guests were treated to a lengthy version of Johnny Appleseed complete with improvisations. There were several incidents during my schooling where singing softly during examinations was chided. This habit followed me throughout my teenage years and into adulthood. With a vast repertoire of soul music, art songs, and made-up jingles, I have sung across college campuses, throughout all employment, and during every moment of life.

Quick online research will reveal the myriad benefits of singing. Study after study supports that singing relieves stress, builds community and connections, stimulates brain function, improves lung capacity, and stimulates immune functions. Singing is good for us all. Singing also portrays the spectrum of the human drama, making sense out of our losses, celebrating our triumphs, and sustaining us through the most ordinary times. A song can capture the impossible-to-define moments of our lives, like being in love, landing a new job, losing a loved one, or suffering from the toil of work.

When I examine the biblical texts, I am quick to notice a phrase that repeats over twenty times, “Sing to the Lord a New Song.” Miriam sounds this call in the desert; Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel employ it during their prophetic writings; and the Psalms use it repeatedly. From its usage, singing must have been critical to these ancient people of faith. I never read these verses as mere filigree, ornamenting life. These verses tell us that singing is life! The Hebrews were singing to sustain, celebrate, and understand life. These songs were not mere superfluous words to a far-off deity. Their songs were melodies and words that crafted and cared for their humanity. Each note and each syllable made them more aware of life.

While I lived in Minnesota, I was in a choral group that started each rehearsal with a poem. During a March rehearsal, a time when it is still snowing regularly in Minnesota, a young woman began the rehearsal with Siegfried Sasson’s beautiful poem:

Everyone suddenly burst out singing;

And I was filled with such delight

As prisoned birds must find in freedom,

Winging wildly across the white

Orchards and dark-green fields; on - on - and out of sight.

Everyone's voice was suddenly lifted;

And beauty came like the setting sun:

My heart was shaken with tears; and horror

Drifted away ... O, but Everyone

Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done.

I am still the seven-year-old in the elevator singing, and I hope that you will join me and that this singing will never be done.

Brian Crisp