The Song Stuck in My Head

Laura Booz: Hi there, you’re listening to Expect Something Beautiful with Laura Booz. 

Your expectations really matter, and today I want to remind you that singing God’s Word is powerful. You can expect it to bless you in a moment and then for that song to return to you just when you need it most. 

Did you know that scientists are just starting to discover how God’s design of music is the perfect mechanism for the human brain to process complex ideas. They’re just starting to really dig into how music helps us remember and meditate. It helps us emote, feel unity with others. 

I mean music is so special. Although a person may forget their own child’s name, they will remember songs from the past.

Maybe that’s why Scripture is full of verses, encouraging us to sing to the Lord, to speak to one another with songs, hymns, and spiritual songs, because music is one of God’s most profound gifts to humanity. He created us to yes enjoy it, but also to embrace it in our work and worship.

I want to tell you a story about how one song of Scripture strengthened me in a profound way. 

I was a young mom with two little girls, pregnant with my third child. I had mom brain, so I was tired. I didn’t have time to focus on Bible study or Scripture memorization. I never got to sit through an entire sermon at church, and I wondered if I was discipling my little girls effectively. 

But even in the midst of exhaustion and the fun and the sensory overload, I knew I could do one thing. I knew I could play Scripture songs for my children. 

So whenever the girls were playing or we were driving in the car, I would turn on Scripture songs. Music written with word for word verses from the Bible. 

Sometimes we would just listen, but often honestly, the tunes are so fun to sing, we would sing along. Then, of course, the songs would get stuck in my head. I was always thankful when I would wake up in the middle of the night, what would be playing in my mind was one of those Scripture songs. 

I’ve got to tell you, I took these songs personally. They were like a feast for me in those days. They reminded me of God’s character and promises. They reminded me of law and grace. They reminded me of His will in my life, and how He wanted me to treat other people. 

And one time, one of those Scripture songs ministered to me in a very dark season. 

You might remember that I mentioned I was pregnant with our third child. At the twenty-week ultrasound appointment, we discovered that our precious baby had died. 

In the moment that I heard the news, I’m sure that you can imagine that so many thoughts and emotions flooded my mind of shock and devastation. But there was one thought that was louder than all of the others, and it was one of the children’s Scripture songs. 

He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

It was a song based on Psalm 92:15.

He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

I’m telling you that this song continued playing through my mind from the moment I heard the devastating news, through labor and delivery, through grieving and mourning, through weeks of adjusting to life without Juliet. 

There it was, He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in Him. 

He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

Oh, how I needed those words. I was in the middle of one of the most intense storms of my life, with big questions, big doubts, big sorrows, feeling tossed and blown, waves arching high, and that simple melody thrummed the truth through my mind. God is my rock. He was there for the clinging to. There as a place to gasp for air. There to heave my sorrows upon. I could throw my full weight on Him, and He would bear it. He would not slip away in the night and leave me to perish. 

The song reminded me, God is righteous. Though stillbirth felt so evil, so unrighteous, I clung to the truth that there is no unrighteousness in God. This helped me to see that Juliet did not die because God had a lapse in judgment. She didn’t die because He was cruel or vindictive. 

God doesn’t play games with our lives. He doesn’t operate on superstition. He doesn’t change. Instead, He is fettered by His own goodness, and fully satisfied by Christ’s death on the cross. 

He will never allow harm to befall me or my family, unless He plans to redeem it for a good so glorious as to render past sorrows obsolete. 

And nothing, not even this tragedy can snatch me out of His hand. 

From that experience, I learned the power of singing God’s Word. Oh, how it was good in the moment when the sun was shining and we were just dancing around the kitchen, and how it came to minister to me when I needed it most. 

Did you know that God Himself had Moses to write a song that would stick in the minds of the Israelites? For the purpose of sticking in the minds of the Israelites. He wanted it to play over and over again. He wanted it to be something easy that the parents could teach the children. 

And you can see it or sing it, the song Moses wrote; it’s straight out of Deuteronomy 32. It’s about God’s faithfulness. It’s about His people’s tendency toward unfaithfulness. It’s about God’s enemies and God’s mercy towards people. It’s a warning about walking away from God, and an invitation to stick by His side and walk close in His Word.

I just love this, when Moses was finished singing this song to the people and teaching it to them, he said, 

Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. (vv. 46–47)

Did you know that that very day Moses went up to Mount Nebo and died there? The Lord Himself buried him there in the valley of the land of Moab. 

Although Moses was gone and no longer able to direct the people, they could sing his song as they went about their everyday lives. It could get stuck in their heads, as they were coming and going. I’m sure it would come to mind when they needed it most. 

I like to think it spared many of them from straying from the Lord. And when they did stray, it reminded them of God’s good heart, that He would always be merciful, and they could return to Him from the emptiness of rebellion into the fullness of His love. 

There are so many reasons to keep singing Scripture with my children. I know it will instruct them and fill them for today, and it will comfort them tomorrow. When they’re prone to wander, just as I am, oh I pray these songs will act like a tidal wave, washing over them with the truth and bringing them back to the God who loves them.

Of course, I can’t anticipate how God’s true and inerrant word set to music maybe through a sophisticated sweeping melody or a silly little children’s melody tune will nurture and sustain my children, but I am confident it will. 

God said His Word will not return to Him void, but it shall accomplish that which He pleases, and it will succeed in the thing in which He sends it.

And I know His Word and His song will sustain you and the young people you care about too. 

So, sing Scripture to the Lord. Sing it in the middle of the night. Sing it to your children. Sing it with your children. Sing it over your children. And remember, you are held in the very capable hands of our heavenly Father who assures us of His love through singing. 

In Zephaniah 3 He says: 

Fear not, O Zion;
   let not your hands grow weak.
The Lord your God is in your midst,
   a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
   he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing. (vv. 16–17)

Expect Something Beautiful is a production of Revive Our Hearts, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ. 

"R - Rock; Psalm 92:15," Dana Dirksen, Songs for Saplings ℗ 2004 Dana Dirksen.
"Isaiah 26:3–4," Scott Jamison, Fighter Verses Songs, Set 5, Various Artists ℗ 2015 Children Desiring God.