How Can We Sing When We Don’t Feel Like Singing?

Emphasis is put on the Christmas season being a time of joy and happiness, but for some people it can be a time or sadness, loneliness and regret. When our life is not a picture-perfect Christmas card, how can we sing for joy? Because the good news of Christ’s coming answers our deepest needs rather than simply providing an emotional feeling.

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
    when we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars
    we hung our harps,
for there our captors asked us for songs,
    our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
    they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

How can we sing the songs of the Lord
    while in a foreign land?

Psalm 137:1-4