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This Joyful Noise

"My tongue may be tied but my heart is true"

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Lyrics

Sometimes I don't know what to do
Sometimes I don't know what to say
But I know that You, my God, are with me
Anyway

Sometimes I don't know what to think
When I bow my head to pray
Still I know You always understand me, Lord
So that's okay

Since I can't always find the words...

This joyful noise is for You, Lord
This joyful noise is for You
My tongue may be tied but my heart is true
And this joyful noise is for You

When I bang my drum or clap my hands
Your spirit grows in me
With my heart and soul and with all my strength
I worship thee, faithfully

About this song

The inspiration for the chorus of this song was obviously the words of Psalm 100 and I suppose there isn't much to it, but I've always liked it. I suppose it's because the line "my tongue may be tied but my heart is true" is really quite personal. The verse expands on this.

The verse is all about prayer. When I started being called upon to occasionally lead the music in a worship service, it was immediately apparent to me that I was uncomfortable introducing prayer into the mix and always relied on the pastor for that. This puzzled me because I was pretty sure that (a) I wasn't uncomfortable speaking in front of people, and (b) I wasn't uncomfortable praying.

I came to a couple of conclusions about this.

First, I realized that, when I pray by myself, I don't necessarily put everything into words. I don't necessarily finish my sentences. I don't necessarily have clear starting and stopping points. And yet I'm certain that God is with me all the way.

Second, I realized that what I'm uncomfortable with is not praying in front of people, but rather praying on behalf of people. It seems like "prayers for the people," to be widely applicable, would also have to be pretty general. Get too general and you risk losing meaningfulness, right? How do clergy-people do it?

Anyway, I wrote this song about the first conclusion. I'm still working on the second.