During the last Lord’s Table, we sang a popular hymn that many believers are familiar with: “There is sunshine in my soul today.” Some might even call it a “children’s service” song. Indeed, children can sing it in an unencumbered, free way. Yet to sing it just as joyfully as adults is a totally different matter. We’d probably struggle to sing this genuinely. After all, in our lives, how many of us experienced “Jesus is my light”? Are we experiencing the said “rolling” peace and happiness? Do we have a mysterious “sunshine” that appears in our soul? Mature believers will huff and puff, saying, “Of course.” But even if we had in the “good old days,” do we have it right now? Do we have a soul — a human life — that is present and living today?
To sing this song as it was meant to be sung, we must have a present bubbling sense of joy in our being. Not only should we know the past experience of our salvation from sin and the world; the song also requires that we experience the victory of that emancipation today. This joyful condition is a declaration of a victory won by Christ, so that we have a soul to experience all the goodness of Him — like sunshine, music, springtime, and gladness.
But more than all the good things of Christ we have received and experienced, this song actually tells us something much deeper that we must gain everyday: our very soul life! In stanza two, the author uses a curious word: “carol.” This word comes from a root meaning “male, freeman.” It means that we not only have a song we’re singing — we are also presenting our being, our very person, as a human before our king. We are the “carol” being sung!
There is music in my soul today,
A carol to my King;
And Jesus, listening, can hear
The song I cannot sing.
Indeed, who can truly sing and dance except a person who has gained His soul (Matt. 16:25)? A person who is bound cannot. Only a person who is recognized as a freed man can own his body, soul, and spirit to exult the Lord Jesus as his King — to praise Him as we ought.
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 1/26/2025, not reviewed by the speaker.)