The Vital Importance of “Saying So”

“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so…” (Ps. 107:2a, NKJV).

With these words, Holy Spirit is inviting you and me to use our mouths. He is urging us to verbalize the testimony of our redemption. Out loud, He wants us to “say so!” As the NIV renders it, “Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story…”

There is something essential about involving our vocal apparatus in the exercise of our faith. “Saying so”takes our expression of praise and thanksgiving farther than simply making space for gratitude on the inside. In fact, we were created for verbal expression. Putting things into word and song is one of the breathtaking ways that we reflect God’s image. He likes expressing things so well that His very Son is called the Word of God (John 1:1).

For this reason, believing in Him is not all that He asks for. He instructs us to take it a step further and “declare with our mouths” that Jesus is Lord (Rom. 10:9). According to Romans, it’s the believing that gets us justified, but the declaring part is also essential for receiving His gift of salvation (v. 10).

I was thinking about this spiritual principle recently after a brother apologized to me. Prior to that, I had already forgiven him for the misdeed he had committed. My prechosen, silent forgiveness had brought a degree of healing. However, the opportunity for him to verbalize repentance and receive a spoken expression of forgiveness brought completion. It provided a significantly deeper degree of healing. Involving our mouths in this situation accessed relational restoration that nonverbal heart attitudes alone could not have produced.

Let’s consider our Creator as we reflect on these matters. God carries out spiritual transactions with His mouth. Some examples of such articulations of His are, “Let there be light,” “Your sins are forgiven,” and “Be healed of your affliction.” He gave us a mouth like His. The act of voicing executes spiritual transactions, for Him, and for us.

This is why “saying so” is essential. How many times have we heard someone bereaved of a spouse or parent or child urge us, “Tell your family members that you love them”? Leaving essential things unspoken is unwise, both in our interpersonal relationships, and in our relationship with God.

C.S. Lewis observed the need for utterance this way: “It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with.”

In short, he explained, “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.”*

Praise completes enjoyment. Confession completes salvation. Verbalized forgiveness completes reconciliation. Let’s get our mouths involved with our faith today. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!

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Have you noticed a difference between when you when you read Bible verses to yourself in silence, and when you read or declare them aloud? If so, how would you describe the difference?

*Lewis, C.S. Reflections on the Psalms, 1958, pp. 90-98.