“He has put a new song in my mouth—praise (tehillah) to our God” (Ps. 40:3 NKJ)
 
“But You are holy, enthroned in the praises (tehillah) of Israel.” (Ps. 22:3 NKJ)

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise (tehillah). Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” (Ps. 100:4 NKJ)
 
This is spontaneous praise that is sung to the Lord in which God is enthroned. It is also a doorway into His presence.
 
A lady approached me after a Heart of Worship seminar I was teaching.  As we talked, she made an interesting confession: “When I pray I often sing my intercessions. I would say to myself, ‘Stop that. You are not part of the worship team.’” 

It is interesting how our analytical western world-view separates the acts of worship into prayer, prophecy, praise, worship, music and dance.  In our minds we are not to step out in these areas they are only for the “gifted ones.”

But, in the Eastern world – the context of Jesus and the Bible – these expressions overlapped and were part of every believer’s life. We all are to pray. We all are to worship. We all are to sing prayers and praise to the Lord. Not just those that have that “talent.”
 
One of my friends said the reason we have dance teams, worship teams and intercession teams is
because the Christians are not dancing, worshiping or interceding. We have relegated that to specialists and they do it for us.  But, we all are to sing, dance and pray.
 
The Holy Spirit is a singing spirit. He initiates and inspires ‘spiritual songs.’ (Eph 5:19). When we begin to pray it doesn’t take long and we automatically want to chant our prayers. This is not a musical mode of horizontal ministry but a mysterious quality that is vertical and supernatural.
 
There is an instance where two men in the New Testament were engaged in singing prayers – Paul and Silas.  “At midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God” (Acts 16:25 NKJV). They were not only singing and then later spoke their prayers.  Their prayers and songs were all mixed up into “pray-singing.” As they were praying they began to sing pouring out their hearts to God.
 
The word “hymn” in the Acts passage references the Paschal hymn of Psalms 113-118 that Jesus and the disciples sang at their last Passover meal (Matt 26:30). Though their bodies were beaten and bleeding, Paul and Silas were raptured with transcend emotion which resulted in vertical prayer songs. These two witnesses were elated by the Spirit of the Lord singing their praise and intercessions. 
 
I want to encourage you to sing your prayers to the Lord. Let the songs of the Holy Spirit arise in you with the passion of intercession and praise.  It all blends together. It is all good.