Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons and all deeps. - Psalm 148.7

Whales sing. Loudly.

Toothed leviathans, like the mighty sperm whale, emit clicks and whistles, but humpbacks have actual tunes. Not only that, but they change them, inventing increasingly complex versions of a basic pattern. After a while, it appears, the latest hit drops from the top ten and they compose new melodies. Nobody quite knows why; since only males do it, it may be a way to woo chicks or assess the competition. Anyway, they really crank the volume. You can hear them through the hull of a boat. You can pick them up on headphones when the actual beast is nowhere in sight. 

Psalm 148 commands everything to praise God: angels get in on it, the heavenly bodies, weather, geography, animals and humans - from big-shots to nobodies and from old geezers to young whippersnappers. But right in the middle comes an admonition to the super-sized sea creatures. I don't know that the Hebrew word means "whale;" the New International Version translates it "great sea creatures" but how much fun is that? Still, they're the biggest thing we know about so the application fits.

Whatever the survival-of-the-fittest explanation, I like to think the whales sing to the glory of God. In fact, some humpbacks stick to the classics while others innovate, and the young folk have a completely different play-list. One can imagine dignified old whales grumping about the young folks' modern music while the millennials make jokes about tunes that date back to the Flood. 

We can learn a lot from the humpbacks: Sing God's praise! Sing it loudly! Sing sustaining hymns and exciting choruses. Change it up now and again just to keep your heart and mind engaged. Let everything that hath breath, praise the Lord!