Why Do We Sing in Church? 5 Causes

5 Causes We Sing

Final Sunday at church the music director led us in a track I didn’t know. As I waited to get the tune in my head, I watched individuals singing round me. I additionally watched individuals not singing. Maybe, like me, they had been ready to affix in, or maybe they had been unbelievers who puzzled what was occurring and what to do. In that second it dawned on me, What an odd phenomenon—congregational singing! It’s not solely unusual to see individuals of all ages and from varied nations and ethnic backgrounds singing in a single voice; it is usually unusual to see individuals singing lyrics collectively to an invisible God (calling him “King” and “Father”) and singing about his crucified Son, our love for him, and the hope of heaven.

In mansions of glory and limitless delight
I’ll ever adore Thee in heaven so brilliant.
I’ll sing with the glittering crown on my forehead;
If ever I beloved Thee, my Jesus, ’tis now.¹

Why will we sing? Why do Christians, particularly as we collect on Sundays for company worship, be part of our voices collectively and sing to God? Listed here are 5 causes.

1. We imitate and echo our singing God!

Within the last chapter of Zephaniah, the prophet pronounces judgment on Jerusalem as a consequence of its rise up and oppression, in addition to judgment on the nations. But he additionally holds out hope to all the standard who search refuge within the Lord. The chapter concludes, then, with a shift from God’s judgment to God’s grace—the promise of Israel’s coming king and salvation. The righteous remnant is commanded to “sing aloud” and “rejoice and exult with all of your coronary heart” as a result of “the King of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst” and “has taken away the judgments in opposition to you” (Zeph. 3:15). And, in response to God’s gospel, God sings over his redeemed!

The Lord your God is in your midst,
      a mighty one who will save;
he’ll rejoice over you with gladness;
      he’ll quiet you by his love;
he’ll exult over you with loud singing. (Zeph. 3:17)²

First, we sing as a result of we imitate and echo our singing God.

2. We sing as a result of God has written songs for us to sing.

From starting to finish the Bible is full of God-inspired songs. There are the Psalms, in fact—100 and fifty hymns within the coronary heart of the Hebrew Scriptures. God has given us songs that assist us know methods to reward, confess, thank, lament, cry out for justice, and extra. However there are additionally the songs of Moses (Ex. 15; Deut. 32), Deborah (Judges 5), Hannah (1 Sam. 2:1–10), David (2 Sam. 22), Isaiah (Isa. 5:1–7; 42, 49, 52–53), and Habakkuk (Hab. 3) within the Outdated Testomony and the songs of Mary (Luke 1:46–55), Zechariah (Luke 1:68–79), the angels (Luke 2:14), Simeon (Luke 2:29–32), and Paul (Phil. 2:6–11; Col. 1:15–20; cf. Rom. 11:33–36; 1 Tim. 3:16; 2 Tim. 2:11–13), in addition to the heavenly hymns of Revelation (Rev. 4:8; 5:9–10; 7:10–12, 15:3–4; 19:1–8) within the New Testomony. We be part of our voices with the voices of the saints and angels, singing “Hallelujah” (“reward the Lord”) for God’s majesty, holiness, justice, faithfulness, sovereignty, knowledge, energy, and mercy, as a result of God has given us songs to sing.

3. God instructions us to sing.

Thirty-plus instances God’s persons are commanded to sing within the Psalms, comparable to “Sing to him a brand new track; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts” (Ps. 33:3) and “Oh come, allow us to sing to the Lord; allow us to make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!” (Ps. 95:1).³ Elsewhere David exhorts Israel, “Sing to the Lord, all of the earth! Inform of his salvation from daily” (1 Chron. 16:23), as do Isaiah (Isa. 12:5–6; 42:10; 44:23; 49:13; 54:1), Jeremiah (Jer. 20:13; 31:7), Zephaniah (Zeph. 3:14), and Zechariah (Zech. 2:10). Likewise, Paul instructions the church to deal with “each other in psalms and hymns and non secular songs, singing and making melody to the Lord along with your coronary heart” (Eph. 5:19), and James writes, “Is anybody cheerful? Let him sing reward” (James 5:13). We sing as a result of God in his phrase instructions it.

4. We sing as a result of it’s good for our our bodies and souls.

What Solomon says of “gracious phrases” we will say of fine songs: they’re like “sweetness to the soul and well being to the physique” (Prov. 16:24). Did you discover that in Paul’s command to sing he ends with the road “singing and making melody to the Lord along with your coronary heart” (Eph. 5:19)? He writes equally in Colossians 3:16, “Let the phrase of Christ dwell in you richly, educating and admonishing each other in all knowledge, singing psalms and hymns and non secular songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” It’s with our “hearts” or “souls” (phrases which might be used interchangeably at instances within the Bible; see Pss. 13:2; 84:2) that we sing, and it’s in our hearts that we obtain grace from God via track. Don’t you usually really feel spiritually nourished once you sing? I do!

It’s good for our souls to sing, as it’s for our our bodies. All through the Psalms the psalmists draw connections between the results of sin and the human physique. David, for instance, describes his bones losing away and his power failing “due to my iniquity” (Ps. 31:10), and he prays, “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I’m in misery; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my physique additionally” (Ps. 31:9). The alternative can also be true: once we sing, we have interaction our entire selves in a means that builds up the physique (the church), as nicely our our bodies. We breathe deeply, utilizing our lungs, vocal cords, mouths, tongues, and lips. Singing typically includes bodily motion as nicely: Scripture speaks of standing, kneeling, bowing down, lifting fingers, clapping, and even dancing whereas singing.⁴ It might additionally require bodily power, as when “The Levites and the monks praised the Lord daily, singing with all their may to the Lord” (2 Chron. 30:21). And naturally musicians contribute with their fingers and mouths as they sing and as they play tambourines, cymbals, trumpets, horns, flutes, harps, lyres, and extra. Lastly, pleasure (which could present itself with a smile, chuckle, or tear) is commonly the pure companion of such music: “They sang praises with gladness” (2 Chron. 29:30; cf. 23:18); “My coronary heart and flesh sing for pleasure to the dwelling God” (Ps. 84:2; cf. Isa. 51:11).⁵ We sing as a result of singing is sweet for the entire individual.

As we sing, we remind each other to maintain the religion and of our nice salvation.

5. Singing in church unites us bodily, emotionally, and spiritually as God’s individuals whereas it concurrently witnesses to the world.

After all we sing to exalt God. Augustine outlined a hymn as “a track containing reward of God,”⁶ and John Wesley’s seven requirements for “impressed singing” embrace the instruction “Above all sing spiritually,” that means “Have a watch to God in each phrase you sing.”⁷ We sing to exalt God, however we additionally sing to edify believers and evangelize outsiders. It’s clear from Paul’s instructions that singing is to be executed to at least one one other (“addressing each other in psalms and hymns and non secular songs,” Eph. 5:18; “educating and admonishing each other in all knowledge, singing psalms and hymns and non secular songs,” Col. 3:16). We additionally discover this modeled within the lyrics of lots of the nice hymns. Consider “Come, Christians, Be a part of to Sing,” the Christmas carol “Good Christian Males, Rejoice,” or of certainly one of my favorites, “If Thou however Undergo God to Information Thee”:

If thou however undergo God to information thee
And hope in Him via all thy methods,
He’ll give thee power, whate’er betide thee,
And bear thee via the evil days.⁸

As we sing, we remind each other to maintain the religion and of our nice salvation: we “inform his salvation from daily” (Ps. 96:2). “For us,” Matt Boswell writes, “singing is a way of disciple-making.” Furthermore, singing Scripture-saturated songs can also be “an apologetics to an onlooking world of our shared salvation.”⁹ Because the psalmist exhorts, “Declare his glory among the many nations, his marvelous works amongst all of the peoples!” (Ps. 96:3). I’m reminded of Acts 16:25, which data this exceptional image of Christian fellowship: “About midnight Paul and Silas had been praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners had been listening to them,” in addition to the image Paul paints in 1 Corinthians 14:24–25 of the “unbeliever or outsider” coming to the Christian gathering, being “convicted by all,” and “having the secrets and techniques of his coronary heart . . . disclosed,” after which worshiping God and declaring “that God is de facto amongst you.” We sing in church as a result of it unites us—bodily, emotionally, and spiritually—as God’s individuals, whereas it additionally bears witness to the world.

I used to be transformed to Christ on the age of 19. One of many unusual but stunning issues I seen as I started attending church was the singing. I had by no means been in gatherings the place males(!), ladies, and youngsters sang collectively and sang with vitality, pleasure, and quantity. Christians sing! We sing as a result of we echo our singing God; we sing as a result of God has given us songs to sing; we sing as a result of God instructions us to sing; we sing as a result of singing advantages each physique and soul; and we sing as a result of singing unites believers, edifies the church, and testifies to the world.

Douglas Sean O’Donnell is an editor of The Sing! Hymnal created by Keith Getty and Kristyn Getty.

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