Dear Congregation,
God has given us His Call to Worship in which He also assured the worshipper that they may come.
To the Call to Worship there must be a proper response of pure worship. As we have seen, we respond in prayer of adoration and confession, being encouraged by an assurance of His grace.
But this naturally overflows in song – and song is seen to be a significant part of how the people of God worship Him.
The cry of the psalmist in the opening verses of Psalm 95 is:
“Oh come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before Him with thanksgiving; let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.”
Flick through the Psalms and see how often singing is spoken of or expressed… “sing” 71 times and “song” 50 times.
Indeed, that is what the Psalms are and how they have been used – as songs from the heart of God’s people.
Singing is an essential element of Christian worship. Indeed it is so because it is the will of God revealed in His Word, and honoured in that Word. And whatever God commands is not an optional extra.
Immediately we are reminded that it is to be thoughtful rather than mystical, but also that being thoughtful is not the same as unemotional. The whole person comes before the Lord and He will have us worship Him – indeed Jesus says that we “must worship in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).
What we learn from using the Psalms in our worship is how to sing in line with this paradigm not merely because they are the Word of God, which they are, but for they are so emotional, reflective and theological. All ought to be operative in our singing of God’s praise.
Speaking of worship in general but reflecting on the singing of God’s praise, Douglas Robertson recently made the following point in our AP magazine (online): ‘We should think about public worship – including singing – from a theological perspective – not just personal taste, tradition or cultural perspectives.’
Notice, the cry of the psalmist in Psalm 95 is not ‘Come, let us listen to them sing’. We are not to be entertained – and whatever place there may be for a choir or leading singers, they are not there to represent the congregation let alone to entertain them. They may have a role of assisting the congregation sing, but the congregation ought to be singing. Our very heart ought to be overflowing with a desire to sing God’s praises in God’s presence to God’s glory as a vital, heartfelt part of the public worship of our God.
And by the way if it is to be public, it means that it is not merely private, but the private takes on a public face. So, if you have a voice that can be heard let it be heard publicly singing God’s praise.
So, as we sing the songs of the Lord, we naturally begin by singing one of adoration and praise. Other songs then are woven in to bear other notes of worship before God from thanksgiving, renewal of commitment, including at various times as may be appropriate the notes of repentance, sorrows, trust, hope, through the range of human experiences and emotions as reflected and modelled in the Psalms.
In singing hymns of course we should take our cue from the Psalms with its emphasis on words conveying and responding to the great truths of Bible and of the life of faith. How we need to test the hymns we sing by the Scripture – all the more as we realise as one older Christian said to me many years ago: ‘The hymn book is the only theology book many of our people know.’ There is logic that demands as well as develops thought and a resulting intentionality. With out such words the music is irrelevant. Nor should music be a distraction from the truth being raised in song but complement and assist it. There is emotion but not sentimentality.
In singing the Psalms as well as the great hymns of the church we are connected to the people of God through the ages, and sometimes access to this rich heritage of faith and worship is increased by use of suitable modern tunes. By singing new hymns we attempt to be faithful to God who calls us to “sing a new song” (Psalm 33:3).
Christians have a lot to sing about. We sing to the Lord because He has rescued us from Satan and death. We sing to Him because Christ has been raised from the dead and so shall we. We sing to Him because He is good and worthy of our praise. Singing, in one sense, comes very naturally to Christians. Because of what God has done for us in Christ, we cannot help but sing praises to the triune God.
We sing to glorify our Creator and Redeemer. Our singing is directed God-ward, because He, not our own experience, is the object of our worship. Our God loves it when we worship Him in song.
Sing praises to the Lord, who dwells in Zion!
Declare His deeds among the people.
– Psalm 9:11
As a practical help, prepare your heart before worship by scanning the hymns, turning the rising understanding unto God in private prayer as the Spirit leads you.
Together in Christ’s love and service,
John
Your Pastor