“Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.” Psalm 98:4 / Singing as Worship

Singing As Worship.

This week we resume our series on Worship by focusing on Singing as a form of Worship.

For me, the music portions of church services have always been very important.  I recognize that some denominations allow singing, but without musical accompaniment.  There are others which eschew singing and music altogether in an attempt to retain the congregation’s attention on that week’s sermon message.  My intent is not to disparage such beliefs or practices.  If these forms of worship without singing or musical accompaniment are meaningful, great.  As I’ve always said, “Your religion and how you practice it is your business, not mine.”  But the obverse holds true, “How I practice my religion is my business.”  And in my religious practice, we SING.

I grew up in a church in which music was an integral part of the worship experience.  The singing from the choir and the congregation, along with the music from a piano or organ (or sometimes drums and guitars) was as much a part of the worship experience as was the sermon or the liturgy.  I took singing and musical accompaniment for granted.

It wasn’t until I started this series on Worship and its attributes that I began to think about why music in worship might be important.  Why IS signing and music so integral to the worship experience?  And why is it important for us to participate in worship this way?

What Does the Bible Say?

The ancient Jews from whose faith our own springs recognized the importance of singing and music to the religious experience.  The entire Book of Psalms is comprised, literally, of songs to God.  There, time and again, our obligation to shout and sing praises to the Lord is emphasized.

The rest of the Old Testament is filled with examples of celebrants singing and using musical instruments to praise their God.  Exodus, Isaiah, Chronicles, Nehemiah, Kings, Ezra and others all have verses admonishing the faithful to sing praises to the Lord, frequently accompanied by musical instruments.

And the admonition to sing and praise God with music continues in the New Testament.  Corinthians, Acts, James, Revelations, Colossians, Hebrews, Ephesians, and others all have verses telling us, again, to sing and use instruments in our praises to God.

We presume that Jesus sang.  He observed all the religious practices during the Jewish liturgical year, some of which required singing.  And in both Matthew (26:30) and Mark (14:26) we are told that the Apostles (and presumably Jesus) sang a brief hymn before proceeding to the Mount of Olives where Jesus would be arrested.

So, singing and music are both expected and encouraged by the Bible to be part of our worship experience.  But other than “you’re supposed to,” are there other imperatives that argue for this tradition and our participation?  Why do we believe singing to be important?  Why is it not “enough” for us to sit in stony silence as we contemplate God during our worship times?

Answers to Questions.

Let’s first review our definition of “worship” (see Post 48, May 10, 2019).  In our prior post, we described “worship” as, “…the act of spending time with God…to be in communion with Him.”

If that is so, then singing and music must play a role (or roles) in facilitating or enhancing the worship experience with the goal of better allowing us to commune and spend time with God.

Here are some ideas about why singing is important to our worship experience:

• When we sing our thanks and our joy for His manifold blessings, we assume our correct posture as God’s creations, and affirm Him as our creator. He is above us and we are below.  It is to God that we are grateful, not the other way around.  We owe love, respect, and admiration to Him.  Our singing/music is one way of expressing this gratitude.
• Singing is a demonstration of how important God is to us. It is a fact that some of us have more pleasant singing voices than others.  And those of us not so gifted may be a bit reluctant to expose others around us to our singing (and truth be told, those same others may be a bit grateful for our courtesy).  But it isn’t the quality of our voices that God is listening to.  He’s listening to His children glorify Him.  And to Him we ALL sound beautiful.

We’re not singing to others in the congregation, we’re singing to God!  Our singing demonstrates to Him that we’re more concerned about our relationship with Him than we are about what the person standing next to us might think.  We are putting God first (which is where He should be) and refusing to allow our pride (or self-centeredness) to come between Him and us.

• Our singing demonstrates to others that we’re more concerned about glorifying God than about pleasing others’ ears. When we sing, we demonstrate our faith and our commitment to glorify God.  We show that we are proud of our relationship with Him, and that we’re not tentative about exposing that faith.
• Singing pulls us out of ourselves and forces us to surrender to the worship experience. When we sing joyfully and with enthusiasm, we become absorbed in worship and truly become “one” with others in the experience.  As we abandon thoughts of ourselves, we become more open to thoughts of or about Him.  We let ourselves “out” and let God “in.”  And that’s the real purpose of worship.

  

SING!

So, let’s sing unabashedly and with fervor.  Let’s allow the music and the singing to flow around and through us.  And, let’s not worry about what others around us may think.  Let’s recognize that God is the “audience,” and that it is Him whom we are using our voices to worship.    For when we do this, we are expressing the best of ourselves, and that’s what God wants to see and hear.  When we sing, we are, truly, worshiping.