You might be tone deaf. The music of your church might alienate you so much that you prefer to walk in right before the sermon when all the noise has ceased. Or you might be very taken by the sound of your own voice and are tempted to think of congregational singing as your karaoke solo moment with the rest of the church as your back-up choir. I’d like to persuade you that congregational singing is too important to skip and too holy to turn into a form of entertainment. Worship music combines the beauty of praise with the pain of lament to present the affections of our heart to the Creator of song.
Church is the last place in our culture where corporate public singing still exists. We used to sing sea shanties while sharing a pint. Now music is private – your personal playlist for a small monthly fee. We live separate lives and so our neighbourhoods have no common folk songs, and no participatory art form that welcomes all ages and bridges our many divides. Music today is niche. Except for certain pop musicals. I was once with my family in our local park for a movie night under the stars, and the entire audience started singing the Frozen soundtrack – “Let it go … let it go!” Maybe you have been in a pub and your team has just come from behind to win, the soundtrack from Queen starts playing in the background and everyone begins singing, “We are champions, my friend – we’ll keep on fighting to the end.” But chances are you will now go through life and never sing a song with a big group of people, unless you go to church. Or unless you attend a Taylor Swift concert. Either one. If you are a Swiftie, you prepare for that pricey concert by memorising all the lyrics. As a Christian, your entire life is a rehearsal, as the Word of God is dwelling in you richly as Lord’s Day after Lord’s Day you sing together the songs of Zion, the praises of the Lamb who was slain.
In Ephesians 5:18-21, singing together is one of the ways we are filled with the Spirit and one of the ways God commands us to submit to one another. Someone else wrote the song. Someone else chose the song. Other people know the song and I’m still learning it. I am being asked to place my personal preferences in a secondary position in order to prioritise what is best for the whole group to sing. That is extremely healthy for me, right there. Congregational singing is about unity in prayer and unity in Christian discipleship. The rest of the church needs me to contribute to the overall song even if I’m graced with questionable raw talent. My voice is valued not for my ability, but for this simple fact: I’m one of the redeemed and I’m supposed to say so. The aesthetic that is in play is an aesthetic of submission, the beauty of unity in Christ, the blessed mash-up of lives changed by Jesus, joining together in song.
Searching for a church where your musical preferences are 100% shared is not submission, it’s division – sorting ourselves by style. Some people indeed choose a church on the basis of biblical convictions concerning music. But for most it’s a matter of taste. The individualist sings his favourite song and then sits out the rest. The Christian submits and experiences a deep joy in realising that she is one small member of a larger body in whom the Holy Spirit is at work, even if the song list is not her favourite. If you love the music at your church, tell the elders and the musicians that you love it, and encourage them to broaden the set of songs and styles so that a wider set of believers might likewise sing a song they absolutely love. Widening the selection may decrease your church’s coolness factor, but may provide you the greater joy of knowing that more and more of God’s children are being freed up to worship Him in spirit and in truth.
Why sing? Because doing so is submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. But there’s more. When we sing, we teach one another – if form and content are well fit, the music harmonises with the doctrine. Singing is a God-prescribed way for the Word of God to dwell richly in us. Music not only does wonders for the brain, it has a unique way of proclaiming the gospel all week long as the song resurfaces in your mind. Singing psalms and hymns with rich biblical content can powerfully penetrate the heart of the unbeliever while simultaneously shaping the heart of the believer. Church music combines aesthetics with truth, life-giving words with memory-enhancing features (repetition, rhyme, alliteration, and imagery). Singing is a unique vehicle for adoration, as it slows us down and forces us to ponder the wonder of God. Singing can carry a confession of faith – our corporate declaration of who God has revealed Himself to be and what He has done. Songs of repentance not only acknowledge our corporate responsibility for our group sins, they offer us practice so we can do a better job of privately confessing our individual sins.
What amazes me most when I think of music in church, is that Zephaniah 3:17 says that God sings over us. God is a singing God whose singing surrounds us with a wall of spiritual protection. His singing assures us in our spirits that we belong to Him and He is delighted to be our Father. We sing because we are made in the image of the God who sings! If we were not created in God’s image then we would be under no obligation and could sit there silently. But since He created us to lead the rest of creation in worshipping Him, we sing. Job 38:6-7 tells us that “the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy” when God was creating the universe. When God spoke into the darkness and created the light, the angels sang and shouted for joy in response. Even in our dark and fallen world, held captive by lies, delusions, and spiritual rebellion, God is still singing over us. His divine voice is in opposition to the nihilistic soundtrack with which the world tries to depress you. God’s singing over you is in opposition to the nonstop whisper of the god of this age whose incessant background static attempts to steal from you the quiet moments of your slumber through the night. God’s voice will someday silence all voices that are spiritually out of tune.
Our singing in church is about unity, discipleship, and joy. It’s also about resistance. We sing today in resistance against every evil power assembled against the gospel of peace. We sing today in resistance against our own traitorous hearts, against the sin that still so easily entangles us. On the day Christ returns, God will supernaturally defeat every last dystopian enemy. What will we do in that moment? Turn to each other and say, “Well, glad that’s over”? Revelation 15:3-4 indicates you will join the saints and sing, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” Whatever the whole church learns by heart today, that is what it will be prepped to spontaneously sing in victorious gratitude tomorrow when God’s kingdom comes in all its glory. Every Lord’s Day of your life is a rehearsal for that final day of worship in Revelation 15. We will enjoy the beauty of singing together on that day if we are learning the art of submitting to one another now.