10 Signs of True Worship

As a worship leader, I’ve had people ask me, “why don’t we sing more hymns on Sunday?” Or “why can’t the drums be quieter”, or “can we sing this new song?”, or “why aren’t people more physically engaged in worship?” These are all great questions. I’m not so interested in the direct answer to these, but rather what lies behind these questions. All of these questions stem from either a personal preference in worship ora pre-conception of what worship should look like. As I talk to more people about worship, I am often rather surprised how much personal preference and background really play into each person’s views on what our sung worship should look like.

So, for a moment, I would like for us to take a step back and start with a blank slate about what worship on a Sunday morning should look like. Let’s look to God’s Word to see what it says should define our times of singing and worshiping together. 

I’ve come up with 10 characteristics that should define our time of gathered worship. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I believe it’s a good place to start.

1. Sing truth about God

I think this is one of the most important places to start. Whatever our worship of God looks like,  it fundamentally must be characterized by singing words that accurately portray God and align with the revealed truth of God’s Word. If our singing falls short of this, then none of the following points I’m about to bring out cary much significance.

Col. 3:16 says “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” The songs we sing should be saturated with good theology and deeply rooted in the Word of God. If they are not, then we risk worshiping a god of our own creation, and not the one True God.

John 4:23-24 says, “An hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

It is essential that we worship God in the truth of who He is. If we sing songs that are not accurate of Him, then our worship is not true worship. And certainly, that will not bring honor to His Name.

Therefore, it’s important for us to continually examine and question the words to our songs and not just be ok with signing them because everyone else does. Sometimes words to songs can be rather ambiguous or can suggest ideas that are not fully theologically correct. In some cases, it’s not even worth singing a given song (even if it’s popular) so as to steer clear from singing things that are Biblically inaccurate—and therefore misrepresenting who God is.

2. Worship in the Spirit

In John 4:23-24, we also notice that it is integral for our worship to be in the spirit. “True worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit…” and “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit…”

As opposed to us worshiping God at a certain location and place, true worshipers are to worship God in the spirit. Because of Jesus’ work on the cross and resurrection from the dead, God’s presence can be experienced everywhere, not purely in a designated space (as in the Old Testament when His presence dwelt in the temple). And He has given us His Spirit who dwells within us and “intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” (Rom. 8:26)

So, for our worship to be pleasing to God, we must be worshiping in the spirit. Mary was aware of this reality when she said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” (Luke 1:46-47). 

What does it looks like for us to be singing in the spirit? I believe there should be a palpable sense and awareness that our singing is not merely a musical expression, but truly a vehicle for responding to God, praising Him, and aligning our hearts with His. There should be a true dependence on God through our singing. This can’t be expressed more directly than through prayer. I think turning to God through spoken prayers and sung prayers is fundamental to worshiping God in the Spirit.

3. Sing from the heart

“Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.” Ephesians 5:18-19

Ultimately, what does it mean, if we’re not singing with our hearts? If we’re just disconnectedly reciting words, how can we truly worship? Sometimes it can be hard to engage our hearts, and sometimes we just don’t feel like we can mean the words that we’re singing. But, God wants our hearts and every part us. Sometimes I’ve prayed a prayer to the effect of “God I’m really not feeling like worshiping you through these songs right now, will you help me to sing these songs and mean it.”

Ultimately, only God can truly judge the hearts. There is no conclusive way for us to know whether someone’s heart is fully engaged in worship or not. And it’s not our place to judge other’s hearts when we gather on a Sunday. But, God does know our hearts and says that we worship Him in vain when we honor Him with their lips but have hearts that are far from Him (Matt. 15:8-9).

4. Use varied musical styles

Both Eph. 5:19 and Col. 3:16 (which are two of the most significant passages on sung worship in the New Testament) tell us to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. There is much debate among scholars as to the exact meaning of these classifications. And, when reading passages like these, we need to consider what this would have meant to the original audience (both the Ephesian church and the church at Colossae). We shouldn’t be too quick to classify these with our own understandings of “hymns” (like Amazing Grace, and Great is Thy Faithfulness) or “spiritual songs” (like Bethel songs maybe?). Nevertheless, we can be relatively certain that Paul is telling the early church to use a variety of musical expressions in their worship.

It would have been very common for the early church to sing actual psalms (the 150 Psalms from the Old Testament), since they had been around for several hundreds of years and were a significant part of their worship. Psalms in themselves also vary considerably in content and style interestingly enough. 

Sometimes Paul would interchange the word for “hymns” with “psalms”, so this might not be a separate category of songs. But, it is interesting to note that “hymns” in this time period were known as poetic pieces of praise to various god’s and goddesses in antiquity. Paul is telling the church’s to use forms of music that are already embedded in their cultures to the glory of God and the edification of His people. That’s pretty neat.

As for spiritual songs, Paul is possibly referring to songs that are sung “in the spirit” and could be more free-formed spontaneous in nature. Whatever the exact meaning of these classifications, it seems that we are to use the whole array of musical expression and style to the praise of our glorious God.

5. Sing to one another

There is something that we can’t glance over when we read both Eph. 5:19 and Col. 3:16, namely that our singing should be to one another as a way of teaching and admonishing one another. In Ephesians we are told to be filled with the Spirit “speaking to one another in psalms…” and in Colossians we are told to teach and admonish one another with song. 

I think one implication from this is that our songs should include exhortations to one another. Like “come, now is the time to worship” or “how great is our God, sing with me!” It is completely valid that some of our songs are directed to one another. 

We also need to have songs that are intended to teach us about God. This is a crucial reason why our songs need to have correct theology, because the songs that we sing will teach and inform us about who God is—whether we are consciously aware of it or not.

6. Sing new songs

“Sing to the Lord a new song” Psalm 33:3 

This is only one among many exhortations in God’s Word to sing a new song to the Lord (some others include: Ps. 96:1, 98:1, 149:1, Isaiah 42:10). There is something special about singing new songs to the Lord. He is so worthy of our continual praise and adoration that purely singing old songs somehow doesn’t fully suffice. God wants our creativity engaged and our minds continually expressing new songs of praise. 

In the powerful worship scene in Revelations where the four living creatures and the twenty four elders fall down before the Lamb, it says that they sing a new song. The praise of the Lamb is all-encompassing, life-surrendering, exuberant worship to the only one who is worthy of all “honor and glory and blessing.” Somehow, there is an acute need to specifically sing a new song to the Lamb. If you haven’t recently read Revelations 5, I encourage you to take a moment to do that. It will be well worth it.

What does this mean for our current worship services? Well, I think this means we should embrace singing new songs. It should be normal, good, and expected to be continually learning new songs. We should joyfully accept learning new songs as a way to express continually fresh praise to the Lord.

7. Use musical instruments

Some church traditions expel the usage of musical instruments and propose that worship of God should be purely sung. I’m not going to talk about the reasoning behind their viewpoints. But, when I read Psalm 150, I don’t see any other way of reading this except that we should joyfully smash cymbals (specifically “loud” “resounding” cymbals v.5) in praise of our awesome God! We are to use trumpets, harps, lyres (guitars?), stringed instruments, cymbals. Literally, it says “let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”

Our multifaceted, glorious Creator is worthy of praise coming from the unique and harmonious sounds of any and every single musical instrument we can come up with. 

Wouldn’t it be neat to just go up to the drummer after the service and encourage him to play louder next time for God’s glory (and quote Psalm 150)! 

Also, there is no reason why we can’t add other instruments to our worship bands—even if they aren’t in our standard instrumentation. There is something very special about praising God on all sorts of musical instruments.Play skillfully

8. Play skillfully

Sing to Him a new song, play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. (Ps. 33:3)

God deserves our very best in all that we do, and we are exhorted to play skillfully. When we prepare and practice our instruments and hone our craft, this demonstrates that we put value in preparing our best for our Lord. 

Often I’ve heard the statement, “God doesn’t care so much about the quality of our playing as what’s going on in our hearts.” I don’t think this is a wrong statement, but it makes it seem as if the musical practicing and preparation somehow aren’t that important to God—and that it’s somehow secondary to our worship of Him. 

However, I don’t think this is the case at all. God absolutely cares about the hours of preparation and practice that we have invested into our craft. And the act of practicing is in itself worship to God, because in so doing, we are showing through our actions who is most worthy of our praise.

9. Make it easy for others to participate

I know that sometimes us musicians have been accused (and often rightly so) of turning our time of worship into something that looks awfully close to a performance. And, I believe that our Sunday morning corporate sung worship times should not resemble a performance. The main focus of the music should not be to draw attention to the musical performance in itself, but instead to focus people’s hearts and minds on Christ. It should be easy for the congregation and the musically untrained to enter into singing praises to our God.

The worship leader and team should have a spirit of humility and servanthood in how they lead the congregation in song. We are to have the attitude of humility in which we consider others more significant than ourselves. We should not look only to our own interests, but to the interests of others. (Phil. 2:3-4) The goal of the worship leader and musicians is to faithfully lead the church in worship of Christ. And there should never be a sense of “look at me and how I’m singing”.

That being said, I believe there is a place for “performance songs” or “special feature songs” in our services. This should probably represent the minority of the singing. But, it is interesting to note that Paul exhorts the Ephesians to “speak to one another” in song (Eph. 5:19). This could easily look like a choir singing to the congregation, or a singer singing a solo as a means of edifying the church through the particular performance. These types of songs are not intended for the congregation to sing, but for them to listen and allow the Spirit to speak through the sung words of someone else.

10. Worship with physical expression

When we are truly overjoyed by what God has done for us, it’s hard to just stay still. And that is completely ok! When David brought the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem (2 Sam. 6:13-16), he danced like no tomorrow (to the point of some others looking at him and feeling embarrassed). Yet, that was exactly the response that was appropriate. 

In Scripture we constantly see exhortations and examples of people raising their hands in worship, kneeling in adoration, dancing from excitement, etc. (Ex. 12:27, Ps. 63:3-4, Ps. 134:2, Ps. 150:3-4, Ps. 95:6)

I know that physical expression doesn’t come naturally to everyone, but believe it or not, it is Biblical. I wouldn’t want this to go the wrong way, however. There is no place for us to judge others based on their physical expression of worship—or lack thereof. God alone sees the hearts of people and only He can judge what is going on inside.

However, I do believe that it is completely appropriate and encouraged for God’s people to involve their physical bodies as an expression of what is going on in their hearts when they gather to worship on a Sunday.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of what our worship should look like. But I do believe that if our church body displays these characteristics in the gathered times of worship, our singing will be less reflective of our own personal preferences and more representative of true worship.