Have you ever wondered why we spend so much time singing on Sunday mornings? If you think about it, probably at least a third of our Sunday morning gathering is filled with singing. Let’s just roughly estimate that we sing about 30min every Sunday. For someone who spends their whole life going to church, that could easily amount to 2,080 hours of singing in a lifetime (that’s only assuming one church service a week and no additional times of singing at mid-week services, in-home gatherings, retreats, personal times of worship, etc.). All to say, we as Christian’s sing a lot!
Usually, we call our times of singing on a Sunday morning “Worship”. We say, “that was a great time of worship”. And by that, we usually mean singing. But, the fact of the mater is that we don’t have to worship God through singing only. We can worship God through conversing with one another about what God has done in our lives. We can worship God through declaring how great He is. We can worship Him in so many different ways. So then, what exactly is so important about singing? Why do we sing? Or else, we should we sing?
1. God commands us to sing
Looking into God’s Word, it’s impossible to skip over this obvious answer. God commands us to sing! There are 50 direct commands to sing and 400 references to singing in Scripture. Here are just a few:
- Psalm 96:1-2 says, “Sing to the Lord a new song; Sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless His name.”
- Psalm 47:6 says, “Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises!”
- Psalm 33:1,3 “Shout for joy in the Lord… sing to him a new song”
God must tell us to sing for a reason. Obviously, singing is important to God. He created us to find enjoyment in the act of singing. It’s true that when we sing, we actually have to engage our whole bodies. It’s important to have good posture. We need to take deep breaths. We use our vocal cords to sing, yet we must also engage our minds to think about the melodies we’re making. We also internalize the words we’re singing in a special way. Singing uniquely connects with our emotions in ways that spoken words don’t. Even scientifically speaking, when we sing, positive endorphins are released into our brains that make us happy and joyous! It’s pretty incredible how God wired us humans to use melodies and song as a way to respond to Him with our whole beings.
2. We can’t help but sing!
Singing naturally flows from being in awe of the greatness of God and what He has done fo us through Christ. When we are overjoyed by what Jesus has done for us on the cross, singing just flows out as a natural response. When we look around at God’s amazing creation—the stars, the trees, the mountains, the ocean—sometimes we are just compelled to sing… as if there isn’t much else that we could do in response. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit and inexpressible joy, all we can do is sing! “Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee, how great thou art!”.
In Exodus 15, the Israelites have just escaped from Egypt and they’re being chased by the Egyptians. They have safely crossed through the Red Sea which God miraculously parted. Yet, when they look behind themselves, the Egyptians are following closely on their tails through the sea. But then God allows the Red Sea to come crashing back down on the Egyptians swallowing them up completely. The moment the Israelites realize they are completely saved, they start to sing this song. Moses captures their response in Exodus 15, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” So, in such a display of God’s greatness and triumph, their response is to sing!
I would like to share a few other neat examples of people busting out in praise after what God has done for them. Not all of these passages explicitly say that these words were sung, but I’m sure these words very likely could have been sung by those declaring them at the time… if not afterward!
David, the great Psalmist is filled with praise in 1 Chron. 29:11 after being in awe of God’s greatness. All of the provisions for building the temple have just been abundantly supplied, and David is overjoyed by the fact that God is the source of all wealth and strength. He says, “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.”
Mary, when she realize the significance of the fact that she is bearing the Savior of the world in her womb, is overwhelmed with joy and exclaims: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” (Luke 1:46-47)
Paul, as he is writing the book of Romans (one of the most in-depth teaching about the gospel), erupts in praise at the end of chapter 11. He is overwhelmed with the greatness of the gospel and what God has done for us through Christ. He exclaims,
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
Psalm 104:1,33 says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great!” “I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.”
When we are filled with joy over what God has done for us, singing just flows out of us as a natural response. We can’t and shouldn’t stop it—it is the appropriate response. We should sing!
However, the truth of the mater is that we don’t always have these pinnacle moments of grandeur and adoration towards God—although I wish we did. These moments often only happen occasionally. So, what should we do about every day life? How about the moments when we’re going about our busy schedules? How about times when we’re going through hardship and just don’t feel like singing? Should we still sing?
3. Singing informs our emotions
Yes. I think there is much reason to say that we should still sing even when we don’t feel like it. God uses singing to inform our emotions. He uses singing in our lives to help us remember His truth and to help instill in us the correct heart posture toward Him. Has it ever happened to you that you were in the middle of a trial and a song came into your mind that reminded you that God really was there?
Often times in hard times in life we don’t know how we should feel. Our human emotions tell us one thing, but we know in our hearts that our correct response to God in light of the gospel should be otherwise. But, it’s so hard to actually feel way we know we should. Often times, when we just muster ourselves to sing through these times, God can turn our hearts toward Himself in ways that we could have never imagined possible.
The backstory behind the song “It is Well” is an amazing example of this. I encourage you to read the whole story behind this song (here). It is a very sad story. But what I find incredible is that even amidst the unimaginable hardship of his four daughters’ death, Horatio Spafford was still able to lift his eyes toward Christ and write the words to this hymn.
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot,
Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
It seems as though through singing, Horatio was able to turn his gaze towards Christ. His heart was able to be truly moved by what Christ accomplished for him on the cross that he was able to mean the words he wrote. Because of Christ, he was able to say “It is well with my soul”.
Another incredible story is that of Paul and Silas. They have just been thrown in prison for preaching the gospel. The story caries on in Acts 16:22-24.
The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates tore the garments off them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely. Having received this order, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Humanly speaking, Paul and Silas must have been feeling quite terrible at this point? They are in excruciating pain. They have been locked up unjustly. And they are in pretty much the worse situation imaginable. But, their response to all of this is quite incredible.
About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them, and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. (v.25-26)
I’m sure they didn’t feel like singing. But, still, they mustered themselves to sing to God even amidst hardship. The result? Their spirits were lifted, and God caused the miraculous to happen. Humanly speaking, they probably had no desire to be joyful and sing, but they knew that God was worthy of their praise. God was worthy of their complete dependence and trust.
Similarly, God can totally change our human emotions and heart posture toward God when we merely choose to praise Him even amidst hardship.
4. Singing teaches us about God
One of my favorite passages in the New Testament about singing is Colossians 3:16. “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
We are told to use songs to teach one another. I think this is another way that God wired us as humans. Somehow singing helps us imbed words into our minds and harts that otherwise have a hard time sticking. I mean, can you remember word-for-word a sermon from five years ago? I doubt it. But, can you remember all the words to that one song you sang five years ago and really took to heart?
I love hearing stories of people with dementia still remembering all of the words to hymns they sang their whole lives. It’s incredible the power of music and singing to help teach us truths about God!
I still remember talking to this young boy at a summer camp about what God has been doing in his life. He just started telling me, with excitement in his voice, “God stepped down into darkness and opened my eyes and let me see. It was beauty that made my heart adore him. He gave me a hope of a life spent with Him.” I thought it was so neat that he was sharing his testimony with me like this. I could tell he was sharing it from his heart. Then after thinking for a moment I realized that what he just said, in his own words, was almost verbatim the first verse to “Here I am to Worship” which we had been singing the whole week at camp. The words to that song seemed to inform him what to say about God’s working in his own life. I thought that was really neat!
5. Singing grows us relationally with Christ
My all time favorite verse in the NT about singing is Ephesians 5:19 (which is parallel to Col. 3:16). But, the part that sticks out to me in this Ephesians passage is the call to “sing and make melody with your heart to the Lord”. As if true singing was more than just engaging our voices and minds to sing words. It’s about making melody with our heart to the Lord. God desires us to worship Him in the truth of who He is, but He also wants us to worship Him from the very depths of our soul. He wants our whole beings to be involved in singing to Him. Nothing less.
For me, God has really used music to grow my relationship with Him. Through song, God has shown me, in an extremely tangible way, how much He loves me. I remember singing the song “How He Loves” at a worship time when I was at college. And God just overwhelmed me with the fact that He loves me. I won’t forget that time. Through music, God has been able to personally communicate to me in a tangible way that just goes beyond words.
Singing has also been a way for me to express the longings of my own heart to God. There are so many times where I was going through rough times and just sat down with my guitar and sang my prayers to God. And God allowed me to experience His peace which surpassed all comprehension.
Conclusion
So, we don’t sing because we are good singers or are highly trained musicians. No. We sing because we have a song to sing. So then…
Let’s sing when we encounter the glory of God and are filled with his joy.
Let’s sing because what Jesus has done for us.
Let’s sing as a way to teach our hearts and minds about Jesus.
And, let’s sing as a way to grow our relationship with Christ.
At all times, let’s sing!
