Can singing truly transform your worship experience and draw you closer to God? Join us as we explore this profound question on today's episode. Jon and Kate delve into the biblical roots and spiritual power of singing in Christian worship, revealing why this practice is far more than just a tradition. Discover how scriptures like Psalm 149:1 and Ephesians 5:18-19 command believers to sing, not only as an act of praise but also as a means to uplift and unite the congregation. We reflect on humanity's inherent inclination to worship through song, emphasizing how this practice spans across generations and cultures, firmly rooted in the Bible.
We also share compelling biblical stories, such as Jesus singing with His disciples after the Last Supper and Paul and Silas lifting their voices in song during imprisonment. These narratives illustrate the incredible power of worship through song, even in the most challenging times. By thinking about worship from a biblical perspective, we aim to inspire you to cultivate a vibrant culture of singing within your church community, fostering unity and glorification of God. Engage with us by submitting your questions and join our conversation on how these insights can elevate your own worship practices and spiritual growth.
Can singing truly transform your worship experience and draw you closer to God? Join us as we explore this profound question on today's episode. Jon and Kate delve into the biblical roots and spiritual power of singing in Christian worship, revealing why this practice is far more than just a tradition. Discover how scriptures like Psalm 149:1 and Ephesians 5:18-19 command believers to sing, not only as an act of praise but also as a means to uplift and unite the congregation. We reflect on humanity's inherent inclination to worship through song, emphasizing how this practice spans across generations and cultures, firmly rooted in the Bible.
We also share compelling biblical stories, such as Jesus singing with His disciples after the Last Supper and Paul and Silas lifting their voices in song during imprisonment. These narratives illustrate the incredible power of worship through song, even in the most challenging times. By thinking about worship from a biblical perspective, we aim to inspire you to cultivate a vibrant culture of singing within your church community, fostering unity and glorification of God. Engage with us by submitting your questions and join our conversation on how these insights can elevate your own worship practices and spiritual growth.
Stock Music provided by wolfgangwoehrle, from Pond5
Speaker 1:
Hi and welcome back to the Pleasing God podcast, a show focused on helping Christians to think biblically, engage practically and live faithfully for the glory of God. I'm your host, Jonathan Soul, and today I want to have a conversation about singing. Well, you heard that I brought on my esteemed colleague, our music coordinator, someone who knows a thing or two about singing, my lovely wife, Care to introduce yourself.
Speaker 2:
Caitlin.
Speaker 1:
Oh, it sounds like have you been here before.
Speaker 2:
A few times.
Speaker 1:
All right cool. So yeah, let's give a round of applause for Caitlin.
Speaker 2:
That's all you get. Fail. I'm done with this. Forget this Fail.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, all right. Well, I want to talk today specifically about why do we sing, why do Christians sing, and what's unique about that? Because it is unique, I think. If you've grown up in the church, singing is just part of the DNA, right? That's just what you do From the littlest of songs. You know what jingle was in my head the other day, what I was talking to my dad, just about a certain passage of scripture and the Father Abraham song came up in my timeline.
Speaker 1:
I'm sitting there like bobbing my head and waving my arms and he probably thinks I'm nuts yeah um father abraham yeah, right any sons.
Speaker 1:
Um, singing is just it's, it's sticky right. I've not sung that song in 30 plus years. It comes to mind yeah Right, just like those things that you remember. You know it's almost nostalgic now, but as we walk through our categories we want to think biblically. Then we want to engage with this practically and hopefully, you know, for faithful living. Why do Christians sing? Why does this happen? Why do a bunch of people come together? If we're thinking about corporate worship, a bunch of people come together on a Sunday and they sing. Give me some background on that.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so I have right here Psalm 149, 1. Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly. So I guess to start, we're commanded to sing. The Psalms really are littered with singing praises to the Lord and a call to praise the Lord, and I believe we were created to have a natural tendency towards praising something outside of ourselves.
Speaker 1:
Worship, yeah to worship, we're worshipers.
Speaker 2:
And so we praise the Lord. We sing songs when we come together as an outflow of our hearts in praise and worship to our God.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I like that. You said commanded to sing. Yeah, we're told to. I mean we get to and we can and it's a delight to, but I mean the scriptures don't suggest that Christians sing.
Speaker 2:
No.
Speaker 1:
Or don't say, hey, this would be a good idea if you decided to do this. You get it in the Old Testament. You get it in the New Testament too.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I have Ephesians 5. I have Ephesians 5. Let's start in the end of 18. That says Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.
Speaker 1:
Why don't you read the next verse too?
Speaker 2:
Giving thanks always and for everything to God, the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Speaker 1:
Interesting Addressing one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. So this isn't an idea of like singing your heart to God or privately sing. This is corporate right. What he's talking about there Singing in the gathering singing together.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I think we can get to that when we talk about what's it look like practically to just come together and sing. But yeah, I think, just to know, he talks about variety of music and he talks about how we're to sing to the Lord, but also it's a ministry to one another. Yeah, we'll go back there and we'll unpack that a little bit, but also it's a ministry to one another, yeah.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, let's. When we get, we'll go back there and we'll unpack that a little bit. I think that's really good. Other scripture passages that just you know.
Speaker 1:
When you think about singing, why do we sing? If you really think about it, the Bible emphasizes singing and making this joyful noise or shouting to the Lord. This is a reoccurring theme throughout scripture. Yes, and if you're, you don't even have to have a careful reading to find it. You just start reading through, you read the Psalms, and if you can get to Psalm 150 and you don't feel like you should sing, I don't think you've read at all through the Psalms. Right?
Speaker 1:
Psalm 33, verse 1, shout for joy in the Lord. Oh, you're righteous. Praise befits the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre. Make melody to him with the harp of 10 strings, sing to him a new song. Play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts. I mean this goes on.
Speaker 1:
And on Psalm 96, oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth, psalm 5,. But let all who take refuge in you rejoice. Let them ever sing for joy. And I mean I can go on and on throughout, but it's littered there, not just in the Psalms, though, if we say, hey, there's just one book, that's the Psalms are meant to be sung Romans 15, 11.
Speaker 1:
Praise the Lord all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him. I like that verse because when you think about Old Testament, we're dealing with Israel, we're dealing with the commands of Israel, we're dealing with what God was establishing in them. But now you look at in Romans and Paul's, like no, you Gentiles too, like come in and sing, because God is the God of the Jews, of the Gentiles, of the church, of his people. And so I mean those are just calls to sing praises. Zephaniah 3.17 is an interesting passage too, because it tells us that the Lord will rejoice over you with gladness, he will quiet you by his love, he will exalt over you with loud singing. Now, that's an interesting thought. God sings over you. Well, that's because he's pleased in his son right and the redemption of his people.
Speaker 2:
Well, that also goes along with how we were created in his image, and so the ability and the desire and the heart to sing praises to the Lord was given to us through the creation being made in his image.
Speaker 1:
So we're seeing throughout the scriptures this command to sing, this expression of singing. I want to get to why? Because if we never get throughout the scriptures this command to sing, this expression of singing, I want to get to why? Because if we never get to the why we don't really understand. There's not depth there. Why do Christians sing? We'll say because we're commanded to. I think we can go even deeper than that. Yes, we're commanded to, but ultimately we sing because we're the redeemed people of God.
Speaker 1:
At the very heart of singing is the gospel. This is why I don't like singing songs about me, unless you're telling me my condition. But I like singing to God, to or of Christ and what he's done. And so when we get to the very core of the expression of Christian worship, it is because in singing, worship in singing, it is because of the redemption accomplished in and through the person and work of Jesus Christ. You take that away. I've got nothing to sing. All I can sing was I'm a wretch. I'm a wretch, I'm a wretch and I've got no hope.
Speaker 1:
And I don't want to sing that song. I'd rather just go through my life, because those are all tragedies. We don't sing these doom and gloom songs when we think about our expression of heartfelt thanks and gratitude. And so, ultimately, we sing, because the Lord has put a song upon our hearts, because he's made our hearts new. We are glad in him, we rejoice, we are continually showing joy because my sins are forgiven I mean, we could just think of it this way because I'm ransomed, I'm redeemed, I'm renewed, I've been restored, my heart's been regenerated and I stand among the company of those that we all share this thing in common we belong to Jesus. Jesus is our Lord, jesus is our Savior, jesus is my rescuer.
Speaker 2:
And yeah, I love the last verse of and Can it Be? And I think it sums up kind of what you're saying. I'm just reminded of this no condemnation. Now I dread Jesus, and all in him is mine, alive in him, my living head and clothed in righteousness, divine, bold, I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown.
Speaker 2:
through Christ, my own. We model that through singing. Because we've been redeemed, because we are clothed in Christ's righteousness, we can boldly go before the throne of God and sing praises to him, in thankfulness and praise, and sometimes lament and confession. But I just I feel like when we come together corporately for the whole of the worship service but for singing, that is who we are, that is our placement in who we are in Christ. That is who we are. That is our placement in who we are in Christ.
Speaker 1:
Therefore, we can boldly approach God together as a body, singing praises to him for what he has done for us. Not every song and not every expression of worship through singing. It's not always happy in Jesus, but everything that you just said never changes, so it's not based upon my feelings, it's something outside of me. Now. Certainly, music and we're like it elicits emotional response, as it should. I mean one thing that you know I can watch a Celtics game and I can get pretty like excited and fired up over a few good shots and defensive play and I'm really excited. And this is a basketball game. Yeah, you go to the game and you're cheering with all the fans. You're, you know, you're really excited. You take part in that moment. This is a sporting event. There's nothing wrong with sporting events. Moment there's a sporting event, there's nothing wrong with sporting events. But if I get more fired up for a celtics game or like just more expressive, then I would incorporate worship in that way. I mean, there's appropriate, I understand, you know, being appropriate to your setting in your context, but I just can't, I can't compute that yeah, it shouldn't, definitely shouldn't be emotionless yeah, because I have more passion for the celtics than I do, jesus right
Speaker 1:
at least it would appear that way, wouldn't it? Yeah, so, uh, it does bring out that emotion, which is fine, and we shouldn't be afraid of that. We have to understand that these are sanctified emotions and they're fueled not by how I feel that day. Maybe, you know, some people have more emotional days than others and maybe their hearts are really stirred in worship. I understand that, but the basis for our worship is outside of ourselves, the basis for our singing.
Speaker 1:
I keep saying worship, I'm talking singing, in that there are many expressions of worship that are more than singing Preach the word, hear the word, worship through the taking of the ordinances. So I understand that. So, just if I'm using them, I'm using those synonymously, but not saying that singing is the only form of worship. But it's all based off of objective truth. The more I know the word of God, the truth of God, the more I want to sing, the deeper I sing.
Speaker 1:
I know for me personally I was a mumbler One. I had this real self-conscious feeling about singing early on in my Christian walk. Well, it's different, and as a young man in his 20s, I just thought I was strange. I was very me-focused even in the expression of worship, of singing because, well, I didn't want other people to hear me and I sounded like a goat and it took me a while to get through that. But simultaneously, as I was growing in the faith and I was growing in my understanding of gospel and God's word, theology all this you know, probably through all the schooling and whatnot, but in my own personal life, the more I stopped caring about how I sounded and the more my heart just was like you know, like I had to sing. I got to sing and then I got a little bit louder and I'm there, I'm singing because Jesus Christ is worthy of my praise. Right, and that's any day and all day.
Speaker 2:
Mm-hmm. It also says to make a joyful noise.
Speaker 1:
Well, I'll make a noise. I'll make a noise. Sometimes the kids in front turn around and look at me.
Speaker 2:
No.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, but it's all good. I smile and say, let's go. You know, I mean.
Speaker 2:
Well, I think that I mean, I don't know if this is the moment to talk about it, but I do think that women tend to sing out naturally more than a male would, but there is a huge importance to men singing it. Models to the church, just a healthy body but also it models to the children.
Speaker 2:
I mean, you have two sons and you singing out is a model to our family. Our children of you know we are to sing out. Whether we sing well, whether we kind of just are making noise, it's not about the actual instrument of our voice, it's the heart posture behind it, and when you're worried about how you sound, you're thinking about yourself in that moment.
Speaker 1:
That's right. So, yeah, why do we sing? We're commanded to, we get to. We sing the song of redemption, yeah, and if that's the only song I can sing, that's a fine song to sing, Even thinking about it now, like kind of getting emotional, Just how greatly we've been loved and just to make, just to express through song. It's special and I'm thankful that God has created us to be able to do something like that. I'm getting to what you say. Yeah, it's not an ultimate test, but the health of a congregation.
Speaker 1:
Do the men sing? And I don't care. Do the men sing? Well, Do the men sing out? I have brought it up before. I think there's something called mumbling men syndrome and I just get rid of it and spend time alone with Jesus in the word and, you know, go to various passages of scripture and just plant yourself in the gospel and Lord, give me the song, give me a desire. I understand personalities and whatnot, but you never have a reason. Well, I won't say you never do. There are inappropriate times to sing, but I think it's important. I think it's important and it is an example. You know, I don't even necessarily think you're the one who kind of got me thinking this way, but I don't necessarily think of myself as an example to my children in singing. But I can see where there's value in that Dad sings out. Dad sometimes cries in worship or whatever it might be. Dad believes these things are true.
Speaker 2:
Isn't there. I'm looking right now in the Gospels and I can edit this out if I'm wrong. And I can edit this out if I'm wrong. But wasn't when the disciples and Jesus were in the upper room? Didn't they sing a hymn?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so no, you don't need to edit that out, I was going to go there too.
Speaker 1:
Oh, okay, we haven't got there in our Gospel of Mark series, but Matthew 26, a fantastic passage. And this is something else. This is a different dynamic of singing that we see in the scriptures that I think is important to look at A little bit of context here. I know this isn't a Bible study lesson, but Jesus has just instituted the last supper, or this is the last of the Lord's supper, and it's his last one with them. And he told them that he's going to be betrayed, that he's going to, and then later that he's going to go and be denied. But he was telling them that, basically, the end is near and this is my body which is broken for you. This is the blood of the new covenant that is going to be poured out for you. And this is a very solemn time. And Judas has already ran off to do what he was meant to do. And the 11 are there like feeling the weightiness of what's just being told to them.
Speaker 1:
And you would read in Matthew 26, verse 30. And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. They stopped to sing Jesus sings. Jesus sings with sinners. And I might read into it a little bit, but I would believe that Jesus led this singing with his disciples here and even in that solemnness. That's where singing can be very helpful to us. Yeah, they praise God and then they go to the Mount of Olives. What happens at the Mount of Olives? He's betrayed, he's arrested and he's taken, but one of the last things he does with his disciples before he's taken away from them is he sings with them.
Speaker 2:
In a moment of heightened I'm sure heightened emotion. I mean, he knew what was happening and we know how he prays in Gethsemane, and so, even in those trials and those in heightened emotion, we are still to praise and sing.
Speaker 1:
Right, and it gets back to what do we sing?
Speaker 1:
I mean they're singing to God, God the uncreated one, god the unchanging, one immutable right Never changing. And so this is what's so good about Christian worship, songs that are theologically correct towards God is they can be a thousand years old and they are still relevant, because God never changes and you can sing across the whole spectrum of time, you know, because songs towards God, songs about the gospel, it never changes, and so that's wonderful. I'll give one more example Acts, chapter 16. It is another example of the power of singing. Why do we sing and in what circumstances are we singing?
Speaker 1:
Well, in Acts, chapter 16, paul and Silas are beaten and they're thrown in prison and they're in this Philippian jail. And the text tells us in verse 16, 25, about midnight. So they're up late, probably couldn't sleep, they're in shackles, they're in bonds, their hands and feet are literally locked away and they're probably in a standing upright position, hard to fall asleep. And they decide it's a good time to sing and it says they were praying and singing hymns to God and the prisoners were listening to them. Now they're in prison because they're followers of God. Oh, I wonder how powerful it was to listen to that praise set.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
Right and all of a sudden there's an earthquake. All of a sudden, the power of God just drops on the place and, amazingly, the bonds open and all the prison doors open through this earthquake. And what happens? They stay put and they minister to everyone in that prison. Singing is a ministry, singing is powerful and it is our privilege to do so, no matter how we sound, because we're all goats. I mean, some voices are more beautiful than others, sure, but God knows our hearts and the expression of heartfelt gratitude and thankfulness is a beautiful aroma to the Lord. So, biblically, ultimately, we sing because of the gospel and we sing because we're commanded to and we sing because we can. We've been given that in our wiring. As image bearers of God, created to worship, we're created with art and music skills and a desire for those things, because God desires those things.
Speaker 2:
We all worship something.
Speaker 1:
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:
And even an unbeliever worships something, and so we are created to do that. Just as Christians, we hone that into praise and worship to the Lord, because that is the only thing to be worshiped.
Speaker 1:
People like to sing. Yes, no matter what they like to sing, and that's because God has wired us to do so. Go to country music fest or something like that, or go to a concert, and you will see people singing those songs that they love, right, and dancing around and whatever, and so. But ultimately, that expression is to find its fulfillment, directed to God, in and through the personal work of Jesus Christ. Yes, that's why we sing. The ultimate and highest form of singing is to God, through Christ, enabled by the Spirit, so it's Trinitarian in that way. Yeah, yeah, thinking about this biblically is so important and we're starting to come up to time. I think what we should do is press kind of pause on this conversation and or do a part two and we can cause. I know you said you wanted to talk a little bit through Ephesians five, 19 and 20.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, there's a lot to unpack, I think.
Speaker 1:
And yeah, I think that'd be really good. So we'll kind of do this in part one, part two, where we've kind of laid biblical foundations for singing and getting us thinking gospel centered in that way, and then we'll have a follow-up conversation for next week and we'll think about just practical and faithful ways in which we can express ourselves appropriately in corporate worship. But someone's thinking about, well, how do I do this well, or how do we get to having a culture of singing in the church. I think that would be wonderful just to kind of bring that together looking at some other passages, but a real practical, faithful episode intended for the glory of God in our singing.
Speaker 2:
I agree. I think that would be really good.
Speaker 1:
Great Well, hey, thanks for having this conversation with me. It's always edifying, encouraging to talk to my wife, but also just thinking about this aspect of worship and devotion to God. It's wonderful. I want to thank you for listening to the Pleasing God podcast. If you have any questions, I would love to hear from you. You can reach out at questions at pleasinggodpodcastorg. And remember 1 Thessalonians 4.3,. This is the will of God, your sanctification.