Deuteronomy 6:4-6
4 Hear, O Israel:The Lord our God is one Lord: 5 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
There are many things that excite me about 21st-century Christianity. We have the ability to retrieve and disperse information quickly to large numbers of people. We have at our disposal many communicative tools to “package” the Gospel. Most of all, however, I’m excited that there is a renewed passion and vision among Christians for meaningful congregational singing. Christians are beginning to realize that the arguments often revolve around the topic of music have done more to silence our praise than to stimulate it. In other words, God is the one who loses out when our preferences distract from His praise.
The Jewish people consider the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) central to their religion and worship. The text implied the importance of doctrine (“The LORD our God is one Lord”) and duty (“thou shalt…which I command thee this day”). Yet strategically placed at the center of doctrine and duty is this matter of our devotion. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. While doctrine engages the mind and duty engages the hands, neither of them engage the will or the heart. Certainly, the truth will inform our actions and our affectionate response, but the simple depositing of truth passively into the minds of believers will not always result in good behavior or proper affections. The will and the emotions must be engaged in the process.
How do we engage the emotions and affections of the congregation? How do we allow them to express from the heart all that God is and all He has done for them? I believe the biblically proven method for accomplishing both is singing. While we cannot fully equate worship with singing, singing does play a major role in worship.
It’s important to remember that worship was designed as a response to the God’s truth at work in our lives. Think about it. Giving, praying, singing, and serving—all are done as a passionate response to God’s grace in our lives. We do not worship to “reach” God; we worship because God has reached down to us.
Singing is a biblical command. We are commanded to sing in the Old Testament (1 Chronicles 16:21, Psalm 30:4, Psalm 33:1-4) as well as in the New Testament (Ephesians 5:18-19, Colossians 3:16, Hebrews 13:15). The Bible not only commands that we sing, it even describes how we ought to sing. Consider these three words as precedents for singing that pleases God:
Participation
Had the Bible been written in our day, it would have read: “I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my headphones.” Or maybe, “And he hath put a new song in my iPod.” If the second verse were written as such, I often tease that the end of the verse would remain true, “many shall see it, and fear…” This is not what the Bible says! He has put a new song in my mouth. His praise will continually be in my mouth. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.” God desires that each of us, despite our ability, would be participants in singing His praises.
Passion
This point almost goes without saying. If you have any doubt that our singing ought to be passionate, you need only to read the book of Psalms. A great God deserves great praise, not a half-hearted mumble. God deserves our attention in singing. Do we mean what we sing? Do we think about how the song reflects God’s grace in our lives? We emphasize specific prayer, but why don’t we care when our singing becomes vain repetition? We must sing with passion.
Preparation
The Bible describes our singing as skillful. We could certainly apply this in concepts of practice, planning, and professionalism, but these concepts dichotomize the layperson from the musician. We begin to think, “Practice is for the pianists, ensembles, and choir.” But preparation is also a responsibility of the congregation. The Levites certainly prepared for worship, but don’t forget that the worshipers traveling to the temple would also prepare by reciting their history with God as the ascended the temple mount.
How do you prepare for corporate worship? For most of us, it involves busily dressing the kids, getting the family out the door, saving our seats, and setting up our classes. After the whirlwind we find ourselves seated in the auditorium singing “Holy, Holy, Holy” or “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name.” What if Sunday mornings were more solemn in our homes? What if, on the way to church, we reminisced with our children all the wonderful things God had done the past week? What if music directors informed the congregation what songs would be sung for reflection leading into the service? If we’re all honest, we all could improve the way we prepare for singing to our God.
Yes, we are commanded to sing. Yes, we have great truth about which to sing, but let’s not forget to engage our heart in singing. It is not merely our duty to sing God’s praises; it is a wonderful privilege.
