For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting. Singing will fully and finally serve the purpose for which it was intended. Some Christians think that music supersedes the Word, both in its significance and effect. In Matthew 11:17 Jesus referred to music that made people want to dance or mourn. The Lamb must always be central to our corporate singing. Perhaps this is what it means when we talk about the importance of where we place our affections. You might say that music has a voice, but we’re not always clear what that voice is saying. Praise humbles us. Our focus on music dedicated to the Lord helps to filter out the darkness of this world and allows the light of Jesus to shine. Therefore I will give thanks to You among the nations, O Lord, And I will sing praises to Your name. For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm!" Along with helping us remember words, singing also connects the words we sing with our hearts. We gain a healthy self-image, based on God’s view of us. Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. To begin with, we should seek to sing songs that unite rather than divide the church. But unless those aspects are spelled out in Scripture we should be cautious about assigning a moral value to them. He whose care and love amazes meets us here today in grace. “For unfortunately the folly and idiot-cunning of Paganism seem to have far more power of surviving than its innocent or even beautiful elements. Why does God command us not only to praise him, but to sing praises to him? Words should be the first thing we consider when we think about what songs to sing when we gather as the body of Christ. We were made to sing His praises night and day without ceasing. What will we experience in that world, in the new heavens and new earth? May we sing it for his glory and the advancing of his gospel until the time comes when our songs will never end. As we sing and praise God, we begin to feel the presence of the Lord upon us. The Enemies Destroy Themselves … 21 Then Jehoshaphat consulted with the people and appointed those who would sing to the LORD and praise the splendor of His holiness. When we worship God, we gain a right view of ourselves. What are we doing to discourage it? An increasing number of churches have adopted the practice of offering different services for different musical tastes. Sing praises to our King, sing praises! No other reason can be assigned, why we should express ourselves to God in verse, rather than in prose, and do it with music, but only that such is our nature and frame, that these things have a tendency to move our affections. But God did not assign us the task of singing the most radical, cutting-edge, creative music possible. (Luther, “Preface to Georg Rhau’s Symphoniae iucundae,” LW 53, cited by Buszin in “Luther on Music,” The Musical Quarterly 32, no. The result is that generations end up leaving behind not only the music but the words. Rather, he wants it; he wants us. We read about it in Revelation 5:10: “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, I don’t know! ... miracles happen. The command is an invitation. . Once we find ourselves inside this spiritual space, we have the ability to more clearly hear God’s voice filling our mind with comforting thoughts and clear direction. This blog offers original work on and about C. S. Lewis from scholars who have written far and wide about his stories, his theology, and his world. Here’s another implication: musical creativity in the church has functional limits. That has a number of advantages. While that decision can be well intentioned, I believe the long-term effect is to separate families and generations and to imply that we gather together around our musical preferences, not Jesus Christ. This message appears as a chapter in The Power of Words and the Wonder of God. Man’s way of thinking is not God’s way of thinking (Isaiah 55:8). That means the lyrics to our songs should reflect the broad themes of Scripture and not simply the themes we’re fond of. . Part of the reason it (and other great hymns) endure is that it’s a well-crafted lyric set to a memorable, singable, and pleasing tune. … For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with understanding.” (Psalm 47:1,6) “Oh, give thanks to the Lord! When that relationship is understood and appreciated, music becomes a powerful gift from God that complements, supports, and deepens the impact of the words we sing. He was so concerned about music’s power that for a time he banned music from his meetings. “I think,” says Lewis, “we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment.” Lewis continues: “It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with.”, Lewis puts it in yet another way. “When we carry out our ‘religious duties’ we are like people digging channels in a waterless land, in order that when at last the water comes, it may find them ready. It helps me realize that God gave us music to help us remember words. Rather, it’s about the person noticing, respecting, being changed by the experience of seeing. What does it say to the world when we can’t prefer each other long enough to have a meeting? Then again, maybe you don’t. For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.” God didn’t intend that music supersede the Word or that music undermine the Word. The first two points can be accomplished when we sing by ourselves, but this point needs other people. We share a citizenship with those from every nation who call upon the name of Jesus. There are happy moments, even now, when a trickle creeps along the dry beds; and happy souls to whom this happens often.”. When we worship, we are expressing our reverent love and devotion to God. However, worship is not limited to only to these things. When eating out we often have to endure well-meaning but musically challenged servers in restaurants attempt to sing some form of “Happy Birthday” to an embarrassed individual. Praise deflates excess pride and ego. As I started to post praises at the At the Well Facebook group and others joined in with their praise, I found myself finding more and more to praise God for and along the way God made manifest what happens when we praise and why praise is so important. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. 1 Timothy 6:13-16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful. The Psalmist seems almost jealous of the Temple birds. By praising God, we are reminded of the greatness of God! True Worshipers: Seeking What Matters to God. He is always present to hear. As David played skillfully on his harp, Saul’s troubled spirit was calmed (1 Samuel 16:23). In his book Recalling the Hope of Glory, Allen Ross reminds us of the value of looking ahead: If we even begin to comprehend the risen Christ in all his glory, or faintly hear the heavenly choirs that surround the throne with their anthems of praise, or imagine what life in the presence of the Lord will be like, then we can never again be satisfied with worship as usual. For the Christian, the painting represents God and our praise is mandatory. In Zephaniah 3:17 God exalts over his people “with loud singing.”. He also had no problem saying what was on his mind. New Testament scholar Gordon Fee once said, “Show me a church’s songs and I’ll show you their theology.” And it’s true. Once we find ourselves inside this spiritual space, we have the ability to more clearly hear God’s voice filling our mind with comforting thoughts and clear direction. Here’s another implication of music’s ability to help us remember words: we should sing words that God wants us to remember. He died to redeem a universal choir. By “effective” I mean melodies that people are able to remember and melodies that people want to remember. In the book of Revelation, the host of heaven aren’t in unity because of the style of music they are using but because of the focus of their song. Personal experience with a song can affect its influence on us. In one setting we might be mourning the death of Christ caused by our sins, and in another we might be joyfully celebrating the fact that his death has purchased our forgiveness and reconciled us to God. We should sing words God wants us to remember. “The duty exists for the delight,” Lewis says. He says that when he first came to faith, he felt that all this talk about praising God seemed like only going through the motions if God was all-powerful. All too often, praise to God is something that many people leave at church, an event that happens only when they come together with other Christians. Therefore by Him let us continually offer sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. People's lives … 2. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. You have to get this area of your life right. We have so much to praise God for, ... with souls distant and cold, we sing words, we listen to music, then we go home. We need songs of reverence, awe, repentance, and grief as well as songs of joy, celebration, freedom, and confidence. Because Jesus is the One who has made it possible. In a foreword to a collection of songs arranged for multiple voice parts, he wrote the following: When man’s natural ability is whetted and polished to the extent that it becomes an art, then do we note with great surprise the great and perfect wisdom of God in music, which is, after all, His product and His gift; we marvel when we hear music in which one voice sings a simple melody, while three, four, or five other voices play and trip lustily around the voice that sings its simple melody and adorn this simple melody wonderfully with artistic musical effects, thus reminding us of a heavenly dance where all meet in a spirit of friendliness, caress, and embrace. There, in the context of the new heavens and the new earth, we’ll forever lift up undistracted, passionate, unified, Word-centered songs to the one who sits on the throne and to the Lamb who was slain. We may not want to imitate Luther’s attitude, but we do want to imitate his passion for singing — because God himself is passionate about singing. In this world under Satan’s sway (1 John 5:19), we find it easier to be suspicious and cynical than spiritual and lyrical about praising God. We’ve seen how music can help us remember and engage emotionally with words. You can praise God anywhere. "Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant" (Psalm 135:3). Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. If that’s you, then listen to Jonathan Edwards’s thoughts from his treatise on Religious Affections: The duty of singing praises to God seems to be appointed wholly to excite and express religious affections. The longest book of the Bible, the Psalms, is a book of songs. We gain a healthy self-image, based on God’s view of us. When people are focused on that sound and the fact that Jesus has made it possible, style becomes secondary. They’re discovering that our minds are hardwired to recognize, categorize, and remember patterns in music better than we remember patterns in words alone. At sporting events, fans sing enthusiastically about their desire to crush the opponent. Man’s way of thinking is not God’s way of thinking (Isaiah 55:8). Christian citizenship expands far beyond the country on our passport. But the problem isn’t emotions. All Rights Reserved, hy the demand? (Augustine, Confessions, XXXIII.50). Having said that, God is still worthy of our highest, purest, strongest emotions. His power and presence in our lives is reinforced in our understanding. Why does God want us to sing? Instead, God has told us what the focus of our songs should be: worthy is the Lamb who is slain. If that were the case, our offerings wouldn’t be accepted at all. We worship a triune God who sings, and he wants us to be like him. And the more unique, repetitive, or immediately impacting these musical elements are, the easier it is to remember the song. Even in the depths of suffering, we can turn our hearts and v We are a church that loves to sing. We need to teach how music functions in corporate worship so that our singing more and more resembles what we see in the book of Revelation. The Bible commands us in multiple places to praise God with singing. We Thank God Praise Hymns. In every culture and age, music is a language of emotion. He says that when he first came to faith, he felt that all this talk about praising God seemed like only going through the motions if God was all-powerful. Whatever the reasons, music can come alongside words and heighten their emotional impact in a way we may not have perceived with words alone. He has broken down the walls of musical preference. they sing praise to you, they sing the praises of your name” (Psalm 661-4, NIV). Do you ever find yourself singing along to a song you hadn’t heard for twenty years? Maybe praising God is like a picture that someone admires, says Lewis. The longest book of the Bible, the Psalms, is a book of songs. When we praise the Lord, we are recognising, appreciating and giving awe to His splendour. from every tribe and language and people and nation, He says that praising God is like tuning us for something more. Yet when it happens that I am more moved by the singing than by what is sung, I confess myself to have sinned wickedly, and then I would rather not have heard the singing. It’s been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. The first verse provides the “where” of praise—everywhere! And in the New Testament we’re commanded not once, but twice, to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to one another when we meet (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16). What does this mean for the church? It’s more effective than simply reciting or shouting words in unison. Even as adults, we are limited in our ability to memorize series or to hold them in mind unless we use mnemonic devices or patterns — and the most powerful of these devices are rhyme, meter, and song. We are to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. It not only matters that we sing; it matters what we sing. In his fascinating book Musicophilia he writes: Every culture has songs and rhymes to help children learn the alphabet, numbers, and other lists. They spring from the center of our being. 1 [1946]: 85). Once we were not a people, but now we are the people of God, and our singing together, every voice contributing, is one way we express that truth. (Psalm 47:6–7). We should appreciate — and, oh, how I do — the diverse musical genres and styles that God has given to different cultures, ethnic groups, and generations. When it is noticed, the picture receives the person’s admiration, but if the next person doesn’t stop then something is altogether missed for that person. Though there are many people who choose not to praise God right now, there is coming a day in which every knee will bow and every tongue will confess the praises of God (Philippians 2:10-11). For some of us, that’s no problem. The music helps us know how to respond. They are above us and beyond us. Second, music can amplify the emotion of the words we’re singing, whether it’s joyful celebration (“Better Than Life”), reverent awe (“Holy, Holy, Holy”), or sorrowful repentance (“O Sacred Head Now Wounded”). Something about being in God’s presence makes your heart and soul sing for joy and so we sing in God’s House. Our focus on music dedicated to the Lord helps to filter out the darkness of this world and allows the light of Jesus to shine. The good news is that God wants to use music, and has even designed music, to break through our apathy and hardness of heart, and to help us engage emotionally with his Word. Praise affects you, it affects the devil, and it affects God. Certainly there’s a place for skill, practice, and sincerity in our worship. Shout to the Lord with the voice of triumph! We see the same thing in Colossians 3:13-16: the exhortation to sing comes on the heels of bearing with one another (v. 13a), forgiving one another (v. 13b), putting on love (v. 14), being at peace as one united body of Christ (v. 15), and teaching God’s Word to one another (v. 16). Music is capable of moving us in subtle and profound ways — in anticipated and unexpected ways — with or without words. We must continually renew our minds to the Word of God by spending time studying every day (Romans 12:2). It can stretch out words and phrases. Have you ever had the same stumbling block as Lewis? They weren’t attempting to write worship hits. But with humans, it seems a little harder. God commands us to sing with thankfulness in our hearts to God (Colossians 3:16). (Psalm 96:1–2), Sing praises to God, sing praises! We should make it our aim not only to preach the whole counsel of God but to sing it, as well. Your email address will not be published. 2 Harvest home! Real Holy Spirit worship brings spiritual healing, physical healing, emotional healing, mental healing and deliverance from evil influences. I grew up on groups like the Swingle Singers, Association, and Beach Boys and sang in or accompanied choirs throughout high school and college. When it comes to the church, this characteristic of singing has significant implications, all of which require great wisdom and discernment. When we worship we should sing praises to God, glorifying Him and honoring His Name. I don’t love the people in our church because we like the same kind of music, because we can all name the same bands, or because we all sing from the same hymnal. The first thing music helps us do is remember words. Worship is the act of doing something like reading the Bible, praying, or singing. – Hebrews 13:15 We have so much to praise God for every day, there's great power in giving honor to Him. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. In Colossians 3:16 Paul tells us that we are to “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” It is the Word of Christ, the Word about Christ, the Word of the gospel — not musical experiences or emotional highs — that are to dwell in us richly as we sing. Or as Mark Noll puts it, “We are what we sing” (Noll, “We Are What We Sing,” Christianity Today, July 12, 1999, 37). 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