WHAT'S THE PURPOSE OF SINGING TOGETHER? - CHURCH MUSIC PART 3 OF 4

Young Martin Luther and carolers sing for Mrs. Cotta in Eisenach by Fernidand Pauwels

 

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and exhorting one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." Colossians 3:16

I hope you haven't given up on this series after the first two installments. The first two reflected my thoughts on the issue of music in the church, and you may now know my preferences. The next two parts, however, will deal with items I feel strong about.

Let me ask a question. When we're singing together in church, who's our audience? Who are we singing to?

No brainer, right? Obviously we're singing to God, aren't we? 

Let me answer with some lyrics from hymns we may be familiar with -

• Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey.
• What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.
• Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross, lift high His royal banner, it must not suffer loss.
• Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me; I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.
• Jesus calls us o'er the tumult of our life's wild restless sea; day by day His sweet voice soundeth, saying Christian, follow me.

I gave you five songs, including some of the best known hymns. How many of these are being sung TO God?

Yes, these are sung to the glory of God. But should we be looking up and singing these songs to our Lord? 

Or should we be looking around and singing these songs to each other, and realize we need them sung to us?

Two books greatly influenced me on this subject. The first I read was

The Life of God in the Soul of the Church: The Root and Fruit of Spiritual Fellowship by Thabiti Anyabwile, where he made the excellent suggestion of singing to one another. And the hymns I mentioned are all ideal to sing to each other.

More recently (like last month), I read another excellent book on the subject of corporate worship, with the unexpected title

Corporate Worship

How the Church Gathers as God's People by Matt Merker. He does an excellent job of pointing out how we minister to each other in corporate worship. There may be a man in church who needs to be reminded that we need to Trust and Obey, or a lady  needing to be encouraged about the Friend We Have In Jesus, or a student facing challenges to their faith who needs to Stand Up, Stand Up For Jesus, or a seeker who needs to hear about God's Amazing Grace.

Let me go back to my previous blogs in the series. The first touched on the so-called worship wars, where we debate on the style of the singing. The second looked at the instruments used. Are these important topics? Would they be as divisive if we looked at our church and realized that the edification of our fellow worshipers was the top priority? 

But keep in mind that it is congregational singing. I've visited churches and find the band (usually a band in these situations) singing a song I've never heard before, often with a catchy instrumental arrangement, maybe an upbeat tune I can clap along to. Often, they're nice enough to have the lyrics so I can follow along. But is this really involving the congregation?

You'll notice I started this blog with one of my favorite verses, Colossians 3:16. Like Ephesians 5:18, it mentions psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Both verses state we're to be speaking to one another with this music. Colossians adds two specific functions of the speaking - teaching and exhorting. 

I'm starting to get warmed up, but I'm going to wind this blog down. I have a lot to mention next week.

But until then, have you ever sang to encourage another believer? Have you ever been encouraged by the singing of a fellow worshiper or the congregation? 

Also, can you identify Martin Luther in the above painting? There are two that I could picture being the Reformer.