WEEK 1: Singing Is From God and For God
I hope you enjoyed the reading for the first of our seven weeks together, as much as we did. One evening, I took out our copy of SING! How Worship Transforms Your Life, Family, and Church and read the Prelude and Chapter One out loud to the family after supper, and we talked through the discussion questions. In this post, I will summarize the reading by calling attention to key thoughts and arguments that we considered important.
Congregational Singing Is Worth Talking (and Writing) About
Today’s church is experiencing a resurgence of congregational singing, thanks, in part, to people like Keith and Kristyn Getty. And this is a good thing! They rightly argue, “singing is part of what we exist to do.” Congregational singing, “though maybe understood, regularly a bone of contention, and often under-practiced…is one of the greatest and most beautiful tools we have been given to declare God’s ‘excellencies,’ strengthening His Church and sharing His glory with the world.” Therefore, “we need to not only to know that we ought to sing as Christians, but to learn to love to sing as Christians.” Recognizing the uniqueness of each local church, the aim of the Gettys in this little book is to teach us all to love to sing, to “be practical—but not prescriptive.”
Created in His Image…to Sing
God, the very first Singer, designed us to sing as part of bringing Him glory.
To sing is written into our human DNA; it is part of God’s design. Our desire to make musical instruments to accompany our singing is as old as our desire to fashion tools to aid us in our daily work (Gen. 4:21-22). Throughout Scripture and through history, we see God’s people using this gift of song to praise Him, the Giver of it.
Mysteriously, in the amazing creative design of God, music has a way of delivering the message of God into the recesses of our heart, where we are then moved with feeling and action. When gathered together as believers in Christ the singing congregation becomes the most beautiful confessional and testimonial choir in the world.
Echoing through our congregational singing is the communication the divine Author has written into this world. Melodies matter. Words matter. Our songs always say something. We have been created to use language, to reflect and meditate on His words, to remember over and over again His voice. Singing together organizes notes and words in beautiful ways to shine God’s dazzling truths into the relativistic grays of our culture.
Next Week’s Reading
Between now and Saturday, April 4th, read Chapter Two.
One part I liked is where they talk about how singing is a way we have been given to communicate with God. “We sing knowing that our Lord’s ears are open and listening as we lift our voices to Him with intelligent, sincere, and joy-filled words and notes. Our singing is not like prayer— it is prayer.”
Thanks, Sara. Yes, I loved that sentence too: “Our singing is not like a prayer–it is a prayer.” Thanks for sharing.
I love where it quoted, “ We are created to sing because it leads us joyfully to the great Singer, Creator of the heavens and the earth. And a quote from Paul Tripp, “God is the ultimate musician. His music transforms your life. The notes of redemption rearrange your heart and restore your life. His songs of forgiveness, grace, reconciliation, truth, hope, sovereignty, and love give you back your humanity and restore your identity.” I have to say that during worship this is what I truly feel in my heart and soul! I love being gathered together in the Body of Christ, worshipping our Lord! At times I imagine how it will be one day when all of us in Christ are together in Heaven worshipping our Savior. Beautiful!
Yes! I also love the Tripp quote. Thanks, April.
I never realized that were created to sing. I never really thought about it that way. It’s a gift from God. And we are to sing back to Him. Even the angels were created to sing in heavenly choruses to Him. What a privilege given to us. A unique gift.
Yes! Isn’t that an amazing thought! Thanks, Steve.
Page 8 of the book says, “When we sing, we show the community that reflects our Creator, our triune God. When His Church sings together, voice upon voice like arms linked across a room, and indeed across all the gathering places of His followers around the globe, across history, we are doing what we were designed to enjoy — using our God-given voices to sing praises together to the One who gave us those voices. It expresses what unites us, and it reminds us of our interdependence.”
I saw this so vividly on our trip to Thailand years ago; we were all gathered, people from all across the world, in one small room singing hymns in many languages. We couldn’t all understand the different languages being spoken, yet there was such a sense and spirit of unity because we were all singing to our Lord. It was such a beautiful sound to hear so many voices and languages praising our God.
Thanks, Angela. This reminds me of Romans 15:6, “that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”