How does the gospel shape our singing? This is the final installment of a 3-part blog addressing this topic (read part one and part two).
So if the uniqueness of the Gospel should motivate us to sing as a congregation, we should all the more try to maintain such standards in the content of our songs. John Calvin puts it like this: “And certainly if singing is tempered to a gravity befitting the presence of God and angels, it both gives dignity and grace to sacred actions, and has a very powerful tendency to stir up the mind to true zeal and ardor in prayer. We must, however, carefully beware, lest our ears be more intent on the music than our minds on the spiritual meaning of the words.”
We should have major concerns about the current situation within the worship industry. Why should we care about the worship industry? Because whether we like it or not, they drive our song selection for congregational singing. There’s already plenty of jokes, memes, youtube videos by Christians that make fun of many of the worship songs that we sing in our churches. It’s funny until it’s not. Paul relates as he exhorted Timothy, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”(2 Tim. 4:3) Church leaders and Worship leaders, are you guilty of doing this? Are you selecting songs and leading songs that please people but don’t please God? As I said from the beginning, our souls long to sing the songs of eternity and the songs of eternity are saturated with richness of the Gospel! Be as gospel-centered as you can in the content of your songs. You may ask what that looks like. Here’s some questions to ask ourselves.
Are we praying or singing anything publicly that is not mentioned or implied in scriptures? Are we being theologically educated about the greatness of God, the attributes of God, and the Trinity through the songs we sing? If not, what are we being educated about? Are we being pointed to the cross to meet the needs of our identity; to confront idols of comfort, convenience, and acceptance? C.J Mahaney writes in one of his books, “A Christian heart should be brimming over every day with the song of Calvary… not all worship songs are created equal; many today are centered on ourselves than on the cross and on Christ. They focus more on what we need or what we want God to do than on what Jesus has already done.” Being cross-centered in our content is crucial. And lastly, let’s not forget the reason behind Easter. Are we as a church constantly declaring the power of Christ’s resurrection and its hope for us as a congregation?
As God reveals Himself through Scriptures, we will respond in worship accordingly. We shouldn’t look to others, such as a worship leader, to do the job of Jesus or the Holy Spirit in stirring up the congregation’s emotions. The hope is that we are faithfully sown into and shepherded over time with the revelation of the Word of God. This informs us– our mind, will, and heart – and based on what we know, we respond. When we are informed of our sins, His mercy, and how He cleansed us of our sins through Christ’s blood, we respond in humility.
Everything we say, pray, give, receive, and sing display God’s mercy. It beckons us into something magnificent. Eg: When I sing a song like “Unashamed” by Starfield, it stirs my heart of what I know about Scriptures and what it teaches me about forgiveness and repentance. And then what happens? I worship! This is why song selection is important if you are a worship leader. It is part of theologically leading the congregation well. The songs have to teach these things because they are God’s revelation. And without revelation, we don’t respond, and if we don’t respond, we don’t worship.
Skills and talent have become so dominant and popular in our day. However, just singing or having amazing music should not replace God’s revelation. If anything, singing and music should serve revelation. Content should supremely dominate the worshiper’s heart over the musicians and singer’s talent. Our talents are but an instrument that Christ uses to reveal Himself. But why have we become so normative to this kind of worship? Have we become so bored of what worship could be without those fancy elements? Does our private worship look that fancy? And if it doesn’t, are we bored in our private worship moments at home? Stephen Miller elaborates on this well: “And yet His presence may not be as obvious to us in private as when we are immersed in a multisensory corporate worship experience full of sound and lights and a sea of voices. Maybe that is why our private worship seems so unfulfilling at times. Our expectations of meeting with God have become so rich and textured that the simplicity of reading God’s Word for our own nourishment and edification seems insignificant. The lack of hype-filled adrenaline rush makes the deafening silence of prayer seem mundane or boring.”
Why have we treated His Word so cheaply. God uses His Word as the standard for His revelation. It is to this day, the best revelation, the most pure revelation, and the only revelation that will bring true worshipers to worship in Spirit and in Truth. To worship means to first SEE our God so that we can respond. Hearing helps us see. Paul expands on this in his letter to the Romans, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?” We cannot truly worship God without believing. And to believe we must see. And to see, we have to absorb content that open our eyes. Only Special Revelation can do this as it gives us the ability to respond in the way God intended.
Stir Up One Another
Singing corporately is not a foreign idea in our world today. We see it in high school and college football games as the fans sing their school anthem or chants victory songs. We see it in a Beyonce, Drake, Coldplay or Taylor Swift concert. We’ve seen people cry in these moments as they sing together. We’ve even seen these in Christian concerts where people are overtaken by emotional moments that are more characteristic of the secular concerts. It’s not a far reach to see that these are indications of how God has wired us for corporate singing. It does something to us and in us – God glorifying or not. These moments expose that our hearts long to sing together in such a way that fills us with joy, peace, and a certain transcendence. But what the unregenerate cannot understand is that the feelings they are seeking and hoping in cannot be eternally placated by the best concerts or the best football games. It will always be a means to an end. Those of us in Christ understand that. We know that when we come to sing corporately, we join in an eternal song of the ages. The song of the redeemed. The song that has been sung at creation, the song at the intersection of the cross, and the song of eternity. Let’s be aware of what we are participating in, when we come together to worship as the Church.
Shouldn’t coming together be one of the evidences of true Christianity? We should long to be around our brothers and sisters in Christ as often as we can. Not because it’s a law or because it’s a sin if we don’t, but for our joy. The writer of Hebrews says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” So why should we not neglect to meet together? It seems we need to be stirred up in the faith. To renew in our passion of love and good works. To encourage each other in persevering till the Lord calls us home or returns. To let us know we are not alone. It could have been a rough week where at times we were feeling hopeless. Maybe one of our family members were sick and work is getting the best of us. Maybe we’ve given into temptation and our trials were many.
But when we meet corporately, something beautiful happens. The Gospel shines ever so brightly. Coming together on weekends is so that we can all SEE people like us – the “objects of mercy that should’ve known wrath” bought into the fold of God – and corporately sing of His glorious grace! What a sweet opportunity to pray together and break bread together! To let each other know that it’s going to be ok. To encourage each other to persevere. Seeing our family in Christ is powerful enough to let us know we are not alone. Our weary souls long to sing together. We long to sing of God’s faithfulness, His love, and His grace.
We want to declare in song, with all the people, that God is God. That He is supreme. That He is sovereign. When we shout, it is to shout as one body. When we dance and clap, it is to celebrate as one body. John Frame says in his book, ‘Worship in Spirit and Truth’, “Psalm 150:4 will not limit dance to a few historical occasions. It is for all the people of God…I should also mention the command to “clap your hands” as a response to God’s salvation, and the “lifting up of hands”. God wants body as well as spirit to be engaged in his worship. Clapping expresses joy; lifting the hands is a way of drawing toward God as the object of our worship and the source of our blessing.” In all this, we are stirred up to love and good works. We are spurred on to conquer whatever this world throws at us. We are not designed to live in isolation but in community.
So let’s join in this eternal song from the beginning of age to the end of age. One day there will not be an argument about who God is, as every knee will bow and every tongue will confess of His supreme reign. This is not your football song or your concert song which deal only with the temporal matters. This is the song of the redeemed. This is the song joined with all the saints of history and the cloud of witnesses. In the end, we will do no other song but the song that our hearts long to sing. The song we were created to sing – the corporate song. In a loud voice, we will sing, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!…Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power…Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!…To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”. (Rev. 4:8,11; 5:9,12-13)
John Calvin quote from: “Institutes of the Christian Religion”; Book Third, Chapter 20, Section 32; p.590.
Living the Cross Centered Life; C.J. Mahaney p.138.
Worship Leaders We Are Not Rock Stars; Stephen Miller; p.36.
Worship in Spirit and Truth; John Frame; p.131.
