Worship In Song
Is Singing Still Worship?
During this final week of our study on doxology, I want to close our series as I have with most of them. By that I mean, I want to end by talking about practical ways in which we can apply what we have learned. Throughout the first few weeks, I think we have been able to address what worship is and how we should go about offering it in our daily lives. We have also seen how worship has sadly been abused and used for things other than glorifying God, which if we’re honest, isn’t really worship at all. Throughout all of our studies, however, we have always come back to the fact that when we worship, we must do so in spirit and truth. This is of course addressed in scripture and was a big topic that we addressed earlier. For this post though, I wanted to address the overall idea of worshiping our triune God in song. I know I’ve hit a lot on what worship is this month, but sometimes you can get to a point where worshiping God in song is seen as less than, or even frowned upon. And I can tell you with absolute certainty, this is not my goal by any means. While worship is not just something we do in song, this doesn’t take away from the fact that scripture commands us to worship the Lord in song as well. According to 9Marks.org, “There are over fifty direct commands for us to sing, and singing is mentioned over 400 times in the Bible. Singing doesn’t merely play a one-dimensional function in the life of the church; it plays a multi-faceted, invaluable role as we worship God.” It is clear that as we sing as a congregation on Sunday mornings, we are worshiping the Lord in one accord together as His body. Let’s look at what Ephesians 5:18-20 says, “18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; 20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;” Our Lord certainly delights in His children lifting one voice to honor His name! I know this may sound routine to the casual churchgoer, but I wanted to share this passage in particular for such people.
Worship As A Body
When we get so used to going to church on a week-in, week-out basis, we almost search for other ways in which we can worship the Lord because doing so on a Sunday morning almost seems forced. However, while worshiping at a church on Sunday morning is routine, it is definitely not something we should attempt to replace or diminish. Yes, we can and should worship the Lord in other ways in our lives outside of church. Yes, you don’t need music to worship God, and yes, you don’t need a group of people to show gratitude and reverence to His name. But just because you don’t need these aspects in order to worship God, doesn’t mean you can’t use these aspects to worship Him either. As a former youth pastor, one of the biggest comments I’ve heard when talking to students about why they didn’t worship God during our youth service was because they worshiped God in different ways, and didn’t want to in a public gathering. Few things filled me with more sorrow than that. Our Lord delights in and desires His children to not just worship Him separately, but worship Him corporately as well. When we all come together, despite how our week has been, and sing a song of praise to His name because of our corporate thankfulness and reverence we have for Him, it is a beautiful sight for our Lord to behold.
If you are someone who has become lackluster in your worship of our God during the corporate gathering, I would encourage you to pray about this and ask the Holy Spirit to reshape your mind to see just how amazing it is when God’s people worship together as one body. Of course, just as we learned from scripture earlier, truth must be a defining factor of our worship in song as well. Truth doesn’t just matter when we listen to a message from the pastor on a Sunday morning, but it matters with what we sing to God as well. In one of his messages about worship, listen to what John MacArthur has to say about the praise we offer to the Lord. He notes, “The music of the redeemed is different. We live in a different world. We are citizens of a different kingdom. The music of the redeemed is alien to the music of the world. The music of the redeemed is reflective of that which is most lofty, most elevated, most exalted, most noble: the truth of God – it never changes. So our music doesn’t ride the culture. Music doesn’t ride the culture among the redeemed, it simply reveals the truth, and the truth never changes.” I couldn’t agree more with this statement. Music we offer to the Lord is, and should be different than the music of this world. And not only should it be different from this world, but we should be unashamed to partake in it as one body as well.
Singing For Eternity
If you are someone who doesn’t worship during the public gathering simply because you don’t like singing, believe me, I get it. I would argue that quite possibly no one on this earth has a worse singing voice than me. However, when we remember that God deserves to be worshiped from the gratitude that is in our hearts, I hope we are reminded that it doesn’t matter how we sound or who can hear us. What matters is that God is pleased. To further expand on this idea, let’s look at this one last passage in Revelation 5:11-12, “11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” One day, when you are in heaven, you will get to partake in offering God praise and worship among all our brothers and sisters and even among the angels. I may be wrong, but I think it will be impossible to be concerned about how you sound at that very moment. As you go to church this week and gather with other believers to sing to the Lord, I pray that you do so knowing our God delights in corporate worship through song. May we lift one voice to His name as we gather to honor and glorify Him in spirit and truth. And even if you are personally one of those people who don’t like participating in corporate worship, I would encourage you to try and do so this week and ask the Holy Spirit to give you a willing heart to do so. Because by the looks of it in Revelation, we will be worshiping God together for a long time.
Sources
[1] “Access Your Bible from Anywhere.” BibleGateway.Com: A Searchable Online Bible in over 150 Versions and 50 Languages., www.biblegateway.com/. Accessed 2023.
[2]Is music worship? (2015, December 27). Grace to You. https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/80-428/is-music-worship
[3] Sing to one another. (n.d.). 9Marks. https://www.9marks.org/article/sing-to-one-another/#:~:text=There%20are%20over%20fifty%20direct,role%20as%20we%20worship%20God.
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