Singing & Worship

Today we will be looking at the topic of singing and how it relates to worship. We will also see that singing praises to God can be a part of our private life as well. In the last part of this lesson I will examine the question why don’t we use musical instruments in our worship to God?

Key Note: Davids own ideals of how to please God (2 Samuel 6) (1 Chronicles 15:13(exam the writings) Uzza Dies from Touching the Ark but why (1 Chronicles 13:1) Discovery of a lost practice Nehemiah 8:14

Legacy Standard Bible (Three Sixteen Publishing, 2022), 1 Ch 13:1.

How Has Authority Over Worship?

The first thing we should establish is where authority comes from for worship and how singing is related to our worship. I believe this is very crucial in understanding how we are to worship God today. First notice what Jesus says after he is raised from the dead. Matthew 28:18

Matthew 28:18 LSB

18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

Jesus is the authority and that is why Paul states to the Colossians 3:17,

Colossians 3:17 LSB

17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

So without a doubt Jesus is our authority and so we need to pay close attention to what John says in, John 4:24, John 17:17

John 4:24 LSB

24 “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

If we believe the Bible to be true and recognize that Jesus is our authority than surely we can see that we must have these 2 elements in place in order to be pleasing to God. Worshiping in spirit means worshiping from the heart and worshiping in truth means that we worship God according the word of God. What is said in (John17:17)

John 17:17 LSB

17 “Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.

This is why we see many verses that command us to follow Gods Word and not anything else which includes Creed books or man made doctrines. Notice what Paul says, 1 Corinthians 4:6 & 2 John 1:9

1 Corinthians 4:6 LSB

6 Now these things, brothers, I have applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to go beyond what is written, so that no one of you will become puffed up on behalf of one against the other.

2 John 9 LSB

9 Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. The one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son.

See it doesn’t get any clearly than this. One last point I need to make about authority is that our authority comes form the NT or you might say the new covenant. It’s very important for people to understand that when Jesus died for us that he brought a new covenant into place making the old covenant obsolete and no longer binding on the Christian today. Lets show a few scriptures that clear explains this for us.

What Does Col 2:14 say about this?

It teaches us that when Jesus died on the cross that he nailed the requirements of the law to the cross. Which means it was put to death. The books of Hebrews and the book of Galatians are good book to study that show how we are no longer under the old covenant but we are under the new covenant. For instance notice what, Hebrews 8:13 is saying.

Hebrews 8:13 LSB

13 When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

So with out a doubt we can see that our worship is to be regulated by the word of God that is found in the NT and not the OT. The reason why this is important is because some try to bring certain things over from the OT and make them apart of NT worship and you cannot do this because those laws and requirements are dead to us today.

Besides if you are going to bring over one thing from the obsolete covenant than logically you should bring over everything including animal sacrifices.

Now that we have established who has authority regarding the church. I want point out that singing is a part of our worship to God. Again when you look at 1 Cor. 14:15 you see Paul’s gives the Corinthians instructions of how to perform this task in the way that is pleasing to God.

Now I want to look at what that NT says about singing and how it is to be done.

Lets look at what Ephesians 5:18-19 & Colossians 3:16 has to say

Ephesians 5:18–19 LSB

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;

Colossians 3:16 LSB

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with gratefulness in your hearts to God.

From these verses we learn that there are 2 different purposes for singing in our worship to God. What are they?

The first purpose is singing praises unto God from our heart. Second is teaching and admonishing one another. We can also see there is a purpose of singing from several other NT passages, such as Heb 2:12 , Heb 13:15 ,& James 5:13

Hebrews 2:12 LSB

12 saying, “I WILL RECOUNT YOUR NAME TO MY BROTHERS, IN THE MIDST OF THE ASSEMBLY I WILL SING YOUR PRAISE.”

Hebrews 13:15 LSB

15 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that confess His name.

Now this verse is certainly including singing to God as a requirement.

James 5:13 LSB

13 Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises.

Surely when we come together for purpose of worshiping God we can all agree that this a cheerful time and so we should sing praised to God as James suggest. We also have an example where singing is directed toward God outside of public worship. Look at Acts 16:25

Acts 16:25 LSB

25 But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

So weather you are in public worship or somewhere else we can sing praises to God through song.

The second purpose we learn from these passages in Ephesians and in Colossians is that when we sing we are teaching and admonishing one another.

I like to refer to it as congregational teaching. Do you know what the word admonishing means?

The word admonishing means to warn. This is why it important that song leader pick out songs that edify. When we sing about Gods amazing Grace or we sing about how the judgment day is coming these songs are how we teach and admonish one another about God Word.

With this in mind surely we can understand that the songs the we sing need to be Biblical and should not contain false doctrine. It so easy for us to overlook this fact because we sometimes think a song is great simply because it sounds good. Notice what Paul says in, 1 Cor 14:15

1 Corinthians 14:15 LSB

15 What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.

So when we sing we need to understand what it is we are teaching and a good question to ask ourselves. “Would be teach what this song is teaching to someone else?” Now let me tell you what I am not saying. I am not saying that we should go over ever song we sing. We just need to examine the overall message of the song.

Another thing we need to realize with this concept of singing with understanding. Is we need to concentrate on what we are singing and remember our singing is to come from our heart and so we should sing with emotion.

You see a problem that we get into when sing the same songs over and over again. We can get to the point where we are just mouthing the words but really and truly are not thinking about the words or putting our heart into meaning. We must be careful and exam ourselves.

Another important thing I want to point out about verses Eph 5:19 and Col 3:16 is that it is a command that we sing.

Singing to God is not an option and so each of us is to sing if we are capable of doing so. These two verse also answer the question who should sing.

Now we can really see this with clarity from the Greek because in both of these verses nearly ever word is plural form which means that every single person is to sing. You see God doesn’t care if you cant carry a tune he just wants your singing to come from your heart so if there is nothing preventing you from singing you need to follow this command and sing to God with everyone.

So what do you think these verses rule out when it comes to acceptable Singing in church service?

These verse rules out solos, choirs & yes sorry to say Basing which is a blatant disregard to verses Eph 5:19 and Col 3:16 .

Can you explain to me why solos, choirs & Basing is a blatant disregard to God’s word?

The Verses we just read instructs us that everyone is to sing.

Ephesians 5:19 LSB

19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

Colossians 3:16 (LSB)

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with gratefulness in your hearts to God.

So in our public worship let us all sing with understanding from our heart as we sing praises to God and we teach and admonish one another. Now the I have established our authority for singing and what the Bible teaches about singing I want to now turn your attention the common questions asked of church of Christ members.