True Worshipers Keep Singing - Worship and Perseverance

So last week we looked at singing, and how important it is to the worshiper. This week we are going to look at how we should persevere and keep singing even when we may not want to.

Let’s start with Psalm 71

Psalm 71 ESV

In you, O Lord, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame! In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me; incline your ear to me, and save me! Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked, from the grasp of the unjust and cruel man. For you, O Lord, are my hope, my trust, O Lord, from my youth. Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother’s womb. My praise is continually of you. I have been as a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge. My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all the day. Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent. For my enemies speak concerning me; those who watch for my life consult together and say, “God has forsaken him; pursue and seize him, for there is none to deliver him.” O God, be not far from me; O my God, make haste to help me! May my accusers be put to shame and consumed; with scorn and disgrace may they be covered who seek my hurt. But I will hope continually and will praise you yet more and more. My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge. With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come; I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone. O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come. Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you? You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again. You will increase my greatness and comfort me again. I will also praise you with the harp for your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praises to you with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel. My lips will shout for joy, when I sing praises to you; my soul also, which you have redeemed. And my tongue will talk of your righteous help all the day long, for they have been put to shame and disappointed who sought to do me hurt.

I always find it interesting in the Psalms when the writer, whether it be David, Asaph, or someone else, talks about how they will praise God in the midst of trouble. We see that in this passage here, where the psalmist says that he will praise God continually, all the while asking for deliverance.

This is the picture of persevering worship.

How many times have you been in a service and realized that you just are not getting what you want out of it? The music is too shallow. The music is too complex. The singing is bad. The singing is too good, and I can’t sing like that. They talk too much. The preacher takes too long. And so on.

Many Sundays our meetings are full of people who are in the midst of those qualms and other hinderances to worship. But we all have a choice. We can choose to catalog our complaints or we can choose to let them go and seek to exalt God. (p115) That is not to say some grievances are not valid, but rather that we should choose to worship God.

And how do we prioritize worshiping and exalting God? Here are some practical ways.

What if I can’t sing?

So my response to that question is, what do you mean, “I can’t sing?” I mean, singing is just making noise. Or as Buddy the Elf (from the movie Elf) describes, “Oh, it’s easy, it’s just like talking - except louder and longer and you move your voice up and down.”

But in reality there are reasons why some people cannot or don’t feel comfortable singing. Maybe you have something that physically keeps you from singing. Things like laryngitis, vocal polyps, etc. Some people have no formal training in singing, and therefore have a hard time latching on to rhythms and melodies that are not very simple.

Sometimes the song is pitched too high or too low. Sometimes unfamiliarity with a new song can cause issues. And some people are legitimately tone deaf. Now, I do think that excuse is over used, because most people are not legitimately tone deaf, but some are.

But notice what scripture says. I joke that the musicians are to play skillfully, but that we are to make a joyful noise. But look at Ephesians 5:19

Ephesians 5:19 ESV

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

While our neighbors and those around us hear what comes out of our mouth, God hears the melody of our hearts. We should focus our heart on Him and the singing we produce will be glorious to Him, no matter what it sounds like here.

We must set our hearts on the mercy that God has shown us though Christ. That is what gives us the song to sing anyway. Meditate on the words as you sing them. Let the gospel truths saturate them. And lift your voice, as best you can, to God. And rejoice (don’t judge) those who are lifting their song to God as well.

What if I don’t feel like singing?

Again, we have covered this before, but we all bring our baggage to the table on Sunday morning. We come in after dealing with sickness, disobedient children, frustrated spouses. Maybe you are dealing with a troubling health diagnosis or chronic pain.

We have talked about how singing helps express emotions, but what if the only emotions you have are anger, fear, discontent, disconnectedness, or despair? How do we proceed from that?

Sometimes that is through the music and the songs working over you. David calmed Saul’s troubled spirit by playing his lyre. Job talks about how music can be both a bringer of joy (Job 21:12) and a reflection of mourning (Job 30:31). Again, the psalm we read at the start shows the psalmist frustrated with his enemies, yet praising God. David feels distant from God, yet writes this:

Psalm 13:6 ESV

I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

Jesus speaks to the emotional aspect as well, in Matthew 11:17

Matthew 11:17 ESV

“ ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’

The act of singing itself has an amplifying effect sometimes on our emotions.

So we cannot discount the emotional weight of singing. Jonathan Edwards said this:

“The duty of singing praises to God seems to be given wholly to excite and express religious affections. There is no other reason why we should express ourselves to God in verse rather than in prose and with our music, except that these things have a tendency to move our affections.”

When we sing solid, biblical truth through songs with sound, gospel-informed lyrics, our affections for God can be deepened. These affections are not mere trifles, but how we engage with God and His truth in a way that influences and affects our words, thoughts, and choices. (p117)

And look, singing is not some magic bullet that fixes all the issues. We may still feel numb when we sing sometimes. But we don’t stop singing. That is when we cry out to God for grace to feel those affections for Him. Because singing can be the very way that God uses to prick our hearts and move us from numbness back to faith.

The psalms show us this as well.

Ps. 42:5, 11

Psalm 42:5 ESV

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation

God is good, and by His grace, those songs of lament will eventually turn to gratefulness and hope. That means singing out even when we don’t want to.

Why do we need to sing so many old (or new) songs?

"I don’t understand why we still sing that old song.”

“I don’t understand why we sing so many new songs.”

The logic behind both complaints is the same. “I don’t like these songs, I want to sing those songs.”

Kauflin points out that “The issue isn’t how familiar we are with the songs. The issue is whether we’re going to take every opportunity as true worshipers to exalt God." (p118)

And look, I get it. Old songs can seem boring, especially if they have no relevance to you. Like, if you have never sat with someone and sang “It Is Well” or “Amazing Grace” in the hospital, it can definitely seem like there are fresher, better songs. But those songs have power when connected to those memories.

Even when we look at the eternal realities behind those songs, encapsulated in those old words, our perspective can shift. The musical arrangement may get tired, but Jesus doesn’t. Those familiar songs can help us dig deeper into the unseen glories behind them that are imperishable, undefiled, and unfading (1 Peter 1:4, from Kauflin p118).

On the flip side, new songs can be intimidating to learn, but they don’t have to be. Sometimes, listening to that new song the first time through, taking in those same sorts of timeless truths that are just set to a newer arrangement of melodies help cement the new song in our minds, enabling us to sing it freely. Sometimes, when we listen to an unfamiliar song sung by those that do know it, we can be taught and admonished (Col 3:16) and it helps us to grow.

What if I feel like a hypocrite when I sing?

If feeling like a hypocrite disqualified us from doing stuff, I image we would all be out of luck. But when we think about singing and how hypocritical we feel, we should probably take solace in the fact that we are not alone. Everyone puts on their church face, and pretends to have it all together. That isn’t helpful, but it is true.

And look, we do have to recognize our sin. We can and usually are convicted of our poor choices by the songs being sung or the message being preached. But when we sing, seeking to exalt God and glorify Him, and He brings to mind those sins we need to seek forgiveness for, then we should be grateful of the pricked conscience. When we rightly feel bad and repent of our sin, we must also move on to receive God’s forgiveness through Christ’s finished work on the cross. We shouldn’t base His acceptance of us on our performance, but on Christ’s substitutionary atonement. (p119)

And think about it: when we are convicted and we respond with confession, we have every reason to sing! That doesn’t make us hypocritical, that makes us human and shows how blessed we are to live under the good news of the Gospel.

Hypocrites pretend to be righteous while continuing in sin. The righteous detest their own sin, and seek to be more like Christ.

Now, sometimes we feel like hypocrites because we sing words that talk about commitment and devotion, and we just don’t see how we could ever get there. For instance, in the song we sang on Sunday, “All I Have Is Christ,” there is this lyric:

Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone And live so all might see The strength to follow Your commands Could never come from me Oh Father, use my ransomed life In any way You choose And let my song forever be my only boast is You

And for some of us, that doesn’t seem possible. Like, am I really so sold out that I am Christ’s alone? Or, in that song, “In Christ alone my hope is found, He is my light, my strength, my song.” Do I really believe that?

Sometimes those sound like empty phrases when we know in our own hearts we are struggling with depression, fear, insecurity, anger, lust.

But we also have to understand that because God is so incredibly beyond our minds, we tend to speak in hyperbole - not just as creative expression, but in hopes of us actually seeking to fulfill those hyperbolic thoughts. Think about David. When he says things like, “my desire is for You alone, O God,” yet he lusts after Bathsheba and kills her husband.

Sometimes these thoughts help us focus on where we should be headed, not where we are right now.

Isaac Watts said this:

“We can never be too frequent or too solemn in the general surrender of our souls to God and binding our souls by a vow to be the Lord’s forever: to love Him above all things, to fear Him, to hope in Him, to walk in His ways in a course of holy obedience, and to wait for His mercy unto eternal life.”

The danger here is that I am talking about folks who are diligently seeking the Lord. Those who sing these words but live in unrepentant sin do nothing but condemn themselves. Again, it is the heart of the matter. If we outwardly are worshiping with out whole being, but inwardly are desiring sin and living in sin, we indeed are hypocrites. That is sin in itself, and should be taken to the cross.

We also have to understand that, like I said, these grand expressions of unwavering commitment should be mixed with a very healthy dose of requests for God’s grace to fulfill those expressions. We haven’t defeated sin, Christ has. We still struggle with it and must be continually putting it away and continually putting on the armor, the fruit of the spirit, and the characteristics of the believer we see throughout scripture.

What do I do when I am distracted?

Distractedness is one of the biggest issues today. We have already talked about some of the internal factors that can distract us, but there are also external distractions. Maybe the person behind you is singing really loudly, off key. Maybe people keep coming into or out of your aisle. Maybe one of the band is distracting with what they are wearing or doing. Maybe it’s too cold (or hot) in the room. Even the band on stage can have distractions. Maybe my mix in my ears is bad. Maybe the lyrics are not showing like they should.

It is very rare that we have a service where everything goes perfect and we don’t have complaints. But the biggest issue for believers is not, “how can I fix this so my experience is better,” but “how can I respond in a way that exalts God’s glory in Christ in my mind, affections, and will?” (p122)

So many times, though, our complaints are not from a place of love, but from a lack of it. Specifically, our judgements on things are usually from a lack of love for God, not from a greater dose of discernment. Yes, we should be discerning, and there are certainly issues that a discerning believer should address about a meeting. But that doesn’t trump the opportunity we have to press through all of these challenges and “savor the sweetness of Christ as we sing.” (p122)

Acknowledging that we are easily distracted is the first step to putting that aside. If you remember early on, we said that worship is a gift we receive before it is a task we perform. God gives us the gift of worshiping Him, and we offer that to Him knowing we are not worthy of it, knowing we deserve punishment for our unrighteousness, but that in His mercy, He made a way through Christ’s sacrifice. That gives us reason to sing even if we are distracted.

Think about this: Even when we know our worship is not where we want it because of our own sin, or because we feel distracted and disconnected, we still offer it. From God’s perspective, this is like when your two year old brings you an “art” project. A stick figure with macaroni glued to it. That’s not hanging in the Louvre. But you accept it. “The Father receives it joyfully not because of the quality, but because of the heart behind it.” (p122) Jesus has made our worship acceptable because His offering was perfect.

And again, maybe there are legitimate concerns for distracting elements of the meeting. Prayerfully approach the person responsible and humbly voice your thoughts. “I didn’t like all that lighting stuff” is not as helpful as, “when the lights changed on that song, it made it hard to concentrate on the lyrics and see everything.”

That doesn’t mean that all distractions can be abated. I know that I cannot always make changes that are suggested because there are twice as many suggestions to keep things the way they were, or because some things have to be that way for other reasons. Case in point, I occasionally have people ask about moving one of the lights because it hits the eyes while sitting down. And I get it. It does. But it also is positioned to backlight the speaker in a way that allows them to be seen both in person and on the live stream. I would love to move those lights, but doing so causes bigger issues.

There is a lot more that could be said on this, but we have to move on to the last three.

What if the songs we are singing are theologically shallow?

So, selfishly, I hope this is less of a concern here because I do try to make sure what we sing is theologically rich, but still, it is a concern to address.

One of the things that we can do to enrich our worship experience as related to music, is seek to make application of the lyrics. Example, on some of the more shallow songs, perhaps meditate on a particular lyric and think of how God shows His character in that. For example, “How Great Is Our God” is a great song, but it isn’t very deep.

How great is our God

Sing with me, how great is our God

And all will see how great

How great is our God.

Perhaps, if we sing that, in your mind, you think of the ways that God is great. How great is our God, who redeemed me, who sent Jesus for my sin. How great is our God that forgives me, that loves me, that cares for me. Etc.

Again, if this is an ongoing issue, come talk to me. I certainly want to balance the milk with the meat, and in fairness, I try to tend toward the meat.

What do I do during instrumental breaks?

Again, something we don’t do a lot of here, but if you find yourself in a place that has instrumental break, guitar or keyboard solos, etc. What do you do? Do you just check out? No. This is not the time to just become a spectator.

Now, look, I love a guitar solo, and I do think it can be helpful in some ways because that is sometimes the way that a particular guitarist is offering up his or her sacrifice of praise. But I also think that church worship contexts should be more focused on collective congregational singing, and so I do try to limit those. But if a song has that musical turn around or solo, I would say that is a great time to do what we discussed above, and meditate on the words of the song, the truths of the song, the truths of who God is as revealed in scripture, etc.

Some places use that time to spontaneously sing out. Not necessarily my strong suit, but also not sinful.

What if my new church has a completely different style or liturgy?

Maybe you are coming from a church that has a different liturgical makeup. A liturgy is really just an order of worship. For example, a Catholic mass will have a specific order to it, and most masses are going to be shaped the same no matter where you go. Baptist churches are completely different. Each region of the country tends to do things their own way. So, the churches around here may structure their services one way, but the churches I grew up in might look completely different.

The size of the church, whether it is rural or urban or suburban all have a say in what happens and how the liturgy is formed.

And we are usually more comfortable in the known than the unknown; in the habitual rather than the spontaneous.

The main thing to keep in mind here is that our worship is powered and empowered by Christ’s finished work, God the Father’s character, and the Spirit’s leading in us. Whether you are used to 6 songs and a 20 minute sermon, or 3 songs and an hour sermon, God expects us to lift our voices and sing to Him, to seek to exalt Him, and to glorify His name.