COMPELLED TO . . . SING!

Saved people are singing people.

Worship isn’t primarily about music, techniques, songs or methodologies. It’s about our hearts. It’s about what and who we love more than anything.

We are compelled to sing.

“For Christ’s love compels us,” he wrote, “because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Cor. 5:14–15).

Our motivation to sing comes from so much more than ourselves—our likes, our comfort levels, our musical tastes and preferences. Intrinsically, it’s driven by the One who died and was raised.

CRIES OF FREEDOM

We are not compelled to sing out of thin air. Something—or rather, someone—stirs us to.

Worship comes as a response to revelation.

We don’t have to be in a church building to understand we are wired this way. When Ireland beats England in rugby (always a beautiful occasion), Keith and his dad cheer till they’re hoarse. When we stand on the precipice of the Grand Canyon or at the jazz festival of Montreux at the foot of the French Alps, our eyes and hearts feast upon it. When we hear that a couple whom we love has become engaged, we exclaim our joy out loud. Praise is prompted by—compelled by—the revelation of something glorious.

We sing because we are free.

Jesus came so that we might know Him, the truth, for “the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). We were slaves to sin—while we chose to sin, sin was also our master. But God’s Son died for our sins and rose to give us new life—“if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). The gospel declares that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8) so that now we know that “since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him” (v. 9). The gospel is a declaration of eternal freedom. It is a revelation that compels us to respond, and part of our response will be to sing.

When Satan tempts me to despair And tells me of the guilt within Upward I look and see Him there Who made an end of all my sin,Because the sinless Savior died,My sinful soul is counted free,For God the just is satisfied To look on Him and pardon me.(Charitie L. Bancroft, “Before the Throne of God Above,” 1863)

And you were not just freed from something, you were freed for something—to glorify Him, to live the life God designed you to live, to know life in all its forever fullness.

“The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father”’ (Rom. 8:15). If I know this is true of me, in my heart as well as my head . . . well, it opens my mouth.

The truth is that we praise what we love. C. S. Lewis wrote, “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation.”

Application:

In marriage, in family, and in friendship, we quickly discover that the joy of something is only half full until we’ve been able to tell someone else about it.

Social media is filled with products, recipes, experiences, and ideas that we feel compelled to share with others. When our daughters paint pictures they’re pleased with, they don’t hide them in a drawer; they go up on the fridge for all to see and admire.

It goes against the grain of how God created our humanity for us to keep from praising all that is praiseworthy, to keep quiet about what we are pleased with. Since God is most worthy of our praise, above all other things—since He is most deserving of our love, above all other people—we will respond not only by knowing we should praise Him, but by feeling we cannot help but praise Him, for it is our joy to do so, as well as our duty.

SCRIPTURE’S SALVATION SONGS

1. The First Song

Exodus 15 (ESV)

The Song of Moses

15 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying,

“I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously;

the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.

2 The LORD is my strength and my song,

and he has become my salvation;

this is my God, and I will praise him,

my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

3 The LORD is a man of war;

the LORD is his name.

4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea,

and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.

5 The floods covered them;

they went down into the depths like a stone.

6 Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power,

your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy.

7 In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries;

you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble.

8 At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up;

the floods stood up in a heap;

the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.

9 The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake,

I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them.

I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’

10 You blew with your wind; the sea covered them;

they sank like lead in the mighty waters.

11 “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods?

Who is like you, majestic in holiness,

awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

12 You stretched out your right hand;

the earth swallowed them.

13 “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed;

you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.

14 The peoples have heard; they tremble;

pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia.

15 Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed;

trembling seizes the leaders of Moab;

all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.

16 Terror and dread fall upon them;

because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone,

till your people, O LORD, pass by,

till the people pass by whom you have purchased.

17 You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain,

the place, O LORD, which you have made for your abode,

the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.

18 The LORD will reign forever and ever.”

19 For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the LORD brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea. 20 Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. 21 And Miriam sang to them:

“Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously;

the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”

It is a song of praise and thanksgiving sung by Moses and the Israelites on the eastern shore of the Red Sea after the Lord had brought them safely out of Egypt. They were celebrating a rescue and a victory: “The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation” (v. 2). Moses and Miriam helped teach and lead the Israelites, calling them to sing. Mirrored in this story is the gospel story of our rescue through Christ—and so we follow the lead of Moses and Miriam as we make Him and His death and resurrection the central theme of our singing. We stand on our own eastern shore, with our enemy defeated and death destroyed. We have been saved. And so we sing.

2. The Songs of Battle

Generations later, Deborah and the commander of Israel’s fighting men, Barak, delivered a song to commemorate a stunning military reversal that freed God’s people from twenty years of p 27 oppression to a Canaanite warlord (the event is recorded in Judges 4—the song of celebration in Judges 5). Singing turned the aftermath into a community event. Singing completed the joy of the victory.

Judges 5 (ESV)

The Song of Deborah and Barak

5 Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day:

2 “That the leaders took the lead in Israel,

that the people offered themselves willingly,

bless the LORD!

3 “Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes;

to the LORD I will sing;

I will make melody to the LORD, the God of Israel.

4 “LORD, when you went out from Seir,

when you marched from the region of Edom,

the earth trembled

and the heavens dropped,

yes, the clouds dropped water.

5 The mountains quaked before the LORD,

even Sinai before the LORD, the God of Israel.

6 “In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath,

in the days of Jael, the highways were abandoned,

and travelers kept to the byways.

7 The villagers ceased in Israel;

they ceased to be until I arose;

I, Deborah, arose as a mother in Israel.

8 When new gods were chosen,

then war was in the gates.

Was shield or spear to be seen

among forty thousand in Israel?

9 My heart goes out to the commanders of Israel

who offered themselves willingly among the people.

Bless the LORD.

10 “Tell of it, you who ride on white donkeys,

you who sit on rich carpets

and you who walk by the way.

11 To the sound of musicians at the watering places,

there they repeat the righteous triumphs of the LORD,

the righteous triumphs of his villagers in Israel.

“Then down to the gates marched the people of the LORD.

12 “Awake, awake, Deborah!

Awake, awake, break out in a song!

Arise, Barak, lead away your captives,

O son of Abinoam.

13 Then down marched the remnant of the noble;

the people of the LORD marched down for me against the mighty.

14 From Ephraim their root they marched down into the valley,

following you, Benjamin, with your kinsmen;

from Machir marched down the commanders,

and from Zebulun those who bear the lieutenant’s staff;

15 the princes of Issachar came with Deborah,

and Issachar faithful to Barak;

into the valley they rushed at his heels.

Among the clans of Reuben

there were great searchings of heart.

16 Why did you sit still among the sheepfolds,

to hear the whistling for the flocks?

Among the clans of Reuben

there were great searchings of heart.

17 Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan;

and Dan, why did he stay with the ships?

Asher sat still at the coast of the sea,

staying by his landings.

18 Zebulun is a people who risked their lives to the death;

Naphtali, too, on the heights of the field.

19 “The kings came, they fought;

then fought the kings of Canaan,

at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo;

they got no spoils of silver.

20 From heaven the stars fought,

from their courses they fought against Sisera.

21 The torrent Kishon swept them away,

the ancient torrent, the torrent Kishon.

March on, my soul, with might!

22 “Then loud beat the horses’ hoofs

with the galloping, galloping of his steeds.

23 “Curse Meroz, says the angel of the LORD,

curse its inhabitants thoroughly,

because they did not come to the help of the LORD,

to the help of the LORD against the mighty.

24 “Most blessed of women be Jael,

the wife of Heber the Kenite,

of tent-dwelling women most blessed.

25 He asked for water and she gave him milk;

she brought him curds in a noble’s bowl.

26 She sent her hand to the tent peg

and her right hand to the workmen’s mallet;

she struck Sisera;

she crushed his head;

she shattered and pierced his temple.

27 Between her feet

he sank, he fell, he lay still;

between her feet

he sank, he fell;

where he sank,

there he fell—dead.

28 “Out of the window she peered,

the mother of Sisera wailed through the lattice:

‘Why is his chariot so long in coming?

Why tarry the hoofbeats of his chariots?’

29 Her wisest princesses answer,

indeed, she answers herself,

30 ‘Have they not found and divided the spoil?—

A womb or two for every man;

spoil of dyed materials for Sisera,

spoil of dyed materials embroidered,

two pieces of dyed work embroidered for the neck as spoil?’

31 “So may all your enemies perish, O LORD!

But your friends be like the sun as he rises in his might.”

And the land had rest for forty years.

3. The Songs of David

The Psalms are songs that call us to sing. Honest, heartfelt, in desperation, in happiness, they teach us that since we are always saved, we are always able to sing:

Praise the Lord, all nations. Glorify Him, all peoples. (Ps. 117:1 HCSB)

Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. (Ps. 96:2 ESV)

Sing to Him, sing praise to Him; tell about all His wonderful works. (Ps. 105:2)

Throughout the main songbook of the Bible, the Psalms, there is a regular pattern of revelation and response. Listen in to two:

1. Psalm 40—The psalmist looks to God to reveal Himself; God hears him, lifts him up, and gives him a firm place to stand . . . and puts a hymn of praise in his mouth.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. (vv. 2–3)

2. Psalm 31—King David, the psalmist, sings of how he saw the goodness of the Lord in troubled times and then responded in praise.

How abundant are the good things that you have stored up for those who fear you, that you bestow in the sight of all, on those who take refuge in you. In the shelter of your presence you hide them from all human intrigues ;you keep them safe in your dwelling from accusing tongues. Praise be to the LORD, for he showed me the wonders of his love when I was in a city under siege. (vv. 19–21)

Meditating on who God is and all He has done triggers an authentic response of praise to God from our hearts and from our singing.

4. The Songs of the Prophets

The prophets sang because of the salvation that they had seen, but more than that because of the salvation that they had foreseen.

They told the people to sing of what they knew was coming—the Messiah, who would restore God’s kingdom and His people: “Be joyful, rejoice together, you ruins of Jerusalem! For the LORD has comforted His people” (Isa. 52:9 HCSB). “Sing to the LORD! Praise the LORD, for He rescues the life of the needy from the hand of evil people” (Jer. 20:13 HCSB). “Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel. Rejoice and exult with all your heart” (Zeph. 3:14 ESV). p 30 We join with them by singing about what they looked forward to, and we look back to: the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, “for no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God” (2 Cor. 1:20).

5. A Song That Sustains the Prisoners

Salvation enables joy and compels singing even when circumstances are set dead against us. This is the wonder of gospel singing—since nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:38–39), nothing need or can or should stop us singing. The early church was a singing church, even in the most difficult of circumstances. And so we find Paul and Silas, detained in a Philippian jail, facing a very uncertain tomorrow, but who could be heard at midnight “praying and singing hymns to God” (Acts 16:25). It strengthened them; it witnessed to the jailer, who, having heard the singing and witnessed the earthquake God sent, asked the apostles, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (v. 30). They had clearly not been singing quietly under their breath! Salvation’s songs are sung in any and every season of life.

Ending Thoughts

We will spend our eternity singing, for the gospel compels us to sing. And we are a people who, as we reflect on the gospel, cannot help but sing. We do not sing because we have to. We sing because we love to.