Why Do We Sing Songs?

Object Lesson

Melody guessing game with ABCs/Baa Baa Black Sheep/Twinkle Twinkle Litte Star.

Introduction

Illustration: There’s music everywhere, and tons of reasons to sing. Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a song stuck in your head. I pretty much always do.

Sunday morning is another of the times where there is always music. Have any of you ever been to a church service where there is no music at all? I know there are non-instrumental Christian Churches, but even they sing acapella. So you might have guessed from the recent sermons I’ve preached that I might ask the question, Why do We Sing Songs? After all singing is what probably occupies the most time out of everything that we do during our morning church service, unless I preach longer than usual. So why do we do it? It it to entertain us? To pass the time? Or is there a deeper, more scriptural reason for why we spend time singing and making music on Sunday mornings?

Actually the Bible has quite a lot to say about singing and making music. In fact the longest book in the Bible is a book of songs, which we call “Psalms.” There’s also “Song of Songs” otherwise knows as “Song of Solomon,” as well as other isolated songs scattered throughout the Bible like Moses’ song after parting the Red Sea, Mary’s song known as the Magnificat and many others. Then there’s the verses that actually talk about music directly, and in fact Israel had a large number of priests who were assigned specifically to make music. So there is a lot to be said about it, but in my survey of what the Bible says about music I found one particular verse that sums up well why Christians and the Jewish people before us have always sung songs of praise to God, and that verse is Colossians 3:16

Colossians 3:16 CSB

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

As an aside, have you ever noticed how many great 3:16 verses there are? Anyway, I think this one does a great job of outlining three reasons why we sing as a part of our church services even today. We sing in order to testify to what God has done and what our response to His works should be, we sing in order to teach one another about who God is and what His Will is for us, and we sing in order to give thanks to God out of the overflow of gratefulness in our hearts.

To Testify

Illustration: Some of the best songs are the ones that tell a story. Autobiographical, biographical, historical, etc.

Similarly, we can through our songs on Sunday morning share the story of what God has done in history and what He has done for us specifically. If we return to our key verse today,

Colossians 3:16 CSB

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

At first it might not seem obvious where the idea of testifying to what God has done can be found in this passage. If you look closer though you’ll see that the phrase “let the word of Christ dwell richly among you” starts of the verse. Paul is not here listing two different things that the church should do, 1. Let the word of Christ dwell among you, 2. Sing songs. In fact Paul is telling them how to let the word of Christ dwell among them. To clarify this let’s just insert the word “by” in this sentence.

“Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you by in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”

So the question arises, what is the “word of Christ” that we are to “let dwell in us” through song? The word of Christ is the same as the Word of God, or in other words the Bible. The Bible is our record of what God has done before and throughout history for the sake of His glory and of mankind. So if we sing about the Word and remember what God has done through it than we are testifying to what God has done, primarily for how He has saved us, as the Psalmist says in Psalm 95:1

Psalm 95:1 (CSB)

Come, let’s shout joyfully to the Lord, shout triumphantly to the rock of our salvation!

But singing isn’t just a testimony that we share with each other about what God has done. Singing can also be an opportunity to share with others what God has done for us. To set to music the truth of God is to give a catchy way for those who are lost to hear the good news and be moved in their hearts towards Him. There’s a reason music is a huge part of evangelistic crusades and movements, because we see again in Psalm 40:3

Psalm 40:3 (CSB)

He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear, and they will trust in the Lord.

Here the Psalmist sings not just to praise God for what He has done but to inspire people to respect and trust in God through His music.

So then when we set out to choose music to sing as worship to God, we need to be aware of what the lyrics are testifying about, so that we know what we are saying to ourselves and to visitors about who God is. This is also good inspiration to give thought to what lyrics might not make sense to someone who doesn’t know the church lingo. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we shouldn’t ever use songs that aren’t easily comprehended by people not familiar with the church, but maybe that we explain some of the more difficult phrases. Like whenever I play “Come Thou Fount” at a church I always take a second before or after to explain what “here I raise mine Ebenezer” means.

To Teach

Illustration: One of the best ways to memorize something is through songs, especially silly ones. Learning “αγγελος” in Greek.

For a long time before modern education a lot of people were illiterate and couldn’t read the Bible on their own, so they relied on Sunday morning to learn what they could about what the Bible said. However sadly even the best most memorable sermon is often forgotten by the time the next Sunday rolls around. Songs however, have a way of sticking with you. So for many leaders and teachers in the church they put significant effort into writing songs that taught Biblical and theological truths, so that when set to music they would teach the people about the word of God in a way that sticks with you, fulfilling the call of our key verse.

Colossians 3:16 CSB

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

Now I know what some of you must be saying. You might be thinking something along the lines of, “well this must not be as important now, because we’re all literate, own our own Bibles and can rewatch the sermons if we forget what you said.” These things are all true, but there’s still no replacement for a good song when it comes to remembering what matters. I have heard more than one story of people on their death beds who can’t remember the names and faces of their loved ones, but what they do remember are those hymns they sang in Church. A tragic and beautiful picture in my mind of the word of God dwelling deeply in someone through song.

Perhaps that’s why God created music. As a way for us to embed truths so deeply in ourselves that they’ll never leave. This is also a good reason why we should be wise about what sort of music we listen to all the time. Now I’m not going to tell you not to listen to music unless it was made by Christians, that would make me a hypocrite, but we should be careful about what those musicians are telling us. What messages their storing up in our hearts through song. Are they glorifying violence, immorality, greed, et cetera?

Instead let us fill ourselves with good things, like Paul admonishes us in Philippians 4:8

Philippians 4:8 CSB

Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things.

Yet still we don’t just sing to testify, or to teach, but also to give thanks.

To Give Thanks

Illustration: Children missing out on fun because they’re distracted by the toys that other kids have. Not so different from us adults, really.

I often wonder sometimes if the things that God commands us to do that on the surface seem to be for His benefit are sometimes even more for our own benefit. Giving thanks through song is one of those commands which I wonder if it is more beneficial for us than for God. After all God doesn’t really need our praise, He’s perfect. And as we talked about in the illustration I fully believe that a spirit of thankfulness is the key to living a life of contentment.

If we return to our guiding verse for this week, we see that gratitude is a key part of our singing to God.

Colossians 3:16 CSB

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

It’s not enough that we sing, and that we use our singing to teach and admonish one another. We must also do so with gratitude in our hearts. As a good Jewish man Paul would have been raised on Psalms. So he would have been familiar with verses like Psalm 71:23

Psalm 71:23 (CSB)

My lips will shout for joy when I sing praise to you because you have redeemed me.

Why is the Psalmist singing joyfully and praising God? Out of thankfulness for how God redeemed Him. Now after the death and resurrection of Jesus we have an even greater “redemption” than the Psalmist to celebrate. After all the word redeem basically means to “buy back,” and one of the things that Jesus accomplished on the cross was to purchase our salvation from our own sins and out of eternal damnation.

A moments reflection is all it takes to see that we have a lot to be thankful about. So if we have reason to be cheerful, the words of James 5:13 apply to us.

James 5:13 CSB

Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should sing praises.

Plus there is biblical evidence that we will continue singing in the new heavens and the new earth songs of praise for what God has done for us. Many of the things we do now we will no longer do. We won’t need to pray since we’ll be with God, we won’t need to do communion since we’re told to do it until he comes, but here is a picture of the elders praising Jesus in the end times in Revelation 5:8-9

Revelation 5:8–9 (CSB)

When he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and golden bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song:

You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slaughtered, and you purchased people for God by your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation.

So then because of the amazing things that God has done for all of us, and for each of us individually, the proper response is to sing songs of praise to Him. Not out of obligation. Not because it’s the right thing to do. But because the natural response of our hearts when we truly understand the depths of God’s grace, who He is, and what He’s done, is to break out in song like we’re in a disney musical. That’s what I firmly believe.

So when we gather on Sunday morning and we sing songs to our loving God and Father we should remind ourselves of what He has done for us. We should rehearse His greatness and His deeds so that we can truly build a spirit of thankfulness with which to sing our songs of praise.

Now I know for some people this is easier than others, and in some seasons of our lives this is easier than in others. But the thing is that every single thing that causes us sorrow and pain is temporary. Sickness will end. Death will be defeated. Seperation and loss are temporary realities in our temporary world. Yet the things that we have to be thankful for are forever. God will be with us for eternity. Jesus’ salvation will give us everlasting life. We will enjoy life with each other and God forever. And each moment where God has reached out and helped you individually in this life will be a burning memorial testimony to His love for you that will live in your memory for all of time. So how then can we not sing His praise?

Conclusion

So then as we prepare to end this sermon and start singing again, let’s return to our question for the day. We are asking as we continue this series called “why,” “Why Do We Sing Songs?” Today we have looked at Colossians 3:16 and we have seen together that we sing songs as a part of our worship for three primary biblical reasons. First, so that we can testify to what God has done to each other and to those who are not yet believers. Second, we sing so that we can teach each other about who God is and what He expects from those who follow Him. Third, we sing to offer our heart-felt praise to God for all the good gifts that He has given us.

It is my sincere hope that through asking this question together we can come away from this sermon with a fresh understanding of the musical component of Sunday morning worship, so that we can renew our enthusiasm and dedication to doing it well.

Earlier in this sermon I asked if any of you have ever been to a church that didn’t have music at all. Well that reminds me of the story behind the song “Heart of Worship.” (Tell story from memory)

So let us pray and then sing together the song Heart of Worship.