5 Reasons the Church Sings (Part 1 of 3)

Every Sunday the church gathers together and one of the main components of that gathering is corporate singing. Why do we sing together? Do we sing when we are together because that’s what we’ve always done? Or do we sing because that’s just what happens before someone gets up to preach? What reasons do the scriptures give for God's people coming together and singing as an expression of worship? These are important questions that, left unanswered, can contribute to a spiritual malaise on Sunday morning that fails to see and appreciate the deep biblical reasons for why we sing together. So why do we sing? It’s no coincidence or mere tradition that the church has been singing together for two thousand years. My hope is that considering these five reasons for why we sing (and perhaps a little of how we sing) will give us a deeper appreciation for what is truly happening when our voices combine to lift songs of praise to our God and will subsequently embolden our worship in song.

Reasons #1 – We Sing Because Praise Befits the Upright

Shout for joy in the LORD, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright. Psalm 33:1

The psalmist goes on to call the people of God to give praise with the lyre, to make melody with the harp, to sing to the Lord a new song, and to play skillfully on the strings. It is fitting that the upright should worship the Lord in song. God’s people have been singing to Him for their entire history. In fact, the Psalms are a whole book dedicated to songs sung by His people, many of them congregationally. This kind of melodic praise wherein words of joy and thanksgiving are sung unto the LORD befits those who have been made upright by Him - that is to say it is appropriate or proper to sing to Him. Why? For in being made righteous God has revealed to us who He is and God’s character is the most compelling reason to sing! The psalmist roots his call to sing in the glorious reality that “the word of the Lord is upright, and all His works are done in faithfulness.” He goes on to say “He loves righteousness and justice: the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.” Surely the upright praise Him because they have seen Him as supremely worthy of their song. A sight of the worth and glory of our Lord compels us to joyfully sing. The LORD is worthy of our worship and He is therefore worthy of our song. Truly, praise befits the upright.

Reason #2 – We Sing Because the Lord Has Saved Us

Thus the Lord saved Israel that day…then Moses and the people of Israel sang. Exodus 14:30,15:1

Exodus 14 records the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea. In the very next chapter we find the Hebrews who, after having just been rescued mightily by the hand of the Lord, look back in wonder at what the He has accomplished on their behalf. As they look back on their glorious deliverance and the victory that has been won for them, the response of Moses and all the Israelites was to sing. If you are in Christ, you have been saved from the hand of your enemy and delivered mightily out of the kingdom of darkness. Your faithful LORD has sent His own Son Jesus, the greater Moses and the perfect Passover lamb, to rescue you from the slave master of sin. By His sufficient work you have been delivered to God a people for His own possession. There is no enemy left standing to accuse you or to enslave you, no sin left unpaid that might threaten your union with God. He has delivered his people and has promised His everlasting faithfulness to them. And now, having passed through the waters of baptism as the Israelites passed through the Red Sea, we the children of God may look back and see the salvation our Lord has won for us. Every Sunday we are called to look back again together and to see this mighty salvation that has been secured on our behalf. We don’t see the remains of fallen Egyptians but we see One who, though he died and was buried, was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead so that we too might receive newness of life. Just as the Israelites were compelled to sing when they looked back upon their deliverance from the hands of the Egyptians through the mighty work of God, so too are we compelled to lift our voices in song when we look back upon our deliverance from sin and death through the sacrifice of God's own Son Jesus Christ.

“I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. 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." 

We sing because He saved us.