Theology of Worship
Biblical foundations for worship and why we sing hymns.
Christians sing much more often than the average person. At least once a week (and often much more), we gather with many other people to sing songs to God and to each other about God. But why do we sing in the first place? What makes Christian singing different from singing in general? And what does that mean for how we are supposed to go about singing anyway? In this article, we’ll look at four reasons the Bible gives us for why we should sing and how these reasons inform the way we should sing.
1. Teaching One Another
Our first reason for why we should sing is in Colossians 3:16, our motto verse, which says, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (NASB1995). Notice that before the singing begins, we are first directed to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. Our singing then overflows from a heart that is full of thankfulness to God, and this heart is only able to be thankful because of what we know about God from His Word. With this Scripture-centered attitude, we are able to teach and admonish our fellow Christians: By singing songs together that teach us what the Bible says about who God is, what He has done, and what our relationship to Him is, we are teaching each other more about God and admonishing each other to live holy lives in light of what Christ has done.
For practical application, this means studying God’s word and meditating on it to prepare our hearts for worship. Without Christ’s word dwelling in us richly, we will struggle to have thankful hearts that genuinely pour out praise to God. Furthermore, when we are singing, we should be thinking about what the words of the songs mean and how they connect with Scripture. If our hearts are focusing on the music, how we sound, or distractions in life, we will completely miss out on the biblical lessons the songs are teaching us.
2. Who God Is
Psalm 100 is a wonderful psalm that, in 5 short verses, tells us the what, how, and why of singing:
1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!3 Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!5 For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
Verses 1, 2, and 4 tell us what to do and how to do it: they command us to come into the presence of God to sing songs of thanksgiving and praise to Him, and to do this joyfully with gladness. Verses 3 and 5 give the why for doing so: God is God, and God is good. Singing is something we do because of who God is: He is the all-powerful, all-loving Creator, so He deserves all of our praise. We should joyfully thank and exalt our loving, faithful God.
Verses 2 and 4 also tell us something very important about what Christian singing fundamentally is: it’s coming “into [God’s] presence” to worship Him. This is what differentiates it from singing in general: the purpose is entirely focused on God. Even the corporate element of singing to teach one another is defined by its God-centeredness: in obedience to God’s command, we sing to teach each other about Him. Our minds are not set on the fun of singing or the beauty of the music, and there certainly is no room for trying to glorify ourselves by showing off our singing skills. Everything is centered around worshiping God because of his amazing holiness and goodness.
For practical application, focusing on singing as an act of coming into the presence of a holy God to worship in His temple is helpful for removing distractions. 2 Chronicles 5:13-14 describes the amazing experience of worship when Solomon’s temple was completed: when the musicians lifted up their voices and instruments to praise God, “the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.” The glory of God’s presence was so awesome that the priests could not even stand. There were no distractions because the glory of God captured all their attention. While this experience is not regular, it informs our attitude when singing since our bodies are now temples of God, both individually (1 Corinthians 6:19) and corporately (Ephesians 2:21). The solution to getting distracted is not to simply will the distractions out of our mind, but to recognize and meditate on the amazing fact that when we come into church to sing, we are coming into the temple of God to worship in the presence of a majestic God, and when we gaze on His splendor and beauty, it will drive away the lesser concerns on our minds.
3. What God Does
This is perhaps the most obvious reason for singing. Psalm 103 opens with a catalog of the amazingly good gifts God gives:
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
3 who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
5 who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
However, it is important to not just stop at thanking God for the gifts. We risk treating God like a genie in a lamp when our focus is on receiving the gifts themselves rather than seeing how they illustrate the character of the Giver of those gifts. Instead, we must see how what God does reflects who He is: the gifts He gives are visible, tangible expressions of His goodness, generosity, mercy, compassion, faithfulness, and love. And so David continues in verse 8 of this psalm:
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
These lines are pulled directly from God’s proclamation of His name to Moses in Exodus 34:6. The things that God does in verses 1–5—the forgiveness, healing, redeeming, and blessing—are all concrete illustrations of God being merciful, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, characteristics that are so integral to who God is that God includes them in His name. In the rest of the psalm David goes on to praise God’s compassion, righteousness, faithfulness, and power. For David, praising God is so much more than just being thankful for receiving gifts: it’s ultimately about worshiping the God who is so amazingly good that He chooses to give these good gifts.
For practical application, consider how the things in our songs that we praise God for doing reflect who He is. This changes the focus from being on ourselves to being on God. When we sing in The Old Rugged Cross that “Jesus suffered and died to pardon and sanctify me,” our minds should not stop at “I am free from the penalty and power of sin,” but they should go on to “Jesus, thank you for being so merciful and loving that you were willing to suffer a horrendous death to save and sanctify someone as sinful as me.” By seeing how what God does reflects who He is, we orient our hearts towards God Himself rather than only the gifts.
4. What God Has Said
Psalm 119, the longest psalm in the Bible, is a titanic masterpiece with a single focus: praising God for His word. Nearly every single one of the 176 verses expresses praise and love for God’s word, law, precepts, commandments, testimonies, statutes, or some other synonym. The psalmist says that God’s word gives him life, comforts him in affliction, guides his actions, and protects him from sin; that God’s word is perfect, eternal, wonderful, and righteous, and that he delights in, meditates on, longs for, and hopes in it. And we have the privilege of having not just the rest of the Old Testament completed, but the entire New Testament as well, which tells of the glorious message of the gospel and gives us everything we need to be saved and sanctified. How much more then ought we to be like the psalmist, singing out joyfully to God for the incredible gift of His word!
For practical application, think of how the words of the songs connect with Scripture. Remember what an amazing treasure it is to have God’s word, and meditate on how the songs communicate the precious and great promises of God in a beautiful and memorable way.
Psalm 119 also gives us another application: God’s word is so precious that it should cause us to sing out in joy and praise constantly, not only on Sunday mornings. Verses 62 and 164 say,
62 At midnight I rise to praise you,
because of your righteous rules.
164 Seven times a day I praise you
for your righteous rules.
We should cultivate habits of daily worship in our lives, and one thing that we can praise God for every day is the gift of His word.
Summary
The Bible tells us to sing because of who God is, what He does, and what He says, and by singing biblically-grounded psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, we can teach one another more about God and admonish each other to live holy lives that honor and glorify Him. Practically applying this approach to our singing involves studying and meditating on the Bible, thinking about how the song lyrics connect with Scripture, focusing on singing as coming into the presence of our holy God to worship, considering how the gifts we praise God for giving reflect His character, and singing throughout the day.
Finally, remember just what an immense gift it is even to be able to sing to God. What a privilege it is to be given not just the ability to sing—to have an instrument built into our very bodies that we can use at any time—but to be given a regenerated heart that loves to sing, fellow believers to sing with and sing to, and the treasury of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Let us rejoice in the blessings upon blessings contained in this single act of singing, making a joyful noise unto our God to glorify His name!