Why Do Christians Sing?
Biblical foundations for worship and why we sing hymns.
Christians sing together a lot. At least once a week, we gather to sing to God. Since we do it so often, we should consider: Why sing in the first place? Is there anything that distinguishes Christian singing from singing in general? If so, how then should we sing as Christians?
This article examines four biblical reasons why we should sing and how each reason practically shapes the way Christians sing.
1. Christians Sing Because of Who God Is
Psalm 100:1–2, 4 command both the what of Christian singing—entering God’s presence with songs of thanksgiving and praise—and the how of Christian singing—joyfully and with gladness:
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.
Then, Psalm 100:3, 5 provide the why of these commands: God is God, and God is good. He is the all-powerful, all-loving Creator, and He is our faithful Shepherd who loves, protects, and cares for us, His people and sheep, forever. It is who God is that motivates us to sing in Psalm 100.
This means that Christian singing is fundamentally God-centered. Indeed, Psalm 100:2, 4 picture singing as coming “into His presence.” When we are in the very presence of God, our focus cannot be on the enjoyment of singing, the beauty of the music, or anything else. Our focus can only be on pouring out praise and thanksgiving to God Himself, who alone is worthy of worship. As the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy” emphasizes,
Only Thou art holy; there is none beside Thee,
Perfect in pow’r, in love, and purity.
2 Chronicles 5:13–14 vividly pictures how the holiness of God shapes how His people worship: At the dedication of Solomon’s temple, when the musicians began to praise God, “the glory of the LORD filled the house of God,” and His presence was so overwhelming that the priests could not even stand to minister. Awestruck by the presence of God, the worshipers simply were not tempted by distraction because the glory of God commanded their full attention.
While we may not have such a breathtaking experience every time we worship, this episode should still shape our attitude towards singing because our very bodies are now temples of God, both individually (1 Corinthians 6:19) and corporately (Ephesians 2:21). The solution to getting distracted during worship is not just to will the distractions out of our mind, but to recognize and meditate on the amazing truth that when we gather to sing as a church, we are coming into the temple of God to worship in the presence of the Most High God who is our Father. Distractions lose their power when we fix our gaze upon the splendor and beauty of our Lord and Savior.
2. Christians Sing Because of What God Does
Psalm 103 calls us to worship by commanding us to remember all of the amazingly good gifts God gives:
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.
Each thing that God does in this psalm specifically shows who He truly is: Forgiver; Healer, and Redeemer. Each of these gifts that God gives visibly and tangibly demonstrates that He really is loving, merciful, generous, faithful, righteous, and good. Thus, when we meditate on all that God does, we discover afresh and more deeply who God is. And so in Psalm 103:8, the psalmist falls back on God’s name, God’s self-revelation of who He is:
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
Again, the only proper response to who God is has only ever been wholehearted worship. When Moses heard the very first proclamation of God’s name (Exodus 34:6–7), his immediate response was to “quickly bow his head toward the earth and worship” (Exodus 34:8).
This means that, when we sing, if we stop just at thanking God for the gifts He gives, we are missing out on the joy of beholding the full glory of who God is. Worse, we may risk treating God like a genie in a lamp who exists to satisfy our desires instead of who He is: our Creator and Lord who loves, disciplines, and protects us. So when we sing “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me!” our minds should not stop at “I am glad that I am saved,” but should continue on to “What a gracious Savior You are, God! Your sacrificial love and perfect patience make You worthy to be praised!” When we sing about the wonderful gifts God gives, we should see them in light of who He is and what our relationship to Him is: our Father who works all things for the good of His children, who saves and sanctifies and preserves us.
3. Christians Sing Because of What God Has Said
The titanic masterpiece that is Psalm 119 has just one focus: praising God for His word. Nearly every single one of the 176 verses expresses praise and love for what God’s word is and does: God’s word is perfect, eternal, wonderful, and righteous (Psalm 119:75, 96, 129); God’s word gives the psalmist life, comforts him in affliction, guides his paths, and guards him from sin (Psalm 119:9, 50, 105, 107); and the psalmist delights in, meditates on, longs for, and hopes in God’s word (Psalm 119:14, 15, 20, 43). As those who now have the fullness of God’s revelation in both the Old and New Testaments, how much more ought we to be like the psalmist, singing out joyfully to God for the incredible gift of His word! It is only through God’s word that we can come to know who God is and what He has done (Romans 10:17). His word is the foundation of our faith and salvation, and it gives us everything we need to be saved and sanctified. The hymn “How Firm a Foundation” wonderfully emphasizes the sufficiency of God’s word:
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
All things that pertain to life and godliness are given to us in God’s word, as it gives us the knowledge of who He is (2 Peter 1:3). There is nothing we need to hear that God has not already said in His word. What an amazing gift that is!
One practical application of this is to study and meditate on God’s word to prepare our hearts for worship. And when we sing, we should consider what the words of the songs really mean and how they connect with Scripture instead of focusing on the music, how we sound, or the cares of life. We should remember that the only reason we know what to sing and to whom we sing is because God revealed Himself in His word. And we should rejoice that we can meditate on the precious and great promises of God through the beautiful and memorable medium of song!
Psalm 119 offers 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. Psalm 119:62, 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.
No matter how we feel or what we are facing, we can worship day in and day out because of God’s unchanging word, which invariably reminds and instructs us of who God is, what He has done, and what our relationship to Him is.
4. Christians Sing to Teach One Another
Hymn Singing Club’s motto verse, Colossians 3:16, calls for worship as an outflow of the main command to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly:
“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).
When we have God’s word in our hearts, teaching us who God is, our hearts are full of thankfulness to God. When we have this heart of thankfulness, we overflow with singing about what God’s word teaches us. By singing about who God is, what He has done, and what our relationship to Him is, we are teaching each other and admonishing one another to live holy and joyful lives in light of what Christ has done.
This makes Christian singing different from singing in general. Not only are we singing to the Most High God who is also our Father, but we are also singing to encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ! What a wonderful privilege to be able to minister to fellow believers through our worship.
Summary
So why do Christians sing? The Bible calls us to sing because God is our Creator and Savior, because of all that He does to save and sanctify us, and because He has revealed Himself and His works to us in His word. Moreover, in singing biblically grounded psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, we teach one another more about God and admonish each other to live holy and joyful lives that glorify God in everything that we do.
How then should we sing as Christians? We should strive to better worship God when we sing by studying and meditating on the Bible, connecting lyrics to Scripture, focusing on the glorious truth of who God is, and recognizing with awe what a privilege it is to come into the presence of our holy God. Our whole lives should be lived in worship to God, and singing is a particularly concentrated and joyful form of worship.
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!