Sing!

by Travis L Quertermous

From The Reminder, April 24, 2011

A vital element of the worship of the New Testament church was congregational singing. Yet so many Christians today deprive themselves (and God) of the joy of this particular act of worship simply because they opt out of the singing! A crucial verse on singing is found in Colossians 3:16 where the apostle Paul wrote, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

Herein, we are commanded to:

Sing! Notice that Paul did not say, “Sing well.” Evidently, some brethren have concluded that because they do not sing well or because they don’t like to sing, they are free to disobey God’s command!? Unless one has an illness like laryngitis that prevents one from singing praise to God, we should all sing praises to His great name!

Sing with grace! This simply means to sing with joy, love, thankfulness, and reverence as we praise our Heavenly Father.

Sing from the heart! The heart is the instrument upon which our music is made to God and not a mechanical instrument. This also means we are to genuinely worship God through song and never just thoughtlessly mouth the words or “go through the motions.”

Sing to the Lord! We must always remember that the primary purpose of our worship is to glorify the Lord and not ourselves. Jehovah God is always our audience in worship. We do not assemble to entertain the masses!

Sing to one another! All must participate in the musical worship of the church; all must sing to the Lord. As we sing these beautiful and scriptural hymns to God, we also teach, admonish, and edify one another in the faith. This emphasizes congregational singing and rules out choirs and solos where only part of the assembly sings.

Brethren, if we want to get the most out of our worship services, we must open up our mouths and joyfully sing our Heavenly Father’s praise! Yet, we have too many brethren with closed mouths during our singing! Quit worrying about what others think and concern yourself more with what God thinks! “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!” (Psalm 150:6).