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This is a photo from my church choir at Christmas.
http://yellowcreekbaptist.com/worship/ |
I’m sure we’ve all met those people who “just don’t sing” at church.
Whether due to their lack of vocal ability,
shy personality, or (supposed) unfamiliarity with the songs; I have heard tons
of excuses for why people do not want to sing in church.
While, certainly singing is not a requirement
for being a Christian (faith in Christ alone is!) we find that singing is right
at the heart of our faith.
1)
Jesus was a “singing person.” Jesus was all about singing!
One example of this is found in the Last Supper
He shared with His disciples.
“After singing a hymn, they
went out to the Mount of Olives.”- Matthew 26:30.
Jesus does this during a crucial moment in
His ministry.
He is sharing what would
be His last supper with His disciples before the cross, but He also is instituting
an ordinance for His church!
This was a
moment to be cherished and remembered and what does Jesus do?
SING!
This raises so many questions I wish we could know!
What vocal range was Jesus?
What song did He sing?
Was this spontaneous or planned?
What we can know is that singing was used as
a part of the celebration and was a part of the Son of God’s preparation to
suffer.
This bring us to number 2….
2)
Singing helps us endure suffering We can also draw the conclusion that Jesus
was a singer because of how much He seemed to cherished God’s inspired song
book: the Psalms.
We find that 14 times
in the Gospel of Matthew that Jesus quotes the Psalms (ESV Study Bible,
pg.2609-2610).
One of the most profound
moment we find is when Jesus is on the cross, and of all He could declare, He
quotes lyrics to Psalm 22 (Matthew 26:45-46).
In Jesus darkest hour He found comfort in songs overflowing with Holy
Spirit inspiration.
As Jesus Christ was
bearing out sin, He had a song in His head.
Should not songs of truth be a bedrock for us in the midst of suffering?
3)
Singing is a means of fighting
temptation.
Once again, in the
ministry of Jesus we find another example of Jesus singing.
Jesus, when faced with temptation found power in Holy Spirit
inspired Torah
and Psaltery. In Matthew 4 Satan actually tempts Jesus through misquoting Psalm 91, but, He knew Psalm 91 and counteracted with a quote from Deuteronomy.
A song was a means by which Jesus overcame temptation,
how much more for us?
Yes, we have the Psalms,
but the truth of Scriptures can be communicated via the songs we sing
corporately.
Gospel saturated songs have
sin conquering power.
In the midst of
heavy temptation I often find myself singing,
“When Satan tempts me to
despair, And tells me of the guilt within, Upward I look and see Him there, Who
made an end of all my sin.” If Jesus
fought temptation through singing God’s truth, how much more should we?
4) We will sing in Heaven Corporate
worship is an earthly shadow of a Heavenly reality (Hebrews 9-10), so when we
sing we are mimicking (and joining in with) the choir off Heaven!
Revelation 5 pulls back the veil and we hear
that the Gospel truth is declared even by glorified saints,
“And they sang a new song,
saying ‘Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain,
and purchased for God with Your blood men
from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.’” (Rev. 5:9)
Heaven will be far to glorious to want to
hold back due to being “shy.”
Worship
will not be cold or dead in Heaven.
In
fact, many may think we are Charismatic (this coming from a non-Charismatic!).
Certainly we are going more than sing for all eternity, the next verse says we
will be reigning as well, but this passage and many others make clear that much
of the joy of Heavenly is going to be found in expressing our salvation in
song.
Song is not sinful, but in fact
even in the garden was expressed by God’s image bearers to express delight
(Gen. 2:23).
Singing is at the core of
what it means to be human.
Even God
Himself expressed his delight in song, which is why we need not fear singing to
Him…
5) Because God’s singing over us will always be louder than our singing to Him
“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty
one who will save; he will rejoice over you with
gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” – Zech. 3:17 (ESV)
The glorious news is that God does not accept us because we sing well, or
because we sing loud, but God sings over us because of His great love for us in
Christ. Christ died that God might sing.
Sing over sinners. Delight over
you. You. In the gospel, God sings a song over you. Even on our “best” worship days, the singing
of God over His people will always be louder than a congregation in chorus
together. That, my friends, is good
news. News good enough to sing about.
