The Music Exchange

There’s a wide range of views among evangelicals about the purpose of congregational singing.

Some say that we should sing only to engage with God and to worship him. Others say that congregational singing is all about mutual encouragement and teaching (we don’t sing to worship God — instead, we ‘go out’ at the end of our meetings to worship the Lord). I’m sure that not many people hold strictly to these two extremes, but the way some of our meetings are run often betrays a leaning towards one or the other. Those who hold to the ‘teaching’ view are always very careful about the theology that is sung, but the singing can often be dry, lifeless and clinical, and there can seem to be no acknowledgement of the presence of Jesus. Those who hold to the ‘worship’ view (in my experience) are often more exuberant or sensitive, but less discerning about doctrine. The presence of Jesus is all-important, but everyone is singing in their own little bubble, unaware of their brothers and sisters around them, who need to be encouraged and built up as a body.

Middle ground on singing

The biblical norm is somewhere in the middle, as you’d expect — singing should be both an engagement with our God, and a vehicle for the mutual encouragement of God’s children. (I was told once that the ‘both/and’ answer is called ‘evangelical fudge’, as if the safest position is to hedge your bets. I prefer the phrase ‘biblical norm’!)

Sing to God

Of the Bible songs I’ve studied, nearly every one explicitly expresses an expectation that there will be a direct engagement with God. Exodus 15 is a good example. Moses and the people of God have just witnessed one of the most remarkable and miraculous rescues in history. They have just crossed through the Red Sea and their enemies have been destroyed. Moses leads his people in praise. It’s no surprise that this glorious song of praise is directed to God (in thankful response to what God has done). However, the way that God is addressed in the song is more surprising. God is addressed interchangeably as ‘you’ and ‘he’. Therefore, the Lord is not only being sung to (directly), but he is also being sung about (objectively). The implication is that the song serves two purposes — that of responding in worship to the Lord, but also of God’s people teaching each other about him, so that they would remember that the Lord is their ‘strength and song’ (verse 2).

This pattern is continued in the New Testament too. From Colossians 3.15-17 and Ephesians 4.7-16 it’s clear that the New Testament writers expect that Christians should sing to God directly, as well as singing to each other in encouragement and admonishment.

Full of truth

What’s also clear is that our engagement with God and with each other in song should be driven by God’s engagement with us, and not by our own ideas and feelings (Moses and the people of God would have had nothing to sing about had God not acted in mercy). If the songs we sing are full of the truth of God’s nature and work, then this should drive us to acknowledge his transcendent majesty, his glory, power and infinite love, while at the same time those songs should also drive us to encourage and admonish each other corporately in that truth. If we find ourselves neglecting either the importance of engaging directly with Jesus or the importance of teaching each other in the truths we sing, then the likelihood is that we have forgotten what drives both responses — God’s mercy shown towards us in his Word.

Healthy balance

The outcome of neglect in either of these areas is not good either. If we lean too heavily on teaching over engaging with Jesus, then we miss out on the thankfulness described so wonderfully in Colossians — hence the dryness. If we lean too heavily on engaging with Jesus over teaching, then we end up in our own personal bubble without an appreciation of the importance of encouraging the body of Christ.

A healthy balance, however, should see us singing songs full of rich doctrine that enable us to respond with heart-felt thankfulness to Jesus. If this happens, then God gets the glory he deserves, we are able to encourage each other to a fuller discipleship as a body, and at the same time this will make our meetings much more attractive to the non-believer, who needs to be ‘convicted by all...and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you’ (1 Corinthians 14.24-25, ESV).

This healthy, biblical balance will also give us a right theology of corporate worship — worship that is centred on God’s Word, driven by God’s Word, and results in thankful and obedient disciples.

Body building while we sing

Middle ground on singing

Sing to God

Full of truth

Healthy balance

Richard Simpkin

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