We have all written a letter. Either through the means of pen and paper or through email. Those letters are written to a specific person, and such a person is in the address. It is safe to say we do not write a letter to ourselves; outside of a diary, one does not start a letter "to me."
Those words may sound foolish, but when it comes to how we sing in church, the address is vital, so vital that if one is not careful, they commit idolatry by worshipping self and focusing on an emotional response of need as opposed to bringing a joyful noise before the Lord. One should consider some considerations before simply singing certain songs or leading the congregation in singing songs in the church.
Let us look at a simple letter in the Hebrew alphabet: ל. This letter is lamed. It is used as a preposition and could mean for, in regards to or simply to. Its use denotes direction towards[1], which we often see in the Psalms. Here are some examples.
Psalm 95:1
O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.
Here, the lamed ל is used twice. First, the singing is towards the Lord and directed upwards to the rock of our salvation.
Psalm 30:4
Sing praises to the Lord, you His godly ones, and give thanks to His holy name.
Like the first example, the lamed ל is used to express direction. Now we find the same direction in Psalm 33:1-3, 47:6, 81:1-2, 96:1-2 and many more. The matter is that singing is upward. It is part of worship, not the entirety of worship. This means the importance of what we sing and the direction of our singing is as vitally important as the doctrine of the preached sermons. The Apostle Paul makes it clear that part of the evidence of the word of Christ dwelling in the Christian is the teaching, admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Col 3:16). Further in his letter to the church in Ephesus, as believers we are to address "one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart (Eph 5:19). Again, there is direction with to whom is praised and the centre of adoration, Christ.
One of the biggest problems facing the Christian church today is the philosophical ethics of utilitarianism. At the core, utilitarianism maximizes happiness and the overall well-being of man. This is why many of the worship songs sung in churches today are not towards God as primary but towards man. This point can easily be mistaken. The argument is not that the songs are missing certain words about God; the issue is that the songs are written in such a way as to use God as a means to an emotionally charged expression of self-gratification (how we feel, want, need, desire). The joyful adoration is not towards the thrice Holy God but holds place man's happiness as the chief end.
The matter of direction is not simply due to the new contemporary songs that are sung by many congregations. The matter goes back even to some well-cherished hymns. There is no intention to highlight all the errors but to draw the mind back to why we sing and to whom we sing. With the many songs, either directly or composed in such a genre that the chief end of man is his own happiness, idolatry can be the end game and, for certain, the danger of empty praise. People become like those rebuked by the Prophet Isaiah, "these people draw near with their words and honour me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts from me, and their reverence for me consists of tradition learned by rote (Is 29:13). John Livington said, "Alas, for that capital crime of the Lord's people- barrenness in praises! Oh, how fully I am persuaded that a line of praise is worth a lead of prayer and an hour of praises is worth a day of fasting and mourning"[2]. In short, what we sing and to whom our singing is directed is paramount.
How do we make sure we are signing correctly? How do we direct our singing and the manner in which we sing? In the same way, we treat other aspects of the service, like the preaching - we go back to the Bible. For ages, the church sang Psalms. Doing so brought the believer to a place of singing God's word and clarifying who He is. There are clear reminders of the depravity of man and our need for Him. Yes, there is emotion, brokenness and transparency in the Psalms; best of all, they are directed toward the correct object of our hearts, Jesus Christ. Sure, there are some modern-day songs that can be sung, but it comes down to the question, to whom is the music directed, us and our emotional fulfillment or towards the Paise and Glory of our King?
Here are some helpful readings on this subject that provide more depth.
In His Grace,
P/Steve
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1. The Abridged Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testament: From A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament by Francis Brown, S.R. Driver and Charles Briggs, Based on the Lexicon of Wilhelm Gesenius (Boston; New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1906).
2. A Puritan Golden Treasury, compiled by I.D.E. Thomas, by permission of Banner of Truth, Carlisle, PA. 2000, p. 209.
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