Assemble and Sing

This year I’ve had to miss some church. Though I was able to watch some live stream services, appreciated being able to listen to the Word of God preached, and was blessed and encouraged, it just wasn’t the same. I missed the gathering, the fellowship, praying together and singing together. As human beings, there are benefits to singing together. That's how God made us and we miss out on a God given blessing of our humanity by not singing together. However, God blesses in a special way when His people gather together and sing of Him. Colossians 3:16  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. 

God wants his people to sing together. The only way we can teach and admonish one another in song is to actually sing. I’ve heard that people won’t sing in church because they “sing in their hearts.” But unless you have the gift of telekinesis and can admonish me with your mind, you are going to have to sing out loud. Singing with grace in the heart is referencing the person singing, not the manner. I know, not everyone is blessed with the tongues of angels and if their singing voice rang out like the sounding brass or tinkling cymbal, it would be a stark improvement, but God doesn’t say sing only if you have the pipes of an Irish tenor. Sing, because the more who sing out together the more the voices blend. Do you really think that everyone that belts out Country Roads in Morgantown has a good singing voice? I doubt it, but they still will play it on ESPN and it still sounds good. Sing out for one another and for the glory of God.  

 

 Another blessing of attending church and singing out is good songs with good lyrics they teach and admonish us. There are some songs in the hymnals that aren’t fit for public consumption because they just are not true. But singing good hymns, singing Psalms out of the Bible, and spiritual songs of the Christian life that are true teach us great things about our Lord. I learned of the Trinity and had that doctrine firmly grounded in my mind from the Biblical truth in the hymn Holy, Holy, Holy. I remember riding the school bus thinking about “God in three persons” and meditating on that truth. Blessed Trinity.  I’ve seen young men sing rap songs with hundreds, maybe thousands of words. They memorized it and internalized the song because they listened to it over and over again. Songs are easy to remember and how blessed it is to have the words of Christ in our heart, the truth in our mind and be able to sing forth praises of our God and king. What a blessing to assemble together with others who love the Lord Jesus and sing praises together. Before the age of recorded music, if you were going to hear singing, you had to assemble. I'm thankful for that technology and praise God for it, but it's no substitute for gathering and singing.