Every Sunday in just about every church of every stripe or colour you will find Christians singing. In an area like ours, it is noticeable that Christians sing as part of their worship and Muslims don’t. Many of the ex-Muslim Iranian members of our church were struck particularly by the joyful singing that went on the first time they stepped into the church. Why do we do it?

I think there are essentially four main reasons for our singing. So, in no particular order, here they are:

We are commanded to sing

Bottom line is this: the bible tells us to sing. The Old Testament contains a book of songs (the Psalms) for God’s people to sing. The New Testament contains examples of God’s people singing (cf. Matthew 26:30; Mark 14:26; Acts 16:25; 1 Corinthians 14:15; Revelation 5:9; etc). But perhaps most significantly of all, in three separate places we are directly commanded to sing (cf. Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16; James 5:13). We sing because God tells us to sing.

To give thanks and praise to God

If you look at the heading for Psalm 100 (that is, the original header) it is titled ‘A Psalm for giving thanks’. Psalms 95 and 147 begin with, ‘let us sing to the Lord’ and ‘Praise the Lord’ respectively. These are just a few examples of what the Psalms do. Whilst there are all manner of other Psalms for other occasions, psalms of lament, psalms of imprecation and the rest, they are typically directed toward God. But a significant number of them are directed to his praise and thanksgiving for who he is (even some of the sad ones).

In the New Testament, we are commanded to sing ‘with thankfulness in your hearts to God’ (cf. Colossians 3:16; Ephesians 5:19) and to ‘sing praise’ to God (james 5:13). A key component of our singing – even that which is sad or lamenting – is nevertheless to take comfort in God, sing his praises and glorify him. Thankfulness to God for all that he is and all that he has done for us is a key aspect of why we sing.

To encourage one another

Ephesians 5:19 (and implied in Colossians 3:16) tells us directly to ‘address one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs’. Without wishing to get into the issues surrounding whether those are three different kinds of song or three ways of saying the same thing, what is clear is that we are to sing these things to one another. Colossians talks about ‘teaching and admonishing one another’. Paul could have been encouraging the Colossians to teach one another and then separately to sing songs. But it seems clear in the parallel passage in Ephesians 5 that the songs are to be addressed to one another. We encourage and build one another up through our singing.

To reinforce biblical truth

In those parallel passages in Colossians and Ephesians, it seems there is a link between our teaching and admonishing, and the songs that we sing. That is, we teach and admonish through the singing of songs to one another. We can reinforce what we are taught, we can meditate on important biblical truths, in the form of songs. It may be cliched to say, but I think it is true: nobody goes home singing the sermon; but they do go home singing the songs. The songs help to reiterate and remind of biblical truth that recall the sermon.

When I was learning Greek, I remember I first learnt the letter of the alphabet through a song (I still sometimes sing it to myself to remember). It is precisely what we do with children learning the English language – almost everybody knows the tune to ABCDEFG. There is something about songs and tunes that have a habit of sticking in our heads and helping us retain information. I think both Colossians 3 and Ephesians 5 affirm that principle – we will recall what we learn through the preaching of the word best when it is reiterated in the form of song.

It is for this reason I most prefer it when we hear the word preached in church, we get the sermon near the front end and then we sing and pray in response to it. Both the prayers and the songs help to reinforce what we have heard from the Word and may just help us retain those truths most effectively. This is our practice at Oldham Bethel Church. Let me emphasise, this is not the stuff of biblical mandate or command of Christ; you may find other ways more helpful and effective. More power to your elbow. But for me, I think the singing helps the teaching – indeed, it is a mode of teaching – and I think it is at its most helpful when it reinforces what we have heard from the word rather than being a set of more general songs that, whilst uplifting (or what have you), do not centre on any of the key teaching points.