All throughout Scripture, we’re told to “Sing to the Lord.” The church is commanded to sing, and how a church sings is telling. It not only shapes the culture of a church, but it reveals what’s important to God’s people. When we sing together corporately, we’re declaring what kind of God we worship, what kind of gospel we’re proclaiming, and what the basis of our unity is. Remarkably, the very first instrument God created was the human body. He gave our vocal cords as a gift to vibrate and produce sounds like the strings of a guitar. And, barring some physical damage, everyone can learn to sing, so they can join other Christians in praising God. 

 

Additional Scripture References: Colossians 3:16

The phrase, sing to the Lord, is found all over the Bible. The church is commanded to sing And the church is a family that sings together. And it's so important to have a vigorous, vibrant culture of singing in a church. Singing not only shapes the culture of a church, it reveals what's important to that church. And when we sing together in our corporate gatherings, we're declaring many important truths, including what kind of God we worship, what kind of gospel we're proclaiming, what is the basis of our unity, what kind of people we want to be, what kind of feelings we want to have, what kind of messages we're proclaiming to one another, really what kind of church we want to be and what kinds of things do we want to say to one another.

And also too, we're declaring through our singing what kind of families and individuals we want departing from our church meetings. We want families and individuals who sing the praises of God, who are going down the road giving thanks for the good things that God has taught them through the songs and to be happy in him with those songs ringing in their ears. It's interesting the church is about the only place where people really sing. Muslims don't sing, you don't hear singing in Hindu temples. But the truth is God made the human body to be a musical instrument.

The very first instrument that was created for music was the human body. And then other instruments were created later. But you think about the simplest part of your musical instrument, your voice. Your vocal chords are like the strings of a guitar. They vibrate and they produce sounds and they tighten and they loosen and give different sounds.

And then you have these resonance chambers, your mouth, your throat, the nasal cavities. These resonate the sound. They transmit the vibration and the frequency of the sound. By changing the shape of those parts of your body, you change the sound. Our bodies are like percussion instruments.

Our bodies are outfitted for clapping and foot tapping and keeping and beat like percussion instruments. And no voices are the same. Every voice has a particular range and depth and you have bass and basso profundo and baritone and tenor all these different kinds of sounds that come out of different kinds of people's mouths Somebody once said that your your body is like an orchestra it It produces all kinds of sounds and ranges of sounds. But most people say, well, I can't sing. Well, the truth is, you can learn to sing.

There are muscles to be developed, there are techniques, and people who say they can't sing actually probably can sing. So your body is a musical instrument. If somebody asks you if you play an instrument, you can say yes, my body is a musical instrument. I play it every day and I play in church every week. So the church is a family that sings and singing defines the character and the beliefs of that church.

Singing is such a wonderful gift. The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever. Scripture applied as a production of Church and Family Life. Visit churchandfamilylife.com for more resources.