Part 5-What may happen... not singing in Worship

 

Part 5-What happens if we don’t sing at all in worship?

       Singing is without doubt an ancient landmark of worshiping God.  In my estimation no body of believers has the right to deny worshipers the privilege of responding to God through musicing unto Him.  Admittedly, over  many centuries the church at large has had a tendency to vacillate when it comes to congregational singing. Regardless of what a particular church thinks about the necessity of responding to God through singing at a particular time, singing is an ancient landmark of worship.

        The Bible repeatedly commands Christians to sing unto the Lord.  Psalm 30:4, 96:1&2, 98:1&4, 135:3, I Ch. 29:30, II Ch, 16:23 are just a few of the verses that command us to sing unto the Lord. The Hebrew is so very clear in these verses that it seems no one has been able to translate around this truism—singing is a definite part of worship God’s children from ancient times until this very day.

       Some ministers have mistakenly considered singing to be almost the whole of public worship.  Throughout the Bible, singing was a part of worship but not the end of worship. One of the Bible principles of musicing is that singing  since ancient Israel has been the handmaiden of the Torah.  The te’amim were placed in all of the O.T. Scriptures in order that the entire O.T. could be sung.  Nehemiah 8:8 has, over many centuries, become an esoteric reference to the intoning the Scrolls with the use of the te’amim. 
       The Hebrew word parash (6567) which has been rendered distinctly in the A.V. means to separate or literally to disperse.  Intoning (singing) the Holy Writ with what we now know to be a precise notation (the te’amim) helped in bringing preciseness to God’s written Word.  The same verse uses the Hebrew word biyn (995) which has been translated in the A.V. with a group of English words “and caused them to understand”.  So, when when we bring all these thoughts together we can see that singing the Word of God helped to bring greater understanding to the hearer.  Now you know the “rest of the story” about ancient intoning of Scripture.  There is a very valid reason for singing God’s Word if our musicing helps to make the Word more clear to the congregation.

       This also brings to mind that there is great responsibility placed on those who lead musical worship to make absolutely sure that all of the music sung is biblically accurate.   That was probably the reason John Calvin was so adamant about singing Psalms, and it was exactly why John Wesley once instructed the society of Christians called Methodists to, “Sing no songs of your own composing”. In review, we have considered that the commandment to sing unto the Lord is clear in Scripture.  There is no doubt that we should sing biblically accurate songs in our public worship.  If we do not we will certainly impoverish those whom we lead in worship.