The Logic of Worship

Christians sing in worship. In fact, when we think of worship, music is often the first thing that comes to mind. Every week our congregations gather and sing songs together in their own languages. Of course, our singing in worship isn’t a new practice. Singing has always been part of our worship. The patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament sang hymns. Moses and the Israelites sang a worship song as they escaped from Egypt and crossed the sea on dry land. It began with these words:

“I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.” (Exodus 15:1-2)

In 2 Chronicles 5:12-14 we read that after completing the construction of the temple, Solomon gathered the people for an extraordinary worship time in which they sang together along with hundreds of musicians:

“All the Levites who were musicians —Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and relatives—stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets. The trumpeters and musicians joined in unison to give praise and thanks to the Lord. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, the singers raised their voices in praise to the Lord and sang:

“He is good;

his love endures forever.”

Then the temple of the Lord was filled with the cloud, and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple of God.”

The most prominent example of hymn singing in the Old Testament is David, who was both king and musician. He expressed his heart to God through his psalms, and the people took up those psalms as their own expressions of worship. In Jesus’ day the Psalms were the hymn book of the people of God. There are 150 psalms in the book of Psalms, but the Old Testament is also full of other examples of psalms written by other men and women. 

So, it isn’t surprising that we also find hymns and singing as worship in the New Testament. In Luke 1:46-5 while Mary is pregnant with Jesus, she sings a song of worship to God. And just before heading out to Gethsemane where Jesus would be arrested, they all sing a hymn together (Matthew 26:30). And in Ephesians 5:19-20 Paul encourages the first century churches with these words: “...speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Of course, as ancient as Christian singing is, we know that worship isn’t limited to singing. The Lutheran World Federation’s “Nairobi Statement on Worship and Culture” begins with this description: “Worship is the heart and pulse of the Christian Church. In worship we celebrate together God's gracious gifts of creation and salvation, and are strengthened to live in response to God's grace. Worship always involves actions, not merely words. To consider worship is to consider music, art, and architecture, as well as liturgy and preaching.”

Paul’s conception of worship is even broader: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” (Romans 12:1). All of life lived in a God-oriented way is worship in this inclusive sense. 

In the practice of the church, there is a more narrow sense in which we use the word worship to describe our activity in corporate gatherings, and singing is an important dimension of that. It is the role of this dimension of worship that I would like to explore. Why do we sing in corporate worship? What is happening when we sing hymns and worship songs?

I think we can answer those questions by describing five dimensions or aspects of corporate singing in worship. Each of these dimensions is important and we should be holding them together in order to maintain a balanced theology of worship.

1. Most essentially, singing in worship is a corporate offering. We join our voices as a congregation, building something together to offer to God. So, our singing is not something we offer primarily to people, but to God who is worthy of worship. Our worship times are not concerts. When I travel to the U.S. and spend time in big churches I am impressed by the quality of the music I hear, but it often strikes me that something is missing. I often can’t hear the sound of the congregation’s voices. Church music can be more oriented toward listening and “absorbing” as it is performed by professional musicians and played at high volume on huge speakers. The congregation might sing along, but it doesn’t really matter to the sound being produced. I am sometimes left feeling like the congregation is mostly just an audience for someone else’s worship performance. 

That is a stark contrast to my church in Cyprus where everyone’s voice is heard, for better or for worse, as we sit in a living room and offer our worship songs to God. If someone misses a note or sings the wrong words, everyone knows. It’s a very human experience that requires the vulnerable participation of the whole family. 

Corporate worship is a corporate offering in which we should be joining our voices as a chorus of singers. That’s obviously still possible with professional musicians and a sound system, but losing that dimension is a potential danger that churches should be aware of.

Several of the church fathers used metaphors related to corporate singing in their theologizing about worship and the Christian life. Ignatius of Antioch, a first century theologian, wrote, “Therefore in your agreement and harmonious love, Jesus Christ is sung. Become a choir, one by one, so that being harmonious in love, taking up the song of God in unison, you may sing to the Father with one voice through Jesus Christ, so that he may both hear you and perceive, because of what you do, that you are the members of his Son.” (quoted in Ancient Christian Worship by Andrew B. McGowan, p. 117) 

I often hear worship leaders telling us to close our eyes and ignore the people around us. I understand the point they are making, but I often want to recommend the opposite. Look around you at the people gathered together to worship! We are offering something to God together. Our worship in church is corporate. It isn’t something we can do alone in our rooms, even though we might sing the same songs all by ourselves. 

2. When we sing in worship we proclaim truth together, and we are being transformed by it. Our souls learn the truths we sing about, and by singing, we teach those truths to others. As we reflect on the words and offer them to God from our souls, the Spirit transforms us, drawing us toward those truths. That’s why the words we sing are so important. Every worship song doesn’t have to expound on profound theological doctrines, but we should obviously only sing words that are true. From its first days, the church discovered that the theology we sing is the theology we remember. If our worship songs are full of scriptural truths, then so will the minds and hearts of our church members. And if the depth of the gospel are reflected in our songs, then the world around us will also hear our message.

Of course, our singing in worship isn’t just a matter of dry doctrinal information. The Spirit empowers our worship, transforming us along the way. We reflect on these truths, we pray them, and we ask for God’s power to be revealed in us and among us. If we sing about God’s love and power, those truths will settle into our souls. As we sing about his grace and holiness, gradually our way of life is being shaped by those turths. By the Spirit’s power we are being transformed toward Christlikeness.

Marva Dawn expresses it this way: “Our churches instead must help worship participants to learn that objective truths about God give a more lasting high. To learn deeper truth might not seem to be so wonderful at first, but it is a Joy that stays. To become a person of more profoundly Christian character might not seem to give the immediate emotional boost that is sought, but it provides the spiritual resources necessary for dealing with the chaotic and tension causing situations of daily life in the long haul.” (A Royal Waste of Time p. 231)

3. In corporate worship, we express the depths of our hearts. We share our joy, our love, our anxieties and our needs with the Father. Transparency before God is a requirement of worship; our hearts are bared as we focus on presenting ourselves to Him. God doesn’t want our empty words, he wants our actual emotions and intentions. He wants our genuine confessions. He wants to hear our joyful praise. And he wants to hear our physical and spiritual needs. Just as David does in the Psalms, it is right to express our real selves to God in worship. And it is right to ask for him to intervene with healing, peace, and encouragement. 

This kind of honesty in worship closes the gap between our external selves and the reality of our inner selves. We remove our masks as we come intentionally into the presence of God, who searches our hearts and knows us completely. This is where deep peace is found in worship. We don’t need to conceal ourselves from God. 

This value is gained when we preserve the intention of worship as an offering to God, rather than as a kind of therapy for ourselves. When present our whole selves, including the words of our songs, as a sacrifice, and in fulfilling the purpose of our souls in worship, we experience the satisfaction that only the Spirit can give.

4. In worship we listen to God. Even while we are singing, we aren’t doing all the talking. Throughout the Bible, people who come into God’s presence to worship also hear God’s voice. Before the burning bush, a worshipful Moses hears God speaking, just as Solomon did at the dedication of the temple. And it is in a time of worship in the temple that Isaiah hears the voice of God calling. In the New Testament, the gathered believers continually hear God’s voice. So, we also prepare our hearts to hear from Him as we gather to worship.

If we take time to listen to the Spirit when we worship, we also provide an opportunity to quiet the noise in our hearts. We recognize in humility that we don’t know everything and that we need to hear and learn from God. This point can be the starting place for a theological debate, but as Christians we have a common ground: we believe in a God who speaks. Jesus Christ is the living word of God and the Bible is also God’s inspired word.  And it is right to expect that he will also speak to us. Listening to God corporately, as in so many of the Bible’s examples, is the most appropriate context for that. In worship we listen together and we ask for God to guide us and speak to our hearts.

5. Corporate worship is a time for relational connection with God. We aren’t just singing words about God. We sing to God because we believe that He is truly among us and within us, and that he wants a personal relationship with us. It is true that God is literally present in every place and every part of our lives is worship. However, as we intentionally focus on God corporately, we enter into his presence in a unique way. When we sing our hymns as the family of God, aren’t just engaging in a mental exercise. It is also a relational activity. We are spending time with God in a special sense. We meet with Him there. Sometimes, as products of a culture that worships measurable results, we are tempted to reduce relational connection to a list of practical functions. But, the Trinitarian being of God demonstrates to us that togetherness is a value of its own. Relational connection is an important part of the value of worship. We don’t have to be doing something or asking for something, we can be just being with God. As I gather with my brothers and sisters in an atmosphere of worship, that relational connection can be a sufficient motivation.

Another danger is also real. In corporate worship we aren’t summoning spirits. It often seems that people believe that if they sing the right songs with the right intensity that the Holy Spirit will have to come in some miraculous way. Of course God can reveal himself in miraculous ways, but our idea of God is different from that of the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. We don’t summon God or constrain him to act, and we aren’t loosing some invisible spiritual barrier that is restraining God. God is already here in all of his power and capacity. In worship we recognize that presence, and in that way we enter into it.

Sometimes in our churches we emphasize just one or two of these five dimensions, leaving an imbalanced approach that focuses too much on doctrine to the exclusion of relational connection, for example. Or we may emphasize the relational connection and seeking miraculous manifestations without sufficiently recognizing the role of the Spirit in shaping us toward the truth we sing. We can have a more balanced approach, pursuing harmony as the choir of God’s people, and holding together these five dimensions. Let us come into the presence of God, who is worthy of worship, offering Him our hearts, minds, and voices together. We find the peace and satisfaction of our souls in Him and we connect with him as His children. This is the nature of our corporate worship.