As you read the Old Testament, particularly the Book of Psalms, you will come across numerous verses about offering thanks and praise to God in song, declaring God’s mighty deeds in song, and the like. In the Old Testament we read that songs were composed to celebrate important events in the life of the community as well as the life of the composer. Songs were also composed to warn future generations of how the people of Israel had failed God in the past and not to make the same mistakes. They were also composed to lament the passing of a king or some other important or famous person.
While the New Testament has less references to singing, it does contain a number of songs or fragments of songs.
While the worship of the Temple had trained choirs of Levites who sang songs of praise and thanksgiving to God and who played various musical instruments to accompany their singing, the ordinary people took part in the singing. Singing in Old Testament times was not exclusively the domain of professionals. Nor was it in New Testament times.
Jesus and his disciples sang a hymn, most likely Psalm 116 or a portion of that psalm, after they had eaten the Last Supper together. In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul talks about sharing a song, a teaching, or a prophecy at church meetings and the importance of whatever is done strengthening everyone who is present (1 Corinthians 14:26-33). In his letters to the Ephesians and the Colossians he urges the churches at Ephesus and Colossae to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16).
While some churches choose not to use musical instruments in their worship of God because the New Testament is silent on the use of instruments in Christian worship, it must be pointed out that the same churches permit the use of other things that are not mentioned in the New Testament—pews, meeting houses, electric lights, pulpits, and the like. They are selective in the application of this principle. The New Testament contains no prohibition against the use of musical instruments and therefore we are free to use them in our worship.
At the same time, I recognize that a congregation can greatly benefit from learning to sing without accompaniment of any kind The members of the congregation get to hear their combined voices and this itself can have a positive effect on their singing.
In The Art of Public Worship (1920) Percy Dearmer, Anglican priest, author, hymn writer and translator, and editor of The English Hymnal (1906), observed that when members of a congregation sing together, they have a natural tendency to harmonize their voices. Others have observed that when one or more strong voices are singing the tune of a hymn, the rest of the congregation will match their voices to the voices of this individual or group of individuals.
A congregation can benefit from strong musical leadership, but it need not be in the form of a choir or the vocalists on a worship or praise band. A cantor or precentor can lead the congregational singing.
If the voice of the cantor or precentor is electronically amplified, the amplification should not be so loud that the congregational singing cannot be heard. This may mean that the cantor or precentor should step back from the microphone, or the amplification should be turned down. The music of a worship service should not be one long solo. A cantor or precentor can perform special music, but this should not be their principal task, which is leading the congregational singing.
A small ensemble can also lead congregational singing.
When an organ or electric guitars and a drum kit are played too loudly, they can drown out congregational singing but also discourage it.
Hand drums like the bodhran (or Celtic frame drum), the cajon (or box drum), djembe, or steel drum may at times be preferrable to a set of drums and cymbals played with drumsticks. Every song does not require drum accompaniment.
For small churches a good quality upright piano is best musical instrument to accompany congregational singing. The congregation can hear the notes of a tune more clearly when played on a piano, and unlike a grand piano, the sound of an upright piano travels outward, not upward, and electronic amplification may not be required.
During World War I Percy Dearmer found that men were more likely to join in singing hymns accompanied on a piano in an informal setting than they were accompanied on an organ, in the more formal setting of a parish church. This and the abysmal state of organ music in the early twentieth century led him to propose a moratorium on organs in churches.
A number of percussion, string, and wind instruments can be used in Christian worship—hand bells, chimes, gongs, muyu (Chinese woodblocks), claves, angklung, hammered dulcimer, autoharp, cello, violin, Appalachian dulcimer (or mountain dulcimer), mandolin, lap harp, penny whistle, recorder, flute, oboe, ocarina, melodica, uillean pipes, and bag pipes, just to name a few. Songs can also be accompanied by rhythmic handclapping and foot-stamping.
The musical talents of members of a congregation can be used to ornament and enrich the worship of the congregation and to offer thanksgiving for these talents to God. Employing someone’s musical talents is one way of assimilating them into a congregation.
Among the reasons that people join a particular church is that it provides them with opportunities to employ their talents, life experiences, interests, acquired skills, and spiritual gifts in ways that are meaningful to them.
A number of principles can be inferred from the Scriptures on what kind of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs should be used in our worship. Those who are responsible for planning the music for a particular service of worship should give careful consideration to these principles in selecting psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs for that service.
Except for special music, they should be songs whose words and tunes the average singer in the congregation can master and sing without too much difficulty. This means that the tune should be in the range of the average singer in the congregation.
They should give expression to thoughts and feelings to which those who sing them are able to relate.
They should offer praise and thanks to God.
They should extol God’s character and his deeds.
They should encourage and strengthen those hearing them.
They may take the form of prayer and supplication.
They may give expression to the congregation’s repentance from sin and its confidence and trust in God.
They may commemorate or celebrate particular events in salvation history such as the birth, life, ministry, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.
They should include old songs, those which have been passed on from one generation to the next, as well as songs of recent composition. The number of familiar songs should exceed the unfamiliar ones.
Congregational singing is an integral part of a congregation’s worship of God. It is not as we too often hear preparation for the sermon. The purpose of the songs is NOT to put the congregation in the right frame of mind for the sermon. Singing together a congregation affirms not only its common faith but also its shared identity. It reinforces the bonds that unite it. To the visitor, it gives witness to what it believes. To its own members, it offers encouragement and support.
Every song in a service does not need to be related to the text of the sermon but it does need to be suitable for the place in the service where it is used, and it should not give a contradictory message to the sermon. It should also be appropriate to the season of the liturgical year if a church observes the liturgical year. This does not mean that every song must be a seasonal one, but it does mean that the song should not be unsuitable for a particular season. Some psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs can be sung year round while others lend themselves only to a particular season or occasion.
I would argue that the care we put into the selection of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs for a particular worship service is as important as the care that we put in the preparation of the sermon for that service. Songs have a stickiness that sermons don’t. If we hear the words and tune of a song enough times, we will internalize it. We will catch ourselves singing a snatch of the song or humming its tune. But we won’t do that with any sermon that we hear.
Worship leaders who are always using new songs week after week and never giving the congregation enough time to learn them, do not appreciate the value of congregational singing. The songs we sing in our worship services are one of the ways that we not only reinforce our faith but pass on our faith to others. They are part of past generations’ witness to us.
We do the young people a great disservice when we neglect to use the hymns and other sacred music of those who have gone before us and offer them a steady diet of throwaway songs, the latest entries on the list of the most popular contemporary Christian and praise and worship songs, songs which, while they may appeal to young people’s musical tastes and preferences influenced by contemporary secular music, do not always accurately convey what the Scriptures teach and consequently are doctrinally unsound. Young people who are fed such a diet will miss out on the benefits of full exposure to the Christian Church’s rich heritage of hymns and other sacred music, a heritage to which Christians around the world have contributed and which stretches back to the early centuries of the Church. They will not develop an appreciation of the musical legacy that they have been left, nor will they acquire a mature understanding of the role of music in Christian worship. They will be led to believe that the sole purpose of worship music is to elevate their mood and to make them more receptive to a preacher’s message.
In our rapidly changing and often unpredictable and chaotic world many young people feel a need for greater stability. They also feel a need for continuity with the past and are drawn to what in their minds represent such continuity. The use of hymns and other sacred music that spans more than one generation can help meet these needs.
The heavenly worship in the Revelation to John provides us with a model for our services of public worship on Sundays and other occasions. A helpful exercise is to compare the heavenly worship of Revelation with our own worship services. The great multitude of the redeemed are not listening the hosts of heaven praising the One seated on the throne and the Lamb, they are joining in their voices to the angels! The heavenly worship of Revelation is doxological and so should be our worship services.
The members of a congregation cannot fulfill their role as worshipers if they have not been given ample opportunity to learn the words and tune of a song. They are reduced to passive spectators to someone else’s worship when they should be active participants in the various acts of worship on Sundays and other occasions.
Unless a concerted effort is made to involve the congregation in these acts of worship, acts of worship such as singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, leading prayers, reading Scripture, presenting the people’s offerings, and the like, our worship services are worship in name only. They are nothing more than a choir or band concert with a lecture or inspirational talk tacked on to it.
Whatever they are, they are not corporate worship. Corporate worship engages the whole Body of Christ in its local manifestation—a particular congregation of the faithful gathered in one place to pray, sing, learn, and worship together.
This is a simple truth that we need to grasp as Christians. We cannot worship God through a proxy, through someone else. We must honor and reverence God ourselves.
The people of Israel thought that in offering sacrifices to God and observing the festivals and the new moons as a nation, they were performing their religious duties to God. God’s response which was spoken through the Old Testament prophets was to point to their attention that their hearts, the place where it mattered most, were far from him. They were not as a people living their lives individually and collectively as he had instructed.
Jesus himself reiterated this message: “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” When Jesus talks about worshiping God in spirit and in truth, he is talking about we ourselves worshiping God, not someone else worship God on our behalf. The honor and reverence that we offer God must be our own and must come from within us.
While we may not be accustomed to thinking of it this way, congregational singing, like prayer, is a means of grace, a channel through which God’s grace flows to us. Indeed, congregational singing is a form of prayer. For this reason, we should not sing a song part way through and then stop. If we do not want to use all the stanzas of a song, we should carefully edit the song beforehand so that the stanzas that we sing make sense. Singing the first and last stanzas of a song, a common practice in a number of churches that I have visited mutilates the sense of the song and does not show it the respect due the song as prayer.
While congregational singing is not the only form of worship that we can offer God, it is an important one in corporate worship. It therefore behooves not only the leaders of a particular congregation but also the members of that congregation to ensure that it is not neglected. The congregation should not only be given ample opportunity to sing but also every effort should be made to make congregational singing a positive experience for everyone. This includes helping the members of the congregation to develop an appreciation of the importance of congregational singing not just in their services of public worship but also in their other church functions.
For Methodists singing hymns together whenever they gathered has long been a part of their ethos and tradition. My maternal grandfather was a Wesleyan, and we sang hymns at home and on family outings. During my early school years, I attended a Church of England elementary school and then two English village schools and began the school day with hymns and gospel songs. I suspect these hymns and gospel songs helped to form and shape my faith.
Congregational singing is a vital ingredient in our services of public worship, and we should not allow the singing of one small part of the congregation to take its place. Just as the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is a foretaste of the Wedding Supper of the Lamb so are our united voices a foretaste of the heavenly worship that goes on unceasingly before the throne of God. Let us glorify God in all that we say and do. But especially let us glorify God with song.
No comments:
Post a Comment