Mankind is innately musical, this seems obvious when we consider that no matter the nation or the culture that prevails in that place music of some kind is sure to be found there, from the South Sea Islands to the First Nation peoples of the USA, from Tibet to the African Village there will be rhythm, harmony and melody.  To the ear attuned to western tonal music some sounds heard elsewhere seem strange, sometimes melancholic and on occasions peculiarly eerie.

God has commanded His people to sing.  There are at least seven Psalms where the injunction is given, and sometimes repeated too.  They are Psalm 33,40, 96,98,144,146 and 149 and we would discover there are allusions to God’s desire that we sing of Him and of His works in at least eighteen other books of the Bible in both Testaments.  In the book of Psalms a beautiful reference says,  “while I live I will praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.” (146v2) Some versions interpret this as, “I will sing unto my God till my last breath.” In the New Testament the command to the churches of Ephesus and Colosse were, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom: and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to God.” (Colossians 3v17) and “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord.”  (Ephesians 5v19)  Pay close attention to the emphasis on singing and words.  Another reference paints a wonderful picture, it is to be found in Hebrews chapter two where Jesus is saying to His Father, “I will declare Your Name to my brethren, and in the midst of the church I will sing praise unto You.”  (Verse 11)  This is a particular revelation of Jesus as the true worship leader in the midst of His assembled people.  There is a clear Biblical call that comes to us, namely that we should be attentive to our Lord in the midst and sing with Him.  Congregational singing should be vitally present when we gather together to worship God. 

Throughout church history there has been an accumulated wealth of songs and hymns that magnify aspects of God’s being and His work, the variety is immense and the styles of music have been equally varied.  I am aware of a change occurring in some churches though for there is a shift from singing to playing; the dominance of the instruments and the musicians is often inhibiting the song and the voice.  The general tenor of scripture magnifies the words and the voice; although there are plenty of references to the playing of instruments the impressions given are that they are to be a handmaid to the voice, an assistant and not the master.  We are often in meetings, sometimes very large, and sometimes small gatherings with thirty or forty people present, but, whether in large or small, generally speaking, the louder the musicians play, the less the congregation participates in singing, they may mouth the words but liberated, hearty singing diminishes.  We know that our secular culture has changed and the advent of technology enables us to capture music by various means and often the dubious fruit of this is that we no longer make music ourselves and gather to sing around the piano, guitar, accordion and banjo as used to occur fifty years ago.  Norman Rockwell was an illustrator/artist who often provided scenes of American life for the front page of the Saturday Evening Post.  My favorite amongst his paintings was called Shuffletons Barbers Shop and was featured in April 1950, it is a scene viewed through the front window of a small town barbers shop and you can see, in the back room bathed in light several men playing various musical instruments, obviously ‘jamming’ for personal pleasure only.  This kind of thing was common fifty or sixty years ago but now we have become passive consumers of whatever music we prefer rather than participators and this is affecting our singing in church too. 

Another result of technological advances has been the increasing emergence of the expert, the artist and performer and this is has crept into the churches.  I notice how many in a congregation will defer to the expert, the worship band and worship leader and as a result an inordinate amount of responsibility lies upon young people who although they can play their instruments are sometimes quite spiritually immature.  We really do need to work out a serious theology of music in the churches and not be swept along by the cultural trends, the church is called to be different and part of that difference is to sing, to sing the truth, to let the “word of Christ dwell in us RICHLY,” speaking to each other in singing as the Colossians scripture instructs us.  We need diversity not for its own sake, but just as there are a variety of gifts and varieties of ministries so there should be diversity in what we sing, hymns with their verses must have their place alongside worship songs and even the short kind of repetitive choruses sung in Africa.  This will better reflect who we are as worshipping people and help bring something of the ‘richly’ of God’s ministry into the midst.  Just to take up the matter of the human voice itself, consider the fact that its qualities and abilities far exceed those of musical instruments, the timbre and tone of the human voice, its versatility excels indeed, we could say that our voices are THE instrument and we need to rediscover the power and joy of congregational singing.  Just recently I have been listening to several choirs, one of them being from a high school in West London, ordinary young people who were transformed by being formed into a choir and singing together.   They were very much amateurs, but hearing them brings home the ultimate value of the human voice. 

At the other end of the spectrum I was recently introduced to Perpetuum Jazzile, a choir from central Europe, they are amazing to listen to.  In this respect we must strive for excellence, to sing that which is better and best and not simply learn and sing something because it is the latest ‘hit’ passing through the churches.  This all goes far beyond the arguments about contemporary versus traditional music, we must embrace the best of all, no musical style should be allowed to dominate and control.  The vital instrument in church worship must be the human voice, we must keep that central, the music, and the instruments used should support and ‘fit’ the words being sung, and they must enhance and not detract.  In this regard we could make mention that singing a cappella (without musical accompaniment) should be encouraged, let the voices ring out, it may be that it might sound a little weak and ‘reedy’ at first but soon people shall find their voices for I am persuaded that the Spirit of God is seeking to fill and inspire men and women in the congregation and to make them sing with all their beings the great truths of the Lord our God. 

One of the greatest lessons I learned about music in God’s church took place during a conference a number of years ago, there were several hundred people present and a younger woman had been asked to sing a solo and she accompanied herself on an acoustic guitar, her song was “The Love of God, is greater far, than tongue or pen can ever tell.”  She sang it through once, a pure voice with a guitar accompaniment, there was stillness as she finished, those on the platform sensed that the Lord was present and they asked her to sing it through again, this she did, all the verses, and as she ended there was a deeper stillness, again, she was asked to sing it through only this time without playing her guitar, she sang through those beautiful verses, just her voice, a cappella and as she did so such a profound sense of God was amongst us that we sat still for many, many minutes, you could have heard a pin drop and then one by one, some of the people began to move to the front, from all over the auditorium, kneeling down they wept, experienced deliverance from troubling spirits and God did a great work in many lives that evening.