Singing is an important part of any true collective worship.  Some churches have made it central to their worship. Indeed some have made it vastly more central than presented in the Bible.  Singing songs is mentioned often in the Old Testament.  Many great victories and times of rejoicing were marked with songs of praise, often accompanied with musical instruments and dancing before the Lord.  In 2 Samuel 6, when the ark was being returned to Jerusalem by David, we are told, 

“Then David and all the house of Israel played music before the LORD on all kinds of instruments of fir wood, on harps, on stringed  instruments, on tambourines, on sistrums, and on cymbals.” 

We then read later in the chapter that David danced before the Lord.  It seems like this method of praise was fully accepted by the Lord as nothing negative occurs due to the performance.  Also, when Michal reprimands David for his supposed indiscretion, she is punished by not being able to have children for the remainder of her days (although I’m not sure if this is the Lord’s punishment or David’s punishment on her).  

The question arises, “Why don’t we play instruments and dance in our worship meetings today?”.   There are churches in some places who do dance during what they call worship service, and we may have attended a church where instruments are played. But why don’t we?  

It might be helpful to start with an understanding of worship, as  different from praise.  Praise is to express admiration to someone,   lifting up our voices to him.  True worship is bowing down before Him,   the overflow of hearts.  Remembering our Lord Jesus as he has asked us to is an example of worship.  

 “Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.” (Psa 29:2)

Psalms 66 shows the difference.   In verses 1-2 we see praise is a “joyful noise” and “sing forth”.   In verses 3 there is a change from “sing” to “say” and we see worship is submission before the Lord.

 “To the chief Musician, A Song or Psalm. Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands: Sing forth the honour of his name: make his praise glorious. Say unto God, How terrible art thou in thy works! through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. All the earth shall worship thee, and shall sing unto thee; they shall sing to thy name. Selah.” (Psa 66:1-4)

Also we see in Psalms 95  that worship is bowing down in humbleness before the Lord.  “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.” (Psa 95:6) 

An understanding of the truth of dispensations is also useful in the interpretation of scripture in general and methods of praise in song in particular.  This is a much-maligned truth in certain circles, some seeming to believe that we are the new Israel and therefore are to follow much of the Old Testament including the laws and the precepts brought out therein.  However, the Holy Spirit gives us the following: Hebrews 12:18-24, 

“For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. (For they could not endure what was commanded: ‘And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.’ And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”).  But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.”

To summarize: we are not living in Old Testament times, we are under a new testament or a new covenant or you could say a new dispensation (from Easton’s Bible Dictionary – “The method or scheme according to which God carries out his purposes towards men”).  When the new covenant was instituted, it seems from the verses that speak of singing and music pertaining to the new covenant (Matthew through the first few chapters of Revelation), music in the realm of worship takes on a completely different character.  In Matthew at the first breaking of bread, (Matthew 26:30) “And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.”  It was a small, seemingly insignificant part of that quiet meeting with a few men in an upper room of a house with no musical instruments and no mention of dancing.  Music seemed to have moved into the background where worship was concerned.  Or had it?

I am not entirely sure what was happening in the Corinthian assembly but it seems that in the Lord’s eyes things were getting a little disorderly.  In chapter 14, Paul writes the following in regard to their “coming together” (the words “coming together” seem to refer to assembly meetings).  1Corinthians 14:26,  

“How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification”.  

I do not believe, if you read this verse in the context, that it was a good thing that all of them had things to say.  It is good to be prepared when one comes to meeting.  See Deuteronomy 16:16 

“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread, at the Feast of Weeks, and at the Feast of Tabernacles; and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.” 

From the context here in 1 Corinthians, it seems that they were obeying the verse in Deuteronomy.  Unfortunately they were all trying to get the thing that they had on their mind said, sometimes at the same time as someone else.  Therefore the needed the instruction, “Let all things be done for edification”.   The remainder of chapter 14 continued the instruction of the Spirit regarding assembly meetings.  1 Corinthians 14:6-17

 “But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you unless I speak to you either by revelation, by knowledge, by prophesying, or by teaching? Even things without life, whether flute or harp, when they make a sound, unless they make a distinction in the sounds, how will it be known what is piped or played? For if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle? So likewise you, unless you utter by the tongue words easy to understand, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of languages in the world, and none of them is without significance. Therefore, if I do not know the meaning of the language, I shall be a foreigner to him who speaks, and he who speaks will be a foreigner to me. Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel.

Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also sing with the understanding. Otherwise, if you bless with the spirit, how will he who occupies the place of the uninformed say “Amen” at your giving of thanks, since he does not understand what you say? For you indeed give thanks well, but the other is not edified.”  

There is one word that is used over and over again in this section, “edification”.  So what does that mean?  Vines say, “literally, “to build a house”.  The house that is being built here is the assembly.  The Spirit wants us to work together to build up the assembly in everything we do.  Our music and use of tongues is no exception.

In verse 15, I believe we get instruction on our music in the assembly worship meeting.  The verse reads “What is the conclusion then?  I will pray with the spirit, and I will also pray with the understanding, I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding.”  I think this verse deserves a good breaking down to try to understand what it is really saying.  First I love that it starts with “What is the conclusion?”.  This is the conclusion of what he has stated about what happens in our assembly meetings.  It’s kind of like the Spirit is telling us, “Listen carefully now, here’s what I want you to get from all this”.  

The first thing the Spirit wants us to get is to “pray with the spirit” (small “s”).  The original seems to imply spirit has more to do with our emotions (see Mark 14:38, Luke 1:47, John 11:33, 13:21, Romans 12:11, 1 Cor. 16:18, etc.) and understanding more to do with our rational thought.  So it seems the Spirit is saying, “In your assembly meetings you are allowing the emotional part to get the upper hand.  It is important to have a balance.”  The church in Corinth was allowing their emotions to rule and Paul was telling them that they needed to pull back the reigns of the emotional horse and allow the the horse of understanding have more sway in their meetings.  

Notice he does not say that they should dispose of the emotional part of their meetings but rather keep it under control.  So in the same way we balance the emotional with the thoughtful in our prayers, we need to do the same with our singing.  Neither should have the upper hand. We can have beauty in our singing and emotion in our singing but that needs to be balanced with thoughtfulness.  Robert Gundry in his commentary says it well: “In the meeting of a church, musical beauty needs supplementing with a verbal understanding that brings edification.”  

I submit also the thoughts of Ronald Canner in the Digging Deeper notes on 1 Corinthians 14:15, “Singing is not given us to excite worship in the heart. Our singing is to be enthusiastically from the heart. Of course there is no virtue in poor or listless singing. I suppose it could be a signal of the spiritual condition of the heart. If we sense we have dull hearts we should not simply try to drum up enthusiasm though vigorous singing. If that should fail will we need to organize a choir? And if we don’t have enough local talent for a good choir will we hire professionals to conduct song services? (There are such professional groups of believers available now.) Somehow we will drift from edification to entertainment. Enthusiasm to enthrallment. True spiritual unity is characterized by the liberty of the Spirit toward responsible involvement of all in the assembly. Paul is trying to prevent a departure from this.”  These thoughts of Ronald’s really go back to the understanding of praise and worship.  True worship results in praise, praise on the other hand might just result in worshipless good feelings.  It’s important to keep the cart in front of the horse and not vice versa.

We sometimes limit the thoughts in 1 Corinthians 14 to the participants in the assembly meeting referred to in the chapter, but it applies to all in fellowship and present when the meeting is taking place.  All those who are silent, the men and the women have a responsibility to abide by the requests made by the Spirit of God in this section.  My thoughts go back to the woman in Luke chapter 7 who knelt by our Lord and silently washed His feet with her tears.  How often when we have been silently praying in an assembly meeting or while singing a song or rereading the words in thoughtful contemplation of a song have we had tears come to our eyes as we thought of His love to us?  Brethren, this should not be rare.  Emotion is good and is not something to be looked down upon.  There is the possibility as well that we might allow ourselves to get too caught up in the doctrine of it all to the exclusion of all emotion.  This too would be unfortunate. 

Another section of verses that seems to have some bearing on the subject of singing in the assembly is the following: Ephesians 5:18-20

 “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,”.

This verse is often quoted when talking about being careful with drinking or not drinking at all.  There is more, however, in these verses concerning the Spirit and His control in our lives and the fact that being filled with the Spirit leads to our singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs as a way to build up the assembly.  It is certainly debatable as to whether or not this is in reference to assembly worship.  In the context, it seems to be more of a meeting of the assembly to encourage and build one another up (however, as we have seen from 1 Cor. 14, any assembly meeting should include edification or building up of the believers in attendance).  A psalm is according to Vine: “a sacred song, sung to musical accompaniment (usually a harp or other stringed instrument*), a psalm”.  A hymn is “a song of praise addressed to God”.  A spiritual song comes from what was referred to earlier, spiritual would have to do with the human spirit or our emotions.  It would seem this type of song is primarily a song telling the Lord how we feel about Him or what He has done in our lives.  

*my addition based on the whole definition in the Expository Dictionary

This section of verses in Ephesians seems to deal more with our everyday lives on this earth, how we can have a closer walk with the Lord and encourage each other as we walk on the earth.  

Our assembly lives are greatly affected by our walk and we are preparing ourselves for worship as we walk together and encourage one another but this is not primarily the act of worship that is being discussed here.   Even here, however, we are told to make the melody in our hearts.  What does that mean?  In the Old Testament we read about David dancing before the Lord, we read of the songs that were sung at massive celebrations.  The celebrations were huge and loud and visible to everyone.  It was big worship; think of Solomon’s temple, the massive numbers of animals killed, the quantities of singers and musicians involved in so many of these worship celebrations.  Their praise must have been awe inspiring for those involved and anyone from the outside who observed it.  

Here and in Colossians it’s different, we have psalms which might involve a harp in the background and no big outward form of worship happening.  The big difference with worship in this new dispensation is it is instead happening in the heart, people are drawn to the assembly by the love between brothers and sisters and to the way they handle themselves as they walk in the world.  Instead of music and emotion as the element that gets people’s attention, it’s the heart of the people involved in the worship and the Spirit that draws people to the assembly and subsequently to the Lord.  It wasn’t wrong that worship was a more outward form in the old dispensation, it’s just different. God is dealing with men in a different way now than He was then.  During the biggest celebrations in the New Testament (the Lord’s resurrection, the Lord’s ascension, the Day of Pentecost) there is no mention of music at all let alone the massive performances that punctuated those big days in the Old Testament.  A quote from H.A. Ironside might apply here: in his Lectures on Daniel, pages 47-50, “The special place given to the great orchestra is very noticeable, as much so as in large worldly religious gatherings at the present time. It excites the emotions, and thus, working upon the feelings, gives people a sense of devotion and religiousness, which after all may be very unreal. In the Old Testament dispensation musical instruments were used in the ornate temple services; but there is certainly no warrant for it in the New Testament.”

Let’s look at another verse in the New Testament that mentions singing, Colossians 3:16-17 
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

Most commentators believe there should be a break in this verse between “another” and “in” which alters the meaning of the verse slightly.  In other words, the psalms, hymns and spiritual songs are not part of the teaching or admonishing (the same seems to be true for the verse in Ephesians – the break is between “another” and “in” there as well).  If we look at it that way, it parallels the Ephesians 5 verse very closely.  

In this verse we have the word “grace”, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.  How does one sing with grace?  Vine says the word charis (grace) is “the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude”.  It is probably no coincidence that the rest of this chapter and chapter 5 of Ephesians both have as their theme Christians working together in the assembly and building each other up.  As we sing together to our Lord, the bond between brothers and sisters is strengthened.  Again, this may not be specific to an assembly meeting but the results of our singing in an assembly meeting yield the same results.  As we worship the Lord together in song, we are strengthened as an assembly and built up together in Him if we are truly singing to our Lord. 

  In James there is another reference to singing.  James 5:13  “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.” 

A psalm, as we have previously noted is a song accompanied by an instrument.  We need to make sure that our music doesn’t change the mood of someone who is cheerful.  The songs we sing should be sung in an upbeat manner, it is possible to sing respectfully and reverently yet cheerfully.  Also there may be songs that are more reverent, but that does not mean the song can’t be sung in an upbeat manner.  I think of the song that begins, “Come let us join our cheerful song and thus approach the throne had we ten thousand, thousand tongues our theme of joys but one.”  It would be unfortunate if we made a dirge of a song with such happy words.

In Revelation there are several reference to singing once again in massive choirs.  We’ll be singing songs together when the Lord takes His place as King.  What a day that will be, what a choir that will be!

In light of the verses we have looked at, what should our singing look like in our Remembrance Meeting?  One verse that might shed a little more light on our worship is this one:  John 4:23-24

“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

There’s that word “spirit” again.  So we need not only worship Him with our emotions but “in truth”.  Our songs and the words we speak need to meet this criteria in our Remembrance Meeting.  Our Lord is speaking here, pointing to the Father telling us He wants our worship and He wants it done in a particular way “in truth”.   In other words worship Him in a way that brings out the truth of who He is.  This is the same God who name the Jewish people refused to even say for fear they would say it in a flippant or vain way.  The following section of scripture from the Old Testament shows us one worshiper’s view of our God.

Isaiah 6:1-5 
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!”
And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.
So I said:
“Woe is me, for I am undone!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King,
The LORD of hosts.”

The reverence shown here is so intense you can almost cut it with a knife.  Should the reverence we show on a Sunday morning be of any less intensity when we are remembering the perfect Son of God?  The One who is no less glorious and praiseworthy than the Father?

There is another interesting example of worship in 2 Kings 5:18 

“Yet in this thing may the LORD pardon your servant: when my master goes into the temple of Rimmon to worship there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow down in the temple of Rimmon—when I bow down in the temple of Rimmon, may the LORD please pardon your servant in this thing.” 

So in this verse we have what it means to worship, “to bow down”, to give another the place of honor.  Naaman asks for forgiveness for bowing down (for giving glory to Rimmon) it was a big deal and Naaman knew it. 

In 1 Corinthians we instructed by our Lord to remember Him.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26
“For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.”

Note carefully the words, “do this in remembrance of me”.  Our songs, our prayers, our thoughts should be centered on Him and His death for us on the cross.  Just as Isaiah’s vision was taken up with the Lord, His robe filling the temple.  Just as he fell on his face and filled his thoughts with his Savior, so our minds should be so overwhelmed with Him that we want nothing more than to be totally occupied with Him.  This is worshipping in truth, to see Him as He truly is, so much so that it crowds out thoughts even of ourselves.

We must not fail to notice Isaiah’s response (which may also have been present when the woman wiped our Savior’s feet with her tears) is that he seemed to realize what the Lord did for him, His love and grace (in the case of our Savior, shown most evidently on the cross) were for Isaiah personally.  It would seem then, that a song with words such as “Glory, glory everlasting, Be to Him who bore the cross, Who redeemed our souls by tasting death, the death deserved by us” would not be inappropriate for our Remebrance Meeting.  Like Isaiah, when we look steadfastly on His glory it encourages a more honest look at ourselves and His amazing, finished work He has accomplished in redeeming us.  Along with this, there is always the caution to remember Him and keep ourselves occupied with Him to the exclusion of ourselves.  Remember Isaiah, there were no mirrors present in his vision of the Lord.

  “In addition the character of all of the assembly meetings as shown in 1 Corinthians 11 speaks to us.   Why are men not to cover their heads, and women to cover their heads in an assembly meeting for remembrance of our Lord, for prayer, or for ministry?   It is so that only Christ is seen, and humans are not seen.    Since the glory of man is the woman then she covers her head.   Since man speaks of God and speaks out for God as led by the spirit in those meetings he does not cover his head.   In the same way, God only should be seen in our singing in the meetings where the Holy Spirit leads.  Humans are not leading, or displayed, either through instruments, or leading of the singing.   Christ gathers us together unto His name alone, as led by His Spirit, and Christ only is seen!”  

One other thing it seems appropriate to mention here: His resurrection is not part of what we are to remember (we are to proclaim his death – see above 1 Cor. 11:26), but it often seems appropriate to think a little on that time when all the earth was made aware that our Lord’s death on the cross was accepted by the Father (Romans 4:25).  In addition, an hour of immersing ourselves in the beauties of our Precious Lord, in gazing by faith on His face (or His feet as we bow in worship) brings the desire in our hearts to have faith be turned into sight and be with Him where He is.  So in our Remembrance meeting we are not dwelling on His resurrection (it is not our focus), but as we have often done, to sing a song relating to His resurrection at the end of the meeting seems to be well within the scope of what is appropriate for this meeting.

In the Old Testament there are numerous mentions of singing and songs, the Psalms are full of them, in Exodus 15 we have the Song of Moses, in Numbers 21:17-19 Israel sings because God gave them water, in Judges 5, Deborah and Barak sing a duet when Israel defeats Sisera, there are many examples of David (a man of music) singing or leading songs, in 2 Chronicles 20 a battle is won because the people of the Lord sing a song of worship and praise, in 2 Chronicles 29 Hezekiah restores worship in the temple and there is a magnificent outpouring of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord, in Ezra 3 when the foundation for the temple was laid there was a great time of singing and praising and weeping and a general hubbub when they began to rebuild the temple, in Nehemiah 12 the rebuilt wall was dedicated to great fanfare and singing, at the dedication of the temple of Solomon, there was a tremendous celebration with music and singing.  These were indeed times of joy and worship to the Lord that would not be forgotten by the people involved in the worship.  I take you back to the verses mentioned earlier in Hebrews:  Hebrews 12:18-24

“For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.” And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.”

Hebrews, the book of better things.  We are blessed to be living in a dispensation of “better things”.

Is it possible that when we, weak as we are in the singing department, sing in our Remembrance meeting in a way that brings Him the glory the Lord says to Himself, “I like that better than anything I’ve heard from the most beautiful choir Israel ever put together.”?  If our hearts are right and our song is sung to give our precious Savior who willing offered Himself for us in obedience to His Father, that offering smells sweet to the One we call Abba Father.  It would be spectacular if on every Lord’s Day morning we would gather ready to give Him all our heart’s praise, the worship that has been building up to a boiling point during a week spent in communion with Him.  All he really wants is our hearts bowed down in worship and remembrance of Him.  So sing it out in spirit (with emotion) and in truth (with Him as the center)!

T Wright Jr
Anoka, MN
June 2022

Thanks to Jan Wright and Debbie Wright for proofreading and editing of this short paper and another friend (who asked that his name not be mentioned) for adding important thoughts that the writer neglected to include and corrections of my imperfect understanding of Scripture.  Most of all thanks to my Lord who put it on my mind to put my thoughts about this important subject in written form.  My hope is to encourage us all to follow Scriptural principles in our singing in meeting and not merely go along with the status quo.