What Songs Can We Sing At Church?
Over the years, there has been much debate about what songs can and can’t be sung at church. Churches have split over this topic and many congregants have left their churches because of a disagreement on song selection. Some argue that you can only sing hymns in church while others take offense if the song is about what God does for his people rather than who God is. While much of this falls to a person’s personal preferences, we should let the Bible guide us.
The apostle Paul to both the church at Ephesus and the church at Colossi encourages the believers to be, “singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” (Colossians 3:16 & Ephesians 5:19) These are the guidelines outlined in the New Testament, that the church should sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. Now if only one of those items were listed then this would be a no-brainer but the apostle Paul throws out three forms of worship that he encourages in the corporate setting. These three categories encompass a wide range of worship music, styles, and genres, for instance, the term psalms refers to a song drawn directly from scripture, the term hymns refers to a song of praise to God and then finally the term spiritual songs refers to songs of worship inspired by the Holy Spirit. So instead of arguing about style or genre why not judge a song based on these three categories: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs? In other words one could ask, does the song give praise to God or his character, does the song give praise to his mighty works or what he’s done for us, is the song taken from scripture (not misused or taken out of context but aligning with the theology taught in the Bible)?
But some will ask, isn’t the worship of God always supposed to be directed at Him and learning about Him? So surely a spiritual song that is focused on people, or seemingly shallow would not be appropriate for a worship service? In Psalm 100:1&2 we read, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!” Where in that verse do we see that a song has to be theologically deep or only have lyrics that praise God but cannot speak of the wondrous works he does for us? It doesn’t, it simply says to make a joyful noise and to come into his presence with singing. For each person that will be different. This is not to say that there are no limits and worship is a free-for-all, Jesus said that, “True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24) But, have you ever caught yourself humming or singing just the chorus of a worship song because you can’t remember the rest? Even though that chorus may not have the theological depth that the rest of the song does, you’re still coming into God’s presence with praise! The key is the condition of your heart, and that is all that matters during a corporate worship service as well.
If I had to sum this up and set any qualifiers for the worship music set during a church service, they would be these: does this song promote the worship of God or the things he does for us, is this song biblical, finally is this song easy for the whole congregation to sing? If the song is not biblical then don’t use it, if the song is about me and the things I do and it is clearly not praising God and his mighty works then don’t use it, and if no one can sing along to it then it is not meant to be a corporate worship song so don’t use it. The whole point of corporate worship is for God’s people to be able to worship Him with a joyful noise and to come into His presence with singing, and if any particular song doesn’t help with either of those two things then it should be avoided. Worship music transcends age, gender, and cultural barriers; some find hymns worshipful whereas others find loud bands playing spiritual songs worshipful, and yet they both are worshipping God.
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