Corporate singing is essential. Why? First, because God commands it. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (Colossians 3:16) But aside from this, why else do we sing? Singing is slow-release theology. As we sing the truths of Scripture, God's word embeds deeper and deeper in our hearts. Singing tunes our hearts to see God, ourselves, and the world in light of God's Word. As we sing together, we not only tune our hearts; we tune one another. We strengthen each other's faith as we sing of joy and sorrow and longing and the hope of the gospel to one another. As each of us adds our God-given voice to the corporate song, we display our union with Christ and one another—and we show what God himself is like: unity without sameness. All this and more happens when we sing. So let us sing!
This post is part of a series of posts on the Sojourners Church Sunday morning liturgy. See the whole series here.