Episode Transcript
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Revelation, revelation fifteen, versus one
through four. Then I saw another sign
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in heaven, great and amazing.
Seven angels with seven plagues, which are
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the last, for with them the
wrath of God is finished. And I
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saw what appeared to be a sea
of glass mingled with fire, and also
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those who had conquered the beast and
its image and the number of its name,
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standing beside the Sea of glass with
Harps of God in their hands,
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and they sing the Song of Moses, the Servant of God, and the
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song of the lamb, saying,
great and amazing are your deeds, O
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Lord, God the Almighty. Just
and true are your ways, o King
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of the nations, who will not
fear, O Lord, and glorify your
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name, for you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you,
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for your righteous acts have been revealed. A man may be seated.
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What's my intention this morning? To
take on this passage from revelation fifteen and
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combination with a number of other passages
of scripture, and to think about question
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with you from the Scriptures. WHY
DO WE SING? Why do Christians Sing?
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I think this is a nice time
of year to think about this question,
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because there's a lot of singing going
on. We had a nice Christmas
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him singing the beginning of this previous
week. I think that was and of
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course we're singing in our worship services. We hear a lot of the songs.
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This is a nice thing about this
time of year. A lot of
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the songs that we sing in worship
we also get to hear in the grocery
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store and other places, which is
always a nice thing, I think.
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But at Covenant and in Christian Church
is all throughout the world. It's not
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just a Christmas time, of course, that we sing. We are singing
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all the time. We include singing
and many of our Bible Studies, at
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our church meals and, of course, in our hymn sings. Singing as
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a major part of our public worship
to we've already sung several times this morning.
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We've even had songs which have mentioned
singing. In this last one that
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we've just sung, im talks about
how God is above all praising, above
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all telling. We're commanded to sing
in the scriptures, and yet we also
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come to realize God is above anything
that we could ever give him, which
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is why he gives to US singing
as a major part of our public worship
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in our services throughout the year.
You might be interested to know we typically
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sing about four hundred and fifty songs
over the course of a year. If
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you were to come to morning and
evening worship services. Those are just the
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songs that we're singing together here and
in worship now. There was a time
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in our country where this would have
been considered normal, and perhaps is still
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considered normal in churches, but communal
singing in a lot of ways is dying
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away. It's become kind of just
a Christian thing, but it's a good
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thing. It's a good thing and
it's worth explaining why we sing, especially
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for those who maybe didn't grow up
in the church or see and see singing
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now is something that's maybe weird or
awkward or or something that's just for professional
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musicians. But it's not. And
here's why. Singing gives us, or
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I'm sorry, the scriptures give us
examples and commands to sing. This is
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a good place to start, right. WHY DO WE SING? Because the
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Bible tells us to. Right,
singing as always had a prominent place in
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the life of God's people. It's
commanded frequently in the Psalms and we have
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fund many examples in the old testaments
and the Old Testament men we find God's
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people singing in victory over his enemies
and their enemies, and Exodus Fifteen,
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after being brought out of Egypt,
the Great Song of Moses, which was
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just mentioned in revelation fifteen. We
find people singing in times of crisis,
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on Psalm one hundred and forty five, in times of lamentation second chronicles three
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thousand five hundred and twenty five and, of course, in temple worship.
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In fact, one whole book of
the Old Testament is the book of songs
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and another one is frequently called the
song of songs. The examples and commands
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to sing continue in the New Testament
as well. Jesus and his disciples sang
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a hymn as they went out to
the Mount of Olives, and Mark Fourteen,
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Paul and Silas were singing in jail
hymns to God. And in there
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of course too, direct commands to
Christians to sing together. One of them
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we've read already in Colossians three.
Let the word of Christ dwell and you
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richly teaching and admonishing one another in
all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and
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spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your
hearts to God. A similar command is
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given an Ephesians chapter five, verse
Nineteen, Addressing One another in Psalms and
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hymns and spiritual songs, singing and
making melody to the Lord with your heart.
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Finally, as we consider these examples
and commands from scripture, we have
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passage like revelation fifteen, where we
find that Christians singing are communal. Singing
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together is grounded in heaven itself,
where the angels and saints are continually singing
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before the throne of God. On
addition to these examples and commands that we
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have, which are, of course, think, sufficient to explain why we
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sing, we can also consider some
of the benefits of singing, and in
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them we find the encouragement and wisdom
and goodness of God. Let's consider some
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of these. First of all,
singing helps us to know God. Singing
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helps us know God. In addition
to reading, teaching and preaching, God
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has chosen singing to spread his word
throughout the world. Listen to Isaiah twelve.
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Five sing praises to the Lord,
for he has done gloriously. Let
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this be known in all the Earth, or job thir twenty four, remember
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to extol his work, of which
men have sung, and then, of
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course, collossions three and sixteen.
Again, let the word of Christ dwell
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in you richly singing psalms hymns and
spiritual songs. Why did God choose singing
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to read his word? The Fourth
Century Theologian Basil the Great Suggests One likely
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answer. He writes the Holy Spirit
mixed sweetness of melody with doctrine so that,
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inadvertently, we would absorb the benefits
of the words through the gentleness and
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ease of hearing, just as clever
physicians frequently smear the Cup with honey when
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giving the fastidious some rather bitter medicine
to drink. God, in other words,
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is Basil puts it is both gentle
and clever by mixing singing and doctrine.
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Continuing a basil quote here, those
who are children in actual age,
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as well as those who are young
and their behavior, while appearing only to
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sing, would in reality be training
their souls. So singing helps us to
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know God, to know his words
and to extol them, to spread them.
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Second, singing helps us to remember
God. It's not enough to simply
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know God. He almost some he
also must be fixed in our hearts and
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in our minds. Singing helps with
that Basil. Observed that the same people
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who would leave the church without retaining, quote, some Maxim of the apostles
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or prophets, would yet still sing
the texts of the psalms at home and
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circulate them in the marketplace. Perhaps
you've had a similar experience of not really
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being able to remember anything from the
sermon or the reading of the word,
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and yet remembering something from what you
have sung. Music is very powerful in
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this way. My fatherin law,
a hospice chaplain, has shared stories of
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visiting people who have long lost their
minds and yet momentarily would regain their intellectual
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and emotional capacities upon hearing of the
familiar song like amazing grace. I saw
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this happen with my own grandmother at
the end of her life, when my
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wife and I sang to her silent
night, she kind of came alive for
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a moment and started out of her
mind, on lots of her mind,
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and began to sing these words of
her most favorite song. Interestingly, God
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says in a warning to tire Tyr
he says in Isaiah Sixteen. Make sweet
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melody. Sing many songs that you
may be remembered. While our goal is
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to remember God and not ourselves,
we can note the truth that is supported
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in this verse. Songs preserve ideas. Singing turns thoughts into memories. Number
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three, singing helps us express and
move our emotions in a godly direction.
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Our emotions are an important aspect of
who God made us to be, and
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God does not neglect them. One
Way God moves our emotions and helps us
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to move them is in a godly
direction, is through music, for example,
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and the Psalms. We find that, as Calvin puts it, not
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an emotion which anyone can be conscious
that is not here in the psalms represented.
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In other words, all of the
emotions that you can experience are there
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in the Book of Psalms and,
of course, in the rest of scripture
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as well. For this reason,
Calvin came up with this clever name for
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the Book of Psalms that he liked
to say. He called it an anatomy
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of all the parts of the soul, all put into song. Let me
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read to you a long quote from
an article I came across that explores music
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and singing and emotions. On this
man, Theologian Rob Smith. He writes
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this. When we sing, we
usually sing words with meanings, and those
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words not only facilitate the communication of
the cognitive content of the song, but
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the singing of them helps communicate the
emotional content of that song. More than
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that, the fact that we are
singing these words or hearing them Sung,
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also helps us to feel an emotion
appropriate with the words that we are singing.
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This is why the music matters.
This truth, he continues to write,
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was captured beautifully and succinctly by the
late Yep harbor, the man who
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wrote the mirror lyrics too, over
the rainbow in another wizard of Oz.
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Mr Harborg writes famously said words make
you think a thought. Music makes you
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feel a feeling. A song makes
you feel a thought. This is perhaps
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exactly what was happening when Moses,
after being and being brought out of Egypt,
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having just seen God swallow up Pharaoh
in the Red Sea and now he
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and his people safely on dry ground, lifted up his voice in Victorious Song
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and saying, I will sing to
the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously
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the horse and his rider. He
has thrown into the sea. The Lord
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is my strength and my song.
He has become my salvation. This is
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my God and I will praise him. There is great power in music,
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Calvin once wrote, in agreement with
Plato quote, there is scarcely anything in
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this world more capable of turning or
bending hither then than any of the other
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customs of men. This, of
course, means that music can be a
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very dangerous thing as well. It's
powerful, singing can be downright dangerous.
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Again, forgive all the quotes,
but I hope they're helpful. I'm going.
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Well, I'll leave it at that
for a moment. In the wrong
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hand, singing can be dangerous.
Listen to this internal memo I'm written for
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the leadership of the Hitler youth.
It is precisely during celebrations and singing events
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that we have an excellent opportunity to
have a political effect wide beyond typical formation.
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Songs possess the strongest community building power. Thus we use them deliberately at
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moments when we want to waken the
conscience of being part of a community,
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in order to deepen the power of
such an experience. Propagandists know the power
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of music. The power to shape
a people in a community, and they
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they use it. This doesn't mean
that music itself is a bad thing,
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because the Oh, like any of
God's good gifts, it can be and
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is abused by men. The hands
of God, it is a blessing in
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its power. Calvin rights. We
know from experience that singing has great power
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and vigor to enrouse and inflame men's
hearts to call upon and praise God with
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more vehement and burning desire. Calvin
goes on that, while we must guard
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against abusing and thus converting the power
of singing to our condemnation, this power
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that music has is intended for our
prophet and our salvation. Holy and honorable
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song, says Calvin, are something
that quote, we must have and of
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course God commands it. He not
only gives this to US and expects us
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to use it, but he tells
us to sing these songs to remember his
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name. Well, beyond the power
of shaping our emotions, it also does
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have a power to shape and harmonize
a people will. Much of what I've
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I'm spoken so far could be applied
to individual singing. Singing also has special
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benefits when we sing together, which
is what we do in our worship services.
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Singing unites us both in voice and
also in living. When we sing
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to glorify God, we are at
that moment when we're all singing together,
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we're at that moment united in a
common task for the worship of God.
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That's a good thing for Christians who
are designed to worship and glorify God.
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You can see this and hear it
and experience that when you look around you
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and hear these many voices in the
congregation of the Lord becoming one voice,
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the one voice of the body of
Christ. Leaning on this reality, the
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Apostle Paul calls us to carry that
musical moment of our singing together and worship,
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carry that moment into every area of
our lives. So he writes in
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Romans fifteen, five and six.
May the God of Endurance and encouragement grant
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you to live in such harmony with
one another, in accord with Christ Jesus,
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that together you may, with one
voice, glorify the Lord God or
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glorify the God and father of our
Lord, Jesus Christ. In other words,
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our daily living is expressed in these
musical terms, and this is not
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an accident. The musical metaphor were
works, because something similar is happening when
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we sing together, when we sing
as a community, we are unified in
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that moment and we're also exhibiting the
kind of community that we ought to always
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have, even when we're not singing
in Christ to sing together, you might
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remember and experience in a moment when
we sing together. To Sing together requires
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several common acts of Christian love.
To sing together, we have to listen
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to one another, we have to
follow one another, we have to make
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sure that we have the same aim, that we're on the same page,
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even literally, we must do our
best and do our part, while also
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not making it all about us.
Singing together sometimes requires physical sharing. We
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share books, we bend low and
we're singing with our children. We point
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to words as to for those that
are learning to read. These are small
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things, of course, but they
are all acts of love. They are
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little acts of love when we sing
together that we are practicing and doing and
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perhaps even preparing for bigger and more
challenging acts of love. So in our
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singing, when we sing together,
right there, right at that moment,
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we are, I'm doing the things, experiencing and living in that unity that
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we are called to live in.
It could be also that singing also makes
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living together easier. In other words, singing together helps us avoid conflict.
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Basil observed this that it's harder to
fight with one another after singing with one
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another. I'll read a quote.
A Psalm is tranquility of soul and arbitration
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of peace. It settles one's tumultuous
and seething thoughts, it mollifies the soul's
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wrath and chastens its recalcitrans. A
Psalm creates friendships, unites the separated and
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reconciles those of entity who can still
consider one to be a foe, with
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whom one utters the same prayer to
God. This psalmnity provides the greatest of
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all goods, charity, which is
love, by devising in its common good
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a certain bond of unity and by
joining together the people into the concord of
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a single voice. So when the
Apostle Paul connects singing with mutual submission in
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Ephesians five and singing with the peace
of Christ in the body of Christ and
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Coossians three, this is not a
mere rhetorical move. Singing praise to God
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together is one way that we come
to better live in God together. Ultimately,
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the most important benefit of singing together
is found in our bringing glory to
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God, because it is in God
that we find our happiness. Psalm one
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hundred and forty seven one says,
for it is good to sing praises to
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our God, for it is pleasant
and a song of praise is fitting,
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and all the other benefits of singing
our subservient to this one. We sing
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together because it brings glory to our
God, our God who has saved us.
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Psalm Ninety eight one. Oh,
sing to the Lord a new song,
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for he has done marvelous things.
Psalm sixty six one to two.
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Shout for joy to God. All
the Earth Sing the glory of his name,
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give to him glorious praise and less
we forget. This is only possible
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because God himself is our voice.
He is our song. Worldly people unite
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around all sorts of terrible things,
but we find our unity in our singing
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and in our lives because God has
united us in him another were it's singing
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is not just this magical power that
always of a sudden creates a Christian.
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Now God is the one who creates
a Christian and then blesses us and uses
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these means to bring us to him
and closer to him. It's God's unity
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with us that ultimately matters and creates
our unity together and in him. And
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he did this, as we know, by becoming one of us, by
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becoming so united with us, as
we read earlier in Hebrews, that he
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took on flesh and blood so that
he could die, and say flesh and
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blood, through the perfection of his
righteousness and through the goodness of His grace,
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Jesus Christ would save mankind. And
in this work of God, Jesus
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called from an ugly and broken world
a people so that, being in one
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body, they might be ready to
sing in harmony unto God and to make
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that make God's name known to others
in their songs. We are just like
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Israel, standing on the other side
of the Red Sea, having all of
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God's enemies conquered, having been baptized
in Christ, carried through those waters of
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judgment, standing now on solid ground, and we slipped up and we sing
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God's pray is and we say I
will sing God's praise. He is my
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strength, he is my song.
This is why we can sing together,
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because what God has done for us
in Christ this is how we sing together
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because of what God has done for
us in Christ, and that's why the
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Apostle says let the word of Christ
dwell in you, richly singing. So
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whenever we sing together, may our
prayer to God be as the hymn puts
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it. Come thou found of every
blessing. Tune my heart to sing thy
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grace. And the good news for
us is that God will answer that prayer,
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because when we sing together we sing
as one body, with Christ himself
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as our head, singing right along
with us. In this remarkable verse which
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all conclude with in Hebrews to twelve, our Lord says this. I will
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tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation,
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I will sing your praise. We
sing with Jesus, we sing to Jesus
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and we sing through Jesus unto God. Let's pray
