For all my blustering the last twelve weeks about how worship isn’t just about singing songs, today we will focus on that very facet of worship – because music and singing ignite something within us like little else. Music stirs the soul. Lyrics packed with biblical truths that are set to catchy tunes sink deeper into our psyches, making those truths easier to recall. Singing taps into parts of our brain that reading and speaking do not. And lifting our voices together in one accord unites our hearts and strengthens our faith.
Singing is a major part of worship. Yet after all these weeks and months of exploring so many facets of worship, we are, hopefully, more aware and convinced that songs on Sunday do not encapsulate all that worship is meant to be. However, when sung with surrendered postures and earnest hearts that seek God, songs can often carry us right into the throne room of God more swiftly and ardently than anything else we could do.
It’s why the Bible describes music, singing, and dancing as such integral components of worship throughout God’s story (Psalm 150; Ephesians 5:18-20; Colossians 3:16-17).
It’s why our corporate history as the Church is replete with rich traditions of music and singing.
It’s why music continues to play a significant role in modern-day worship services.
Music matters. Singing is significant.
As a result, we must take the time to immerse ourselves in the truths about music and singing so that we are better able to embrace them as part of our worship rhythms – for God’s glory and purposes. For if we step too lightly into the practice of lifting our voices on Sunday mornings or at any other time, we risk singing for all the wrong reasons — or even to the wrong person. We hazard falling into divisive camps or failing to sing at all.
Singing is God-created (Job 38:7). It’s meant to be a holy instrument of worship to our Father (Psalm 40:3), but like anything else on earth, it can get twisted or even counterfeited (Matthew 15:7-9). So we must guard the songs of our heart and object of our worship with all that we are – so that we can worship God for all that He is.
Embracing Songs of Worship
I had a couple of college friends who invested their vocal talents in the Music Therapy department. It was fascinating to listen to them talk about all the neurological, psychological, and physical benefits, and even the healing properties, of music.1 All their conversations and experiences caused me to think about the role of music in my own life. Then a few years later, as my husband and I began our journey in a new church, those thoughts accelerated – because I was introduced to worship and praise music I had not encountered before. And I came to understand more clearly the power of music.
I currently rely on various types of worship and ‘Jesus-music’ to keep my eyes focused on my Savior rather than my circumstances, to inspire my faith in the greater work of our good God, to lift my mood or change my attitude, and to lead me into God’s presence. Music is a constant in my life.
Yet I realize my story and experiences of music are not everyone’s. I’m not here to change your core inclinations nor root for one genre over another – because that’s missing the point.
My friends, we are here to embrace worship of God, including its musical and biblical mandate, in its fullness. And it starts with fighting off ambivalence so that we can look more earnestly at Scripture for what it calls us to. And beyond the Psalmists, no one points us toward musical worship and praise more than Paul.
In fact, in the same passage where he implores the Ephesians to “Wake up, sleepers!” in order to live with wisdom (5:14-15), he also exhorts them to be filled with the Spirit, “speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord” (vv.18b-19). Paul sees the direct correlation between our complacency and our willingness to sing our worship to God.
He also understood something that I think our information-overloaded generation easily forgets – the songs we sing can be a powerful source of teaching tenets of our faith.
“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit…”
Colossians 3:17
Throughout Church history, leaders have taken Paul’s lead and “taught their followers to sing their faith.”2 For as long as the Church has existed, followers of Jesus have believed that “the inner experience of salvation and the witness of the Holy Spirit at work in a person’s life were manifest through outward praise of God.”2 Embracing worship looks like taking hold of a scientific and biblical truth – that “singing [is] a powerful formational tool for teaching the faith.”2
With all this in mind, what does it mean, then, when we bicker among ourselves over genres and worship styles?3,4 What does it say about us when all we can do is grumble about the song selection or who wrote the song5 or how the choir sings off tune? What does it say about us when we’re more focused on our performative tendencies rather than on entering the throne room? It says we’re coming into the sanctuary with our eyes on ourselves rather than God. It says our posture is defensive or cynical or self-centered rather than surrendered before Father God Almighty.
Jesus, of course, understands these tendencies of ours. It’s why He warns us to beware of our attitudes, motives, and the focus of our worship while condemning the Pharisees for their misplaced worship:
“You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote,
Matthew 15:7-9 NLT
‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship is a farce,
for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.’”
I keep reading those words. And rereading. Where is my heart in comparison to God’s? Is my worship sincere? Whose words and ways am I following?
These are hard questions – yet so imperative if we’re going to truly embrace the worship of our Lord and Him alone. Matt Redman describes this desire as getting to the “The Heart of Worship” in his song by the same name. A long-time worship leader, Matt knows the power of a song, but he also knows how easy it is for us to focus on the instruments or the people playing them, on the worship style or our own lackadaisical or legalist leanings.
“I’ll bring you more than a song, for a song in itself is not what you have required.”
Matt Redman
How do we embrace worship? We bring God our hearts (Psalm 119:2)! We come away “from a gathering of God’s people not talking about the power of the songs or the worship or our experience of it all but about the greatness of God.”6
My friends, there’s the focus for our hearts, our lives, and all our worship: God.
And that’s why we need to be vigilant. When I picture a parent embracing a hurting or scared child in my mind’s eye, I see an instinctual protectiveness. It’s that very stance we assume over our worship. We wrap our arms around all that is holy – keeping out what threatens to destroy and holding close what is for God’s glory and our good. In this way, we…
- guard from pride and division.
- protect what’s godly and good.
- guard against ambivalence and attention-grabbing motives.
- protect hearts and souls and churches.
Embracing the purposes and the heart of worship looks like lifting our eyes and arms and voices up to the Holy One. And in doing so we embrace God. Others. All that is holy.
And if we don’t possess singing voices?
We, intentionally and wholeheartedly, make a joyful noise unto the Lord (Psalm 100:1 KJV)!
We “have an eye to God in every word [we] sing [and] aim at pleasing him more than [ourselves], or any other creature.”7
We get on our feet and applaud God! We bring a gift of laughter and sing ourselves right into God’s presence (Psalm 100:1-2 MSG)!
This is worship.
Father God, we desire to go right into your presence with sincere hearts, allowing the songs of Scripture and Spirit to lead us into sincere worship of You – so that we’re able to trust You more and love You fully. “We ask for the intimate encounter of the holy, living, breathing, beautiful Jesus to permeate our personal song and in the melodies that our lives are singing, whether they be seasons of turmoil and chaos or seasons of joy and celebration. Whatever we have brought to the table, whatever we bring to the table even today, let this song that our lives are singing put You at the center and at the helm. May You be exalted above our chaos, above our affliction, and even above our joy and our celebration. Let our lives begin to sing and serenade a Savior more than they serenade our unbelief.” Father, we praise You in your sanctuary. We praise You for your acts of power and surpassing greatness. We praise You with the sounding of the trumpet, with the harp and lyre, with timbrel and dancing, with the strings and pipe, and with the clash of cymbals. “And in all our praises and prayers, our request is that we would be able to give You adoration, true adoration and true worship. May we find, truly find as a people of God, the Spirit and the truth, and that that is what our lives would begin singing in your precious name.”8 Amen.
(inspired by Hebrews 10:22 NLT; Psalm 150; and Rita Springer’s prayer8)
Resources: I love sharing with you the books, podcasts, articles, and anything else that has inspired, encouraged, or taught me. These are humble offerings with no expectations.
- 1 – This article offers a good summary of Music Therapy.
- 2 – Quoted from the Preface of the Our Great Redeemer’s Praise hymnal. On the same page are these empowering words: “Music has always been a defining feature of Christian worship. For millennia God’s people have gathered in worship to sing their praises to Him and their gratitude for salvation. The church today stands in that long train of ancient worship from which our souls have been nurtured in Christian faith. It is a privilege to join in song with the church of all ages through the legacy of worship that has been imparted to us” (p.ix).
- 3 – Sandra Richter absolutely preaches on one of her Instagram reels. It’s an amazing delivery of her learned, Spirit-led ideas on a ‘hot topic’ – worship style. In less than two minutes, she teaches about Psalms and songs, then ends with emphasizing a most important truth – that “music invades our souls!!” https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCPgCfaJE76/?igsh=MWRpMjd0OHo1NjVoNw==
- 4 – On Annie F. Downs’ podcast with Darlene Zschech (Episode 928), Darlene says, “That’s what worship is…It’s about Jesus – worship is not a genre. It can’t be limited to any of these systems that the world creates. Worship is reserved for Christ.”
- 5 – Lauren Daigle post on Instagram, 6/28/25, says, “It’s not so much about the source of what we sing (ie: who wrote it, where it originated, etc) but Who we sing it to!!”
- 6 – Quoted from Chris Tomlin’s book, How Great Is Our God,^ p.73-74
- 7 – Taken from this amazing John Wesley quote: “Above all sing spiritually. Have an eye to God in every word you sing. Aim at pleasing him more than yourself, or any other creature. In order to do this attend strictly to the sense of what you sing, and see that your heart is not carried away with the sound, but offered to God continually; so shall your singing be such as the Lord will approve here, and reward you when he comes in the clouds of heaven.”
- 8 – Worship leader, Rita Springer, ends the “Theology of Worship Part Two” episode of Lisa Harper’s interview on the Back Porch Theology podcast with an incredible prayer — most of which I quoted in the prayer for this post.
- There are several songs on our Embrace Worship Spotify playlist that call us into a praising posture before the Lord — to SING to Him! Songs like “How Great Is Our God” and “Holy Forever” and “King of my Heart” (which says, “He is my song!”), but “Great Are You Lord” by All Sons and Daughters is my current favorite in this category of giving us words and tunes that remind us how we are part of a creation that is meant to sing praises to our God. It is His breath in our lungs, after all. XOXO
- All the earth will shout your praise
Our hearts will cry, these bones will sing
Great are you, Lord
It’s your breath in our lungs
So we pour out our praise, we pour out our praise
It’s your breath in our lungs
So we pour out our praise to You only!
- All the earth will shout your praise
- Each Wednesday I upload a “Teacup” teaching video that carries on the topic here. You can find all the videos on my Facebook Author Page, Instagram, and YouTube.
- Many of you have found me on Substack. Thank you so much! And, if you’d rather listen to (than read) these weekly posts, you can do so on Substack, as well. It’s easy to see and use the audio bar across the top of each post. While you’re on Substack, check out the ministry I’m blessed to be part of, the Devoted Collective.
- My monthly newsletter, The Abiding Life, goes to email inboxes the first week of each month to those who have subscribed on my website. I also post them on Substack. My most recent edition can be found there, and you can subscribe for future newsletters on Substack, here.
Rhythms: As my newsletter’s title infers, we seek to develop an abiding life in this space — a place where we can get informed but also be transformed as we learn to abide in God’s presence throughout our days. I like to think that developing rhythms is one way to aid us in our desire to become more Christlike. These next three months we’re focusing on the rhythm of worship (surprise!).
- Each week we ‘highlight’ and ‘tab’ a section in our Prayer Bibles. This week we focus on the most famous of all praise Psalms — Psalm 150 (which I also quoted in our prayer). Recall that this summer we’re marking significant passages about the various facets of worship so that we can find them easily, put them to memory, and apply them in our abiding lives. These are words we can pray with a little personalization. They can also become words of reverence-filled worship. And Psalms like #150 give us such great language to quote, paraphrase, and employ in any way we’re able all the praises to God He deserves. And, of course, psalms were originally sung, so if you’d like to have a tune, here’s a version from Matt Boswell, Matt Papa, and Keith & Kristyn Getty, “Psalm 150” (Praise the Lord).
“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.” Psalm 150:6 - We’re all called to share the truths about the work of Jesus. One way you can do that is by sharing this site and telling others your own stories of faith experiences. Believe it or not, we worship God each time we share our stories of faith! We use our whole selves to tell about our holy God!!
Featured Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash. “All the Bits and Pieces” photo by Aleksandra Sapozhnikova on Unsplash.
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