What Is Worship Music For? 5 Reasons to Sing

Singing has always played a key role in the church’s liturgy. In Old Testament times, King David organized prophet-musicians to glorify Yahweh with lyres, harps, and cymbals (1 Chron 25:1). The apostles of our Lord Jesus sang psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and encouraged their use in the church (Eph 5:19). Song lyrics became the topic of heated disputes in the early Christological and Trinitarian controversies of the church, and they’re often a point of contention in contemporary “worship wars.”

The twentieth century saw a renewed interest in musical worship. Especially in North America, the focus on style often came at the expense of purpose. George Barna recognized this a couple decades ago when he wrote, “Music is just a tool meant to enable people to express themselves to God, yet we sometimes spend more time arguing over the tool than over the product and purpose of the tool.”¹

Why do we sing, and what does our singing accomplish in church? In this article, I want to highlight five reasons that musical worship is a key element of Christian liturgy.

1. Musical worship magnifies God
2. Musical worship allows for honest expression
3. Musical worship is theologically formative
4. Musical worship exposes false hopes
5. Musical worship anchors us in the story of redemption
Conclusion

1. Musical worship magnifies God

First, musical worship is about magnifying the triune God. God can’t be any greater than he already is, but our songs affirm God’s greatness by attributing to him what belongs to him: Glory! With the psalmist the church cries, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness” (Ps 115:1).

Practically, this means that musical worship should always be heavenly-focused. The church’s music doesn’t spotlight man or this transient world, but the world to come and the God who is bringing it to fruition. We are inundated with information about our surroundings and songs about this world on the radio. The church’s music lifts us up beyond the earthly plane—not in some nebulous ethereal way, but in a way that anchors our expectation in God’s unshakable kingdom.

In many Christian traditions, prior to partaking of the Lord’s Supper the church joins in the song of the angels taken from Isaiah 6, the Sanctus. At Isaiah’s commissioning as a prophet, he was brought in the Spirit up to God’s heavenly sanctuary where he heard the seraphim singing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” In musical worship, the church joins the angel choirs of heaven. She affirms that God’s glory in heaven isn’t relegated to the ethereal, but that it fills the whole earth and will ultimately transform this present age of sin and death into a new creation. Our songs magnify God for his works of creation—and redemption!

2. Musical worship allows for honest expression

God wants heartfelt worship. This is made clear by the hymnal that’s embedded in the canon of Holy Scripture, the book of Psalms. The songs of the Psalter aren’t one-dimensional, but are made up of numerous genres, each with its own distinctive features. There are psalms of lament, praise, thanksgiving, trust, kingship, and wisdom. This diverse Psalter includes songs to express ourselves in every season of life.

Get a flyover of the Psalms, including its different genres, with Logos Psalms Explorer. Start your free trial!

In the preface to his commentary on the Psalms, John Calvin wrote,

I have been accustomed to call this book, I think not inappropriately, “An Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul”; for there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror. Or rather, the Holy Spirit has here drawn to the life all the griefs, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions with which the minds of men are wont to be agitated.²

God doesn’t despise our feelings but gives us means to express them in the context of worship.

While many contemporary worship music sets tend to focus primarily on the upbeat songs of praise, the majority of the Psalter is made up of laments. As pastors and worship leaders do the hard work of selecting songs for Sunday, they should be mindful of the fact that every worshipper enters the sanctuary in a unique place. Some hearts are heavy, others are full of joyful expectation. The music of the church should provide room for both expressions.

3. Musical worship is theologically formative

One of the principles of liturgical theology is summarized by the dictum lex orandi lex credendi, which translates, “The law of prayer is the law of belief.” In other words, our prayers (and songs) shape our creed—what we believe. It’s not uncommon in our day to emphasize the fact that good doctrine should determine how we worship. This is absolutely true, but it’s not a one-way street. Our songs do not only express our theology but also help shape our theology.

Orthodox theologian Paul Gavrilyuk writes that, “In the early church the hymns, with their emphasis upon Christ’s divine status, provided raw material for the creeds. The protocredal statements in turn informed the theological vision of the hymns.”³ If we were to ask which came first, the chicken (creed) or the egg (hymns), the historically correct answer would be that hymns preceded the dogmatic statements of the creeds and helped to shape their language. The creeds thus emerged from the context of the church at worship. Songs safeguarded “the faith” and they continue to form us in it.

Biblically sound song lyrics plant the truth of God’s Word deep in our hearts, but heterodox lyrics poison our souls.

This is another reason why the words we sing are of vital importance. Biblically sound song lyrics plant the truth of God’s Word deep in our hearts, but heterodox lyrics poison our souls. This means that worship music isn’t just about honest expression. It’s also about discipleship. We build one another up in the truth while singing.

4. Musical worship exposes false hopes

Israel’s songs were sometimes polemical. They exalted Yahweh by exposing the futility of placing our hope in human strength or some idol’s promises. Consider the following examples:

It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. (Ps 118:8–9)

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. (Ps 20:7)

The King is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue. (Ps 33:16–17)

Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell … Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them. (Ps 115:4–6, 8; cf. 135:15–18)

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. (Ps 96:4–5)

The Bible’s songs don’t just communicate truth, but they also occasionally confront the world’s lies directly. While they expose the things we are tempted to put our trust in besides God, they’re teaching us to mark and avoid the spiritual pitfalls common to humanity. Words from the popular hymn “Be Thou My Vision” are an example of what this could look like in practice, “Riches I heed not / Nor man’s empty praise, / Thou mine inheritance, / Now and always.”

5. Musical worship anchors us in the story of redemption

In Exodus 15, Moses and the people of Israel sang a song recounting God’s victory over Pharaoh at the Red Sea. Yahweh is depicted as the warrior God (Exod 15:3) who flooded Pharaoh’s army and freed his people from slavery.

Likewise, in the book of Revelation, John saw a vision of heaven worshipping the triumphant Lion of Judah who is depicted as a slain but standing Lamb. Creation bows before the Lamb of God in worship, singing,

Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. (Rev 5:9)

Like Moses’s song, the hymn in Revelation 5 tells the story of redemption. The Lamb’s “standing” communicates the truth of his resurrection from the dead, and his wounds recall the sacrifice of Calvary.

The songs of the church don’t just tell us who God is, but they should also tell us about his actions in the world. When we put redemptive history to song, we’re singing about our family heritage as Abraham’s faithful children. Musical worship sets saving stories to music so that we don’t lose sight of the key events that define us as God’s people.

The world is in the middle of an identity crisis. Unsure of where ultimate meaning comes from, many have resorted to trying to fashion purpose from nothing. God’s works of creation and redemption ground meaning in something bigger than us. In a world desperate for meaning, it’s these stories the church has always been eager to share through sermons—and songs.

Conclusion

Music isn’t just a tool that grounds us in the faith. It’s a gift from God to help us express our deepest longings and joys. In musical worship, both lament and celebration find a place, and, when operating properly, it helps guard believers from the torrential downpour of idolatrous narratives and beliefs.

These many blessings associated with musical worship should cause each of us to reflect on the songs we sing—and the God who delights in them.

Adriel Sanchez’s suggested resource for further reflection

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• What Is Worship? What Theologians & the Bible Say
• Beyond Rituals: How Liturgy Shapes Ethics
• Liturgy as Gospel: My Journey Toward Christ-Centered Worship
• Why Diversity in Worship Matters (and How to Achieve It)
• What It Means to “Worship in Spirit and Truth”: Exploring the Depths