In AD 112, a governor named Pliny wrote to the Roman emperor about pesky Christians worshipping without permit and refusing to cooperate with the imperial cult. Writing to request guidance on overseeing a Christian trial, Pliny described these Christians’ alleged “offense”:
“… [The Christians] were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food … .”
You’ve likely never heard of Pliny, yet here we are, nearly 2,000 years later, weekly, on our fixed day, singing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a God.
God’s people are a singing people. Why? I will offer four reasons below. But my goal in writing this is not to generate more information, rather to generate singing. I want you to sing — full-hearted, rafter-shaking, hearty singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, sung to Christ our God. So why do we sing?
1. We Sing Because of the Word of Christ
In Colossians 3:15–16, Paul wrote, “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.”
In context, Paul is telling the Colossian Christians that they have been raised with Christ, and their lives are hidden with Christ in God, thus they are to seek things above (3:1–4). He goes into detail about what “seeking things above means” — they are to put off vices, sins, worldly practices: things like anger, malice, greed, and sexual immorality (3:5–11); and they are to put on virtues: compassion, forgiveness, love, and more.
Among those virtues and practices listed, somewhat surprisingly, they are to sing with thankfulness in their hearts to God (3:16). For Paul, this singing is a fruit of the Word of Christ finding a home in their hearts, taking up residence, and becoming integrated with their person.
2. Hymns and Songs Are a Means to Encourage One Another
In Ephesians 5:18–20, a parallel passage, Paul commands the people not to be drunk with wine but to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and to address one another in songs, making melody to the Lord with their heart.
Being filled with the Word of Christ and being filled with the Spirit are two sides of the same coin for Paul. The apostle says we are to let the Word find good soil in us, our hearts are to be receptive and hospitable to the Word, and Jesus’ Spirit and peace works both a horizontal and vertical effect in His people.
Horizontally, they are to teach and admonish one another in all wisdom (Col. 3:15–16). We receive the Word, it dwells richly within us, then we give to our neighbor by teaching and encouraging them. Surprisingly, we also address one another with songs (Eph. 5:18–20). There’s an inescapably communal element to what’s being described here. We respond to Christ’s word and work in us through song to God, but also with the edification of our brothers and sisters in mind.
3. We Sing Out of Gratitude to God
It doesn’t stop horizontally, because vertically they are to sing with thankfulness in their hearts to God. What’s the most Christian of the holidays? You might argue Christmas or Easter, but I think you could make the case that it’s actually Thanksgiving. The practice of gratitude is deeply, deeply Christian. More than that, singing with gratitude is deeply Christian. This is a pattern in the Bible. When God acts, His people respond with song.
Consider Exodus 15. God’s people were undergoing bondage, oppression, enslavement and suffering under Pharaoh’s rule in Egypt. But the Lord saw their plight, remembered His promises, and sent a deliverer. God redeemed the Hebrews through Moses, and they escaped Egypt. How did the people respond? With tambourines, singing, and dancing:
“Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord: ‘I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously’” (Exod. 15:1).
How much more ought we to sing? If the people of God sang in the Exodus, how much more do we have to sing for! “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13–14). We are the Redeemed in the truer and greater Exodus. God has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. God’s people are a singing people.
Why? Because our God is a saving God. We sing because the gospel inspires a song. So, dear reader, let’s sing. Sing with gratitude. Sing in response to all that God has done!
4. We Sing to Practice for Eternity
Finally, if you’re like me, you occasionally find yourself in a place where you don’t always feel like singing. But that’s the brilliance of Paul’s command. Paul tells us to sing with gratitude. The act of singing from gratitude — even gratitude we might not feel — has a way of teaching us how to feel. In other words, we sing with gratitude some days to sing for gratitude. We put on this practice — the practice of joyful, grateful singing — to train our hearts to feel in response to Christ’s saving work. Isaiah 35:10 says, “And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.”
That’s our future. We will be singing, in some capacity, forever. It behooves us to learn to love it now. Let’s sing! Like Exodus 15, like the persecuted Christians in Rome in AD 112, like Christians all over planet earth this Sunday, let’s sing.
Even God Sings
God Himself is a singing God. The prophet Zephaniah, offering a word of hope to God’s people, said, “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”
We sing in response to God’s song of delight over His people. How else could we respond? Sing! Sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with thankfulness in our hearts to God. This is the response of a heart that’s filled with Christ’s Word and His Spirit: Sing loud! Sing out! Lift your hands, raise your voice, sing!
— Trevor Hoffman is a teaching pastor at Ridgewood Church in Greer.