As I sit to write this article I am hearing the onset of noise that will no doubt escalate in the next few hours. It will crescendo to fever pitch if a win is secured and I expect it will be replaced with wailing if we don’t. It’s fascinating to observe what passion and enthusiasm does to the human soul. The inward melody spills out of the heart into audible tones producing music and song.
I first got thinking about this last Friday when observing how the favourable odds for England were affecting the disciples of the sport – have you noticed how they begin to sing? How interesting that this behaviour shows up in such an instinctive and primal kind of way.
Our collective worship has lacked this instinctive energy with the absence of singing. Yet at the same time, ‘speaking to one another in psalms and hymns’ has concentrated the mind in a unique way on the words of hymns that we might have grown familiar with. I have unquestionably found that to be helpful.
As a family we have maintained the practice of singing as many others will have done. There will be certain hymns and songs that will always remind us of this time. We even have our own anthem – You are My All in All. Sung at the end of every family hymn sing on a Lord’s Day evening, the children often sang it through tears at the beginning, as the rawness of faith dawned on their souls in the midst of unsettling circumstances (Job 13.15).
Whatever your instinct may be for the musical side of worship it is important to observe the practice of New Testament churches and the teaching in scripture. The Lord Jesus sang (Mt 26.30, the early believers sang (Acts 16.25), and the epistles lay out the necessary practice of singing (Eph. 5.19, Col. 3.16). Singing was there at the beginning (Job 38:.7) and singing will be there at the ‘end’ (Rev 5.9). Our practice to temporarily refrain from singing was only ever temporary. Balancing the governments public health responsibility (Rom 13.4a), the need to not give offence (Matt. 17.25-27) and the fact that mercifully, we exit this period with none of the flock adversely effected, we look forward to singing again once more in the coming weeks.
Now is the time to dust down that hymn book if you have not already done so and turn its pages with more spiritual discernment than perhaps you might have done so before (1 Cor 14.15). Especially those of us called to lead publicly. I was challenged myself about this earlier today as I chewed these things over. It’s one thing to refrain from doing so when temporarily holding back – but now we will need to consciously train ourselves to intelligently seek out those hymns which enhance our collective worship and do so ‘with grace in [our] hearts to the Lord’ (Col. 3.16).
The sports enthusiast will sing about his trophies. We have something and someone far greater to sing and be merry about so lets prepare our hearts, and our lungs for doing so!
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