I don’t have any trouble singing in church. In fact, in general I love choral singing as well. I’m not the best singer by far, but in a group setting, I feel bolstered by the voices around me and feel I can sing with the best of them. I am always a little sad when people around me don’t sing at all. My daughter rarely sings in church but she will sing along with the radio all the time. She says it’s the music she doesn’t particularly like, not her style and all that. But my real question is to God: why are we told to sing or even commanded? What is it about singing that is different from speaking?
Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre!
Sing praises to him with the ten-stringed harp!
Sing to him a new song!
Play your best with joyful shouts! [Psalm 33:2-3; CEB]
Some results from a cursory Internet search include:
- Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. Singing expresses emotion and united communities.
- Back in 1588, William Byrd wrote that singing is delightful to Nature and preserves our health.
- In a book entitled Music and the the Brain, there is evidence that singing is therapeutic.
- There are even studies out there that claim people who sing live longer.
- People who stutter often lose their stutter completely while singing the words (Anyone remember the film, The King’s Speech?)
- A song can also help people to learn something or remember concepts.
- Singing is a part of cultural identity.
- Singing helps people understand who they are.
- Singing helps people experience worship.
- But it is also a way to bring people together for a cause, for a right, a touchpoint.
There are songs in the church that have the same power but it’s rarely embraced with the furor of social change, which is too bad. If our passion for God could be as rich as our passion for justice, lives would be changed.
And so I say: sing. Sing unto God. Sing together. Sing alone. Sing.
Meditations from Zion 
You have to know I would just LOVE this post!!! Love you, Irm. And I love your insights. Sing! I love to hear you sing! It’s because it comes from the depths of your being.
There was a man in my Church in which I grew up. His name was Kermit. (Not the Frog.) He had such a heart for our Abba Father. He knew LOVE … he LIVED LOVED. He understood the mysterious depth of the Father’s love. Anyway, he often sang “specials” in our Sunday services. He was not a trained vocalist and his style was rather twangy. BUT, there was never a dry eye when he sang. He sang from the depths of his being. He sang with the knowledge of the awesome love of the Father.
“He (she) who sings, prays twice.”
So glad. Thought of you while writing. 🙂