God commands us to teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, not as something optional, extra, or somehow disconnected from our mission to make disciples. No, as is clear from the broader context of Colossians 3, God commands us to sing, because singing is essential to discipleship.
On that basis, let us consider a few direct applications for your home and church.
1. Sing as much as you can.
Singing is not optional. You can’t just say, well, singing is just not my thing. No, God commanded us to to sing because it is essential to our discipleship.
So sing as much as you can. In your home, sing before meals and after meals, make singing an emphasis in your times of family worship, sing before bed, sing in the car. Sing, sing sing. And our churches should be filled with congregational singing.
Be discerning in what you sing. Make sure that what you are singing accomplishes the goals of forming the kind of mature disciples mentioned here in Colossians 3 and all through the Scripture.
But once you have discerned what will help with the discipleship of your family or your church best, then sing! Singing ought to be a normal, regular occurrence in our homes and in our churches.
You might say, but I don’t know how to sing. I didn’t grow up singing, and I just don’t know how.
That leads to the next application.
Singing is not optional. You can’t just say, well, singing is just not my thing. No, God commanded us to to sing because it is essential to our discipleship.
2. Learn to sing, and teach your children to sing.
Singing is a skill, but it is a skill anyone can learn if you put a little effort into it.
What would you say if you were encouraging another Christian to faithfully read his Bible, and he said, “Well, I don’t know how to read. I didn’t grow up reading, so i just can’t read.” What would you say? Oh, OK. Well if you didn’t grow up reading, I guess we’ll just give you a pass on reading your Bible.
No! We would say, “Brother, that’s really too bad. I’m so sorry for you. So, now you need to learn how to read. God has commanded you to read his Word, so you need to do whatever it takes to learn the skills necessary to obey God’s command and feed your soul.”
The same is true for singing. Not having grown up singing is no excuse to disobey the command of the Lord. If you don’t know how to sing, then do whatever it takes to learn the skills necessary to obey God’s command and disciple your soul. Find another Christian who sings well and get help. There are all sorts of resources today to help you sing. Anyone can learn to sing, it just takes effort like any other skill.
And don’t make the same mistake for your own children.
Can you imagine a parent who said, “I’ll teach my children to read if they show an affinity for it”? Then why do we do the same with singing? God commanded his disciples to read the Word, and God commanded his disciples to sing the Word. Parents, make sure your children learn music. Get them into piano lessons. Enroll them in a good children’s choir. Raise up your children to be singers.
3. Get a good hymnal.
I can’t stress this enough. There are certainly benefits to singing lyrics off of a screen, and I would never say it is wrong to do that.
But singing off a screen can never replace the benefits of a good hymnal. Much of the music illiteracy that plagues the church today is due to the decline of hymnals, where you can see the actual musical score.
You say, but I can’t read the musical score. Well we just talked about that! Using a hymnal can help you learn to read music. I never taught my children to sing harmony. They learned it naturally because we sing all the time out of hymnals with printed music, and the learned to follow along with the notes on the page.
There is no more simple music than a hymn. You can learn to sing, you can learn to read the musical score, and you will be better off for it!
Using hymnals in church also makes singing more corporate, because you have to share with the person next to you, encouraging loving harmony as you sing together. You can point to the words and notes with your young children. Our youngest practically learned to read following along with the words in our hymnal.
Plus, you can’t take the screen home! You need a collection of good hymnals at home for your whole family so that you can sing together.
And let me encourage you to get a good hymnal that has songs that meet all the requirements we’ve mentioned, and one that includes psalms. We have Psalms and Hymns to the Living God if you need a good Psalter-Hymnal. And, by the way, we have recordings of piano accompaniments for every psalm and hymn in our G3+ app so that you can have accompaniment as you sing at home as well.
There is no more simple music than a hymn. You can learn to sing, you can learn to read the musical score, and you will be better off for it!
4. Sing heartily.
Oh come, let us sing for joy to the Lord,
Ps 95:1
Let us make a loud shout to the rock of our salvation.
In John Wesley’s directions for singing, written in 1761, he said, “Sing lustily and with good courage.”
We have unfortunately been so influenced in our churches today by the singing of pop music, which is breathy and unsupported—the very opposite of lustily and with good courage. Christians today have been taught by pop culture that if you really mean it, you’ll close your eyes, scrunch your face, sway a little, and sing in a light sensual manner.
Don’t sing like that. That’s not how God created us to sing. That way of singing comes from the sensuality of pop music, it is a kind of singing that embodies the passions of the flesh, not from a robust love for God’s truth. Worldly culture is attacking the church and the family, worldly music has weakened congregational singing.
Sing aloud to God our strength. Sing heartily!
And let me say a word to those of you who accompany singing and who lead singing: You have to accompany and lead in a way that supports robust, hearty singing. Unfortunately pop music and music illiteracy has influenced the way many accompany singing as well.
If you play and lead heartily, you will help people sing heartily.
Sing aloud to God our strength. Sing heartily!
5. Men, you’ve got to take the lead on this.
Men simply don’t sing in our culture. Singing is thought to be a feminine exercise. And actually, most of singing today in pop culture is very feminine. Most modern male pop singers sing in a very feminine way, that has come to affect even those men who lead singing in churches, and so many men just don’t know what it is to sing in a manly way. Boys grow up thinking singing is for girls.
It’s time to change that.
Good singing is masculine. Exhibit A: David, sweet psalmist of Israel and Warrior King of Israel. I guarantee that David didn’t get back from slaughtering Philistines and then sing praise to the Lord in a breathy, sensual manner.
Men, like in every other spiritual enterprise, we must lead in singing. Make effort to learn to read music, make effort to learn to sing well, be discerning in what songs you choose for your family or church to sing, and then just sing. We’re experiencing a very encouraging revival in our church of men who are recognizing their lead to learn to sing. They are coming to Matt Sikes and me and asking us for help. This is what we need in our churches.
Mean, Sing with strength. Sing so that your boys never think of singing as something that is feminine. Sing robustly. None of this breathy crooning so common in pop music. Sing like men. Full-throated, resonate, from-your-diaphragm singing. Sing like warriors. Sing like men.
Dads, one of the most significant, impactful, and enduring things you can do is regularly sing with your children.
Dads, one of the most significant, impactful, and enduring things you can do is regularly sing with your children.
Conclusion
O that we would recover a robust culture of disciple-making singing once again in our homes and churches. Singing that fills our children’s hearts with the Word of Christ. Singing that builds up their hearts with mature affection for Christ and calms their fleshly passions. Singing that sets our affections on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Listen to what Basil of Ceaesarea said in the 4th century about singing psalms. I can’t help but think that he had the commands of discipleship in Colossians 3 in mind when he wrote this:
A psalm is the tranquility of souls, the arbitrator of peace, restraining the disorder and turbulence of thoughts, for it softens the passion of the soul and moderates its unruliness. A psalm forms friendships, unites the divided, mediates between enemies. For who can still consider him an enemy with whom he has sent forth on voice to God? So that the singing of psalms brings love, the greatest of good things, contriving harmony like some bond of union and uniting the people in the symphony of a single choir.
Singing is important because God commanded it. And God commanded us to sing, because singing is essential to discipleship.
