- Sing songs from the historic church.
- Because the foot cannot say "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body" (1 Cor 12:15)
- Sing songs from the contemporary church.
- Because we are ourselves and don't live in the past but the present and should sing new songs, in our language (musical as well as spoken).
- Sing familiar songs
- Because the Gospel, and "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8).
- Sing unfamiliar songs
- Because his mercies are new every morning and we always have fresh petitions and praises (Lam 3:23).
- Sing songs to God
- Because "great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised" (Psalm 96:4)
- Sing songs to the church
- Because we should be edifying one another by "addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" (Eph 5:19)
- Sing songs to the world
- Because we should be seeking to "become all things to all people, that by all means [we] might save some" we should ensure that it is understandable/contextualised as much as possible (1 Cor 9:22; 14:23) calling them to join us in praising God (Ps 117:1)
- Sing songs of lament and reflection
- Because sin, death and the devil are real and horrible we should be honest about it.
- Sing songs that of joy and celebration
- Because nothing is better than the Gospel - "Rejoice in the Lord always" (Phil 4:4)!
[First thoughts and not very polished. Improvements welcome.]
Sing psalms, and sing Scripture. (Not exclusively, I ought to clarify, but substantially. If we sang the psalms more systematically, we would hit every point except, arguably, 2 and 4 with one hit.)
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Well said.
ReplyDelete