Worship as Dialogue: Response in Song
Our worship service is a dialogue between God and us. God speaks to us by his Word in Scripture and moves upon us by his Holy Spirit in inwardly apply the grace of the gospel. He engages us not just in our minds, but in all of our senses to confirm that we are not our own, but we belong to Him and that He is for us. And we are reoriented to see our lives in light of God’s redeeming work.
As I explored in our previous blog, God gets the first word: our Call to Worship. Like any conversation, the first word calls for a response. God calls to us in words and empowers us to respond to him in words. In worship we hear God call to us, hear him assure us of his love despite our failings, hear him declare and apply the gospel to us, and one of the ways we respond to this is by singing together as one.
Our singing in worship is not a performance. God does not need us to impress him and neither do the other people gathered in worship.
That’s not to say that how we sing isn’t significant—to both God and others gathered with us in worship. God’s ear and delight is open to us whether we are singing in great joy, sorrow, anger, or lament. As the emotional range of the Psalms demonstrate, God invites and expects us to come to him in all of who we are. When we come to God with cracking, off-key voices, full-throated celebration, or a whisper we can know we are heard by a God who sought us out and addressed us before we could say a word.
Our voices are also needed by our fellow believers. There may be times when I do not have the strength of faith to sing. At those times, the voices of others may be the instrument God uses to carry me along, as they act as the body of Christ in encouragement. Many have been the times in my life when the lifted voices of friends have been a proof to me that I am not alone.
Sing. Hear the call of his grace and know that his grace is calling you out of yourself to respond. Do not perform, but sing to your Father who loves you. Do not perform, but sing for your friends alongside you—and let’s sing each other along as we step further up and further into the grace of God.