Singing hymns and worship songs gives the opportunity for all the congregation of a church to be active participants of any sort of church gathering.
Singing together blows away differences and produces a feeling of unity and harmony.
In these trying times because of the pandemic when we are often prevented from meeting each other in the flesh, we can still feel that oneness as we are led by a worship team on an online service.
As we spend time with God at home during our personal devotions, these spiritual songs can bring us into his presence even enhancing our prayer life as they focus our minds on the Lord.
The apostle Paul said in Colossians 3 v 16
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
Singing with grace in your heart to the lord.
Hymn/worship song singing teaches us and encourages us to follow the bibles teaching as they are very often based on bible verses and acts as a mirror measuring our faith and actions.
Hence when we sing them we are constantly reminding ourselves of Gods teachings and to know whether we having been walking on the correct path God wants us to tread.
They are just like sermons accompanied to music.
It has been found that people can only remember about twenty per cent of what they hear in a spoken sermon but hymns/worship song as they have a melody with words stick in the memory, especially as we have sung them many times in our lives and certain lyrics of hymns we can relate to our own lives, experiences and memories.
Singing them is also an act of thanks giving to God which is very important as God is just like us He likes us to express appreciation for acts of kindness and provision.
The book of Psalms is full of thanksgiving for example Psalm 69 v 30
I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.
Psalm 147 v 1
Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, and pleasant and fitting to praise Him.
God isn’t interested in whether we have a tuneful beautiful voice but is interested in whether we are singing from the heart.
Also in Ephesians 5 v 19- singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
It is also a well-known fact that singing is good for us- it releases a feel good chemical to our brain called endorphins, it lifts depression and makes us feel brighter.
Let us consider some hymns/worship songs and see if we can link their lyrics to the Word of God.
One very popular song is Way maker. I was extremely moved when in March I saw on a you tube video, a group of medics standing socially distanced upon the roof of their hospital singing way maker in faith as a prayer.
Let us link the lyrics of Way maker scripture
Lyric -You are here moving in our midst
Zephaniah 3 v 17
The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save, He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you by His love, He will exult over you with loud singing.
Lyric – You are here working in this place, you never stop working, even when I don’t see it your working.
John 5 v 17
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working”
Lyric – You are way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper
Isaiah 43 v 16
Thus says the Lord who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters.
John 14 v 6
Jesus said to him “I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father except by me”.
Acts 19 v 11
And God was doing extraordinary miracles, through the hands of Paul
Titus 1 v 2
In hope of eternal life, which God who never lies, promised before the ages began.
Lyric – Light in the darkness, My God that is who you are.
John 12 v 46
I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me will not remain in darkness.
Lyric -You are here touching every heart
Ezekiel 36 v 26
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh.
Psalm 73 v 26
My flesh and heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
Lyric – You are here mending every heart, his name is above depression
Psalm 147 v 3
He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds.
Lyric – You are here turning lives around.
2 Corinthians 5 v 17
If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old has passed away, behold the new has come.
Lyric – even when I don’t see it you’re working
Genesis 50 v 20
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring about that many lives may be kept alive, as they are today.
Proverbs 3 v 5 – 6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will make your paths straight.
Lyric – His name is above loneliness
John 14 v 18
“I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you”.
Proverbs 18 v 24
A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
Revelation 3 v 20
Behold I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and eat with him and he with me.
Lyric – His name is above cancer
Psalm 41 v 3
The Lord sustains him on his sickbed, in his illness you restore him to full health.
Psalm 107 v 20
He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.
Lyric – His name is above all names
Philippians 2 v 9 – 10
Therefore God has exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. So at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven and earth and under the earth.
I must say as I have been researching how the song way maker would link into bible verses I never realised I would find so many. It will make me enjoy singing the song even more and bring me closer to God as I sing it.
Philippians 2 v 9 – 10 reminds me of my school assemblies where I would enjoy the hymn At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, every tongue confess him King of glory now, ‘tis the Fathers pleasure we should call him Lord who from the beginning was the mighty Word.
Although at that young and tender age I had no idea that this hymn I was singing was based upon words in the bible.
A popular hymn is Great is thy faithfulness which was written by Thomas Chisholm and he wrote it basing it on Lamentations 3 v 22 – 23.
It is of the Lords mercies, we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not, they are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness
Lyrics
Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness, morning by morning new mercies I see,
I hope that this article will bless you. I have learnt a lot of new scriptures as I have written it and I think that I may again look into some other of my favourite worship songs and see what scriptures link to them. I feel that I will be singing them with a bit more gusto from now on!!!
Dear Lord
Thank you for all the things you do for us.
Thank you for all the lovely hymns and worship songs that have been written over the years. We thank you for those who have written them, for bringing your words to our lips. As we sing them please use the words to encourage us in walking closer to you and following your ways and may the words remind us of all your goodness to us, plus please also may they lift our spirits so we have joy in our hearts.
We ask this in your name Lord Jesus
Amen.