This short post will outline nine ways God wants us to sing unto him. In this part of our look at the biblical doctrine of music, we will find a lot of practical things. We might say that this is what singing unto the Lord looks like!
In Part 1, we looked at instances where men and women sang "Unto the Lord."
In Part 2, we considered commands us to sing "unto the Lord."
Now, in Part 3...
Scriptural Ways to Sing Unto The Lord
1. In the beauty of holiness
1 Chronicles 16:29, “Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.”
2. With music that teaches the good knowledge of the Lord.
2 Chronicles 30:21-22, “And the children of Israel that were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with great gladness: and the Levites and the priests praised the LORD day by day, singing with loud instruments unto the LORD. And Hezekiah spake comfortably unto all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the LORD: and they did eat throughout the feast seven days offering peace-offerings, and making confession to the LORD God of their fathers.”
We will look at this in far greater detail later, but for now, understand that God desires his people to sing music that is theologically accurate and theologically rich!
3. According to His Righteousness
Psalm 7:17, “I will praise the LORD according to his righteousness: and will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high.”
4. According to His Name
Psalm 48:10, “According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth: thy right hand is full of righteousness.”
5. According to His excellent Greatness
Psalm 150:2, “Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.”
# 3, 4, & 5 are the trifecta of doxology. Our song, in order to be acceptable unto God must be according to these three things: His righteousness, his name, and his excellent greatness.
This means that our standard for what we offer in song is higher than we can attain in this life. This doesn't make praise an impossible goal, but rather a life-long pursuit. May we never be satisfied with second best in our selection of songs or our performance of song to the Lord!
6. Out Loud (Use your Voice)
Psalm 51:14, “Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.”
7. Loudly (Use Volume)
Psalm 98:4, “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.”
Taken together, using our voice and using volume means that we should unashamedly sing to our God!
8. With various musical instruments
Psalm 98:5-6, “Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.”
9. With Joyful Lips
Psalm 63:5, “My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:”
All of these truths are still applicable to the local church today! God has given singing to us as a gift and he is in the church now. Every time we sing, we have an opportunity to sing to the Lord. He is here! His presence is with us and we should never lose an opportunity to sing to him.
Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
Now we have looked at the three main parts of the Biblical Doctrine of singing unto the Lord: Scriptural examples, Scriptural commands, and Scriptural ways to sing unto the Lord.
In our next blog post, I want to present an illustration that will help us understand more what it means to sing unto the Lord!