Weekly Update |   December 14, 2023

Corporate Singing

Dmitriy Zherebnenkov

God is pleased to hear the singing of people who wish to praise their Lord!

Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. (Ps. 50:14-15)

Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. (Ps. 96:1-4)

If this is so then it’s clear why corporate singing in our gatherings must be prioritized!

Now the question naturally arises, why do we first sing and then hear the sermon? Wouldn’t it be better to hear the sermon first and then sing thereafter?

If we ignore the life of the Christian during the week, then the order plays an important role. But worship is not limited only to Sunday gatherings. Why? Because worship never ends! If we think of worship as only 3-4 songs that we sing corporately, then we have departed from a biblical understanding of worship (Rom. 12:1; 1 Cor. 10:31; Heb. 13:15-16).

In other words, worship must be part of the life of a believer both during the week and when the church gathers for corporate worship. If this is so then the order of our meetings becomes less important, since each member of the church worships throughout the week and the Sunday gathering is the culmination of our worship! And when we join together in song, we are sort of concluding the week of worship to God. And then we begin our worship with the hearing of the truth to start the week off with instruction to then worship God by applying the truths we hear during the sermon.

The order? (Col. 3:16) — The word of God lives in us throughout the week so vividly that it breaks out into spontaneous worship! When we gather together with the church with this attitude, we are ready to worship God. We do this from the first opportunity, starting in the lobby we greet each other, encourage, comfort, rejoice, and thank God! Worship continues during songs, prayers, proclamations, and Scripture readings, and then smoothly transitions to practical application in everyday life.

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