The Bible speaks of creation praising God with clapping! We can do this as a congregation, all lifting up our voices in praise to Jesus or as an individual bringing a song motivated by the Holy Spirit. We can sing songs that everyone can sing along with, but also stray off from written lyrics to a spontaneous overflow of song. As we address one another with our songs we spur one another to make His praise glorious. The apostle Paul encouraged the Ephesians to “address one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs and making melody to the Lord with your heart” (chapter 5 v19). John Piper says “Singing is the Christians way of saying: God is so great that thinking will not suffice, there must be deep feeling talking will not suffice, there must be singing.” Singing enables us to stretch out words and reflect on the meaning of what we’re singing. More than 400 verses of scripture refer to singing, there are almost 50 direct exhortations to sing, in fact 4 are found in one verse – Psalm 47 v6: Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! God Himself sings in Zephaniah 3 v17 and He chooses music and song to glorify Him. There’s a lot of singing in the Bible, in fact the longest book in the Bible is devoted to songs - Psalms. As you read through the various points, ask the Holy Spirit to release in you a greater freedom in worship for the praise of His glory. Let’s consider some of these expressions of worship and gain a biblical understanding behind ‘why we do what we do’ in worship. Our desire is to be a people who gather together and worship God in freedom and in Biblically expressive ways that bring honour to Him. The Bible is full of descriptions of how God’s people worship Him, it ranges from loud exuberant celebration praise with singing, shouting and dancing, to reverential bowing down and the awe-filled silence of a holy moment in the manifest Presence of God. “Biblical praise is normally expressed, spoken and observable.” - Bob Kauflin ‘I will sing and make melody with all my being!’ – Psalm 108 v1
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