Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Why Do Christians Sing at Church? | Torah | Exodus 15:1-21

Episode Date: June 2, 2022

Is it important to sing at church? Is one type of music better for worship than others? What's the point of singing to God? In today's episode, Keith uses Moses's song in Exodus 15:1-21 to answer these questions and more. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Exodus 15:1-21 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. My name is Keith Simon, and right now we're going through the Book of Exodus. Every so often, I get asked about singing in the church, and the essential question is, what's the point of it? Now, usually the people who ask this question are men, and usually they're middle-aged or older. Now, many of those guys come back a few months later, maybe a year later, and they're like, hey, you know, remember when I asked you, what's the point? point of singing? Well, I totally get it now. I love singing. It's like the best part of my Sunday morning. When they say they got it, what is it that they got? What if they discovered about the music that's changed their mind? I mean, it's not the song or the musicians that's changed. What's

changed is now they get the point. When the Israelites cross the Red Sea and escape from their enemies, what's the first thing they do? They sing. Exodus 151, I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver, he has hurled into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my defense. He has become my salvation. He is my God and I will praise him. My father's God and I will exalt him. The Lord is a warrior. The Lord is his name. Now, did you notice in this song how many times the words I and my appear? See, what this song is doing is helping the person personalize God. Who is God for them? well, he is my strength, my defense, my salvation, my God, I will praise him, I will exalt him. They sing about who God is and what he has done to save them.

Pharaoh's chariots and army, verse four says, well, he's hurled them into the sea. Verse 11, who among the gods is like you, Lord, who is like you, majestic and holiness, awesome and glory, working wonders. You stretch out your right hand and the earth swallows your enemies. Then they start singing about why God save them. What will God do? Well, in your unfailing love, you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength, you will guide them to your holy dwelling. See, God is their leader.

God is their guide. And every indication we have is that this song was sung repeatedly, not just one time. It helped them remember who God was and what he'd done for them. This song shows that it is good for us to talk about God and, of course, good for us to pray to God. but until we learn to praise God in music and singing, we've not yet fully learned what it means to worship God. Worshiping God through music and singing is like oxygen for our souls. You ever notice how songs can transform your emotions in an instant? Like you might be having a bad day, but then hear a particular song that can brighten your mood.

Or a song has the power to take you back to a certain point in your life. It has spiritual power in our lives. singing has power because it comes from God. God is a singing God. Zefaniah 3. The Lord your God is in your midst. The mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness.

He will quiet you by his love. He will exalt over you with loud singing. Jesus sang a hymn with his disciples on the night before he died. It was right after the Lord's supper with his disciples. And it says this in Matthew 26. When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of the Lord's. olives. Wouldn't you love to know it him, they sang? Later in the New Testament, it seems to indicate that the Holy Spirit uses songs in believers' hearts as they gather in worship. Exodus 5,

be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. So did you catch that? The Father sings, the Son sings, the Spirit sings. All three persons of the Trinity are singers. That's one reason we often sense God's presence in a more pronounced way when we gather to listen to music and to sing his praises. There is music and singing all throughout the Bible. In fact, the Bible's longest book is the Book of Psalms and it is a collection of songs. God commands both instrumental and vocal praise in Scripture. Over 50 times in the book of Psalms were told to sing God's praise. Remember when Paul and Silas were in jail? Acts 16 tells us they were praying and singing hymns to

God and all the other prisoners were listening to them. Or remember when Elijah the prophet wanted to hear from God? Here's what he says in 2 Kings 3. Bring now me a musician. And when the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon him. It's almost like music helped Elijah hear God speak to him. Now it takes a lot of practice to develop the skills to make beautiful music. Psalm 33. Praise the Lord with the harp and make music to him on the tin-stringed liar. sing to him a new song, play skillfully. Many of the Psalms talk about praising God with just instruments. Here's Psalm 150.

Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet. Praise him with a harp and leer. Praise him with a tambourine and dancing. Praise him with strings and flute. Praise him with a clash of symbols. Praise him with resounding symbols. Not all worship music is contemplative. Sometimes it's upbeat and loud.

While I think most worship services should emphasize participation by the congregation? I don't think we always have to be the one singing for the music and the songs to minister to us. Sometimes we can listen worshipfully as others sing and play skillfully. Sometimes songs are easy to sing. In other words, even someone like me who knows nothing about music can join in pretty quickly. Other times songs are more demanding musically and lyrically. Take the music written for churches by Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach was the director of music for churches in Leipzig, Germany in the mid-1700s. He provided the church music for churches in that area, and if you're familiar with box music, it was really technical, intellectually demanding.

It wasn't easy to sing the first time you heard it, but his music was appreciated and respected for its intellectual and technical and artistic beauty. There's nothing more or less spiritual about classic music. It's just part of the musical culture of that time. Some people like worship music that is more easily accessible and easier to sing without a lot of complication. Others like music that is more difficult and intellectually challenging. The important thing is that we not spiritualize our particular preferences. But let's go back to where we started. When the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, they started singing worship music to God.

They started to praise him. They started to say, God, you are my rock, my refuge, my shield, my deliver. You're the one that I want to live my life for. Now, they could have just spoken those words. They could have read those words, but they didn't. They sang them. And the fact that they sang them is important to us. When you're in your car, you can worship God by singing.

When you're sitting in your favorite chair after you read your Bible, you can sing a little worship song to God. When you go to church and gather with other Christians to sing, know that God hears you and that God stirs up your heart, your affections to love him more. singing is powerful because God is a singing God. Hey, thanks for listening. If you want to go deeper, sign up for the 10-minute Bible Talk newsletter. You'll get a short email once a week. It'll challenge you to grow in your faith, give you interesting background on today's passage, and a lot, lot more. Just click the link in the show notes to sign up. It'll help you deepen your journey with Jesus.