Worship Preparation Guide for Sunday, March 29

For the past five weeks we have walked with Jesus through His arrest and trials, and we have followed Him to Calvary and seen Him crucified.  This Sunday we will stand at the foot of the cross with the Jews who hated Jesus and wanted Him dead.  We will stand with the Romans who crucified Him as a common criminal.  We will stand with his mother and a few who of his disciples who are bewildered and grief stricken.  After seeing Jesus die some walked away from Golgotha that day happy that He was finally gone.  Some walked away from yet another public execution unfazed by what they saw.  A few were broken hearted.  At least two were forever changed by what they saw and heard. 

Along with all these witnesses we hear Jesus’ last words and watch Him die.  How will you respond to what you see and hear?  As we did last week, we will share in the Communion as a part of our worship.  As is the case every week, singing together as the people of God will be an important part of our service.   We will sing to Jesus and we will sing about Jesus. 

When we sing, do we sing in such a way that says we believe the words we are singing?  That is the question raised in a helpful and convicting article, Sing Your Heart Out by Nicholas Batzig.    I have summarized it below for you to read and consider as you prepare for worship this week. 

It is terrible that those who say that they believe that Christ is risen don’t sing as if they actually believe He is risen. They should be singing their hearts out because He is risen.  This leaves us with the question, “If the Holy Spirit’s work in the hearts of His people to stir them up to sing God’s praises is one of the sweetest of all His works then why do so many congregants fail to sing with all of their heart in worship?” 

Too many in our churches are overly self-conscious about what others will think of them if they sing too loudly or, at times, out of key.  The messiness of congregational singing is part of the beauty of God using weak and broken people.  While we certainly want to strive for excellence in how we sing to our God, the sound of a child singing extremely loudly or, even at times, out of key, is a sweet sound that brings God great glory (Ps. 8).  If we would simply seek to sing with joy in our hearts to the Lord we would lose self-awareness and embrace God-awareness. We would not fear what others might think about our singing.  After all, on the cross Jesus purchased not only believers, but also their ability to sing redemptive praises to God from the heart.

[Here are five reasons we should sing to God with all our hearts:]

1. Singing Our Hearts Out to God is the Fruit of Redemption in Christ.     

Nothing produces joy so much as the truth of what Christ has done for His people through His death and resurrection. Throughout the Scriptures we read of believers singing “a new song.” This has unique reference to the work of the new creation procured by Christ through His death and resurrection and established in full through the New Covenant (Ps. 33:3; 40:3; 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; 149:1; Isaiah 42:10; Revelation 5:9; 14:3).

2. Singing Our Hearts Out to God is a Witness to the Gospel.   

The Psalmist prayed, “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord” (Ps. 40:3). If unbelievers in our services on Sunday witnessed the unrestrained pouring out of the hearts of believers in praise they should be able to say, “There is something true and powerful about what God has done in the lives of these men and women.” No band or musical accompaniment can manipulate what God the Holy Spirit does through the heart-wrought praises that He enables His people to sing together to Him. 

3. Singing Our Hearts Out to God Fuels Our Own Spiritual Growth. 

There are times when I am struggling spiritually, or downcast or complacent. Singing quickens my spirit and causes me to grow in fervent love to the Lord. The Puritans would sometimes speak of singing yourself into a state of worship. Singing Psalms and theologically sound hymns renews the mind and warms the heart to worship because theologically rich hymns are “mini-sermons for the soul to sing.”

4. Singing Our Hearts Out to God Fuels the Spiritual Growth of Other Believers. 

It is for this reason that the Apostle Paul charged the church with the following words: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16) and “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” (Eph. 5:18-19). Singing with other believers is a means of grace whereby we teach and admonish each other.

5. Singing Our Hearts Out to God Makes War Against our Enemies.  

We tend not to view what we do in worship as spiritual warfare, however so many of the songs in the Old Testament were songs of victory penned immediately after God had given His people victory over their enemies (e.g. Exodus 15:1-18; 15:21; Judges 5; 1 Samuel 18:7) and sung by the people as they were gathered together. What better way to make war against Satan and his host of enemies than by singing God’s redemptive praises in light of His defeat of them.

One of the hymns we will sing this week is O Sacred Head Now Wounded, attributed to St Bernard of Clairvaux.  The hymn is said to be almost 900 years old and originally included eleven verses!  As a part of your preparation for worship I’d encourage you to read and contemplate them all.  You can find them here: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/s/osacredh.htm