One Of The Reasons We Sing In Church

John Piper:

In the Religious Affections Jonathan Edwards ventures this explanation of why there is song and poetry.

And the duty of singing praises to God, seems to be appointed wholly to excite and express religious affections. No other reason can be assigned, why we should express ourselves to God in verse, rather than in prose, and do it with music, but only, that such is our nature and frame, that these things have a tendency to move our affections.

For this to have the weight it does for Edwards we need to remember that 1) "true religion consists very much in the affections," and 2) there is no true Christian faith without the affections being awakened, and 3) God is most glorified when he is affecting us and not just known by us.

My comment:

Some would say, "How do I know that I am not just worshiping an emotional feeling that I get when the band is rockin' and I "feel" moved? How do know I really love God and not just the music?"

1) Just the fact that you are asking the question probably points to the fact that you do love God.

2) It's not wrong to enjoy the music, God has given it as a gift to be enjoyed (1 Tim 4:4), but certainly not at God's expense, but rather as a means to respond to him.

3) Can you ponder other times in your life when you felt right and powerful affections for God, when great music was not present? If you are a Christian, my guess would be that this certainly has been the case.

4) Music is a gift from God that enhances our experience of his greatness. Can you imagine how different it would be to simply speak the the text of a song like, Our Great God, as opposed actually singing it? I am certainly not against reciting creeds and such in our corporate gatherings, but is it not significantly more powerful when we can respond to God's revelation with song? Some assume that God is opposed to our emotions/feelings. "We have to be careful that we don't get carried away!", they would say. I would respond that the question is, what are we getting carried away with and for what reason? I agree we have to be careful, but does not the Bible command us to respond to what he has done with right feelings? It would be quite the task to try and not see this in the Psalms, let alone the whole of scripture.