Music is part of who we are as human
beings. We all know that music stirs the soul and engages the heart. But music isn’t
just something that happens to us. Music is something we do: human
beings sing! Of course, not all of us are very good at keeping a tune (I’m
certainly not). But most of us still sing—or at least we hum along under our
breath to the tunes we hear others sing. Indeed, human beings often sing together.
This has been true of societies down through the ages. Whether it’s folk tunes,
anthems, or chants at sporting events, singing has brought people together, stirred
hearts and souls, and enabled people to express together what they love and
long for.

In some ways, modern technology has changed how we in our Western society engage with music. We now have instant access to a huge range of music from around the world, recorded for our convenience so we can play it back at leisure and listen in private. As a result, we can each pick and choose and consume our music according to our individual tastes. This means that the phenomenon of singing together—using our voices to sing one song with others near to us—is becoming less common in our modern world. On one bus or on one street corner, you’re likely to find fifty people with ear pods listening to fifty different songs, rather than a group of people all singing the same song.

This means that the age-old Christian
practice of singing together is becoming a little strange and antiquated in our
world. I play the piano, and I’ve been involved in church music for many years,
serving as a musician and music leader in various contexts. One thing I’ve
noticed is that when visitors who aren’t familiar with church come and join us,
they can find the whole idea of people singing together a little bit foreign
and uncomfortable. Yet despite its strangeness, we still do it. Why do we
Christians resist the modern trend towards individualising music and keep
singing together when we meet? Why does singing together matter to us so much?

In these verses from Ephesians, the apostle
Paul says some important things about Christian singing. What Paul says here helps
us to see why Christians sing together. It also helps us to understand a
little more about how we should sing together.

Speak to one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making music with your heart to the Lord, constantly giving thanks for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to our God and Father.Ephesians 5:19–20

Spirit-fulfilled singing

First let’s look at why Christians
sing. Christian singing is a result of what Paul has
just spoken about in the previous verse: “be fulfilled by the Spirit” (Ephesians
5:18).  In Ephesians, being
“fulfilled by the Spirit” is about becoming who we were made to be, for the
sake of God and his purposes. God has a great plan for his world “to sum up all
things in Christ” (Ephesians 1:10). We believers play a key
part in this plan as Christ’s “body”, the church. Although the final
fulfilment of God’s plan won’t happen until the last day when Christ returns, nevertheless,
even now, through his Holy Spirit, God is bringing us
towards fulfilment, enabling us to live for him and his purposes (Ephesians
3:18–19). As this happens,