Theology Must Sing

When I was a kid, I didn't really like singing in church all that much. It seemed like filler to me between the substance of the "real" liturgy. How wrong I was. I always thought the reason we sang so much was that Martin Luther was also very big on signing in church. He wrote Hymns after all. While Luther might have been musical and liked music anyway, he had it figured out how important music is in the life of the church.

First of all, we should sing because God tells us to:

Colossians 3:16: “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.”

Ephesians 5:18-19: “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but 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…”

Second of all, the church sings, because we can't help but sing. Martin Franzmann once said, “Theology is doxology. Theology must sing.” In Psalm 106:12, recounting how God delivered the Israelites from the Egyptian army at the Red Sea, we read, “Then they believed His words; they sang His praise”. They believed, therefore they sang. We read in Revelation that the church triumphant cannot help, but sing praises to God.

Third of all, it is clear that putting the words of what we believe in song is a wonderful way to learn. Many times Luther stated that the purpose of music in the church was to teach theology. For example how many of us learned the alphabet by singing the ABC song? Putting the letters to a tune helped us learn them. Over and over again we hear stories about how older people with dementia can't remember their past or their owns names, but they can still sing the liturgy.