Gathered by God to Worship: Why We Sing

A Word To Pastors

All right. It’s a joy to be with you this morning.
You just need to know about me: I love Jesus, I love worshiping the Lord and helping others worship the Lord, and I have a lot of children. That’s all you need to know about me.

All right. So, this morning I’ll be speaking on the importance of—well, in short—choosing songs for church. There’s a long title they gave me: choosing songs and considering the type of songs that speak to multiple realities. You know, bottom line, it’s choosing songs for our gatherings.

Thank you, Pastor Sihle, for setting us up so nicely this morning, for challenging us with that teaching. I just want to add one thing that you said at the beginning of your talk. You said that you’re not a worship leader, you’re not a musician. I would say pastors, especially those that lead churches, are the chief worship leaders in the church.

You don’t have to be a musician. You don’t have to sing. But ultimately, the pastors are the ones that demonstrate what it is to worship the Lord, whether you can sing or not.

Because this is recorded, I’m not going to say names, but, you know, pastors, there’s this culture where pastors arrive in the middle of the songs. If you’re one of those pastors, if you are here in this room, I’m sorry, but that is not a healthy culture.

Because especially the one that is leading should be there first, teaching people and showing people what it is to worship the Lord—that you are first in line to be there at the gathering to worship the Lord.

And so that’s just an encouragement. We need to shift this culture of the “man of God” arriving at song number three or four, just before the Word. As Pastor Sihle has said, all of it is worship. And so the one that is leading—because ultimately, as pastors of churches, we are there, we have been given this responsibility because we’re supposed to be exemplary in what it is to follow Jesus.

It’s not because you saw that it was good to be a pastor, but because you felt a calling to disciple people in what it is to worship Jesus and what that looks like in all of life.

And so, when we gather together, as pastors we should be the first people there, to show people, “This is what it looks like to worship the Lord.”
I think it’s unfair to tell people to get there on time and then, tina, we come in halfway through the service. Even in doing so, we’re communicating to people that actually what really matters is when I come in and preach, and the songs that I miss, the time of worship in song, isn’t as important as me coming in.

But, as we’ve been taught today, all of it is worship.

I hope…

It’s just the Bible, okay?

Songs In Scripture

All right. So this morning I’m talking about songs and choosing songs for our gatherings. What type of songs are we called to choose.
Interesting things in Scripture, off the back of what Pastor Sihle has said already, speaking about us being redeemed to worship: this is the theme that goes throughout Scripture, that we have been called out, we have been redeemed, so that we can worship the Lord.

And so, as the principle goes, you look at the principle of first mention in Scripture, where something that is first mentioned usually gives you an idea or a backdrop for how that thing is supposed to be used or referred to, as you continue on in Scripture.

The first song that we actually see in Scripture comes in Exodus 15, and it’s known as the Song of Moses and Miriam. In some places, the Jews would refer to it as the Song of the Sea.

This song is a spontaneous song that Moses begins to sing after the people of Israel are delivered out of the waters and delivered from Pharaoh and his armies. They then begin their way toward the Promised Land.

So that’s the first song that we see in Scripture. Moses spontaneously begins to sing out, and he sings about the deliverance of God. This is the first song recorded in Scripture, in Exodus 15.

That’s the first song: Exodus 15.

Then the last song is found in Revelation 15, which is known as the Song of Moses and the Lamb.

The Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb.

And as Sihle has said, Jesus is the greater Moses. You see this being tied up in Scripture. Moses begins with the first song, the song of deliverance, and then it ends with the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb, which is Jesus Christ.

This song takes place in the book of Revelation after the final judgment has been poured out, and then the full redemption, when God is making all things new. You see the story being tied up in between these two songs.

The idea behind these songs is that they center around God’s redemptive power and His acts to deliver His people from slavery and into the promise that He has for them. Again, what is echoed is, “Let My people go so that they can go and worship Me.”
And so we find that, at the book of Revelation, His people have now fully been let go and are now able to worship Him. We see the first and the

last song in Scripture, which is quite significant.

The first one is at the defeat of Pharaoh and the armies after the final plague. Then the last one is at the defeat of the beast and his image, after the final of the seven plagues and judgments have been poured out. The first and the last song.

Types Of Songs In Scripture

Before we go into choosing songs for our congregations, it’s also good to know what types of songs we find in Scripture, because Scripture has all sorts of songs, and it’s interesting to know.

You have songs of victory. Actually, the Song of Moses is a song of victory, declaring what God has done for His people. Often, these songs of victory also have to do with the nation of Israel, God’s deliverance over the nation of Israel. They’re almost like national anthems.
In actual fact, even today, the Jews would sing the Song of Moses as their national anthem, and it’s sung in synagogues even today because it speaks of God’s deliverance for His people.

You have prophetic songs, where you have moments when someone is playing a harp. One of the priests is playing a harp, and there are instances where David is playing a harp, and Saul begins to prophesy. They prophesy and declare the oracles of God as music is happening.
You have songs of lamentation, or dirges—the fancy English word. A dirge is like a funeral song. A lamentation is a song that is sung; it’s a song of mourning. There’s a whole book in the Scriptures called Lamentations.

I don’t know in the other languages.

But this speaks about when one is mourning, when one is hurting, when one is not rejoicing, and perhaps reflecting on how things should be. They lament. These are songs for specific occasions.

You have love songs. This is like the R&B of Scripture. There’s a whole book, the Song of Solomon. The Song of Solomon is all about love—right, if you read through it, that one challenges the saints because there’s no hallelujah there. There’s no… it’s just love songs. It’s just love songs—songs between a man and a woman.

And then finally, you have praise and worship songs, which is what we are… songs that are for a particular context, songs for gatherings and for the saints to offer up to the Lord.

That’s what we’re talking about this morning.

Are we good? All right.

Biblical Songs: Psalms, Hymns And Spiritual Songs

So we’re looking at the church context today. What types of songs should we be singing in our churches as we gather together?

As I’ve said already, there are all these different songs, but these different songs have their particular places. Not all these songs should be sung in a church gathering. So I would be concerned if you were singing love songs.

There’s a place for that, though. Amen. Amen. That’s right. Okay. I just want to say that love songs are biblical, okay? But now…there’s a place for that. All right. Amen. Amen. Okay.

The Apostle Paul kind of clears it up for us in the book of Ephesians, as well as in the book of Colossians. Pastor Sihle alluded to these Scriptures, and these are the Scriptures I’ll be using today.

Ephesians 5:17:
“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence to Christ.” (Ephesians 5:17-20)

So: do not be drunk with wine, for this is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.

Then it says, “addressing one another.” Part of the evidence of being filled with the Spirit is actually singing. It’s an expression of us being filled with the Spirit of God.

And it says, “addressing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.”(Ephesians 5:19)

He labels three categories of song that we’re to have in our gatherings. He says psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. These are the three categories of songs that should be expressed among us as the church.

The first one is psalms. And psalms are simply songs that are derived from the singing of the Psalms—that is, the Book of Psalms. They are songs that come directly out of the Book of Psalms.

And so we know that the Psalms themselves are divinely inspired. When you sing the Psalms, you’re singing the Word of God. You’re singing God’s Word, God’s promises, back to Him. And so there’s power always in singing the Scriptures.

We need to be singing the Scriptures.

The Psalms, in Hebrew, are known as Sefer Tehillim. Tehillah means a spontaneous song. A tehillah is an expression of praise or an expression of song that just comes from the overflow of your heart. It’s an unplanned, unrehearsed, unstructured song that comes out.

And so the Book of Psalms came about through that. It would be David, Solomon, or certain members of the priesthood who were ministers, and through their time of worship, coming before the Lord, they came up with spontaneous songs and declarations, divinely inspired, and then those were compiled together to form the Book of Psalms.

And so today, the Psalms are the hymnbook of the Hebrews. Even today, it’s seen as the hymnbook. Like today, these are songs that were written by different people, but biblically, the hymnbook that we find in Scripture is the Psalms.

And so singing the Psalms is powerful. This is also something that we should practice doing in our congregations: singing directly from the Word of God.

Can anyone think of a song that is directly derived from a psalm?

Yes. There we go. Yes. Points for you. All right. We’re going to play… Can you play the one song?

So, this was a song that we wrote during COVID, and it was based on Psalm 91. We’ll just play a bit of it. It’s called “Entendeni Lami.”

(Words of the song in English)
Because I say the Lord is my refuge
And I have made the Most High my fortress
He hems me in, with his favour he surrounds me
No evil shall befall me at my tent
No plague shall come near my tent
I’m not afraid of the terrors of the night
And the arrow that flies by day
With his wings he will cover and envelope me
No evil shall befall me at my tent
No plague shall come near my tent

Even if a thousand fall at my side
I know that the Lord preserves me by His side
He hears us when we pray
No evil shall befall me at my tent
No plague shall come near my tent

All right. So, it’s in Zulu. You’ll see these lyrics from there. There are many songs. Probably one of the first ones I remember was:

“I lift up my eyes to the hills,
from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the Lord…”

You guys know the song, “My Help,” right? Beautiful song, right? It’s Psalm 121.

Again, there’s just something powerful about singing the Word of God. You cannot go wrong with singing the Word of God.

So that’s one: psalms.

The second one is hymns.

Hymns. A hymn is known as a religious ode or song.

The basic difference between a psalm and a hymn is that a psalm comes directly from the Scriptures—from the Psalms. A hymn can also be derived from the Scriptures, but it’s something that someone puts together. There’s a bit more structure to it. It’s a song that is planned. It’s a song that is structured.

That’s what would be considered a hymn.
It’s a song that can be added with harmony as well and instrumentation.
Often, when people think of hymns, they think of old-school songs— verse, chorsus, these long, very wordy songs. But that’s not necessarily what a hymn is.

A hymn is, as I said, a structured song—a song that someone has sat down and put together, verse and chorus and so on. Even today, I think traditionally, when people think of hymns, they think of these Western structured songs, which is incorrect.

Here’s the thing: I remember that a lot of what we would consider hymns today are songs that came from a Western understanding of what hymns are.

Many hymns that we find in our congregations today were either translations of English or German hymns into our languages, or the structure itself came from a Western understanding of hymns.

Most of it was Anglican and Methodist ministers who wrote many of the hymns that we have today. Because of their training, they took Western structures of songs and hymns and then put them into our languages.

Does that make sense? Which is not wrong. But my point is that that’s not the only way a hymn is written.

So today, when (what’s your name?) Tshepang said, “Hey, this is a song that we wrote,” that song I would classify under the hymn because it’s a planned, structured song. It’s a song that someone sat down and wrote.

“Calmer of the Storm”—you remember the song we sang? Yeah.

So here’s the interesting thing with hymns. Often people think, “Okay, hymns are things like ‘Amazing Grace,'” you know, that kind of thing. Again, these are songs with structure. Often you think of them and hear the organ.

And you think, “It’s not holy until I hear the organ!”

But when you consider the context in which this Scripture is being written, those things don’t exist. Organs were not there. Organs were only designed centuries after Paul was writing this.

So what hymns were they singing? You need to consider that, because there were already hymns in existence at that time. As time went on, the development of hymns continued, and then music and instrumentation were added until we have some of the hymns that we know today.

An interesting thing—maybe some of you don’t know a little bit about church history. Did you know that the kingdom of Axum, which is now in the region we know as Ethiopia today, was actually the first nation to be fully Christianized. That’s an African nation.

This was around the 4th century—about 330 AD—when Christianity became the national religion of the Kingdom of Axum, or what we know today as Ethiopia.

That was about 50 years before it became the national religion in Rome.

So Africa had the first Christian nation in the world. This was before—we’re not even talking about Europe now. Europe only came later.
I had to learn this stuff because there’s a lot of talk going around saying the gospel came here with the colonizers. It didn’t. The gospel was here way before.

As I said, Africa had the first Christian nation. This was in the 4th century, around 330 AD. Later on, around the 4th century, there was a man in Ethiopia known as Saint Yared. He composed hymns that are now part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church is also known as one of the oldest, if not the oldest, church in existence today. They’ve got one of the oldest church buildings, if not the oldest. It’s in a place called Lalibela in Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has not changed the way it worships from its inception around the 3rd century. So today, when you go to Ethiopia—which I’ve been—and you get to see these guys worship, they have kept their worship and their songs the same over the centuries.
They sing in this ancient language that only a few people in Ethiopia now speak, called Ge’ez.

It’s interesting when you hear their songs and what they sound like, because these were the hymns that Saint Yared composed back in the day. It’s very different from what we think of as hymns today, but this is what some of the ancient church sounded like.

Can you play that clip?

(Words from video in English)
Hallelujah to the Father.
Hallelujah to the Son.
Hallelujah to the Holy Spirit.
The heavens celebrate the feast
The clouds celebrate the feast
And the earth celebrates Pascha
Having been washed by the blood of Christ

What do you think of that? All he was saying there was, “Hallelujah to the Father, hallelujah to the Son, hallelujah to the Spirit.” But that’s how some of these ancient hymns sounded.

Again, can you hear the difference between that and “Amazing Grace,” or the different hymns that we would sing today in our churches?

I hope that, in hearing this, those of you who feel called to write songs can see that you have permission to write songs and to experiment with how you go forward in writing songs.

So it’s just songs like that.

Again, hymns are songs. They’re religious songs. They contain gospel truth in them, the truth of Scripture, in various formats and various structures.

As I said, most songs that we have today would fall under the hymn category, or somewhere between hymns and the next category of songs, which is called spiritual songs.

Spiritual songs would be known as chants or spontaneous songs. When we talk about spontaneous songs, we’re talking about songs that come out of the overflow of your heart.

So, in a moment when you are worshiping the Lord, Scripture gives us a category of song called tehillah, which is an unplanned, unrehearsed song.

Over and over in the Scriptures, the psalmist says, “Sing to the Lord a new song.”

What is a new song?

A new song, by default. “Sing to the Lord a new song.” And it’s speaking to the congregation, right? It’s speaking to all of us: “Sing to the Lord a new song.”

It’s not saying, “Hey, sit down, write a new song, and then sing that to the Lord.” It’s saying, in that moment, what do you want to say to the Lord? How do you want to express your love and your adoration to the Lord. Out of the overflow and abundance of your heart, you begin to sing to the Lord a new song. And that’s the tehillah, right?

That’s where the Scripture says He inhabits the praises of His people. He inhabits the praises of Israel. In the Scriptures, it’s the word tehillah. So when we are singing in that spontaneous flow, declaring our love and adoration for the Lord, that’s where He inhabits our praises.
It can also be a chant, which I think, in our traditions as Africans, is something that we are familiar with.

Let me ask you this question:

What is that song about? Because that song just goes, “Ah…”

Okay, guys. So what is that?

You’ll get into the room and we can sing that song now, and people would be like, “Yoh!” What is that song about? Have you thought about it? When you sing that song, what are you thinking about?

But here’s the thing. It’s like saying, “Tululu, tululu.” Define that for me in a dictionary.

But we can sing that all day and worship the Lord with it because it means something to us. It’s a chant.

Do you get it?

One of the issues that I sometimes have with guys coming from the West is that they complain about our African songs not being theologically sound. They say there’s not enough doctrine in them.

But it’s a category of song. It’s a spiritual song.

When we sing “tululu,” we can’t exactly define it for you, but everyone knows there’s something there. It’s a way that we can express our worship to the Lord that we can’t always define.

Are you with me?

And so that falls under this category of spiritual song. It’s that thing where sometimes you just don’t have words anymore to say something, and it’s with those groanings that you come before the Lord in song.

So we need to honor these songs as well, because they are a category of song that we need to offer up in our gatherings.

The reality is that we won’t always know what everyone in the room is going through. But there’s something where everyone can fit into a “tululu,” where everyone can find where they are in the Lord.

Some are crying “tululu.” Some are rejoicing “tululu,” right?

There’s something powerful about the congregation singing that and bringing that as a spiritual song to the Lord. Then there’s also that moment where we get to release our own words and sing a new song unto the Lord.

Here’s the thing: because I teach on songwriting, my belief is that everyone can write songs. If the Scripture is telling us that we must sing a new song to the Lord, it means everyone is expected to compose a new song unto the Lord.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that… everyone can write songs but not everyone can write songs that other people will enjoy. Just like I think everyone can sing, but not everyone can sing in a way that other people can enjoy.

I hope that gives some of you some hope this morning.

But whatever category of song it is, it all needs to be based in Scripture. It needs to be biblical. That is so important. We cannot move away from that.

So that’s in terms of categories of song.

Horizontal And Vertical Worship

One of the things that I think we’re generally good at in our congregations is the vertical expression of worship. When I say “vertical expression,” I mean songs of adoration, songs of worship unto the Lord and directly to the Lord.

But the Scriptures also speak about worship being both vertical and horizontal, because we’re called to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and strength, but we’re also called to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

So worship is not complete if it’s not expressed horizontally as well.

I’m patient. I’m kind. You know, me on my own. But let me see if I’m patient and kind when you put me in a group, in a community filled with people. Right? So the love of God needs to express itself within the community.

Worship needs to find its completion also in how it’s expressed corporately and with the people around us.
This is what the Apostle Paul then alludes to in the book of Colossians. Can you put up 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.” (Colossians 3:16)

The text that we read in Ephesians says, “Address one another…” It says, “Address one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.”
Address one another.

It’s this idea that we’re worshiping together, that the music and the songs we sing are also supposed to be addressed to the people you are worshiping with, not just to the Lord.

Then in Colossians 3 it says, “Teaching and admonishing one another.”

As Pastor Sihle said, songs are also there for us to teach one another. Again, it’s “one another.” It’s considering what we’re doing within the corporate context.

So this is part of us discipling each other in the Word of God is that we sing songs. So it’s not just when the preaching comes that discipleship begins to happen, but the singing of songs is part of that process.

Again, part of the discipleship in this is that the songs we sing are there to confirm or express what the church believes. We will be able to tell what your church believes based on the types of songs that you sing.

The songs are there to affirm and proclaim what the church is supposed to believe, and also what your church believes. So if someone who has never visited your church comes into that place, they will be able to tell what your church believes based on the songs that you sing.
The songs are there, first, for those of us who are part of that community, to be reminded of what it is to follow Jesus, to be a believer, and to be a part of the community. The songs are supposed to encourage us. The songs are supposed to teach us. The songs are supposed to admonish us.

So the songs are part of the discipleship process. We need to be wise in how we choose songs.

Then the songs also declare to those who are not part of our community what it is that we, as a community, confess, profess, and believe.
There is also the communal aspect to what we do together. And again, Sihle alluded to, we are there to be reminded that we are part of a body. We are part of a collective, and when we gather together, it’s not just me and Jesus.

I know this because, growing up as a worship leader, I’ve made some of these errors. You know, you want people to really feel the presence of God, and it’s those moments where you say, “Forget about the person to the left or the right of you. It’s just about you and Jesus.”

Now, brothers, we wouldn’t get into cars, get into taxis, and come all this way to get here just to forget about each other. We’re here to be aware of each other. As he was saying, we’re here to be aware that it’s a corporate salvation, that we are part of a whole.
And so we need to, as I say, worship with our eyes open.

In this culture where sometimes people dim the lights and try to make you feel like it’s just you and Jesus—we can do that at home. But when we get together as a body, we’re there to worship as the church.

So we need to be aware of the person to the left and the person to the right of us, because that’s another person that the Lord has redeemed. That’s another person who is part of the body. That’s another person you were saved with and are being saved with. So it’s this communal aspect.

Some of the things that are helpful in creating a sense of community and a communal awareness that we are worshiping together are just three things that I’ve got down here.

One is choosing corporate songs. Sihle spoke about as well, these are songs about the body coming together to worship, and also including songs that are a call to worship.

I’m reminded of one of the songs that my grandmother used to love. You know you’re old when you’re starting to say, “There’s this song that my grandmother used to love.”

But there was this song my grandmother used to love…

Right. That song is not just worship itself; it’s a call to worship.

Are you with me? We’re saying “Masimonge.” (Let us thank him.)

It’s that we’re saying, collectively, “Brother, sister…” It’s that call to worship.

Again, choosing songs that make us aware that we are worshiping the Lord together, songs that call us corporately and together to lift our eyes and fix them on Him.

“Oh come, let us adore Him.”

Again, those songs of call to worship.

A lot of songs in today’s gospel music culture are about the individual because it’s very much about me and Jesus, my struggle, and Jesus saved me—whatever it is.

I think there are some incredible songs, and there’s a place for that. But when we come into the corporate space, we need to change it from “me” to “us,” or from “my worship” to “our worship.” We need to pluralize things so that we are aware that we’re doing this together.
Sometimes it’s just a simple tweak to a song.

You know, a song like…
That’s a powerful song. But if we’re going to sing it corporately, we can just make that simple change.
See, the song still sings, right?
What was that other one? “Way Maker.”
“Way Maker, Miracle Worker, Promise Keeper, Light in the Darkness, our God, that is who You are.”
It still sings.
And all of a sudden it’s “our God.” On your own, it’s “my God,” right?

But when we get together, simple things like that create an awareness that we’re doing this together.

So, you choose corporate songs, and then the other thing is that we create a corporate sound—or make a corporate sound. Sorry.
One of the things that I always chat about with different worship leaders or worship teams and I ask people, “What have been some of the most meaningful times of worship in song that you’ve experienced?”

Nine times out of ten, people will say it’s that moment when the people in the room are singing the song. It’s not about me being the chorus leader, or my voice being heard, or our sound being heard, but the people engaging in worship—when you’re hearing the voice of the room, not the voice of the soloist.

You see this throughout Scripture. Throughout Scripture, you never really have the idea of a chorus leader or a worship leader, but you have the idea of the community, or the people, worshiping.

You do have moments where someone starts a song, but then the people join in.
You also see this idea of a mixed multitude. When you read the book of Revelation, it speaks of people from every nation, every tribe, every tongue, singing and crying out. You don’t get the sense that so-and-so sang a solo and you heard the soprano. You get the sense of one voice.

The thing is, then it becomes one voice. Those who can sing and those who can’t sing—it doesn’t matter. When we’re all singing out loud, you can’t hear who’s on key and who’s off key. It’s all just one voice.

So we need to create cultures where we allow the voices of the people to be heard. For those who can sing, that’s a discipline that you need to exercise at times. It’s not about your gifting. Your gifting needs to create space so that the voice of the people of God can be heard.

Are you with me?

Some of the things that help with this are practical. If you’re teaching a new song, actually have the lyrics up where possible, or have them written so people can follow what you are singing.

It’s a simple and practical thing, and that’s why we had hymnbooks. It’s so that people could actually sing together.
Can you imagine having to learn “Amazing Grace” for the first time?

The other thing that’s helpful is to repeat songs. It’s okay to repeat songs, brothers. You don’t always have to do the new thing, the current thing. For people to learn songs, you need repetition. And so, repeat songs.

I think sometimes, even in today’s culture, it’s all about, “What’s that fresh anointing? What’s the new thing?”
No, no, no.
If it’s biblical, if it’s sound doctrine, we can use songs from way back. Those songs are still valid today. It’s not all about the new thing. The principle in Scripture is that you add the new onto the shoulders of the old—treasures new and old. We receive all of it.

Create A Corporate Culture

Thirdly, to create a corporate culture.

This is a big one for me. When I talk about a corporate culture, I mean a culture of doing what we are singing. Do what we sing.

We need to move away from this thing of singing particular lyrics and not actually doing them. Are you with me?

Here’s the problem with that: when we do it, we disciple each other into the idea that we can confess something and not have to follow it up with an action.

So it’s no wonder that so many of us can sing and weep in church, but nothing changes when we leave church.

All right?

Also consider as we are receiving people. If someone who has never worshiped the Lord before comes to their first worship service and they hear us singing the lyric, “Oh, we bow and worship You,” and no one in the room is actually bowing, what is that saying to that person?
It’s saying, “Here we say things. We confess things. But we don’t necessarily follow them up with the necessary action.”

Right?

So, even now—a kind rebuke. We were singing a lyric in that last song that we sang. Help me. Sorry.
Yes. What was that lyric? Yes. Right. And I was looking around the room. Were we “khotama -ing?” (bowing down) Or even half-khotama-ing?
All right?And so it’s that thing: Sing the lyric and follow it up with the action.

And bowing is a biblical action.

In actual fact, the first mention of worship is found in Genesis 18:2. Abraham has an encounter with the Lord, and when he encounters the Lord, he bows down, face to the earth, and then begins to serve a meal to the Lord.

That’s the Hebrew word shachah. Shachah means to bow down, to be face down. That’s what it is to worship—to bow down, to go face down before someone of high standing, high status, or someone who is worthy of worship.

You see it again in Genesis 19:1. Lot encounters the angels of the Lord. He does the same thing. He bows down, and then he does something—he prepares a meal for them.

Then you find it also in Genesis 22 with Abraham and Isaac. That’s often the text that people reference as the first mention of worship. But again, Abraham goes to offer up a sacrifice to the Lord.

So worship, in its essence, is humbling yourself. It’s bowing down before the One that you are worshiping. Before you even sing songs, it’s a posture of your heart.

I know some people might say, “Yeah, but it’s not my culture,” or, “I’m not comfortable.”

Some people say, “I am bowing inside.” I’ve heard that before. “In my heart, I’m bowing.”

No. What are you talking about? Can you imagine? “Ah Father God, I’m bowing on the inside!”
No. We need to do these things.

In places where I’ve seen this actioned out, guys, you don’t know how powerful it is when we sing, “Bow down and worship Him, worship Him,” and then you see everyone bow down in one accord.

Man, the sense of reverence and awe that comes down in that room, where everyone is saying, “Guys, we are here to worship. We are here to worship.”

And as a community, this is how we respond in worship to the King of kings and Lord of lords.It’s not just a lyric. So I really want to encourage you in this. If we’re going to sing these things, then let’s do them.

One of the things that bugs me about today’s culture is that we often sing about praising the Lord, but we don’t praise the Lord.
We’ll sing, “Oh, we’re going to praise Him,” or, “We’re going to lift up a shout,” and no one is lifting up a shout.
So let’s be mindful.

And I’m guessing in this room there are many of us who are song leaders, worship leaders, or music directors. Challenge the communities that you lead to do these things.

Even say beforehand, “Hey, brothers, we’re going to sing about bowing down. Can we bow down before the Lord as we sing this?”
We need to instruct, train, and disciple our people to act out what we are singing. It’s such an important one.

Songs For Your Context

The last thought I want to add into the mix here is with regard to the types of songs that we sing or choose.
There has to be consideration of our context, or considerations pertaining to our context. Where do we find ourselves? Where is your church? What type of community are you a part of? You’ve got to think about your demographic. Who is in your community? Who are the people you are worshiping with? Who are the people you are serving?

Think about that.

I used to lead at a church on a university campus, and it was pretty much people from 18 to about 24 or 25 years old. The songs that we would sing there were different from the songs we would sing in a community church because of the type of people we were ministering to.

Does that make sense?

You’ve got to consider the audience. Consider where they come from. Consider their language. Consider the area they’re from. Consider their age. Consider even gender.

There are some songs that ladies can easily sing, but men would be like, “Hai…”

Especially in some of the more Western CCM songs, there are a lot of these love songs to Jesus—almost like “Jesus is my boyfriend.”
The ladies are happy singing that because they can relate to Jesus as their lover, or the lover of their soul. You know the type. But for some men, that’s not going to work.

So, again, consider your audience and choose songs that are appropriate for where you find yourself.
Consider also the mix of people. If you have different generations within your congregation, look for songs that can serve the different generations. It’s not just about one generation.

Some older people these days don’t want to come to some of our churches because it’s just too loud. They would be happy with just a piano, maybe an organ, or even just a cappella singing.

So we need to find ways to accommodate each other with these different types of songs.

Part of the challenge with this in today’s modern church is sometimes based on that third category of church that Sihle mentioned: encounter. A lot of churches are so bent around people having this incredible spiritual experience when they walk away from church.
It’s that thing when people say, “Yo, that worship was powerful today!”

And that’s a statement I never really understand, because is it not the same God that we’re worshiping? What you’re actually trying to say is, “They played my songs today.” Because it was about you.

And so, because of that, and because of this consumeristic culture that we’ve sometimes created, everything now is tailored to be smooth. All the songs must be in the right key.

Transitions, you know, we can’t have any silence. Everything just needs to be slick.

Because of this, we can’t accommodate different types of songs and different types of people within our space because we want the experience to be smooth, without one mistake.

You know, the worst thing as a musician on stage at a church is when someone plays the wrong note. The way the Pastor will look!
Right? You know what I’m talking about.

And sometimes, you know, there’s that moment—you know, when you’re in E minor, and it’s that “Holy Spirit moment,” because apparently He only comes when we’re playing in the minor key, right?

Then someone dares to do something wrong, and people get angry.”You’re breaking the moment!”

Guys, How powerful do we think the Holy Spirit is? Do we really think that a wrong key…Are you serious? All of a sudden, you play a wrong note and the Holy Spirit has left the room?

So again, we must be okay with things not being as slick. Things can be messy.

Obviously, we want songs that flow well. We want songs in the right key, or songs that work together musically. Those things matter. But they don’t have to be perfect.

The point is that if I’m shifting keys to accommodate someone, then I’m shifting keys to accommodate someone. Everyone is getting to engage in this corporate experience of worship.

It’s not just about one person or one group. We’re accommodating each other. We’re being hospitable to each other.
And you know what, guys? That is biblical, and that is godly.

So we need to move away from this idea of perfectly slick services and be okay with some disjointedness.

I think I’ve spent more time on that than I would have liked.

The other thing is location—where your church is situated.

An interesting thing in South Africa: if you want to plant a church where black people are, you need a piano. If you don’t have anything else, have a piano.

If you want to plant a church where white people are, if you don’t have anything else, have a guitar. It all depends. Again, it’s a simple thing, but where the church is located matters. The location matters.

I remember seeing a post on Facebook once. I think Kirk Franklin was releasing a new album, and this was just after Travis Greene and Jonathan McReynolds had released albums. Someone commented, “We’re tired of all these people with guitars.”
Because they were saying, you know, in black music, there needs to be a piano. If there’s no piano, then…

Right.

Anyway, just simple things like that—considering where your church is located and who the people are that you’re ministering to.
The other thing is considering resources. What resources do you have? What human resources do you have? What equipment do you have?
You might want to do these huge arrangements, but you don’t have the musicians and you don’t have the equipment. You need to consider what you have and work with what you have. Choose songs that fit the personnel you have and the equipment that you have.

There’s nothing more discouraging as a musician than someone giving you a song that has a sixteen-piece band and asking you to replicate that sound.

There’s nothing more discouraging than someone giving you a song that has a huge choir sound and then asking a few people to sing it.

So again, consider who you have and work with what you have, guys.

You don’t have to be like the next church.
God is faithful. God wants you to use what you have. As you grow and continue on, He will add as He deems fit.

Are you with me?

For those of you who come from small churches and only have a few people, don’t be discouraged. Having lots of musicians is not the goal. The goal is that God is worshiped. The goal is that Jesus is glorified.

Are you with me?

So we must stop this comparison: “Oh, they’re doing such-and-such.” No. Work with what you have. Don’t despise what you have. Honor the Lord with what you have.

One of the blessings—and curses—that has come with load shedding is that load shedding has shown churches flames and worship leaders.
I know, because we’ve become so accustomed to microphones, bands, and all these things.
Then all of a sudden the power is gone. Okay, now what? Now what?

Do we stop singing?

Because we’ve become so dependent on instruments and sound systems to worship the Lord. We need to be able to worship the Lord without these things. And so we need to train each other, train ourselves, to be able to do this.

I was in Kenya about a month ago, visiting a church. I was about to go up to minister, and the power died.
Right? So I could have just said, “All right, guys, sorry.” No. You’ve got to learn to lead the people in song.
That’s one of the things that, as Africans, we have an advantage over Westerners in: we know how to sing a cappella. We don’t even have to teach harmony.

It’s crazy, guys.

I’ve been in places where people use tracks, where it tells you what you must sing next. When people don’t have instruments, they don’t know what to do.

But we can sing anytime, anywhere. So again, don’t despise what we have as a people. We must learn to sing.

I would say that any person involved in the ministry of music should always know songs that they can lead people in without instrumentation. That must be standard for you.

Are you with me?

Again, there’s just something powerful about singing together.

All right.

Your Own Songs For Your Community

So, in closing, my last thought—which is something that I’m very passionate about—is what we would call indigenous songs, the songs of the land.
I’m passionate about songwriting. I’m passionate about training songwriters because I believe we need to sing our own songs.
Not that other people’s songs are bad. It’s good to sing other people’s songs. But there’s something special about us writing our own songs.
So I want to encourage you guys to find songs that speak to what God has done, what God is doing, and what God has promised to do in your community.

When I approach songwriting, that’s what I do. I think, “God, what have You done in this community? What are You doing in this community? How can we put it to song? And what have You promised to do in this community?”

The thing is, when you look at communities, different things are happening in those communities. We can’t all be singing the same songs.
Yes, there will be songs that can be sung across communities, but we also have a responsibility to be an encouragement to our specific community. So we need to find songs that speak to our context.

Usually, communities have particular things that they are good at, and communities have particular things that they struggle with. Maybe you’re seeing a high rate of addiction in your church—alcoholism, drug addiction.

How are you responding to that in song? Do you hear what I’m saying?

You need to add to your liturgy songs about freedom, songs about deliverance for your community, songs that give people hope that Jesus can break those chains of addiction.

But maybe you go to another community, and that’s not the case.

Maybe there divorce is rife. Maybe in another community it’s wealth. They don’t want to be generous people.
We need to sing songs that say, “Jesus, take my everything. All that I have is Yours. You are my treasure.”

Do you get what I’m saying?

But it takes people within those communities to come together and discern: “What is the need, song-wise, in this community, and how can we sing into that?”

Not always, “Okay, what’s the hot gospel song right now? Because they’re really going to move with this song.”

What if that song isn’t relevant to your context? That’s why I’m passionate about this. Communities need to write songs for their communities, while also using songs from all over the place.

Are you with me? All right. I’ll end it there.

Let me pray for us, and then I’ll hand over.

Jesus, thank You for the privilege of getting to come before You and worship You as a body.

Thank You for songs through which we can lift up our adoration. We can lift up our song. We can honor You as a people.

Help us in this. Help us to be faithful in this, in our choosing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.
Cause us to be of one voice.

Even as the book of Revelation speaks of a people from every nation, every tribe, and every tongue gathered together in one cry, may we lift up this one cry to You as a body.

As You taught us to pray, “On earth as it is in heaven.”
We know that there is that oneness in heaven. May it be reflected here on earth as we gather together as a body.

I pray, Jesus, that we would be mindful of the songs that we sing. That we would be mindful of the communities that we’re part of. May we be faithful in not just choosing what serves us and what ministers to us, but in carrying the body. Cause us and teach us to carry the body.
Also, may we make room and make space for each other, considering everyone who is in the room.

I pray particularly for new songs to be written, for courage to step out and sing the songs that You would place on our mouths and tongues. Give us songs that declare who You are. Give us songs that make us aware of each other.

Give us songs that proclaim hope and proclaim the redemption that is now and the redemption that is coming. Help us and fill us with Your Spirit, we pray.

Amen.