Upward & Outward Singing
Exhortation | Lord's Day—March 23, AD 2025
From King David’s development of Israel’s liturgical worship to the gatherings of the early Church, congregational singing has always been an important element of the worship of God.
However, by the late medieval period, these wonderful songs had grown quiet in the Lord’s house. While the gathered saints still sung a few liturgical hymns, the majority of the singing was now performed by the clergy or the choir, and it was not in the people’s native tongue. And so part of the great work of the Reformation was returning the singing in worship back to the congregation – to the men, women, and children in the pews – something we should be very thankful for.
Now as we sing our psalms and hymns this morning, I want to point out an important feature of our singing. As our voices are joined together, they are joined together in both a vertical and horizontal direction. There is a both a vertical and horizontal dimension to our congregational singing.
By vertical we mean that we are offering these songs upward to the Lord who is enthroned in heaven. As Psalm 100 reads, “Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with singing!” (vv. 1–2). Our singing is a joyful form of prayer. Our songs are loud and exuberant corporate prayers that ascend to God as an offering from His people. And so we sing with thanksgiving to magnify His Name in the earth.
By horizontal we mean that our singing goes outward into the ears of one another. The Apostle Paul exhorts us in Ephesians to “address one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” (Eph. 5:19). Our singing is meant to be didactic. As we do it, we are teaching, encouraging, and building up one another in our shared faith.
In his preface to the Genevan Psalter, Calvin wrote that “we know by experience that singing has great force and vigor to move and inflame the hearts of men to invoke and praise God with a more vehement and ardent zeal.” While we do not want our emotions to take center stage, it is right to have our affections stirred as we sing praises to God together.
And so the exhortation this morning is to gladly glorify the Lord your God with joyful singing. As King David wrote, “Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion. Tell among the peoples His deeds” (Ps. 9:11).