We need to sing more than songs of praise

The collection of songs typically sung in Christian churches are heavily weighted towards praise songs. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It is a fundamental truth that Christians will want to thank God for what He has done! It is great to be given thoughtful words to sing that express our thankfulness to the One who loved us first. We certainly need songs like that.

Yet we are not always going to feel like praising God. All of us have emotional ups and downs as well as changing circumstances in our lives. There are times we need to confess our sins rather than just praise. There will be other times we need to express our feelings of uncertainty and be reminded of our future hope. There will be those who are mourning who need to know of God’s love but don’t feel particularly positive at that moment. Our emotional range is more than praise.

The Psalms show the full range of human emotion. We see songs of lamentation, where most or all of the song is taken up with complaints to God. We see songs of confession. We see songs to be sung at festival times and songs to be sung at coronations. We see songs that remind us of God’s past grace and others that point us to future glory. God’s people have always needed that kind of range.

In the modern church, the Psalms remain helpful. However, they are not the only songs we are permitted to sing. We know this because there are many songs in books like Revelation that focus on the work of Jesus, and there are hymn-like sections in the letters as well. It is right to sing the Psalms, but if they are all we sing, we won’t be singing about the One which the Psalms point forward to in direct terms.

I come from a church tradition where the worship service has a shape to it, and that shape helps us choose appropriate songs at appropriate times. We always open with a song that focusses us on God rather than ourselves. We have a time of confession of sin, which might include either a song that expresses this or might be followed with a song that reminds us of God’s forgiveness in the gospel. We try to select some songs that tie in with the Bible reading and theme of the sermon that day, one in preparation to hear and one in response to hearing. That means we automatically include a range of different songs every week. If your church doesn’t have this kind of shape to the service, but has a worship time for singing then a teaching time, you need to be more aware of choosing a range within the time you have allocated.

Singing means expressing emotion. It is important that Christians don’t only express praise and joy. We need to pour out all that we feel and think before our God, even on the days when we feel low and are struggling. Singing can be a great encouragement to those who need to be reminded of the gospel.