Why Christians Sing: What Worship Is (and How to Join In When You Don't Feel It)

Pure Worship Night at Jesus Festival is a strange sight if you've never seen it: thousands of people in Gage Park, hands in the air, singing to someone they can't see. Some crying. Some dancing badly and not caring. If you were there wondering what is this, and am I allowed to do it?, here's the honest answer.

Worship isn't the singing

Start here, because it fixes most of the confusion. In the Bible, worship means giving God the worth He deserves: with your whole life, not just your voice. Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service (Romans 12:1). The Greek word there is the word for worship. Your Monday is worship. How you treat your kids is worship. Singing is one way of doing it, and it happens to be the loud one.

So if you can't sing, you have lost nothing. If you can, singing is a gift, because it does something the other forms don't: it lets a whole crowd say the same true thing to God at the same time.

Why we sing anyway

• Because we were told to, over and over. The Psalms say sing more than seventy times. O come, let us sing unto the LORD (Psalm 95:1). It isn't optional decoration; it's a command, and a kind one.
• Because Jesus did. On the night before He died, when they had sung an hymn, they went out (Matthew 26:30). Facing a cross, He sang.
• Because truth sung goes deeper than truth said. You'll forget most sermons. You'll remember songs for seventy years. Paul told the church to teach each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Colossians 3:16): the songs are how the truth gets in.
• Because it's a weapon. Paul and Silas sang in a jail at midnight and the doors came open (Acts 16:25–26). Jehoshaphat sent the singers out ahead of the army (2 Chronicles 20:21–22). Singing to God in a hard place changes the place.
• Because heaven does it. The last book of the Bible is full of it: a great multitude… saying, Alleluia (Revelation 19:6). The park was a rehearsal.

What the hands and the tears are about

Raised hands are in the Bible: Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD (Psalm 134:2). It's surrender, the way a child reaches up to be held. Tears are usually relief: people realising they're loved. Dancing is in there too; David did it in the street (2 Samuel 6:14). None of it is required. None of it is performance when it's real. Do what's honest for you, and don't judge the person next to you for doing something different.

When you don't feel anything

This is the big one. You'll stand in church, everyone around you lit up, and feel nothing. Here's the secret: worship is not about your feelings. It's about His worth. He's worthy when you feel it and worthy when you don't. The Psalms are full of people singing in the dark: Why art thou cast down, O my soul? … hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him (Psalm 42:5). Yet praise. Before the feeling. Sing the truth anyway and the feeling, very often, follows. If the dryness lasts, this is what to do.

“By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.”

Hebrews 13:15 (KJV)

Sacrifice of praise. Sometimes it costs you something. That's the kind that means the most.

How to worship on a Tuesday

• Put worship music on in the car or kitchen. Sing along badly. Nobody is listening except the One it's for.
• Read a Psalm out loud as a song to God. Psalm 100 takes forty seconds.
• Say thank you for one specific thing before you check your phone. That's worship.
• Do your work well, for Him. Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord (Colossians 3:23).
• Then come back on Sunday and sing with everyone. Private worship feeds the public kind, and the public kind reminds you you're not alone. Here's how to find a church if you don't have one yet.

Next September, if the Lord wills, there will be a park full of people singing again. Come. Stand at the back if you need to. Then, when you're ready, open your mouth. He's been waiting to hear your voice in particular.