Why I Love to Sing in the Choir
I have always loved music, and I love to sing; but the reasons that I love to sing in my church choir are are so much deeper than that. Here are the top ten reasons why I love to sing in the choir at my church:
MY TOP TEN REASONS FOR JOYFULLY SINGING IN THE CHURCH CHOIR
1. Singing in my church choir gives me an opportunity to express my love for the Lord.
I am so thankful for God’s love and mercy and for the sacrificial life and death of Jesus and the victory of His resurrection. How else could I express the profound spiritual understanding of the goodness of God that goes beyond words and is only revealed in my heart through the work of God’s Holy Spirit? It is only through musical praise that I feel I have done all that I can do, with God’s help, to share the message of God’s salvation and His incredible love for me and for all of mankind.
“O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon His name; make known His deeds among the people. Sing unto Him, sing psalms unto Him; talk of all His wondrous works. Glory in His holy name; let the heart of those who seek the Lord rejoice.” Psalm 105:1 – 3
2. Singing in my church choir is more than a hobby or an activity. It is a calling.
What an incredible privelege it is to know that God has allowed me to have the ability to participate in something that brings Him glory in the congregation! He has made each of us with particular gifts and talents. I believe that the calling to minister through these gifts is what gives faithful choir members the passion to continue their service and to strive for excellence in expressing their praise to the Lord. There is a lot of * JOY * in fulfilling your calling and in giving praise to the Lord, who has given us everything we’ve ever had and all that we ever will have!
My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast! I will sing and make melody! Awake, my soul! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn! I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the peoples, I will sing praises to You among the nations. For Your steadfast love is great above the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let Your glory be over all the earth.” Psalm 108:1 – 5
Lift up His name!
3. Singing in my church choir allows for a type of expression of praise to the Lord that could not be accomplished in any other way.
Although I love all kinds of music and all kinds of arrangements, there are some songs, some lyrics, and some messages that just would not have the same intensity of expression if they were shared in any other way other than choral singing. The Hallelujah Chorus is one such example. Can you imagine it as a solo? It just would not have the same impact. There is something about voices joined together as a choir to share a message for God’s glory that is just a very unique means of expression. Although Tom Fettke’s “The Majesty and Glory of Your Name” or Heather Sorenson’s “God of Heaven” would still have a beautiful melody when sung as a solo, the impact would not be as great as if a choir were singing these worshipful anthems and joining their hearts and souls to bring glory to God in a soaring or contemplative or victorious or joyous choral arrangement.
“Let them thank the Lord for His steadfast love, for His wonderful works to the sons of men! And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of His deeds in songs of joy!” Psalm 107:21 & 22
4. Singing in my church choir allows me to participate in the overall ministry of leading in worship, which is a joy and a privelege.
As long as I have a voice, I want to use it to praise God. I don’t want to miss an opportunity to use my voice and even the expression on my face to proclaim God’s goodness through all of the musical praise during congregational worship. I realize that the choir is not just there to sing an anthem or to perform. We are there to worship and to lead in worship. Whether we are singing a new song or an old song, a hymn, a worship song, a choral anthem, or a musical benediction, it is a joy to share these messages of hope and faith with the people of God and to gather in God’s name for the purpose of bringing Him glory.
“Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! Let them exalt Him also in the congregation of the people, and praise Him in the assembly of the elders.” Psalm 107:31 & 32
5. Singing in my church choir and in other Christian choirs has given me many opportunities to share the good news of Jesus Christ in many settings, throughout my home country and in other countries as well.
Whether a choir is singing in an outdoor setting, a shopping mall, a small church, a prison, a nursing home or assisted living center, a juvenile detention center, a community center, a state capitol building, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D. C., or in a great concert hall in Australia or a public school in Russia, the opportunity to bring glory to God and to share the message of His love and mercy and grace is a blessing and an incredibly humbling miracle of God’s grace! If God had not saved a wretch like me, I would have no message to share anywhere!
“Make a joyful moise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness; come fefore His presence with singing. Know that the Lord is God; it is He that has made us and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise; be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good: His mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations.” Psalm 100 (all verses, 1 – 5)
Psalm 107:8
6. Singing in my church choir and in other Christian choirs has implanted incredibly profound messages within my heart and soul through the lyrics of the songs that I have been able to sing.
I have been incredibly blessed to invest time in learning these wonderful words and then have had the blessing of remembering them so often as the Lord uses them to speak to my heart over and over again. Often, the words of sacred choral anthems are either entirely scripture, based upon scripture, are paraphrases of scripture, or contain some scriptural content. Singing them helps me to learn and to remember scripture passages and spiritual truths. As a choir member, I am not just singing these songs once a week on Sunday morning. Because of the work aspect that goes into preparation for sharing these messages in worship, we really live with these incredible words, and they have a deep impact in our lives. What a joy it is to sing these messages, live these truths, and share these words of truth and hope, faith and love, blessing and victory, challenge and mercy, and ministry and grace!
“O sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless His name; show forth His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people. For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised.” Psalm 96:1 – 4a
7. Singing in my church choir and in other Christian choirs has allowed me to get to know so many wonderful people who love the Lord and have a heart of service.
A choir becomes a family as we serve together and care for one another. We pray for one another. We love each other and share God’s love with each other. There is an incredible bond when you have worshiped and cried and smiled and laughed and worked and learned and prayed together. I can sing a wrong note or sing in the wrong place, and my choir family just considers such things to be part of the process of learning the music and growing in faith and in musical expression together. I have never heard anyone groan or complain about singing the same portion of a song over and over in order to get it right. We embrace our humanity as we strive to sing beyond our own abilities in order to bring God glory.
“Blessed are those who dwell in Thy house, ever singing Thy praise! Selah” Psalm 84:4
8. Singing in my church choir allows me to participate in something that is so much bigger than my self.
“O come, let us sing unto the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In His hand are the deep places of the earth; the strength of the hills is His also. The sea is His, and He made it; and His hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.” Psalm 95:1 – 7a
9. I believe that singing praise to God is the closest thing to Heaven that I can experience on this earth.
What could be better than the times when I have the blessing of joining my own voice and heart with the voices and hearts of a group of people whose desire is to praise God, encourage God’s people, share the story of who God is and what He has done, tell the good news of Jesus, and bring blessing and honor and glory to God? The Bible speaks of the singers and the musicians and of choirs. The scriptures talk about the voice of God and how He rejoices over us with singing. There is something special about the way that God created us to use music as a form of expression that goes far beyond words. If is much more that the music itself. It is about how God Himself speaks through the music and then allows us to speak to Him and about Him through the music.
“And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, ‘Great and wonderful are Thy deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are Thy ways, O King of the ages! Who shall not fear and glorify Thy name, O Lord? For Thou alone art Holy. All nations shall come and worship Thee, for Thy judgements have been revealed.” Revelation 15:3 & 4
10. I love to sing in my church choir and in other Christian choirs because of the incredible songs that God has inspired men and women to write, which then become part of my own spiritual journey.
I believe that before a spiritual song can touch the hearts of people, God must first touch the heart of the song-writer (composer) of the song. I believe (and know!) that every song begins with a revelation of truth from God or a new way of looking at or expressing a truth already known. It is like experiencing my own spiritual journey as I try, then make mistakes, and then try again in rehearsal, while simultaneously experiencing the revelations that flow from the spiritual journeys of others. I have learned so much, and my own journey has been blessed beyond words by the profound spiritual truth that I have learned through the songs I’ve been priveleged to sing with my brothers and sisters in Christ. To me, a choir rehearsal is not just working on music. It is a time of worship. I have wept as my heart has been moved by the message of a song. I have reached out to grab the hand of a friend. I have felt my heart swell until I thought I might burst. I have experienced joy so great that I was amazed to find my feet still on the floor. My soul has been convicted and stirred. My heart has been broken and mended and strengthened and challenged. My faith has grown. I have walked through deep valleys and enjoyed the view from some mountaintops… all while praising the Lord through the songs that he has inspired men and women to write and then to arrange for choir, for the blending and unity of hearts and minds and souls as we learn and grow and rejoice together in this lovely, human expression of the eternal and divine that we call choir.
“The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. Then Hezekiah commanded that the burnt offering be offered on the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song to the Lord began also, and the trumpets, accompanied by the instruments of David king of Israel. The whole assembly worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished. When the burnt offering was finished, the king and all who were present with him bowed themselves and worshipped. And Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praises to the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed down and worshipped.” II Chronicles 29:26 – 30
What a blessing a joy it has been to sing in church choirs and in other choirs made up of my brothers and sisters in Christ! I will continue to praise the Lord through choral music for as long as I have the opportunity. I am so thankful to God for my salvation and for His presence in my life. I cannot help but sing.
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This post was written by Cynthia A. Boyd