“You can’t summon the nations to sing if you aren’t singing. Our job in missions is, first, to sing.”

–John Piper (sermon: “Declare His Glory among the Nations”)

All the ‘new songs’ in heaven are about old things.

–John Piper (sermon: “Declare His Glory among the Nations”)

A Church of Scotland minister was visiting his Anglican friend in north of England during the 19th century. As they were getting ready to leave the vestry to enter the sanctuary where the Pres-byterian minister was going to give the message, the Anglican said to him, ‘Your vestments are right there.’

‘Oh, do I have to wear them?’

‘No.’

‘Well good, then I will.’

–source unknown

The clergy’s eagerness not to panic the Shepherd’s sheep must never become an excuse to represent the crassest kind of schmoozing, the kitschiest sort of art, and the limpest displays of intellect as worthy offerings in worship.

–Daniel Frankforter, Stones for Bread: A Critique of Contemporary Worship, 71

Most of Ephesians 4 and all of Ephesians 5 address what it means to live as children of light, or  more conventionally, what it means to live holy lives.  Paul gives many commands and  instructions, but ultimately men and women are made holy by the Spirit who is called Holy.   Therefore Paul’s command in Eph. 5:18—“Be filled with the Holy Spirit”—is the culmination of  these chapters, both rhetorically and theologically.  The passive imperative—“be filled”—is  followed by four subordinate participial clauses:  (1) speaking to one another in songs, hymns,  and spiritual songs; (2) singing and making music in your hearts; (3) giving thanks to the Lord;  (4) submitting to one another. These participles are grammatically dependent upon the verb,  and they give substance and content to the command to be filled with the Spirit. And  remarkably, two of the four clauses—three of the five participles—have to do with making  music.

–Stephen R. Guthrie, “Singing, in the Body and in the Spirit,”  Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 46/4 (December 2003),  639.

Finally, it is at the climax of these warnings and exhortations [in Ephesians 4 and 5] that Paul writes: “Be filled with the
Spirit.  Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.  Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord” (5:18‐19).  In other words, to a Christian community surrounded by
ignorance and immorality; to a people who themselves were prone to the blindness and
indulgence of their former way of life; at the conclusion of a passage warning against
irrationality and sins of the flesh—Paul urges singing and music making. . . . Paul shares the
same broad concerns as Augustine and Calvin, but the recommendation emerging from those
concerns is entirely different.  To put it very crudely, Augustine says: “Irrationality is bad.
Sensuality is bad.  Therefore, be careful about music.”  Paul on the other hand says, “Foolishness
is bad.  Sensuality is bad.  Therefore, you had better sing.”]

–Stephen R. Guthrie, “Singing, in the Body and in the Spirit,”  Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 46/4 (December 2003), 638.

All devotion, all attention should be concentrated upon the Word in the hymn. . . . [We] do not
hum a melody; we sing words of praise to God, words of thanksgiving, confession and prayer.
Thus the music is completely the servant of the Word.

–Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 43

A few words as to how God looks at our music making. . . . Music making is an offering to God; . . as musically magnificent as the offering might be, it has no special merit; and . . the condition of the offerer’s faith takes precedence over the time, circumstance, and quality of the art. There is only one way to God, through Jesus Christ, author and finisher. All sacrifices, living and inanimate, are saved to the uttermost when they come to God through Christ. This means that God sees and hears all of our offerings, perfected. God sees and hears as no human being can, all because our offerings have been perfected by the giver. The out-of-tune singing of an ordinary believer, the hymnic chant of the aborigine, the dance of a Barishnikov, the open frankness of a primitive art piece, the nearly transcendent “Kyrie” of Bach’s B Minor Mass, the praise choruses of the charismatic, the drum praise of the Cameroonian—everything from the widow’s mite to the poured-out ointment of artistic action—are at once humbled and exalted by the strong saving work of Christ. While the believer offers, Christ perfects. It is all of Christ and it is all by faith.

–Harold Best, Music Through the Eyes of Faith, 155-56

Thou God of all grace,

Thou hast given me a Saviour,
produce in me a faith to live by him,
to make him all my desire,
all my hope,
all my glory.

May I enter him as my refuge,
build on him as my foundation,
walk in him as my way,
follow him as my guide,
conform to him as my example,
receive his instructions as my prophet,
rely on his intercession as my high priest,
obey him as my king.

May thy dear Son preserve me from this present evil world,
so that its smiles never allure,
nor its frowns terrify,
nor its vices defile,
nor its errors delude me.

May I feel that I am a stranger and a pilgrim on earth,
declaring plainly that I seek a country,
my title to it becoming daily more clear,
my meetness for it more perfect,
my foretastes of it more abundant;
and whatsoever I do may it be done
in the Saviour’s name.

–The Valley of Vision

Every now and then I dream about a hypothetical theological curriculum in which students would come on the first day of seminary not to the classroom but to the chapel. There they would participate in a rich, full, and well-planned service of worship. The rest of the three-year curriculum would be an exegesis of that act of worship. Who is the God who was both cause and object of that worship? Why were ancient Scriptures read and how did they function? Why these Scriptures and not others? What kind of ethical life is implied in this act of worship and why? What kind of community is required to engage in this act of worship, and what resources of care and education do they need to sustain their life together? A thousand questions could be asked; and to answer them the full array of disciplines and courses present in the theological school would required.

But of course my dream curriculum is not hypothetical at all. The act of worship which serves as its unity and focus occurs in congregations every week. It is in the church that everything comes together.

–Thomas G. Long, “The Essential Untidiness of Ministry,” in From Midterms to Ministry: Practical Theologians on Pastoral Beginnings, ed. Allan Hugh Cole, Jr., [Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2008], 7