It isn’t a bit surprising that you find the Psalms and even your own attempts to develop personal prayer an ‘exercise’ rather than an ‘experience.’ One has to make up one’s mind to submit to training, including the drudgery of training; nor is one’s spiritual state...
We shouldn’t limit ourselves to major key songs! The Psalms reveal that much of the Christian life might be spent in a minor key, and it’s time that the church became honest about this reality as well. The church needs to be able to lament together, and minor key...
Good church musicians constantly ask whether the “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” of the church’s worship are sung “so that the Word of God may dwell in us richly” (the forgotten purpose clause of Col. 3:16). Good liturgical musicians worry about the link between...
Singing is a spiritual activity best experienced in community. The documented benefits are as significant as those in yoga, a healthy diet, and prayer. Our culture, however, has commodified singing and turned it into a perfected idol that is performed by the few and...
When Paul tells his churches to “let the word of Christ dwell…richly” among them by means of “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” (Col. 3:16 NIV), he’s inviting them to do more than use music as a “warm-up” to the sermon. The song is not ornamentation; it is...
Should we not remind ourselves that worship is a transitive verb? We do not meet to worship (i.e. to experience worship); we aim to worship God. “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only”; there is the heart of the matter. In this area, one must not confuse what...
Paul actually expects Christ to be encountered as his people share with one another a whole range of verbal ministries in the congregational. For example, as they “sing psalms, hymns and spiritual song,” with gratitude in their hearts to God, they will fulfill the...