‘Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord’ (Ephesians 5.19, NIV).
I often ask friends for issues to tackle in this column, and every now and then a few people give me the same idea independently. This month I’d like to thank three good friends — John Pearce, Jon Ward and Andrew Joyce for prompting my brain to splutter into at least a bit of life on a grey Monday morning in November. A concern of theirs and of mine is about the nature of the words we sing to God and each other as Christians.
The concern isn’t as much about the theological content — in general, lovers of the Word are very discerning about the theology of the songs we sing. We are committed to seeing and hearing the Word of God sung so that the Word of God sinks itself into our hearts, but often it’s our commitment to this end that prevents us from achieving it.
