Your heart and mind require a good, balanced diet of gospel truth that will build you up for your working week, your times of trial, and for each season of life. The lyrics of the songs we sing in our churches and repeat in our hearts find their way into shaping our priorities, our behavior, our loves . . . into the quiet space (or not so quiet, if you have kids) of the car journey on a Monday morning, into the language of our prayers as we fall asleep, into the answers we give “for the hope that [we] have” (1 Pet. 3:15). It always strikes us in church prayer meetings how often we hear people use phrases in their prayers that come straight from the hymns they sing.

The truth is that the songs we sing on Sunday stick with us—and so they shape us. It’s been said, rightly, that you have the people when you have their songs, perhaps even more than their sermons. That’s because truth soars on the air of a great melody. Just as food is not simply enjoyed just because it is edible, we don’t enjoy songs just because they contain truth, but because they are artistically beautiful and satisfying—they captivate us in a deeper and more durable way. Such songs thrill our minds and hearts. We can’t wait to sing them, and we never forget them.

Throughout the centuries the people of God have in huge measure learned their faith through what they sang together. Eat good soul food on a Sunday and you will find your soul growing and thriving through the week, and through your life. Here’s how that happens.

SINGING TAKES SUNDAY’S TRUTHS INTO MONDAY

The songs we sing on Sunday provide the soundtrack for our week. Singing files away the messages the lyrics convey in our minds and hearts. If we don’t sing about a particular truth, it’s very likely we’ll pray about it less and live with little thought of it. Christ-filled songs can help motivate us into a day when we would rather stay in bed than get up and face that chore or meeting or project. They support us when we lack courage and need to bolster our faith. They help us remember Scripture. They keep uprooting the weeds of worry and fear that tangle our feet and trip us up. They help us when we don’t know how to explain the gospel to a friend, but recalling a lyric gives us the words. They comfort us when we are hit with something unexpected or tragic.

Every day we wake to the sound of two voices—the one of Wisdom and the one of folly; the voice of the Lord and the voice of this fallen world. The gospel that seemed so clear and true on Sunday morning can so easily be chipped away at, twisted a little, and devalued by the messages we hear through the week. Singing deep songs of the Lord keeps the right voice loudest in our ears. To take just one example: if we start to believe the popular ideas that “Humanity is getting better,” or “With enough education, or therapy, or reasoned thought we can sort our problems,” or “God helps those who help themselves,” this song will place our feet back on gospel truth:

Nothing in my hand I bring Simply to the cross I cling Naked, come to Thee for dress Helpless, look to Thee for grace Foul, I to the fountain fly;Wash me Savior or I die (Augustus Toplady, “Rock of Ages,” 1763)

We need to sing over and over again of how we were once under the wrath of God, condemned to die, without even a hint of hope. We need to sing of how hope came from above, in human form, as the Son of God entered the world to provide a way for the salvation of all mankind. We need to sing of how . . .

he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,being made in human likeness.And being found in appearance as a man,he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,in heaven and on earth and under the earth,and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,to the glory of God the Father. (Phil. 2:7–11)

Friends, if our singing is not impacting how we process life—if it is not strengthening us, training us, encouraging us, and comforting us, then we have not unwrapped the gift that singing is to us. We’ve been playing with the wrappings.

Most of us sing at times in our week, or hum a tune that reminds us of its lyrics. Be singing what you sang on Sunday. Be singing the gospel.

Keith Getty and Kristyn Getty, Sing! How Worship Transforms Your Life, Family, and Church (Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2017).

We have just released a new Bible Study on the importance of singing.

These lessons are available on Amazon, as well as a part of Good Questions Have Groups Talking Subscription Service. Like Netflix for Bible Lessons, one low subscription gives you access to all our lessons--thousands of them. For a medium-sized church, lessons are as little as $10 per teacher per year.

Each lesson consists of 20 or so ready-to-use questions that get groups talking. Answers are provided in the form of quotes from respected authors such as John Piper, Max Lucado and Beth Moore.

These lessons will save you time as well as provide deep insights from some of the great writers and thinkers from today and generations past.  I also include quotes from the same commentaries that your pastor uses in sermon preparation.

Ultimately, the goal is to create conversations that change lives.