Why Sing?

The Song of the Redeemed

Wherefore I sing. Yet since my heart,
Though press’d, runnes thin;
O that I might some other hearts convert,
And so take up at use good store:
That in thy chest there might be coming in
Both all my praise, and more!
-- George Herbert Praise III

Sing to the Lord, you saints of his; praise his holy name.
-- Psalm 30:4

A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard it [music] as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs.              -- Martin Luther

Paul’s midnight voice prevailed; his music’s thunder
Unhinged the prison doors, split bolts in sunder:
And sittest thou here, and hangest the feeble wing?
And whinest to be enlarged?  Soul, learn to sing!
-- Francis Quarles

Sing to make Satan angry.  He has vexed the saints, let us vex him!
-- C. H. Spurgeon

Eugene Peterson says that “persons who worship sing.  In the church’s life hymnbooks are prayer books.  Worship stirs deep responses of adoration which are formed into rhythms and melodies of gratitude, and enlists the voices of creatures from every corner and century, putting them tunefully to work in praise.”  REVERSED THUNDER, page 68