Thankful Worship with Joyful Songs

“Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs . . . . Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.” Ps. 100:1, 4.

Our new congregational app delivers lectionary readings (including, this week, the verses quoted above), along with congregational news and even Zoom links for participation in small groups and worship to your mobile device automatically. Here’s a link to enable this app on your device: tithely.app.link/arlington-coc.

Cohering with Ps. 100, Apostle Paul urges, “[S]peak[] to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord . . . .” Eph. 5:19. In another letter, he instructs, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” Col. 3:16.

In different places and times, God’s people have implemented these directives in various ways. In Hebrew worship, trained singers offered praise. See 1 Chron. 15:16-22; 2 Chron. 5:12-14. The back-to-back repetition of an idea within a single verse in many Psalms suggests call-and-response singing. Early Christian and medieval singing mostly used a single, chant-like line (“monophonic”). Gradually, church music became more complex, with additional independent lines (“polyphonic”).

Singing remains a vitally important aspect of Christian worship assemblies. Unaccompanied voices in our congregation offer our musical praise. And four-part harmony remains a staple for hymn singing. Doing this well requires us to engage with a song’s words (“lyrics”) and musical annotation, and to listen and respond to others as they sing.

Participants in a new small group, Gathered Singers, seek to grow their knowledge about how to sing. In the group are native speakers of either English or Spanish, and in group meetings they sing in both languages. Meetings occur monthly by appointment, usually at noon on Sundays in the meetinghouse auditorium. Our next meeting is at noon this coming Sunday, May 18, and new participants at any skill level are welcome. Materials from prior meetings are available at Gathered Singers. For more information, contact Susana Membreno or me.

-Lloyd