Every week Christians all over the world gather together. At some point in their gathering they usually sing. Depending on the style of meeting they may sing from a hymnbook or by following words on a screen; from a stapled songsheet or by memory. But they do sing. Either they sing to God (as in contemporary worship services) or about God (as in traditional services), or a mixture of both.
Early disciples of Jesus must have engaged in both these types of singing as well. But there was another feature to their singing which is often overlooked. Paul refers to this unusual practice in Ephesians 5:19:
Address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.
Here Paul encourages the saints to sing not only to God but to one another. In Colossians he says basically the same thing, only with an emphasis on teaching and admonishing one another through song (Colossians 3:16).
When was the last time you were part of a church meeting where the members sang directly to one another? Yeah, it’s been a while for me, too.
At any rate, it’s a great practice which I highly recommend. I’ve seen it done and I’ve done it myself a time or two. I’ve even had it done to me. Below are the words of a song which was written as a gift for me and my wife by two friends of ours when they first moved to our town. It goes a little something like this:
We’re so glad to be here
With the saints and with our friends
For here we have a fellowship in the Spirit that never ends
We’re here to discover Jesus
Who lives inside of you
For we are His church even if we are few
(CHORUS)
We thank God for you (2x)
Now to Him who’s faithful and true
We give thanks, we give thanks for you
Very nice lyrics, if you ask me. I can remember the feeling in my heart the moment I first heard them coming from the mouths of my friends. The impact remains with me to this day. All I can hope is that one day I will once again be part of a community of people who care enough about each other to do unusual things like sing to one another.
And of course, I hope the same for you. 
Thanks Josh. The only time I ever experienced something along these lines was when our fellowship joined some believers from one of the local churches (Lord’s Recovery) for fellowship. What a blessing it was!
Tobie,
Indeed, I’m sure it was. Where are you located? Which church was it you fellowshipped with?
We live in Bloemfontein, South Africa (Tolkien’s birthplace- our main claim to fame!). There is a wonderful Chinese brother, by the name of John Hwang, who is a full time worker in the church in Pretoria. His father knew Watchman Nee and his family were quite involved with the work in China, so it’s fascinating to speak to him. He comes down to Bloem every now and again to minister to a group here and so our fellowship got together with them.
brother, I have the experience of singing hymns and songs to one another, and it is wonderful! One of the most practical ways to do it is to sing a song to your spouse! This is very sanctifying, and it is just like “the washing of the water in the Word”.
Singing to one another and declaring the verses of the songs to one another – a very sweet way to enjoy our precious Lord and also to enjoy the spirit of our fellow believers!
Great idea and very true, Stefan. It is a sweet experience. One of my favorite things to do in a meeting is sing together with the saints.
I came here from The Assembling of The Church, by Alan Knox.
To play off your brilliant post, I would say that each and every local ekklesia in Christ should be writing and singing their own worship/praise songs.
Yes. Their own. I refuse to believe that the worship and praise of our Father needs to be bound up in a clever songbook with guitar tabs, or taken from Top 40 Christian Radio!, written by someone else’s hands who are not directly related to us in our local ekklesia.
In 2001 I sat down with a brother of mine named Florida Wayne (Wayne Haines) and we wrote 7 worship songs together, with relatively no effort. The Spirit moved my pen and nudged Wayne’s guitar hand, and next thing we know, we had 7 songs. It can be done, believe me.
Hello, Donald.
I agree. It can’t be anything but good when brothers and sisters write their own songs to sing in the assembly. Thanks for sharing your own experience.
Newton and Cowper wrote an entire hymnbook from scratch (Olney hymns). Still after hearing some of the improvisation of the ‘Jesus Culture’ folks, to me the repetition gets old. I’m not sure about the “top 40″ but there is something to be said for carefully selecting songs…not all are pearls. I have been impressed with the songs of Robin Mark…he seems to put more than two phrases (repeated 23 times) into his lyrics.
Incidentally, depending on your translation, the emphasis in Ephesians does not seem so much to be on singing AT one another as on singing in each other’s presence, and in Colossians it is not clear that the admonishing is THROUGH the singing. In both passages there is reference to singing in the heart as well.
Thanks, Tom.
You’re right that the emphasis on singing to one another is not overboard in these verses, but it is there nonetheless. Not that it’s worth squabbling over.
I’ve also enjoyed some of Robin Mark’s music in the past. It’s been a while since I’ve listened to anything new of his, though.
Thanks, again!