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Colossians 3:16 – Singing Transports Us To A Place of Healing
There was a time when I was in a bad mood – but it was time for church – so I went. I didn’t want to go…but I went. By the time the preacher got up to preach (no it wasn’t me), I was no longer in a bad mood. The singing healed me.
The story is told of a young woman on a lengthy college choir tour. By the eve of the group’s last concert, the exciting adventure had deteriorated into a grueling ordeal. Short of sleep and patience, the choir members bickered and gossiped. Perhaps sensing their fatigue, the choir director encouraged them by saying, “Tonight, sing to Deity.”
As they put on their robes and lined up, the girl pondered, “What does he mean? I guess he wants us to sing to God instead of to the audience.” After dozens of concerts, the memorized songs had become meaningless to her. Now, by focusing on this new audience of One, she would have to concentrate on the lyrics.
From the first note, the girl was unable to sing. Contemplation of those beautiful words of love and devotion to Christ brought tears that welled up and cascaded down her face. Disregarding the human audience, she mouthed the text, making it a prayer to God. The experience convicted her of pettiness, jealousy and backbiting, which she confessed as she “sang.” At intermission she asked forgiveness from those for whom she had been harboring bad feelings. During the second half of the program, she tried to pull herself together enough to sing, but could not. Heart pure and mind uncluttered, whenever she tried to sing she found herself more than ever overwhelmed with love and gratitude to God. Weeping through the entire concert, only mouthing the words, she found herself the recipient of this ministry directed to others.
I sometimes suspect that my singing has become like the first stage of this woman’s story. It is very easy for me to become like a robot in my singing. Some like to sing the same songs over and over again, never learning any new songs. I need to learn new songs just like I need to study new subjects. Singing only the same songs, the same number of songs, the same tempo to all songs, the same thing all the time can become meaningless and unhealthy for me unless intense work is involved.
In one congregation (Caneyville), the favorite song among all the song leaders was He Loved Me So. It is a beautiful song with a beautifully message – but if you eat steak every night, you will begin to want even spinach…maybe. At least half the Sundays it seemed the song leaders chose that song before the Lord’s Supper. It became hard for me to sing it with meaning…until one night when the electricity in the building went out – then we had to sing by memory. Guess which song we song?
My singing was of that song was revived that night!
“Revive Us Again” is supposed to be a song of healing, but I have heard it sung so slowly, so lethargically, so “unspiritually” that I can only conclude one reason the church sang it: To show they were dead and needed reviving! Because they certainly needed reviving after singing “Revive us again.”
Things to do to be healed spiritually by our singing:
UNDERSTAND what we are singing
EXPERIENCE what we are singing by paying attention to the words.
ALTERNATE (for me) what we are singing
REMEMBER—whether singing to others or not, ultimately we are singing to God.
Colossians 3:16—Let the word [spoken by] Christ (the Messiah) have its home [in your hearts and minds] and dwell in you in [all its] richness, as you teach and admonish and train one another in all insight and intelligence and wisdom [in spiritual things, and as you sing] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody to God with [His] grace in your hearts.
(Amplified Bible)
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