PSALMS, HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS TO ONE ANOTHER'S SCREEN

“…speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord…” (Ephesians 5:19, NASB)

Among the teachings of apostle Paul to the church of Ephesus was to address one another with songs as a causal consequence of regeneration and unity as part of the body of Christ. Notice the use of the word “to” to show that the psalms, hymns and songs were directed to fellow Christians. The English Standard Version (ESV) uses the word “address”, allowing us to infer that these psalms, hymns and songs resemble a greeting. Hearing a spectrum of melodies directed at us by our brothers and sisters, with lyrics containing praise onto our Lord and Saviour, must be so encouraging. Therefore, it must be difficult when we have to mute our microphones on virtual gatherings due to the spectrum of time lags caused by constrained bandwidth.

When I was at my A-level college's Christian Fellowship retreat back in 2017 one song that stuck in my head was a song entitled “One Voice”. Throughout the song there is a repetition of the lyrical plea God to "Let us be one voice, that glorifies [his] name". Not just that, but "let us be one voice, in love and harmony". Since singing along to and with fellow Christians there, the words of “love” and “harmony” co-exist in my mind. There is some connection between the the bonds of affection and the simultaneously sounded musical notes. In my opinion, it is the former which creates and empowers the latter. There is not only a causal contribution but an enhancing effect due to love. It must be emphasized that this love comes from God. It is the 1 John 4:19 principle: "We love because he first loved us." In response to this love, we make melodies in our heart to our Lord.

When the Christian community is physically separated, I experience a greater resonance with the lyrics of "One Voice". I feel the plea being greater. When I sing to my computer screen and only hear my own voice, there is a consonance that is evidently missing.

Employing an analogy on a similar theme; to those of you who have seen and more importantly heard a choir, you would have encountered the beautiful end product produced from a spectrum of sound that echoes through the hall. When the voices of distinct individuals come together, the resultant sound is different from the individual voices, but is more majestic than each individual voice. I say this not to downplay each singer’s voice, each singer is undoubtedly talented to be able to produce such a brilliant harmony. The metaphorical chain is only as strong as its weakest link. What I instead seek to point out is the multiplier effect of the sum of parts of many talented individuals, singing in different octaves and keys, that sounds far more heavenly than each individual part.

Applying this analogy to our usual gatherings prior to the legally-sanctioned physical separations across the globe, the resultant voice of the congregation has the aforementioned effect of brilliance! Even the most off-key singers are unable to stop the choir from delivering a great ‘performance’ to one another to our God in heaven. I am so blessed that most of my friends who I gather with are great singers so I may have more “wiggle-room” to (accidentally) go off key!

When I only hear my own singing voice - and the voice of the worship leader - in virtual gatherings, I find it a struggle to stay encouraged through the worship. I am so used to having the choir of brothers and sisters surrounding me. I make it an effort to always worship in gallery view, making the shared screen on zoom where the worship video is played as small as possible so I can see as many brothers and sisters in the gallery without needing to press the arrows to see more of them, but it is not the same. There is degree of dissonance within me that I cannot ignore. Though I see the mouth movements of my brethren, and though I know they are singing along with me at that very moment, the absence of consonance is too evident to be tuned out.

I feel like I’m the worse singer in the world, who was invited to sing on stage with the greatest choir in the world as a gift that I don’t deserve. Upon beginning to sing with them, I appreciated the generosity of the giver so much more. Now that the privilege is subject to a necessary compromise with the situation, I am longing for it even more.

Of course I am not advocating for the un-muting of microphones and the chaos that comes with it. Returning to my metaphorical chain, said chain is only as strong as the poorest bandwidth. Un-muting everyone would risk creating a disruptive noise that counter-intuitively prevents us from speaking to one another and hearing what was spoken to one another. Even when I watch my Cambridge home church’s service with at most 4 brothers in Christ, we switch off our mike as there is no guarantee to our internet connection’s stability. The choir, though desiring to maintain its consonance, is forced to be subject to constraints.

It seems then that there is no answer to my predicament, other than waiting for the physical separation measures to be over. In a practical sense constrained by human limitations, there isn’t. But upon contemplation, matured Christians, undoubtedly inspired by the Holy Spirit, strive to constantly remind me (and all of us in a similar situation) to stay focused on subsisting truths.

Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit “dwells” in us and “will be” in us (John 14:17). The use of both the present and future tense shows an eternal continuation. It is through the Holy Spirit that God “pours His love into our hearts” (Romans 5:5), the same love that we source our motivation from to produce that harmony, and to do so much more. This is a similarity all of us who receive His Holy Spirit share. It is what binds us in unity. Remember the metaphorical chain, there can be no weakest link if it is God himself, the Holy Spirit, who secures the link.

To echo Paul addressing the church in Rome in Romans 8:35-39, neither poor bandwidth nor off-key singing voices, nor physical distance nor obscure time zones, shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

The views of this blog are the author’s own and not necessarily associated with any of the author’s affiliations. The blog includes subject matter pertaining to Christian orthodoxy such as the concept of the Trinity and the theology of the Holy Spirit which may not be straightforward upon first glance. Please feel free to message me via Facebook or email at brendanlowsl@gmail.com if you have questions about this or are simply wondering why I choose to place by hope in Jesus!