Copyright: © 1997 Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. This document may be freely reproduced for non-commercial purposes with credit and mention of the Lift Up Your Hearts web site http://www.worship.ca/ as the source.

Acts of Worship appeared as a series of articles in Canada Lutheran, the magazine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. Richard Stetson is Assistant to the Bishop with responsibility for worship.

Anyone who sings "prays twice."

Song and chant have taken an important place in the worship of God from time immemorial. In Genesis' fourth chapter as beginnings of human civilization are noted, music is included. Jubal is called the ancestor of "all those who play the lyre and pipe." The Hebrew hymn book, the Book of Psalms, is a greatly loved and lengthy portion of the Bible.

Joseph Gelineau, a French musician well known for his work on the psalms, has noted in his studies that neither Hebrew nor Greek have a separate word for music. The line between speech and song overlapped. Whenever speech took on a poetic or public quality, it became metrical and, in a way, musical. All the prayers, psalms and readings of the ancient service of temple and synagogue were in chant form.

Christians loved the psalms as much as Jews did. They seem always to have been a part of Christian worship. The apostle Paul encourages the singing of "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" in his letters to the Ephesians and the Colossians. Even in prison in Philippi, Paul and Silas spent late hours of the night in prayer and singing hymns (Acts 16:25). Hymn singing was not even limited to church for early believers!

Latin hymns became popular for the long night vigils held in fourth- century congregations, encouraged by the musical bishop Ambrose in Milan, Italy. St Augustine, influenced by Ambrose, also enjoyed singing. To him is attributed the thought that anyone who sings "prays twice," once through the words and once through the melody.

Of Martin Luther's 16th-century reforms, one of the most far-reaching was the reintroduction of congregational song in the liturgy in the language of the people. The hearts and minds of many were won for the gospel through Lutheran worship in what came to be known as "the singing church." What is learned through singing, many people remember well.

"Sing praises to the Lord, O you his faithful ones" (Psalm 30:4). Song is a gift of God and singing a part of God's service.