Singing Praises to God as Embodied Souls

After the mighty miracle of Israel’s Red Sea crossing and Egypt’s Red Sea drowning, the people of God, whose fear of man had been turned to a fear of the Lord through what they saw/experienced, lifted up their voices in praise and worship. It is reasonable to conceive of the song by the Sea as an antiphonal, call-and-response kind of song along the lines of Psalm 136, in which Moses and the sons of Israel sang a line of the song and Miriam with the women answered with “Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea” (Exod 15:21).[1] The point, then, is that the song by the Sea is a rich and varied song of praise to God in a united yet multi-dimensional way. It is not difficult to imagine that this song would have had a spine-tingling, awe-inspiring effect on everyone present.

In fact, even today there are many who endorse the ability of music to have such an effect, especially when music is experienced corporately and made in the moment, i.e. live. Even if there were no testimonials, the very fact that live music continues to endure despite the ubiquitous technological ability to listen to music pretty much whenever, wherever, however, and with whomever you desire (or by yourself!). And yet, there are testimonials. As one NPR contributor has written regarding live music, “Music could always lift me up and transport me. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to having a religious experience.”[2] In the same article, a psychologist is quoted who suggests that the impact of music on the mind and emotions “could be why music plays such a powerful role in many religions, spirituality and rituals.” While that psychologist is thinking evolutionarily, we can think theologically and come to a similar conclusion, namely that we were made to worship God with our whole selves in communion with the saints in a way that drives home to the fullest degree the implications of the chief end of man: to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

That we were made to sing praises to our God is corroborated by neuroscientific inquiry. Once more, the NPR piece cited highlights the fact that “neurons in the brain even fire with the beat of the music,” and that can have a synchronizing effect when music is experienced corporately. That is to say, when we sing praises to God together, the bioelectrical activity in our diverse brains begins to align with the unity of the beat of the hymn. To be sure, the level of correlation in brainwave activity between individuals within a group can vary. Different populations have different preferences in the tempo of music, which suggests that engagement may depend in part on how closely aligned the beat of a hymn is with one’s preferred tempo.[3] Additionally, attentiveness to congregational singing can impinge on the synchronicity of brainwaves among the individuals singing together.[4] That is to say, if you are distracted or disengaged from congregational singing, you may be on the outside of the experience of unity shared by the diversity of singers. Setting those and other inhibiting factors aside, the point remains that congregational singing of praises to God affects our whole selves, just as God created us as embodied souls to worship him and love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

As a takeaway, this reflection on the physiological effects of live music, which is regularly experienced by most of us each week when we sing praises to God as a part of the congregation, should encourage anyone who can but does not participate in congregational singing to commit to it. It does not take technical ability to sing praises to God, but it does take assent to the value of engaging fully in the worship of God according to the way in which he has instructed us to worship him. After all, Paul exhorts us to address “one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart” (Eph 5:19 ESV). May we all see the value of singing praises to God with our hearts and our whole selves so that we might glorify God and enjoy him forever.

[1] John D. Currid, A Study Commentary on Exodus, vol. 1 of EP (Welwyn Garden City: EP Books, 2000), 316.

[2] Rob Stein, “These Scientists Explain the Power of Music to Spark Awe,” NPR, 29 July 2023, § Weekly Dose of Wonder, https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/07/29/1190374074/these-scientists-explain-the-power-of-music-to-spark-awe.

[3] Domantė Kučikienė and Rūta Praninskienė, “The Impact of Music on the Bioelectrical Oscillations of the Brain,” Acta Med Litu 25.2 (2018): 104, https://doi.org/10.6001/actamedica.v25i2.3763.

[4] Jens Madsen et al., “Music Synchronizes Brainwaves across Listeners with Strong Effects of Repetition, Familiarity and Training,” Sci Rep 9.1 (2019): 6, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-40254-w.