When Anna and I were dating, we were actively involved in an evangelistic ministry at a chapel on the boardwalk in New Jersey. For 77 nights, we would help put on services in which we would lead hymn singing, a minister would give a gospel presentation; then, we would go out on the boardwalk to share the gospel with any who would allow us to engage with them. Whenever we got on stage to lead the singing portions of these services, our eyes were drawn to a sign hanging down from a raftor in front of us. Written in big letters were the words, "Remember to think about what you are singing!" That phrase comes out of 1 Cor. 14:15, where the apostle wrote, "I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing praise with my mind also." There is a dire need for believers to sing with understanding. This was a need in the apostolic age, in the early church, in the medieval era, and in the Reformation––as it is in our our day. 

The English Puritan pastor, John Wells, explained that in Augustine's day it was not uncommon for Christians to care more about "the tune than the truth; more the manner than the matter; more the governing of the voice, than the raisedness of the mind." Augustine included a short section in his Confessions in which he explained the battle in his own heart to sing God's praises in worship with his mind and not merely to enjoy the beauty of the tune or the singing as an act in itself. Augustine confessed,

"When I call to mind the tears I shed at the songs of Your Church. . .how even now I am moved not by the singing but by what is sung, when they are sung with a clear and skilfully modulated voice, I then acknowledge the great utility of this custom. Thus I vacillate between dangerous pleasure and tried soundness; being inclined rather. . .to approve of the use of singing in the church, that so by the delights of the ear the weaker minds may be stimulated to a devotional frame. Yet when it happens to me to be more moved by the singing than by what is sung, I confess myself to have sinned criminally, and then I would rather not have heard the singing."

Bernard of Clairvaux also cautioned against the thoughtless singing of God's praises and warned against being carried away with the melody and forgetting the words. He wrote, 

"The sense of the words should be unmistakable, and they should shine with truth, tell of righteousness, incite to humility and inculcate justice; they should bring truth to the minds of the hearers, devotion to their affections, the cross to their vices and discipline to their senses. If there is to be singing, the melody should be grave and not flippant or uncouth. It should be sweet but not frivolous; it should both enchant the ears and move the heart; it should lighten sad hearts and soften angry passions; it should never obscure but enhance the sense of the words. Not a little spiritual profit is lost when minds are distracted from the sense of the words by the frivolity of the melody, when more is conveyed by the modulations of the voice than by variations of meaning" (Letter 398)

Of course, we are instructed most explicitly with regard to singing biblically sound hymns in Paul's admition to believers in Colossians 3:16–17 (together with its counterpart in Ephesisn 5:19). In Colossians 3:16–17, the apostle brought his imperative section on the "spiritual clothing" of Christians to a close with the following admonition:

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching andadmonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And swhatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

"The word of Christ" may refer to Christ speaking in all the Scripture—(which is without doubt true since He is God; and, as the Living Word, he is the divine author of Scripture). However, it is more likely that Paul is referring to Christ as the focal point of all the Scripture, as Peter O’Brien indicates when he notes, “it is probably. . .referring to the message that centers on Christ, that Word of truth or gospel.” Paul is reading all the Scriptures through the lens of Christ crucified, risen, ascended, reigning, and returning–-just as Jesus did in his post-resurrection appearances on the Emmaus Road and to the disciples (Luke 24:26–27; 44). The apostle ties this principle to what we sing when we gather together with other believers. Simply put, he is charging believers to keep the focus of all their psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs on the saving grace and redemption that we have in the Lord Jesus. 

This was a marked feature of the great German hymns of the Reformation. Referencing the role theologically rich hymns held in the Reformation in Germany, Phillip Schaff wrote, "The hymn became, next to the German Bible and the German sermon, the most powerful missionary of the evangelical doctrines of sin and redemption, and accompanied the Reformation in its triumphal march." Theologically rich hymns become a means of propagating the gospel. This is one of the central reasons why our songs should be full of "the word of Christ." 

Paul moves from the general directive for the word of Christ to dwell among believers richly to charge believers to be "teaching and admoniting one another in all wisdom." There is a vertical dimension to our singing as believers that has the benefit of other believers in mind. One really powerful example of this, drawn from the history of the Christians church, is that of the hymn writing of John Newton and William Cowper. 

Published in 1779, the Olney Hymns became that collection of 348 hymns that John Newton produced together with his dear friend, William Cowper. These hymns were intended by Newton for use in the weekly prayer meetings in his congregation. Newton contributed 280 of the hymns—including such well known compisitions as, “Amazing Grace” and “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken;" while Cowper, battling the dark clouds of melancholy, penned 68 Olney hymns––among them the remarkable “God Moves in a Mysterious Way.” Newton entered into this work, in no small measure, because of Cowper’s recurring depression; hymn-writing became a gospel-shaped means of pastoral care. He longed to lift his friend's soul with the comfort of God’s word and the sweet consolations of the gospel in poetic beauty. 

Martin Luther had done so several centuries before in relation to his protégée, Phillip Melanchthon. As William Marshall explained,

“When. . .Melancthon was cast down with the gloomy aspect of things at the dawn of the Reformation. . .Luther used to cheer him up and said, 'Come let us sing the forty-sixth psalm, and let earth and hell do their worst."

When we think of the many calls in Scripture for the people of God to be singing joyful praises to the Lord for His majesty, as well as for His redeeming mercies and providential care, we should long to do so thoughtfully. We should meditate on the words of the Psalms, making them our own. We should think carefully about the words of the hymns we sing, ensuring that we are singing them "with grace in our hearts to the Lord" (Col. 3:16). We shoudl care far more about what we are singing in worship than how these songs are being performed. It is incumbent on us to think about how we are teaching and admonishing other believers with the word of Christ in our songs, and how we are singing those words from our hearts to the Lord. What a powerful means of imparting grace to one another through the ministry of singing the words of Christ together.