Still singing by the rivers

I have a question, as we emerge from lockdown. It echoes Psalm 137. How can we sing the Lord’s song?

The original setting was by the waters of Babylon. Our setting is emerging from a post-Covid experience and there is, quite naturally, a reluctance to sing.

A fear of singing?

Singing, and a connection to Covid-19, is having a bad press. The Church Times newspaper (29 May) reported a recent webinar from the Royal School of Church Music. One scientist stated that the evidence regarding singing and infection was mixed, and fuelled by scare stories. One such story centred around the experience of the Amsterdam Mixed Choir. After a performance of St John’s Passion, 102 out of 130 members contracted the virus.

The report suggested: ‘… that singers could propel droplets – the primary means of virus transmission – up to five metres in distance, but a fluid-mechanics expert in Germany concluded, after experiments with singers, that air flow was in fact half a metre.’ However, perhaps the real cause of the transmission was the greeting and hugging and sharing of drinks during breaks in rehearsal.

So, is gathering together and singing in church a Covid-19 outbreak waiting to happen? We do not yet know, but I suspect that Christians, even at home, are singing a lot less than usual.

An encouragement to sing

And yet the Bible exhorts us to sing! Not simply to say words, or recite, or even think. You’ll find over 200 references to singing in the Scriptures, with the greatest concentration in the Psalms.

There is a reason for this. We sing because of the Lord’s great love, His mercies and His kindness. But we also sing because singing is a whole-body experience. As I have written before, singing means you cannot merely assent to the truth of the lyrics, you have to sing it.

I suspect wholehearted singing is quite rare in church-going households even when watching the YouTube morning service on Sundays. Our own efforts, even in the James household, are slightly muted. We live in a semi on a quiet road so what would the neighbours think? Well, perhaps they might be curious!

Enabling the Lord’s song

The role of the church musician in lockdown is challenging, but not impossible.

If you pre-record your music for Sunday you have an opportunity to communicate. Yes, it’s not the same, just as preaching is not the same, but preachers are adapting, becoming shorter, tighter and perhaps a bit crisper with the use of a teleprompter. It’s still a communication, and the listening heart will profit.

So too with music. Simplicity may be the order of the day, but that does not mean insipid. The words have greater force. Imagine your hearers singing with you and draw them in by the way you play; softer here, or louder there, thus making the music a more perfect vehicle for the word to enter the soul. The quietly singing heart will profit.

Bring others in to your music making. One church I know prioritises participation over perfection. Whether it’s audio or video, there are ways people can send in their recorded parts, and mixing these together with good software – I’m an Apple user so some of this is pre-installed – you help the listener on Sunday morning realise that at least some at church are singing the Lord’s song.

I happen to think there are upsides to not being in church at present. Yes, I miss people, but there is something about being in my local street and around my neighbours that puts me in the community. In another Psalm (74) the writer cries out regarding the invasion of Jerusalem in 587BC – the Babylonians are working destruction in the midst of the temple! But then, later, he recalls that God is still King from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth!

We should sing out these truths; we should hum as we walk through the streets! For in coming out of lockdown, singing together at some point will become an act of hope, a statement of faith that overcomes fear. Then it would be appropriate to have a particular song on our lips – the Lord’s song.