Picture a child first learning to write their letters, their hand clasped by their parent or a teacher, gently guiding them as they trace out the shapes. Now picture a weary, battered Christian, barely able to utter a sound from their lips, let alone direct their hearts heavenwards, surrounded by people singing prayers of desperation to God. Let me suggest the two pictures are not so different.
Our singing in church is an act of community ‘teach[ing] and admonish[ing] with all wisdom’ (Col.3:16 NIV). It is a place where the weary and struggling can come and find help to keep going; where those with no struggles at all give voice to passionate prayers for aid, for the sake of their brothers and sisters who have little voice left to give.
2021 was a year many Christians (myself included) have felt besieged by weariness; let me offer three songs that have helped me and I pray will help us increasingly to be communities filled with singing and support for the struggling.
Heights and depths
First, you can’t do better than the psalms for songs that bring our troubles to God. Matt Boswell (photo right) and Matt Papa’s (photo left) rendering of Psalm 42 Lord From Sorrows Deep I Call really captures the heights and depths of the psalm and packages it in a beautiful musical setting. Although it may be musically more complex than much of what we normally sing, it is worth your perseverance.
Welcome words of Jesus
Second, CityAlight and Colin Buchanan’s Jesus, Strong and Kind takes the welcoming words of Jesus to sufferers and sets them with childlike simplicity that anyone can sing, understand and enjoy.
Looking back and forward
Lastly, CityAlight’s most recent release The Night Song is a real gem: it teaches us the age-old Biblical practice of looking back to what God has done to help us face even the most turbulent future with hope.
