Kevin DeYoung on Our Use of Music in Worship

Kevin DeYoung had two great posts this week dealing with how we incorporate music into our public worship (Part 1 and Part 2). As with much that Kevin writes, I highly recommend that you read them. Whether your church's worship style is "traditional" or "contemporary" (or whatever other options are out there these days), you can surely benefit from what Kevin has to say.

He offers the following ten principles that ought to guide our use of music in worship.  And again, please see his two posts (Part 1 and Part 2) for more detailed explanation of these points.

1. Love is indispensable to church singing that pleases God.
2. Our singing is for God’s glory and the edification of the body of Christ.
3. We ought to sing to the Lord new songs.
4. Church singing should swim in its own history of church singing.
5. Sing the Psalms.
6. We should strive for excellence in the musicality and the poetry of the songs we sing.
7. The main sound to be heard in the worship music is the sound of the congregation singing.
8. The congregation should also be stretched from time to time to learn new songs and broaden its musical horizons.
9. The texts of our songs should be matched with fitting musicality and instrumentation.
10.All of our songs should employ manifestly biblical lyrics.