Why do we sing?

I'm still chewing on all that I heard at Desiring God. There's too much for my feeble mind to grasp it all. But Bob Kauflin's message on "What Happens When We Sing" was very thought provoking. I appreciated that he understood the importance of preaching and the complementary nature of singing. He said that songs should teach and admonish the church. They should never replace the preaching but should complement it. A good way to evaluate the depth of the worship songs at your church is to ask this question - If your church only had songs of worship, how well would your church know the Bible?

In thinking about Revelation 5, Kauflin said that Jesus didn't die to redeem individual soloists. He died to redeem a universal choir. The question is not - do you have a voice? The question is - do you have a song? Because of the Lamb that was slain, all believers have a new song regardless of voice. Our offerings of praise are only worthy of God because He hears it through His Son.

Kauflin also shared about a difficult time in his past when he felt hopeless and lost while as a pastor. In trying to work his way through this, a friend asked him how he was doing to which he responded that he felt hopeless. The friend responded that he wasn't hopeless enough. He felt hopeless because he was still trying to do it on his own. If he truly felt hopeless, then he would trust completely on the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

It is this truly hopeless perspective that I need to cultivate on a daily basis that I may revel all the more in the new song that I have been given by the blood of Christ.

I think the link changed from my previous post - to listen to Kauflin's message and more:
http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/1423_conference_video/