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Singing with Your Kids

Christ Church Music on February 3, 2022

Singing with Your Kids

“Are you going Roman on me, boy?” This was my reply upon hearing my son sing “By invocation of the saints,” not “the same” as the song nicknamed St. Patrick’s Breastplate (I Bind unto Myself Today, Cantus Christi 581) actually goes.

The real verse reads

I bind unto myself today
The strong name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One, and One in Three.

We don’t call upon the saints but trust in the name of the Triune God. I corrected my son’s error and in all kindness.

It’s our habit to sing St. Patrick’s on the way to school each day. We want the Lord’s blessing upon us as we interact with His creation. When we encounter bad ideas and bad people, we want Christ’s protection from all that assaults us body and soul. St. Patrick’s helps us spiritually center our day and its rich words and jaunty tune help focus the mind for learning and the body for discipline.

Our culture is a musical one without actually doing much of the music making itself. We have songs that captivate and define us; songs that are cultural reference points in our conversation. There are songs that are part of the cultural milieu, to cite a fancy word. And with iTunes and Spotify at the ready, we are as wealthy as an ancient king who could call up singers at will if he wanted tunes. Doug Wilson has occasionally asked, which Roman emperor would not have considered it the height of luxury to have a band of musicians right there in your chariot? And yet, isn’t that exactly what we have? Favorite tunes on the go.

The problem with so great a blessing is that we tend to leave the music making to others, to those who do it better than we. We don’t practice music amongst ourselves. But our musical passivity condemns us when faced with the command to come before the Lord with singing (Psalm 100:2). In a sense we’re supposed to enter church with a song already on our lips (verse 4). How ready are we to praise the Lord on Sunday?

All this is intended as an exhortation to sing more, and especially to sing with our kids. We ought to come to church with a readiness to praise, ready to do the work ourselves, not leaving it to others. We want our kids to be mighty worshippers, but to do this takes practice.

Here are some practical ideas to help families practice for worship and singing.

Identify your family’s spiritual goals and consider how songs fit within them. We use catechisms as a simple, point upon point way of teaching doctrine. The Church’s song repertoire is like a musical catechism in which the truths of the Faith coalesce summarily in song form. Most songs are short, being only a few verses long. Start developing a “musical catechesis” with songs you already know pretty well. Sing them often enough that the least among you can know and recognize them. If they are babies, sing particular songs enough so that their eyes brighten, they coo, and bob up and down to the song.
Consider singing as way of teaching the commands of God to your kids through the back door. Deuteronomy 6:7 prescribes an ongoing, daily discussion of God’s commands both in and out of the home. Use song to form religious affections in your kids. Invoke God’s blessing on the day by singing on your way to school. Prepare the kids for sleep by singing about God’s protection in the night. Instead of saying grace in prayer form, thank God for the food with a song.
Do not fear singing songs incorrectly or off key. Singing gets better with practice. If you started Amazing Grace too high or too low, start again and adjust it. If your wife or a child has a better ear than you, have her or him start the song.
Complement your family devotions with a little singing. Think of Bible-reading time as a mini, informal worship service. Read, expound, discuss, pray together and sing a song. I you don’t have hymnal, find songs online or just sing from memory. Reuse/re-sing the songs you sang Sunday morning at church.
Practice new songs as a family. If you encounter a new song at church, practice that song at home. Our church has a hymn of the month. Practice these at home. If your community works on learning new songs, add them to your mix of family songs.

Worship is the pinnacle of our week and we ought to consider ways in which we can be all the more ready to gather together. If your kids are little, they’re not able to interact with the elements of the service very much. Look for ways to equip them to meet with God meaningfully. A habit of singing hymns at home helps them engage better in worship. Rejoicing before the Lord in song facilitates joyful and thankful kids that turn quickly to God both in adversity and in times of blessing.

Mark Reagan

Grace & Peace: Proverbs 16:12

Douglas Wilson on February 1, 2022

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

“It is an abomination to kings to commit wickedness: For the throne is established by righteousness.”
Proverbs 16:12

We already know—or should know, at any rate—that sin is bad. We already know that wickedness is evil, and that evil is abominable. But this proverb provides us with a little bit more insight. Evil is not just wrong, it is also stupid.

Sin is counterproductive. Notice how this proverb runs. It is an abomination for kings to do wicked things. And why is that? Because a throne is established (made secure, firmed up) by righteousness. One of the things that we can safely say about thrones is that kings like to sit on them. Kings like it when thrones stay put so that they can sit on them.

Solomon here says that a throne is established by righteousness.

But this is not pragmatism, that view that substitutes carnal “wisdom” for the law of God. Pragmatism evaluates everything on the basis of what works or not, and so this is a good reason for rejecting pragmatism. Pragmatism is hoist on its own petard; pragmatism doesn’t work. If a king turns from his own pragmatic wisdom, and turns instead to the law of God, his throne will be established.

Impudent rebellion on the part of a ruler does nothing but destabilize his own rule, really. We have seen a great deal of this on the part of our own rulers these last several years. They are doing what seems right in their own eyes, and everything seems calculated to aggrandize their own power, and yet everything they have been doing is causing their moral authority to evaporate like dew on a hot summer morning.

Pragmatism is a sin. Power tripping is a sin. Grabbing at authority is sin. Tyranny is a sin. And so when rulers try to grasp more authority by such means, the effects are the opposite of what they wanted. God gives authority to those who don’t want authority in the wrong way.

Grace & Peace: Proverbs 15:13

Douglas Wilson on January 28, 2022

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

“A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: But by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.”
Proverbs 15:13

We can easily imagine situations where someone is keeping an upbeat attitude because he simply doesn’t understand how dire his problems are. There is such a thing as whistling in the dark, where the whistling doesn’t accomplish anything objective.

But there are also situations, like the one described in this proverb, where a merry heard equips, and a sorrowful hearts cripples or hobbles a man. A man whose spirit is “broken” is going to have trouble going on, even when his duty demands it. A man whose merry heart informs his countenance, and he goes into times of difficulty cheerfully, is a man who is better equipped to handle what he finds there.

John Wayne famously said that life is hard, and it is harder if you are stupid. We can modify this somewhat, and say that life is hard, life is already hard. It is harder if you are discouraged. It may not seem very pastoral, but I have often told people that there is no situation so bad but that you by your responses to it can’t make it worse. Things can always get worse, and giving up in despondency is one of the ways we make it worse.

When your legs are whole, you can walk on them. When your legs are broken, you cannot do so. When your spirit is whole, you can face the day. When your spirit is broken, you can’t face anything. And the way to a broken spirit, in this text, is by means of harboring sorrow in your heart.

A healthy sorrow is a process. There are stages, and you expect to get through. An unhealthy sorrow is a prison cell. You are just locked in, and by the end of your sentence, your spirit is maimed.

Grace & Peace: Proverbs 11:14

Douglas Wilson on January 18, 2022

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

Where no counsel is, the people fall: But in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
Proverbs 11:14

Before you do something significant, you should take counsel. When the rulers of a society do not do so, we are told, the people fall. On the opposite side, which would be in the realm of safety, a multitude of counselors is much to be desired.

This is yet another area where we find a ditch on both side of the road. A man with a watch knows what time it is, but a man with two watches is never sure. A king with one counselor knows what to do, and a king with two counselors might find himself pulled this way, and then that. And if the king has a multitude of counselors, might not the result be paralysis?

Not necessarily. First, we should note that this proverb tells us unambiguously which option should be preferred. When there is no counsel, there is danger. On the other hand, where there are many counselors, there is safety. So we should know that if we are in positions of responsibility—parents, pastors, business owners, and so on—and a big decision is coming up, we should want to gather up input from many.

But we shouldn’t want to get that input from a yelling mob, right? It says a multitude of counselors, not from simply “a multitude.”

In order to keep the multitude of counselors functioning in an orderly way, they should not be allowed to think of themselves as a rudimentary democracy. They are advisors, not voters. Wise counselors (which would be the only kind you should want) should understand that their role is to get all the best options out on the table before the person who must make the decision. And when that decision is made, the advisors step back, knowing their task has been completed.

Those who are privileged to occupy this position should also labor to avoid using tactics other than their counsel. In other words, they should want to be part of a body of advisors, and to do this without getting dragged into palace intrigues. That kind of thing is no good—unless of course you are Hushai thwarting the evil schemes of Ahithophel (2 Sam. 17).

Grace & Peace: Proverbs 10:26

Douglas Wilson on January 11, 2022

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him.
Proverbs 10:26

There are some valuable lessons that we can take away from this proverb. The first is that laziness in servants is a royal nuisance, which is the lesson we probably already knew. If you have had the misfortunate to have employed a sluggard, the on-going aggravation will be like smoke in the eyes, like vinegar to the teeth—both really unpleasant.

The second thing is something that is obvious when you think about it, but we sometimes don’t think about it. That is the fact that laziness is a public affair. When an employee is sent to do something, to discharge a task, the nuisance that results if that employee is a foot-dragger is a very public nuisance. Private laziness has public consequences. The thing that needed to get done didn’t get done, and everybody knows who was sent to do it. And realities that God has determined (through the nature of things) should be public should be . . . well, public. There is no reason to accentuate this kind of thing, but there is no reason to hide it either.

And this is related to the third thing. Sometimes we cover for the laziness of our employees out of a pretended solicitude for the feelings of those employees—like Joseph resolving to divorce Mary quietly. We think we are being godly and considerate, like Joseph was being. But perhaps something else is going on.

The reason this proverb is in Scripture is so that we might learn wisdom from it, and learning wisdom from this proverb means that we learn not to send fools on a wise man’s errand. The lesson of the proverb is not so that we might develop a taste for vinegar, or learn the next stage in smoke endurance. The lesson is for us to stop engaging the services of lazy fools. We need to stop suffering fools gladly.

But if we didn’t cover or mitigate the consequences of this, then not only would everybody see what the lazy servant keeps doing, they would also see what we keep doing when we entrust them with yet another task to make a hash out of. We sometimes think we are covering the sins of others when we are actually refusing to deal with our own.