We were created to worship. We were ultimately designed to worship our Creator God. Worship literally means “worth ship”.To “extol worth”, to allocate worth to someone or something, to declare something as worthy. We worship something when we act as if it has value.
This isn’t just something that we do through song, it is a full life response to the object of our worship. The Bible talks about us being living sacrifices:
1And so, dear brothers and sisters,a I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.b
(Romans 12:1)
In our nature, human beings are designed to be worshippers. As Christians the Object of our worship should be God, the One Who is worthy of our reverence and worship. Sometimes, however, our worship is misdirected; towards a loved one, a job, a goal we have set for ourselves, a football team, a celebrity or politician.
We can worship in so many ways, anything and everything we do that puts God first in our lives above all others is us offering ourselves as a living sacrifice and worshipping God. Missing a night out so you can be up early to serve in church, the restaurateur who doesn’t open on the busiest trade day so they can honour God with a day of a rest, the single mum who goes without a bag of crisps to put an extra can in the food bank, the grieving widow who raises her hands to sing in church even when she doesn’t feel like it.
There are also stories that we see in the Bible of different ways people extol worth to God. I think of the story of the widow with her mite:
41Jesus sat down near the collection box in the Temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. 42Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins.j
43Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. 44For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.”
(Mark 12:41-44)
and King David turning down free wood and cattle when he was bringing an offering to the LORD to stop a plague on the land
22“Take it, my lord the king, and use it as you wish,” Araunah said to David. “Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and you can use the threshing boards and ox yokes for wood to build a fire on the altar. 23I will give it all to you, Your Majesty, and may the LORD your God accept your sacrifice.”
24But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it, for I will not present burnt offerings to the LORD my God that have cost me nothing.” So David paid him fifty pieces of silverf for the threshing floor and the oxen.
(2 Samuel 24:22-24)
I wanted to make it clear that worship can take many forms before I continue because today I am specifically looking at how the physical act of singing, dancing and making melody to God is good for us. You see God isn’t just a God that demands worship of us because He alone deserves it and He alone is worthy, because of Who He is and what He has done:
25Great is the LORD! He is most worthy of praise!
He is to be feared above all gods.
26The gods of other nations are mere idols,
but the LORD made the heavens!
27Honor and majesty surround him;
strength and joy fill his dwelling.
28O nations of the world, recognize the LORD,
recognize that the LORD is glorious and strong.
29Give to the LORD the glory he deserves!
Bring your offering and come into his presence.
Worship the LORD in all his holy splendor.
(1 Chronicles 16:25-29)
He designed it so that when we do what He created us to do it enables us to be the best versions of ourselves that we can be. How incredible is that? What an awesome design:
14Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
(Psalm 139:14)
So with all that in mind I’m going to explain some simple biological truths that show 5 ways worship can help your mental health.
1) Singing is good for you
According to Healthline.com singing is a stress reliever. A study was carried out in 2017 that measured the amount of cortisol (the stress hormone) that was present before and after singing. The cortisol was lower after singing showing that stress levels were reduced. It also stimulates your immune response and helps you fight off illnesses. A 2004 study showed that the amount of immunoglobulin A (an antibody that your body secretes to help you fight off infection) was higher in the people who sang, and not those who just listened to music. Communal singing, dancing, and drumming increases endorphins (the happy hormone) which can even increase your pain threshold.So when Paul tells us to sing together corporately he knew what he was doing.
16Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.
(Colossians 3:16)
It also improves snoring, lung function, and enables you to develop a sense of belonging and connection.
2) Creating something new lowers your risk of dementia/degenerative condtions
When you create something new - as the Bible says:
1Sing a new song to the LORD!
Let the whole earth sing to the LORD!
(Psalm 96:1)
you create new neural pathways in your brain. The more you improvise, the more you fire up the rapid decision-making that’s needed to forge new neural pathways. Regular dancing reduces the risk of dementia by 76%, twice as much as reading. The theory goes that the more pathways your brain has, the easier it can access stored information and the better your memory. When David whirled before the Lord as the ark entered Jerusalem he was onto something.
14And David danced before the LORD with all his might, wearing a priestly garment.f
(2 Samuel 6:14)
Our bodies are designed to do it, it helps us in every way.
3) You can change how you feel when you sing things that aren’t as though they were
When you sing/speak/dance even when you don’t feel like it, it tells your brain that you are happy. God is the God who speaks things that are not as though they were and calls them into being. As we see in Creation:
3Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
(Genesis 1:3)
and also when He named Abram, who had a barren wife, Abraham which meant “Father of many nations”:
17That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.”d This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing.
(Romans 4:17)
I’ll never forget during one of my lowest personal moments being sat in church as the band at the front sang “because of Your love there’s dancing in my heart”. I was singing the words but I remember in my heart I was speaking to God: “I’m sorry God but there is absolutely no dancing going on in my heart right now. I know I love You, I know that You’re there, I know You are good but right now I don’t feel it”. I believe that in those moments of deep loss and rejection choosing to worship God anyway was a catalyst for my situation being turned around.
5Those who plant in tears
will harvest with shouts of joy.
6They weep as they go to plant their seed,
but they sing as they return with the harvest.
(Psalms 126:5-6)
Did you know that the physical act of smiling even when you don’t want to tells your brain that you are happy and it then releases happy hormones which makes you actually happy. Read an article here on the health benefits of smiling.
4) It reduces anxiety and depression
Singing releases dopamine, a natural anti-depressant. Worshipping reduces anxiety, depression and stress. Lead researcher Prof Tom Shakespeare from University of East Anglia’s Norwich Medical School said: “We found that singing as part of a group contributes to people’s recovery from mental health problems.” Click here to read about it.
David said:
5Why am I discouraged?
Why is my heart so sad?
I will put my hope in God!
I will praise him again—
my Savior and my God!
(Psalm 43:5)
We can speak to our souls, and our bodies and command them to put their hope in God. It is good for us to praise Him.
5) It can help you process trauma and heal
As you engage in singing the truth of who God says you are and the power of what He did for you, it helps you to process trauma and heals past hurts. The Bible says that God inhabits the praises of His people:
3But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
(Psalm 22:3, KJV)
and when God shows up, things happen. God showed up enabling Elisha to prophesy after he had sent for a musician:
15Now bring me someone who can play the harp.”
While the harp was being played, the powerd of the LORD came upon Elisha,
(2 Kings 3:15)
The walls of Jericho came down when the trumpet sounded:
20When the people heard the sound of the rams’ horns, they shouted as loud as they could. Suddenly, the walls of Jericho collapsed, and the Israelites charged straight into the town and captured it.
(Joshua 6:20)
There is a whole article linked here of ways music was used to help groups of people process trauma after horrific events. If creating melodies in our heart to process how we feel can help us when we are not Christians, how much more so, when those melodies are declaring the truth of who we are in God and how He is able to redeem our situation.
Our God is incredible and His works are perfect:
4He is the Rock; his deeds are perfect.
Everything he does is just and fair.
He is a faithful God who does no wrong;
how just and upright he is!
(Deuteronomy 32:4)
Give Him praise today for all that He has done. Sing to Him in the midst of the storm and know that He will lift you up. He has designed it that way.