Singing is a way of life for Orthodox Christians
A story is told about a saint who became depressed when he suffered laryngitis and lost his voice. It seems he was frustrated with the fact that he could no longer pray. Why would loss of voice have anything to do with his prayer life, you might ask? Well, it seems the ancient Christians sang their prayers, and since this requires the audible voice, laryngitis meant the limitation of the saint=s prayer life.
Orthodox Christians understand the saint=s dilemma all too well. When one visits the Orthodox Church, he is usually surprised by the amount of singing which we do. We sing virtually everything, from prayers, to psalms, to hymns; we even sing the Scripture readings. It is often asked, ADo you ever SAY the prayers?@ The answer is this: sometimes we say the prayers, but singing is the way the ancient Church worshiped, and we do what we have been taught, and worship in the way that has been handed on to us for two thousand years.
St. Jude said Acontend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints [vs. 20].@ St. Paul carried this a step further saying, AI received from the Lord what I also delivered to you...@ [1 Cor. 11:23]. We received a tradition of worship, and since our worship is integrally linked to ALL aspects of our faith in Christ our God, that tradition must not be carelessly altered, and each generation must pass on what it has received.
Consequently, we sing so much because the early Church sang so much. The first Christians were Jewish and worshiped in Jewish style. They sang their prayers, as did their Jewish forebears. In traditional Jewish style, they sang the Scripture readings, they sang the psalms, and the leaders of the services sang parts peculiar to their roles as worship leaders [what we call cantors]. We can see evidence of this in the New Testament. St. Paul urges the Christians in Ephesus and Colossae to sing Apsalms and hymns and spiritual songs,@ and to the Ephesians he added, Asinging and making melody to the Lord with all your heart [Eph. 5:19, Col. 3:16].@ In Revelation, there are a number of examples of heavenly worship in which the company of heaven sing God=s praises. In fact, in chapter four [vs. 8], it says Athey never cease to sing...@ These are only two of numerous instances in the New Testament which urge the singing of Christians= prayers.
That practice has been handed on to us without significant alteration. Although we do sing some more recent musical pieces, we still, for the most part, sing music which dates to the earliest centuries of Christian worship [in fact, if you want a glimpse of New Testament worship in its purest form, go to a Greek Orthodox service and hear the liturgy prayed in the language of the New Testament]. We still chant or sing in the same styles as the ancients, and we still practice in our worship the musical style they taught us.
In addition to receiving and handing on the ancient styles of Christian worship, there is another benefit to singing the prayers. Singing impresses words upon our hearts in ways that speaking them can never do. When one sings, the words are woven into the melody, and seared into the memory. Those who struggle to memorize prayers or Scripture verses usually find it much easier to remember them when they sing them [I cannot quote you the words of St. Simeon in Luke 2:29-32, but I can certainly sing them to you]. Indeed, ancient Jews sang the stories of the Old Testament BEFORE they wrote them down. There is still evidence of this practice in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament where the musical notes can be found in the Massoretic Text.
St. James urged Christians to sing: he said, AIs any among you cheerful? Let him sing psalms@ [4:13]. When Orthodox Christians sing, that cheer is allowed to permeate all aspects of our worship. When one gets accustomed to this, nothing less will do. One can see why the ancient saint was distressed when he couldn’t sing his prayers. He was so accustomed to singing, that not singing had no joy in it, and seemed like not praying at all. This is the way it is with us, and this is why we sing so much.