While it cannot be overstated how vital our personal worship experiences with God are, there is something uniquely powerful about joining together in worship with a community as we hear all of the different voices come together to sing the truths of our Christian songs as one. Those of us who get to serve with a choir in any capacity especially understand the gift of this coming together in song. Each voice brings something slightly different to the sound, but hearing the end result of this unity within diversity, or this unison sound of praise, is a mighty thing that simply cannot be achieved alone.

Perhaps this gives us a glimpse of what the Israelites must have experienced in 2 Chronicles 5:12-14 after the momentous occasion of the ark of the covenant being brought to the temple of the Lord. We see that “it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord,” and the text says “when their song was raised…the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.”

Can you imagine this moment? Do you notice that the glory of the Lord appeared “when” their song was raised in unison in praise and thanksgiving? It shows how much power can be contained in our corporate praise, and this is why we need songs like “Our God” that focus on being a part of the body of Christ in community.

A Christian singing “my God is greater” and “our God is greater” are both true and needed statements, but when we sing the latter in community, it reminds us not only are we connected to our brothers and sisters in faith sitting next to us in our choirs and churches, but we also are connected both with Christians all around the world and to the patriarchs and matriarchs of our faith whose stories are found in our Scriptures.

One thing I love most about our choir is we are a diverse group of people across generations spanning over 75 years. We have a diverse and vibrant range of nationalities, socioeconomic status, cultures, and even political viewpoints, but we come together week after week to serve the same God and lift up our song that is made more powerful by every different voice and different story behind each voice singing together in community. This is not always an easy thing to come together in the midst of such differences, but I would argue that wrestling for this unity within diversity is a necessary and important picture of the body of Christ.

And maybe songs such as “Our God” and “How Great is Our God” have become some of the most enduring modern worship songs of the past decade because in a time where our differences, even in our faith communities, seem to want to divide us, lyrics focusing on “our” God remind us that we can still join together in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord.

 – By Jenn Crider