The Songs We Listen to and Sing

This post comes right after Singapore’s National Day Parade (“NDP”) weekend, and I thought I would naturally write something more about Singapore. Last year, I wrote about ‘My Changing Relationship with Singapore and the Church‘. Instead, this year the NDP songs are the ones that caught my attention.

My daughter came home from her preschool’s National Day celebrations and mentioned that they didn’t sing this year’s NDP songs but the older songs, for reasons I’ll mask to avoid any miscommunication. But her mention made something click for me. I suddenly saw how the 2026 NDP songs seemed to be written from a more inward, self‑focused perspective rather than about Singapore itself. Google AI summed it up well: “This contemporary approach continues a long-standing shift toward reflective, personal, and genre-diverse music instead of conventional flag-waving tunes.”

These NDP songs sound more like pop tracks written by the young for the young (of a certain age group). Because the songs are also not quite suitable for the very young, like preschoolers, to sing along. And the NDP songs didn’t seem to serve their purpose to invoke patriotism, unite us as citizens, or remind us of a shared identity bigger than ourselves. There’s a reason Home is considered iconic: it reminds us that Singapore is our home.

This small gripe also mirrors something I’ve noticed in modern worship music. When I was younger, the older generation used to “complain” about our worship songs. Now I find myself concerned that today’s songs are becoming more about how we feel, rather than about God. I searched and found an article, “The Dangerous Rise of Me-Centered Worship” from Relevant Magazine, which expresses this concern clearly. I quote part of the article:

“A growing slice of modern worship has started thinking like pop music, not just sounding like it. Rather than centering on who God actually is, these songs tend to orbit how we feel. In Psalms, the self is present, but it’s never the destination. The grief is real, the confusion is real, the anger is real — and none of it is resolved by the singer arriving at a better understanding of themselves. It’s resolved by the singer arriving at a better understanding of God. A lot of modern worship stalls before that turn, letting the emotional processing become the climax instead of the launchpad. …

… That’s what truth-driven worship does that therapeutic music fundamentally cannot. It doesn’t just make people feel better — it locates them in a story that is larger than their own. It names who God is with enough specificity that the congregation leaves with something more than an emotional experience. It’s the difference between a song that leaves you feeling moved and a song that leaves you knowing why. The Church has historically understood that distinction. The question is whether it still does.”

Then again, music is a reflection of the times. And it’s no wonder that emotional and mental health is not holding up great for societies nowadays. I’ve come to learn that too much self‑focus, like the style in the songs, can make people feel more anxious, isolated, and even depressed. Humans don’t thrive when the world shrinks to “me” but thrive when we feel part of something bigger — belonging, purpose and meaning beyond ourselves.

In this article on worship, I found a definition of worship and two Bible verses worth mentioning here for food for thought. Lexham Theological Workbook’s brief definition of worship:

Worship is the awed response to the saving acts and praiseworthy character of God.

Are we merely paying lip service to feel good about honouring God?

These people draw near to Me with their mouth,
And honor Me with their lips,
But their heart is far from Me.

Matthew 15:8 (NKJV)

Do we know what we worship? Are we worshipping the Father in spirit and truth?

You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

John 4:22-24 (NKJV)

And I quote J.John and Tom Wright from this video about ‘Tough Bible Questions‘ to end this reflection (edited for clarity).

From Tom Wright to songwriters,

My worry about some of the contemporary music is some of it has just left behind the great traditions of hymnody from previous generations. I grew up singing as an Anglican and there were probably 300 or 400 hymns that I knew well. Today I worry that people go round singing in the same three or four songs like Holy, Holy, Holy. But I would say first, be sure that you revisit the back catalog (of hymns) and reinhabit it. You may not accompany them all with guitars because some of those hymns are much much better with a piano or an organ or whatever.

I would also say some of the modern worship songs have embodied two or three bits of Christian theology…And they need again to take a larger, more biblical view. The New Testament has much more to say about the meaning of the cross than is contained in most worship songs. So please, just because you come out of a tradition where this particular emphasis really grabbed you, don’t think that all your worship songs have got to be about that. Look more widely.

And please, thirdly, do bring the Psalms back in. There has never been a time in the history of the church when the psalms were not the backbone of Christian worship until the last 30 years when for many Christians they go from week to week to week and never sing the psalms. Something is seriously wrong with that.

So that’s three little pieces of advice.

From J.John,

Of course, God’s a Father to us, but the vocabulary we use today is like we’re very pally (friendly) with Jesus, but we’ve lost the He’s the Lord, the phrase ‘fear the Lord’ — it’s not to be scared but proskuneó, “to bow down and worship.“

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