"Why is it that Christians sing in worship? Christianity has produced centuries of music — high music, low music, middle music, happy music, sad music. Songs of worship and songs of gladness and songs of lament. Everywhere Christianity goes, God’s people sing. Why? We sing because our God is a God of grace. We sing, not only in response to his lavish grace — we sing because it is a means of God’s grace. We sing because singing is a God-given weapon against our greatest enemy.

The three-minute clip above comes from John Piper’s 1985 sermon “Ambushing Satan with Song.” Read or listen to the full message here.

John Stephen Piper was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Bill and Ruth Piper January 11, 1946. When John and his older sister were still small, the family moved to Greenville, South Carolina, where John spent his growing-up years. His father was an itinerant evangelist, and his mother died in 1974 in a bus accident while visiting Israel."