Song Selection as a Means of Teaching

One focus among the song leaders at West Hobbs Street is on song selection, making an effort to select songs that align with the preacher’s lesson for a given worship service. The topic is shared with us the day before the worship service by the preacher as some combination of a title, a Scripture reference, and maybe an explanatory sentence if needed.

Generally, these topical song selections are the two to three songs that precede the sermon. When selected intentionally, these songs can help prime the congregation’s mind to consider a particular topic, hopefully enhancing the lesson that the preacher seeks to convey in that service.

As leaders in the worship service, we take that responsibility seriously and do our best to pick songs that align strongly with the topic. We do this to help the congregation fulfill the command we are given in Colossians 3:16 to teach and admonish one another in song:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. [ESV]

The Problem: Limited Recall

Despite our best intentions, we often end up picking from the same mental short list of songs, not because better songs don’t exist, but because we don’t remember them. We utilize the Praise for the Lord: Expanded Edition which contains 990 songs. If the topic is “Heaven”, the challenge will be limiting selection to only a few songs that will fit in the slots. For more specific topics, relevant songs may not come to mind.

The hymnal has a decent topical index that helps with song selection for broader topics. For example, on the topic of “Giving”, the hymnal gives 15 songs that are relevant, even though these aren’t the classic songs we think of when we think of our favorite songs. More specific topics may not be represented in the topical index, forcing the leader to either use a topic that isn’t quite what the lesson calls for, or just giving up on the idea of topical matching for that service.

AI as an Extension of Recall

Current LLMs (Large Language Models), such as ChatGPT, have been trained on vast amounts of text, far more than a human can read and recall. These sources include the Bible, well-known song lyrics, commentaries, and websites. This makes them uniquely good at being able to recall and reason about the songs in our song books and how they relate to the Scriptures.

When discussing LLM usage in a Biblical context, we must be cautious. Because LLMs have been also been trained on content that is false, LLMs will happily share false doctrine if not constrained in some way. When it comes to song selection, the constraint is the song book itself and the editorial team that chose what songs were included. The worst that could happen is that the LLM could recommend songs which do not fit the context of the lesson, but are otherwise scriptural since they are included in the hymnal.¹

In the sections following, we’ll use a real world example I’ve received and show how I would have selected songs for this topic in the past, then how an LLM can help enhance this song selection today. In this example, we’ll see how AI doesn’t replace our discernment—it expands our recall. The topic I received was:

Sunday AM: Floating at Ease (Amos 6)

Validating Topical Understanding

Whether using an LLM or not, we should always begin by reading the passage to make sure we understand it and understand the topic, as the Word of God is all we can trust.

A reading of Amos 6 shows that Amos is prophesying to the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah during a time of prosperity and stability. This ease led to a spiritual complacency for these two nations as they felt all of their needs met and no need to seek God. God, through Amos, pronounces judgment on the kingdoms, eventually fulfilled in their exile. From this, we can assume that the preacher intends to set a foundation in this Old Testament prophecy, then apply it to complacency and a need for action in our own lives.

With an LLM, we can validate our own understanding of the passage, but also start to put it into the context of the song selection we want to do. Here is an example of what the LLM returns when prompted for its understanding of the passage in context of this lesson title.²

“Floating at Ease” (Amos 6) confronts complacency, spiritual apathy, and self-satisfied living among God’s people. Amos condemns those who feel secure and prosperous while ignoring righteousness, justice, and devotion to the Lord. In a worship setting, this theme calls the congregation to self-examination, repentance, renewed commitment, and active faith, warning against comfort that dulls obedience. Hymns fitting this lesson should challenge ease, awaken the conscience, and call hearts back to serious devotion and faithful living before God (cf. Amos 6:1; Luke 12:15; Revelation 3:15–19).

Because this summary lines up with my understanding of the reading of the Scripture and is not doctrinal³ in nature, I have a strong indication that my reading of it is correct. Importantly, we’re also validating that the LLM understands the context of the lesson and priming it to improve the song recommendations that it will make.

Picking Topical Songs

Without an LLM, we would then take this idea of complacency and either recall relevant songs or find topics in the topical index that align. For me, the idea of spiritual complacency doesn’t bring to mind many songs. Looking through the topical index, a few topics do seem relevant, mostly in the idea of intentionally working for the kingdom: Christians: Commitment and Christians: Work and Service.

These topics fit the lesson well enough as they generally focus on the active, intentional work of and active member of the kingdom. A sample of the songs I might pick from these topics woudl be:

• I Want to Be a Worker
• Rise Up, O Men of God
• We’ll Work Till Jesus Comes
• Live for Jesus

This is a good list of songs that would effectively introduce the lesson topic. The songs invoke an idea of active work, the solution to the problem of complacency described in Amos.

If we take the same topic to an LLM, let’s see what songs it might recommend:

• 443 – My Soul, Be on Thy Guard - A direct warning against spiritual carelessness, urging vigilance and faithfulness instead of ease.
• 904 – Awake, O Sleeper, Rise from Death - A strong call to spiritual awakening that mirrors Amos’s rebuke of complacent hearts.
• 798 – Yield Not to Temptation - Encourages active resistance to sin and spiritual laziness rather than drifting at ease.
• 305 – I Would Be True - Calls believers to integrity, seriousness, and purposeful Christian living.
• 619 – Take Time to Be Holy - Redirects hearts from indulgence and distraction toward disciplined devotion to God.
• 401 – Live for Jesus - Emphasizes intentional, sacrificial living instead of self-centered comfort.
• 553 – Rise Up, O Men of God - A forceful summons to action, countering complacency with spiritual courage and duty.
• 737 – What Is He Worth to Your Soul? - Directly questions misplaced priorities and warns against valuing ease over eternity.
• 569 – Search Me, O God - A prayerful hymn inviting God to expose complacency and purify the heart.

Some songs overlap with the selections that we made (Rise Up, O Men of God, Live for Jesus), but others don’t fit the idea of work. Songs such as Search Me, O God or Take Time to Be Holy are more introspective, leading us to examine ourselves. These songs highlight an important theme from Amos that we initially missed: the stark warning meant to place the listener in the right mindset about their own flaws.

Adding this list to our research above, and knowing three songs fit into this slot, I would likely pick something like:

• Rise Up, O Men of God
• Search Me, O God
• Live for Jesus

The inclusion of a song like this improves the mindset we are trying to establish for this lesson. While we want to sing about the good works that are a solution to the problem of complacency, we don’t want to be ignorant of the fact that, at times, we ourselves are complacent. If the congregation assumes that they are not susceptible to complacency at times, the sermon would not be effective. Search Me, O God is a reminder that we are not perfect, a prayer for God to point out the flaws in our lives so that we can address them.

Filling out the Rest of the Service

To fit the flow of the worship service, not every song choice is intended to directly match with the topic. We sing other songs during the worship service to open or close it, to extend the invitation, or to prepare for the Lord’s Supper or giving.

These moments of worship well covered in the topical index, so it is easy to pick songs out for these parts of the worship service without considering the topic at all. For example, I might pick out something like:

• Opening Song - O Worship the King
• Invitation Song - There’s a Fountain Free
• Closing Song - God Be with You

Again, this is a fine list of songs for these specific moments of the service. However, when a song can fit one of these moments and support the topic, it can be a bonus in reinforcing the lesson. Let’s see what the LLM might then recommend, knowing the context of the lesson:

Opening Song - 200 – Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah - A psalm-based declaration that contrasts man’s frailty with God’s eternal justice—an important reminder in Amos.

Invitation Song - 212 – Have You Counted the Cost? - Challenges shallow commitment and confronts the danger of comfortable discipleship.

Closing Song - 627 – The Gloryland Way - Energetic and joyful, reinforcing walking with God as the only way to live with purpose.

These songs also support different moments in the lesson, but more closely align with the topic of the sermon, further reinforcing it. In particular, Have You Counted the Cost? is a much more personal, introspective invitation song than many which again fits with the dire warning Amos gives to Israel. By cross-referencing the lesson topic with these categories, we can further strengthen the worship service as a whole.

Try it out!

If you are interested in trying this out for yourself, I’ve made this available to anyone with a free ChatGPT account here. To use it, simply enter a lesson topic and see what is returned back.

The built-in instructions are specific to the hymnal and service structure that we use at West Hobbs Street, but perhaps it will be of use to someone else.

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Footnotes

1. Of course, we as Christians should not assume songs are scriptural just because a human editor put them in a hymnal, but instead we should validate songs against the Scriptures. ↩

2. I have a number of custom instructions in ChatGPT affecting these answers to try to avoid the insertion of false doctrines. ↩

3. It helps to consider what exactly an LLM has been trained on. For a passage like Amos 6, there is not really any disagreement among academics and Christian writers of various denominations, so we can lean more on the LLM. For a topic like the necessity of baptism, we would need to take a much more cautious approach, or avoid using an LLM entirely. ↩