Throughout the past 10 weeks, I had the privilege of being a preacher boy at my home church in Dresden, Germany, where I also led the Wednesday night Bible studies on the topic of music and worship. Despite my feelings of inadequacy at the beginning, God proved Himself to me time and time again. My prayer is that you as a reader do not just learn how to have a proper understanding of music (which I believe to have had in vain before embarking on this study) but a deeper understanding and knowledge of the character and marvelous works of the almighty God of the universe.
It is in this very aspect that a proper view of music must begin, for if our quest is to worship God through music then we must of necessity begin with a deeper understanding of the character of God. In my (limited) experience, there are numerous people who, in their attempt to find a proper music standard do not begin here and induce great harm to those who listen to them. It is not my point to criticize the many Christians who have attempted to make their music standards correct without going through the process of attaining a greater knowledge of Christ. If this article (or my life, for that matter) does not point toward Christ and generate a greater desire to know Christ, I have failed miserably. My job is to do the same work that the woman at the well did in John 4--to point to Christ who told me everything I ever did.
There are probably two questions in your mind at this point. Number one: Where do you get that idea from scripture? And number two: How does a greater knowledge of Christ lead to a proper music standard? I believe both questions are answered by considering three passages of scripture.
The first question is easily answered from Colossians 3:16, which says: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." I believe that we do a fair job today of singing to each other in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, though I believe there are many more spiritual songs than psalms and hymns. Hence, I will not spend much time on the second part of the verse. It is interesting that Paul prefaces his command to sing with the command to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. It is this command that I believe is most neglected today. The neglect of the command to let Christ's Words dwell in you richly in wisdom (which is applied knowledge) is the cause for all improper worship. (In case you do not think that improper worship is possible, please allow me to refer to a few Bible stories: Nadab and Abihu in offering the strange fire (Lev. 10:1-3); Uzzah in keeping the Ark of the Covenant from falling (2 Samuel 6:3); Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11) in offering their gifts or service to the Lord were all struck dead.) It is imperative that we learn to let Christ's words penetrate our thinking before we go on speaking, for Christ himself said: "out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh." (Luke 6:45). If our input is not correct, how can we expect our output to be correct? If we aren't infiltrating our minds with spiritual food, how can we expect to have spiritual energy flowing from our worship?
If this principle is not yet clear through the first passage, let me show that this is not an isolated command, but rather the norm for biblical worship. Psalm 1 is considered the doorway to the psalms and is essential to understanding true worship. Verse two carries an important thought for a true worshipper. He must be one who is continually meditating on God's Word. "But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night." (KJV)
Our third foundational passage is Ephesians 5:18. "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;" This command is preceding Paul's command to speak to each other in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Here, the emphasis is rather on being spirit-filled. The idea of being spirit-filled coincides well with meditation, for we can be assured that God's Spirit is with His Word. God does not intend for us to go off half-cocked into singing, but rather sets the stage for true worship in song. We are to be meditating people who are filled with the Spirit before we are the kind of worshippers God seeks for. John 4:24 sheds more light on this fact, as Christ says: "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." We know God's Truth from His Word, as Jesus said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6).
The second question to be answered is why a knowledge of God is foundational to worship. The answer has been alluded to in the discussion above, however, I believe there is more. For one, "The LORD is my strength and song, and is become my salvation." (Psalm 118:14; Exodus 15:2 is virtually the same wording.) If the Lord is our song, should He not be also the main content of our song? Furthermore, how can one sing about something he neither understands nor knows? The same principle would apply to almost every area of literature, for I would be a fool to attempt to write an instruction manual for a sewing machine, knowing nothing about it. How much more should we know what we write about before writing songs of worship to the Lord? Furthermore, does not God deserve our best? It is true that the Lord is sovereign and that we are not indispensable. Furthermore, it is true that even our best falls short of God's glory, but why should those things stop us from giving our best? Let us as song writers and those who judge songs do the very best we can, but let everything start from a deeper knowledge of God. Just as I would not qualify to write a manual for a sewing machine, one who knows God only superficially can only write superficially about Him. One who knows God only superficially is certainly not fit to judge which songs fit with the character of God. One who does know God deeply will not be satisfied with superficial worship, such as is characteristic of modern "Praise & Worship" which repeats the same line ad nauseum without development or change to the point where hypnosis is almost reached by sheer repetition.
So perhaps you are now wondering when this article will move from the abstract into the practical. I believe now we are free to move into the practical aspect. It is interesting to note that very little in scripture is said about the instruments and the actual sound of music in the Bible. However, most books discussing this issue waste much time discussing that very thing that is seemingly obscure in scripture. Let us not become unbalanced in our study of music, for the words are the valuable content and the music only the vessel. It is not that the vessel is unimportant, for we would disdain eating from a trash can lid or from a dirty dish, but we find our appetite enhanced by a beautiful silver platter. However, a silver platter will never substitute for a good meal.
There is a large quantity of hymns which emphasize the character of God and which illustrate that the knowledge of God drives the song. Immortal, Invisible is perhaps one of the greatest meditations on the attribute of God's light. Notice how Walter C. Smith understood not only that God was light (John 1:5) but he also many of the implications of that for us as he integrated that concept into worshipful words:
Immortal, invisible, God only wise,/In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,/Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,/Almighty, victorious, Thy great Name we praise.
Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,/Nor wanting, nor wasting, Thou rulest in might;/Thy justice, like mountains, high soaring above/Thy clouds, which are fountains of goodness and love.
To all, life Thou givest, to both great and small;/In all life Thou livest, the true life of all;/We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,/And wither and perish but naught changeth Thee.
Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,/Thine angels adore Thee, all veiling their sight;/But of all Thy rich graces this grace, Lord, impart/Take the veil from our faces, the vile from our heart.
All laud we would render; O help us to see/'Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee,/And so let Thy glory, Almighty, impart,/Through Christ in His story, Thy Christ to the heart.
At this juncture, please allow me to take a short excursis into the holiness of God. This doctrine is much neglected in our songs, perhaps because the holiness of God seems to contradict the love of God as is commonly understood. Let me state myself plainly: If God were not holy, he could not save us! Holiness is that attribute of God which makes him separate from all impurity and in himself special and pure. If God were not separate from sin and impurity, how could he save me from the same? If God were not separate from sin, he certainly could not separate us from sin, and if God could not save me from the sin which I am bound to by nature, how couldHe be loving? You see then that the holiness of God is necessary if God would be our Savior. Let this fact not be forgotten in both our song writing and in our evaluation thereof.
Maybe there is one who will say that evaluation is not necessary. However, Paul tells us to "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." (1 Thessalonians 5:21) In other places, we are told that all things are lawful, but not all things edify and Paul himself prays that we would learn to "approve things that are excellent" (Philippians 1:10). We are to make judgment so that we hold onto that which is good and excellent. We are not trying to merely stay away from the really bad stuff, but actually to strive for the best. This principle applies to our music choices as well.
So, to conclude this first section, let me summarize my thoughts. I believe that if we knew God perfectly, we would have no questions of if a song is good or not and every song that we could write would be perfectly good. The inadequacies of our songs are rooted in a lack of understanding of the character and work of God as revealed in His perfect word through his Holy Spirit. Instead of trying to hold to the right music standards (which is good and right) let us hold onto God and allow Him to change us through a deeper understanding of His character. Let us not try to solve problems in our music by erecting artificial standards (like "all syncopation is bad" or "only the words matter") but rather let us solve problems by finding the basis for our convictions in the character of God and the revelation of Him through His Word.
In the next weeks, I hope to expand this study to include a philosophical and historical perspective on music. Until then, I wish you success through meditation upon God's Word and I pray that God would reveal Himself to you in a deeper, fuller way. May God's Grace be with you.
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