Art Music and Pop Worship

I was sitting through a senior piano recital of one of my best friends musing through the various epochs of music. As he played the Bach Partita, I began to contemplate what it would have been like to be in Bach's family. It was intriguing, actually, because I imagined being surrounded by stringed instruments and harpsichords and improvising on music similar to what was being played. I suppose if I had a wish, I might wish to participate in a Bach "jam-session" of the 1600's. As I sat and contemplated this dream, I imagined further some of the circumstances of that day, how the royal family had hired musicians to compose for them and to play for them. (King George I of England had Handel compose the "Water Music" to help him to clear his mind.) The music played in kings courts was quite noble and classy. This reflected the structure of royalty.

As he played Mozart's Sonata, I laughed while I listened to his playing around with the musical form. I put myself in the concert setting and thought about what it would have been like to hear it with an audience and have everyone else chuckle as Mozart pretended to finish while proceeding to develop the song further.

As he played Brahms, I was struck by the emotions of the song. It brought back so many personal memories of my high-school senior recitals and of the fun of performing. By the end of the Intermezzo, I was almost ready to cry. Debussy's Toccata also evoked quite an emotional response as the music danced in my ears.

There was a huge break in the structure of the music when he started playing Prokofiev, though. No form seemed present; no musical themes went all throughout the song as did through the others; there was more discontinuity than continuity, and other than being a flashy and impressive piece, I could not really understand it.

Yet there was something about the entire recital that struck me as being there. Each one of these pieces was composed as some form of serious art. There was a wide range of emotions, forms, colors, and styles, but the overarching principle was that this art was serious.

You might ask, "What do you mean by 'serious'?" Art as such is quite broad, for it reaches into music, photography, literature, drawing, and painting, as well as many others. There are two kinds of each of these. There is the popular version and the serious version. An illustration of this would be the difference in someone who draws cartoon caricatures on the streets of New York City and the person who paints pictures for art museums. This is no different for any art. There is the kind of literature that ends up in anthologies or textbooks and that which might be published in a child's magazine. This same division goes for music as well. There were the Bach's and Beethoven's and then there were the court jesters and the heralds. Today, there are professional (concert) musicians and composers as well as those who play for dinners and bar rooms.

By no means would I imply that one ought to condemn popular arts. They certainly have their place as did the simple playing of peasants in the feudal system. Yet I walked away with a question in my mind. What type of music is found in the Bible? Is there popular music in the Bible, or is it all art music?

I am not sure that I have a satisfactory answer, but a few seed thoughts are in order. First, God did choose people who were low in social status, such as Peter the Apostle, to be writers of inspired scripture. He also chose scholars, such as many of the minor prophets and even Luke. David, who was the main writer of music in the Old Testament, was first a shepherd--the lowest social rank, but he became a king. Some of his songs are replete with emotion, and some of them pervaded with artful form. The Levites, who led worship, were highly educated and extremely intelligent, resulting in astonishingly magnificent liturgy. These examples provide us with perhaps a common model of how God is worshipped with both a variety of people and a variety of "styles" and yet with an artistic beauty which far surpasses today's standard.

Scripture can certainly not be improved upon. Thus, any work of music that is based upon biblical truth will never attain to the level of excellence that the Bible displays. I wonder, however, if we are using our abilities to their fullest extent when it comes to music. Peter was just a fisherman, but he was able to compose beautiful and poetic literature, such as:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, ⁵ Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5)

This is not music, but theology. It carries not only precious content of our Savior, but a serious poetry that awakens our affections in worship to the God who is to be praised. It causes our minds to contemplate the precious riches of God's grace to us and is in essence...worship!

There is something about serious art that carries the ability to evoke noble and yet rich and heart-felt affections. Popular art can certainly carry emotion, but it does not carry quite the weight or power or timeless endurance that serious art does. I wonder if we really ought to model our worship after the popular styles.

May God richly bless you with all spiritual blessings!
Jeremiah Sandahl
1 Peter 1:3-5

When God Changes a Jacob into an Israel

A series of recent and not-so-recent events have led me to rejoice in God's deliverance from a way of thinking that had pervaded my thought patterns for as long as I can remember. Please allow me to share some of what God can do with a life.

As a child, I was very emotional. I remember frequently that I would be found crying for no apparent reason. My mother probably considered my tears to be "cute" and I was not ashamed to show my emotions. Maybe part of it was due to the fact that I had been the first child and was doted upon by all my relatives and especially my mother. Probably an even larger part that added to the tension was that I was hospitalized at age 9 with cancer. It was very painful and recovery was somewhat slow. Yet the biggest problem was internal. I learned that I could get people to do almost anything for me if I only told them my sob story. My circumstances did not make me to be like that, but because of these circumstances, my internal selfishness was able to emerge through manipulation of circumstances.

The problem I had was masked for many years. My friends learned to love me despite these flaws, and my parents probably just got accustomed to them. Furthermore, I was not a problem child. I was outwardly very obedient and rarely caused people trouble. The other side of that picture is that I almost always got what I wanted from life. I was fairly easy-to-please and didn't demand very much from life, so I was not often disappointed by things such as moves, new friends, or going on long road trips. Yet occasionally, I would find a subtle way to get my way. I remember one time when I went to the store with my uncle because I had forgotten a toothbrush. Somehow we ended up leaving the store with not only a toothbrush, but a new BB-gun. It was one of my subtle ways of being a “Jacob” and manipulating myself into “blessings.”

My selfish rebellion came out fairly strongly after a relationship in high-school which didn't work out. It was the first time when I wasn't able to get my way in a situation. It would be almost two years before I finally overcame the bitterness against the situation. I really was driven into new territory: depression.

So I went to Northland Baptist Bible College. My plans were all set in stone: I was going to get done with school quickly, get a wife, get a seminary education, and return to Germany ASAP to begin a Bible institute. Those goals seemed noble enough, so I thought that nothing could go wrong. Throughout my first year, everything was peachy and all going according to plan. That summer, however, I entered into probably the darkest time of my life. I was constantly depressed. I came back to school that fall very depressed and things got worse when I was told to delay dating a girl I liked. Financially, I was barely making it. To put things in bluntly, I was not getting my way and having pity parties for myself while still trying to manipulate myself into what I wanted for my life.

So I ended up finally getting an OK to date the girl at the end of my sophomore year and things were wonderful. I had a companion whom I could tell my sob stories and she was compassionate enough to listen. Yet she always rubbed me the wrong way. Her life verse was Acts 20:24, and it went against every fiber in my being, because it was the last thing I could honestly say. My circumstances were either controlled or depressing to me. I knew I was to marry her from the first time we met and started to scheme about how to do that—maybe even before I finished college. After my Junior year, I went to Germany (as planned) to do an internship at home. I hardly earned any money while there, and it was a really difficult time for my family. I had planned to propose to my girlfriend, but was turned down by her father—twice!

Things continued to get worse as I entered into debt to go back for my final year of college. My grandpa—who had been my spiritual hero—died, my Dad's oldest brother died, and some other things happened around me that tore my heart. (Maybe at this point I should confess that I had prayed at the beginning of that year that God would bring suffering to my life.) As the year drew to a close, my girlfriend's parents started pushing for us to take some time off. They almost broke off the relationship immediately, but waited for a few weeks. After the day of prayer at NBBC, we both knew that it was time to lay our “Isaac” on the altar. We were originally going to talk once per month, but were asked not to talk at all, and since she did not return to school, we have not talked since January.

During that time, she rebuked me very bluntly, telling me: “You're selfish!” Her words pierced me through, though I didn't know how to fix the problem. I attempted everything in my power to keep her and nothing worked. All of our friends were sympathetic and on our side. It seemed that circumstances should not line up that way.

I have learned how to rely on God to meet my needs, because He is faithful to meet needs—even when circumstances get worse than one could imagine. I was, however, still in bondage to this great foe of depression and manipulation. I tried to manipulate and if it did not work, I became depressed. This was true even of the time after my girlfriend and I were no longer talking. I schemed—in vain—to find a way to convince her parents that we belonged to each other. I was firmly convinced that it was God's will for us to be together (much like it was God's will for Jacob to have a blessing), but it was not through my scheming that he would bring it about. I had read the story of Jacob at the beginning of our separation and I knew that I would have to face God, but I continued running.

Last week was Missions Conference. I was incredibly uneasy during the week, though I forced myself to pay attention. One message about how serving Christ is not a sacrifice. I knew that to be true, but I also saw my “suffering” and wanted to count it as sacrifice, which it was not. Really, Jesus is so much gain that Paul counted everything else as “dung” in comparison. (Philippians 3:8) Another message later in the week was on the story of Jacob wrestling with the Lord. I was astonished to hear a message during missions conference about this topic. It almost didn't happen. The speaker (Hantz Bernard) had his text preached on by the previous speaker and at the last minute decided to preach out of Genesis 32:22-32. As soon as Jacob came up, I knew that it was directed towards me.

I was lifting weights with a friend and told him not to “baby” his shoulder. It wasn't until later that I realized that I had been babying myself. It is that fact that leads me both into manipulation and depression. Thus, it seems as if God has brought me to a place of showing me a deeper root of sin in my life. I cannot obtain the “blessings” of this life by my own means. I have been—like Jacob—further weakened from my flesh. I await with hopeful expectation the blessing of having my name changed from “Jacob” to “Israel.” And as to those whose lives I have hurt with my sin, I trust that God will bring about reconciliation as He did with Jacob and Esau after the wrestling match. Maybe He will lead me into the Promised Land!

As God continues to teach me, I covet your prayers. The weight of change—though not on my shoulders alone—is quite heavy upon me. I desperately need God's help.