Excerpt from Sunday Mornings: An Introduction to Biblical Worship by Pastor Brian Phillips
For Part 1, visit here. For Part 2, visit here.
Conclusion
The subject of music is so large that we need to now focus our attention more specifically on how all this affects music in worship. What do we do with these principles and statements from Scripture?
We must sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. This one is simple because it is a blatant command. We should and must learn to sing the Psalms and sing them well. No other type of music has such a heavy emphasis in Scripture. We ought to take delight in learning them because we are being given the opportunity to sing God’s Word back to Him. 2nd Chronicles 29:30 also says that the “words of David and Asaph” – the two main authors of the Psalms - were sung in worship as a part of putting the house of the Lord in order.
One caveat to this is that we must make sure we are singing the Psalms beautifully. We should put effort into our singing and we should select the most beautiful arrangements to sing. I honestly think some Christians and congregations shy away from the Psalms because they have been poorly done. We must sing Psalms, but shouldn’t sing them in a way that is ugly just to accomplish that goal. We can do both well.
We must also not fall into the “exclusive Psalm” trap. The Bible does call us to sing hymns and spiritual songs which are beautiful and doctrinally rich. Be Thou My Vision, And Can It Be?, and many others are part of a rich and beautiful heritage of hymns. Songs like the Gloria Patri and the Doxology are important because they are beautiful, simple “spiritual songs” that are appropriate congregational responses in worship. We need all of these elements and types.
We should sing what is beautiful. Because music is not subjective, we can’t pretend that one thing is just as good as another thing when it isn’t. Let’s face it – contemporary Christian choruses and praise songs are not typically good music. Exceptions exist, certainly, but I am speaking in generalities.
Classic hymns last centuries and “praise and worship” songs last weeks, and there are reasons for this. When any 14-year-old with an acoustic guitar can play nearly the entire genre with the same 3 chords, something is wrong. It is not beautiful and, usually, it is not well done.
This has nothing to do with what we “like” or what we listen to in the car. Such concerns are irrelevant to whether or not we should offer it to God in worship. Radio air time and record sales should not determine what is to be offered up in worship.
We ought to sing arrangements of Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and even play instrumentals that have stood the test of time and are well done. The music a church uses and the songs a church sings are a reflection of their view of God. Does the music reflect the majesty, goodness, holiness, sovereignty, and goodness of God, or does it reveal that we see God as a college buddy that we hang out with on weekends?
We must sing that which is doctrinally rich. Again, because music teaches us, we must be cognizant of what we are learning through our singing. Are we learning the character of God and His Word? Is our music deepening our understanding of God, or has our repetition of this chorus so deeply implanted it into our subconscious that we won’t be able to forget it no matter how much hypnotherapy we go through? Are we learning, through extreme repetition, that which is trite, repetitive, and sappy?
Because we are basing the decision on what is objectively good and true, we can come to some conclusions. Holy, Holy, Holy is a better choice than The Days of Elijah, and it’s not a better choice because I like one better than the other, but because one is better than the other in content, music, and presentation.
Music teaches and we should be teaching and learning the right things. If you listen to what is being passed along as fitting worship music, it is obvious that the evangelical church is receiving an incomplete education.
We must sing from the right motivation. We sing as an act of worship to God, not for our own entertainment. Therefore, we should sing what is acceptable to God, not necessarily to ourselves (though it should be both).
The worship service is not designed for our emotional experience, though emotion in worship is not a problem. Music is emotional, but we do not sing so that we may have a certain emotional experience. Music is not to be used as a tool of emotional manipulation, but it often is. I would argue that there is a connection between this emotional manipulation and the resistance of some men to the contemporary evangelical church. It smacks of emotional manipulation – quick, peppy songs to get you going and then slow songs to produce some tears.
But, we are to sing with the emotion commanded, not in order to produce the emotion. Music produces emotion, but we shouldn’t get the cart before the horse. We are to sing “with grace in our hearts to the Lord” (Col. 3:16), with “joy” (Psalm 95, 98, 100, etc.), and with “gladness” (2nd Chr. 29:30), but we don’t sing in order to feel that way. We sing and play for God and His glory, and by doing that, He gives us the other – joy, gladness, and grace for doing what He has commanded.