Psalms 66:1
Psalms 66:1-4, “To the chief Musician, A Song or Psalm. Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands: Sing forth the
honour of his name: make his praise glorious. Say unto God, How terrible art Thou in thy works! through
the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee. All
the earth shall worship Thee, and shall sing unto Thee; they shall sing to
Thy name. Selah.”
God loves music. God created music. There is
music and singing in heaven. The question is, what
kind of music does God want? What kind of music is biblical and spiritual?
There really are not a lot of verses in the Bible that talk about music. Most
of them are in Psalms. But there are also two verses in the New Testament. But there certainly is enough scripture for
us to understand what kind of music pleases God. Lets
look first at what the New Testament says about music.
Ephesians 5:19-20 says, “Speaking
to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making
melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God
and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
And Colossians
Some of the key words and phrases in these verses
to describe psalms and spiritual songs are the, giving thanks, let the word of
Christ dwell in you richly, and singing with grace. If take just these 3
phrases we should have a good understanding of the kind of content that should
be contained in a song.
The book of Psalms talks more about music than
any other book of the Bible and the primary thing that says is, “Make a joyful noise”. So when
to godly Christian music think about these 4 phrases: make a joyful
noise, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, give thanks, sing with grace.
God wants joyful music, music that praises and
honours His name music that in the lyrics teachings spiritual doctrines and
reminds us of God’s promises, music that in its sound makes the spirit and
effects the emotions in such a way to make a person joyful and thankful to God.
If we look honestly at music in the world we see
an example of how much men have failed. There has been some good Christian
music made over the centuries but one of the reasons men fail so much in the
area of music is because they are so legalistic.
There are several big issues when it comes to
music. One has to do with the kind of instruments that are used or in other
words the sound of the music. And the other issue has to do with the lyrics of
the songs. These really are the two issues when it comes to music.
Now the Bible actually gives us examples of music
at least of how to do lyrics anyway. Notice that Psalms 66 is called a song.
The book of Psalms actually is composed of 150 songs to the lord that king David wrote. So we have plenty of examples in the Bible
of songs at least in regards to the content of the lyrics.
What is interesting to me is that there seems to
be a great division in the world when it comes to music. Secular music for the
most part sings about romance and Christian music for the most part sings about
the gospel and sometimes other teachings regarding faith. It is very interesting that in Christianity
there is little to no music made which praises God for romance. Romance, that
is to say love between man and woman is a big part of the human life the way
God created and designed it. Why Christians almost never sing to the Lord and
praise Him and rejoice in His creation in regards to romance seems strange. The
secular world understands how big a part of life romance is and they sing about
it all the time.
Perhaps one reason has to do with legalism. When
we look at religion we find sometimes this idea, this teaching in the world
that comes from the secular world. The idea is that people deeply involved in
at least conservative Christianity do not enjoy romance. One of the reasons
these people think this is because of all the false religion in the world
involved in denying the natural goodness of romance that God created. There is
a whole book of the Bible dedicated to romance, Song of Solomon. And we know
from the New Testament that the relationship of a husband to a wife is meant to
picture Christ’s relationship to the church. Therefore we can conclude romance
between a man and a woman is actually very important spiritually. I suppose the
Catholic Church is partly to blame as they have done great damage to these
teachings of god by teaching that their priests cannot marry.
Hebrews
13:4 says, “Marriage is honourable in all, and
the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”
1 Timothy 4:1-3 says, Now the Spirit speaketh
expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving
heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy;
having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and
commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received
with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.”
Concerning those that depart from the faith and
those that teach doctrines of devils it says, forbidding to
marry. God does not like this teaching this forbidding to marry of the Catholic Church. Marriage is honourable in
all and the bed undefiled.
To be honest, it is a real shame that more
Christians involved in music do not write songs of romance. Romance is very
important in the world so much is learned about God’s love through
romance. We live in a world today
where since the 1950’s music has become a tremendous part of our culture and
society, a tremendous part.
I have listened to a lot of music in my life both
secular and religious. I have listened to music from the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s,
70’s, 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s, 2010’s. What is very interesting is to notice how
music has changed each decade since 1940. Looking at the music of each decade
we can really learn a lot about what is going on in society where society as a
whole is headed spiritually. Music really reflects culture in great detail. And
I can tell you from my extensive knowledge of music that if we go by the
direction of music in this world it is not a good sign the direction that this
world is headed.
But what I find to be the most
strange thing of all is the division between romance and religion so to
speak. To be honest we live in a world where a lot of people are turning
romance and sex into a religion. This is not what I am talking about when I
mention romance and religion. The two honestly go together very well in
marriage and in Christ. God created romance. God created the pleasures and the
joys of romance and all those pleasures and all those joys and all those
emotional journeys are there to teach us spiritual truths about Jesus.
There is such a division between romantic music
and religious music that it really shows just how little people understand
about why God created romance. It is a shame that the secular world thinks so
strangely about conservative Christians when it comes to romance. It is also a
shame that Christian do not write more romantic love songs. If anyone
Christians, who have the forgivness and the love of Jesus Christ and the
ability to love in a pure and holy way, have the capability to write much
better love songs than lost people do. So why they do
not do it seems strange. What a good influence for the gospel it could be on
this world. But it does not happen, or rarely it happens.
It was about in the beginning of the 1990s that
secular music has a whole really began to make a noticeable shift in its
romantic music. It began to change and become more and more focus on sex rather
than romance. This bold and outward and outright raunchy shift in a lot of lyrics
in music says something about the way society has been headed the past 27
years.
Anyway when it comes to music, and God loves
music, there are two important things to consider, the lyrics of a song and the
sound or the melody of a song.
The most important thing is the lyrics. We have
plenty of examples of how to do song lyrics by reading the 150 Psalms of the
Old Testament. Looking at verses in the New Testament and Old Testament we can
see that God wants songs to be spiritual. In other words the songs with the
best lyrics will teach doctrinal truth, gospel truth, and remind us of the
promises of God. Just think about the lyrics of classic hymns such as the song
nothing but the blood which says, “What can wash away my sin? nothing but the blood of Jesus what can make me whole again?
nothing but the blood of Jesus. There are hundreds of
classical hymns. If you listen to them you can learn Bible doctrine from them.
Some of them are almost like listening to a sermon. Their lyrics are great.
The real problem lies in culture. Culture changes
and so does music. In the days of the Apostle Paul they did not have guitars
and electronic keyboards and all the musical equipment that we have today.
Music has really changed a lot and advanced a lot. The Bible does not say thou
shalt not use an electric guitar or thou shalt not use a keyboard. The Bible
does give some guidelines on musical instruments. These guidelines are found in
the books of Psalms. And what they say basically is that it is good to use a
variety of musical instruments. Psalms 33:2-3, “Praise
the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of
ten strings. Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.”
Psalms 98:5-6, “Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with
the harp, and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and sound of cornet make a
joyful noise before the LORD, the King.
These verses list for us a variety of musical
instruments that were used back in King David’s day. There is nothing
inherently wrong with using any musical instrument when you make music. The
truth is music has gotten really complicated with the sounds that they can make
and the styles of music. The important thing about sound is the question of how
the sounds affect you. Some melodies can be sad, some melodies can be angry,
some melodies can be joyful. God wants us to be happy. The Bible emphasizes
making a joyful noise unto the Lord. That is what it says here in Psalms 66. So
the best music is going to be melodies that affect a person in such a way to
make them feel joyful and thankful to God. The melody will effect a person’s
emotions and the lyrics will effect what a person thinks about. When you put
the two together it should result in a person being joyful and thankful to God
for His creation, His gospel and His promises.
What is really sad about Christian music is that
as we look at it through history we notice that there have been many, many very
good songs with great lyrics written. But has time has progressed and we look
at contemporary Christian music we notice that there has been a great falling
away when it comes to the lyrics in Christian songs. Many Christians do not
understand the importance of the lyrics. Many songs are just a
a few simple chorus words repeated over and over or very vague statements made.
It is not that it wrong to repeat a phrase over and over. The cherubs at the
throne of God do this. They stand there 24/7 saying holy, holy, holy. But why
not use more of the Bible and the words of the Bible for lyrics? Faith comes by
hearing and hearing by the word of God.
One
possible explanation for why there is such a lack of solid Bible lyrics in
today’s contemporary Christian music is because it may be the listeners are
more caught up in the feeling, in focusing purely on their emotions. Now there
is nothing wrong with emotions. God created emotions. But I think a lot of
Christians when they listen to music become more like a Pentecostal Christian.
They are not really so much led of the Spirit as led of the flesh in the sense
that they are real focused on the human emotions. Emotions and feeling and
spiritual doctrine can go together real well but without the solid Bible
teaching in the lyrics to get the mind to dwell on the Word of God the result
will be an over focus on emotions only.
The other problem with a lot of Christian music
is that to be honest the musicians are just not as good at making music as
people are in the secular world. Psalms 33:3, “Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.”
God wants us to do what we do well or skillfully.
Because the music is not as good this is a real
turn off from people listening too it. It is probably one of the reasons that
not that many people listen to contemporary Christian music. But if you look at
the face of Christianity today and study contemporary Christian music you
should be concerned about the lack of doctrine, the lack of Bible teaching in
the lyrics of contemporary Christian music. And you should be concerned about
this great division between romance and religion.
As mentioned before romance and religion go
together very well if you understand the Bible. It is too bad that many
Christian organizations over the centuries have made the mistake of not
understanding that God created romance and all the desires associated with it.
And that in marriage enjoying those desires pleases God because everything that
God created is good and mean to be enjoyed with thanksgiving. But the very
obvious division in music between the secular world and the Christian world and
what they do and do not sing about shows us just how much misunderstanding
there is, just how much legalism there is in organized Christianity and
unfortunately how much of a turn off Christianity then becomes to the lost
people of this world.
Romantic
desires are very strong desires and very strong needs in most human beings. God
created it this way for many many reasons. They are such strong desires and
needs that most people will be turned off and turned away from religions and
teachings that deny these desires and deny the God given right to enjoy these
desires to their fullest in marriage.
One of my favorite kinds of music is actually something called
progressive vocal trance. There are many kinds of trance such as trance, vocal trance,
progressive vocal trance, gaia trance, dubstep, and others. There are many
kinds of rock music such as alternative, heavy metal, punk, indie, death metal,
industrial. There are many kinds of music in general.
In the music that I listen too one of the most
ironic things that I find is that the lyrics in a good portion of the songs not
all the songs but a good portion of them the lyrics I find to be more spiritual
than the lyrics in some contemporary Christian songs. This is partly because of
the failure of Contempoary Christian music to write good lyrics to not be so
repetious and vague in what they say and it is also partly because of the fact
that romance was intended by God to symbolize the relationship between Christ
and the church. So when you listen to a very solid clean romantic song and
think of it in a spiritual way it becomes a very powerful message and a much
more enjoyable message than a poorly written song with just a few phrases
repeated over and over.
The thing about modern music is its strength and
complexity for example the guitar and especially the electric guitar produces a
much stronger sound than many classical stringed instruments and a stronger
sound has a stronger effect on the emotions. In addition to this sometimes
modern music is much more complex than older music. Because it is more complex
this means there is a greater variety of sounds involved and thus a greater
effect on the emotions. So I understand why most people in the world today including
the younger generations of Christians prefer listening to modern music as
opposed to older music. It is much more appealing to the emotions.
The main problem with music in the secular world
is the same problem that the Christian community has and that is the lyrics of
many of the songs. To me the key phrase
in all the Bible regarding music is found in
Colossians 3:16, “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.”
The key phrase is, “Let
the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.” Now this phrase, let the word
of Christ dwell in you richly is being used in connection with music. If only
Christians would understand the importance of the lyrics that is to say the
words used in their songs and if only Christians would understand the important
of the Word of God when it comes to their faith.
There is great opportunity for the gospel in this
world through music and much of it is being wasted before of the reasons that I
already mentioned. It is very interesting actually to think about the
opportunities for given the gospel in music.
Sometimes on you tube I watch shows like
It is very strange to see this happen because of
how anti Christian most people in the world are. You could walk up to someone
and tell them about the gospel and they will not want to listen to you but that
person if you play a song they will listen to the music and enjoy. I actually
was watching the voice on youtube and it was the voice from china and a young
girl sang a song and the song was a song about prayer and about faith. You cant go around in
The Bible says in all things to give thanks, to
give thanks in song and to make a joyful noise. I suppose looking at the
failures of contemporary Christian music is no different than looking at the
failures that preachers make today. Both are making the same failures. They are failing to use, to rely upon, and to
teach the Word of God. It is very sad to see.
Of course it could be that one reason people
stray away from solid Bible lyrics in their music is because they are very
unspiritual or unsaved. Solid Bible teaching and Bible lyrics in a song for the
most part is not going to appeal to a lost person unless God is touching their
heart and reaching out to them for their need to repent of their sins and turn
to Jesus for salvation.
In closing I just want to say, maybe I sound too
harsh or too critical towards contemporary Christian music I hope not I am just
trying to emphasize the importance of God’s Word. Without God’s Word music is
just music.
Anyway, when it comes to music the solution is
very simple. All it takes is to understand these two phrases from Colossians
and from Psalms, Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly with all Wisdom.
Make a joyful noise unto the LORD.
___________________________________________________
Copyright; 2017 by Bruce
Creech
All Rights Reserved