Do you like music? Almost certainly you are into some form of music? You are immersed in western culture, so of course you do.
Do you know why we in the West love music? Because of God, and the Bible, and Jesus. That’s why we love music. Because of God and Jesus and the bible. Yet another thing our post-Christian society takes from God without thanking him. Because music is built into the fabric of God’s world. We humans were made for music and singing. Luther said ‘After the word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world’.[1] God made us to praise Him and His Son, forever and ever. Music and God go hand in hand.
God describes himself creating the world to a chorus line of backup singers. Job chapter 38 verses 6 to 7:
6 On what were [the world’s] footings set, or who laid its cornerstone-- 7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
The universe is cosmos rather than chaos. It is well ordered and integrated and harmonious. And this is reflected in melodious and harmonious musical praise. As early as Genesis 4:21, we see the invention of string and wind instruments. Jubal was the father of all who play the harp and flute. And in the bible’s storyline, music and singing accompanies the great saving events of God. The Bible has great songs of victory. By the shore of the Red Sea, as all the dead bodies of the Egyptian attackers float up to the beach, what is Moses, the great leader of God’s people doing? He is composing a song and singing it, with Miriam accompanying with Tamborine (Exodus 15).
I will sing to the LORD For he is highly exalted The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song He has become my salvation. (Exodus 15:1-2 NIV)
Likewise, Deborah sang after the victory over Sisera. So too does Hannah, and Zechariah, and Mary. They compose and sing songs of victory and thanks.
But the Bible has its own version of blues, also. Not so much, ‘When my baby left me’. More like ‘By the Rivers of Babylon we sat down as we wept and remembered Zion’. There the sons of Asaph hang up their lyres and refuse to sing. The book of Lamentations is one long lament, mourning the punishment of Babylonian exile that God brought on the people of Jerusalem for her many sins.
The longest book of the bible is the Bible’s Hymn book, the book of Psalms. It has been called the ‘Treasury of David’. The Greatest King of Israel, David, was not just a leader, warrior and judge. King David was also a musician, poet, and songwriter and songleader. David sang and played his ancient form of the guitar, the harp. He was Israel’s chief musician, singer and poet.
And like his ancestor David, our Lord Jesus Christ sung hymns. On the night before he died, Jesus sung a hymn with his disciples. Then he went out to pray and to be betrayed.
And Jesus intends to continue his singing with us. Jesus our brother, our great Worship leader, will lead us in praising God. Jesus will declare God’s name to his brothers and will sing God’s praises in the presence of the congregation. (Hebrews 2:12; Psalm 22:22). This will occur in the new heaven and earth that Christ is bringing in.
Jesus will be the lead singer. But he won’t be singing a solo. There will be backing singers, of course. Hebrews 12:22 speaks of the ‘thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly’. But it won’t merely be a performance on stage. Like every great concert, the crowd will be part of the show. The picture in Revelation is a great multitude singing. And the lead singer, our Lord Jesus Christ, will not only lead the praise. He will also be the object of praise.
Revelation chapter 5 describes this great musical and choral event. At the beginning of Revelation 5, God the Father is seated on the throne. But then, out comes the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David. The Lion of Judah is also the lamb who was slain. This is our Lord Jesus. Jesus takes centre stage, at the very centre of God’s throne. Jesus is God, after all. And then the Lion who is the Lamb receives a new song, first from the elders. Revelation chapter 6 verses 9 and 10:
9 […] "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. 10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." (NIV)
And then comes the millions of angels singing, verse 12:
12 In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" (NIV)
And then every creature joins in with a magnificent swelling chorus. Revelation chapter 5 verse 13:
13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!" (NIV)
Muslim heaven is a harem of virgins for men, and too bad if you’re a woman. But Christian heaven is not sex but singing, both men and women together.
I’m sure you’ve all been to concerts. Perhaps it was an up-market event at the Sydney Opera House. Maybe it was a pop concert at the Entertainment Centre. Or it could have been your local school. We want our kids to learn music. We love music and singing because of the bible and Christianity. Christianity unlocked music for the masses.
Of course, it has been perverted in Western society, like every gift of God. Fans love serving rock and pop ‘idols’. It is a form of worship. But then we all wonder why they can’t get no satisfaction. It is no surprise that the pop star turns to sex and drugs and money. Because it is hard being god. Humans just can’t handle it. Because the emulation and worship that occurs of pop stars in a rock concert is meant for Jesus Christ and God the Father alone, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. And the rock stars discover that it is really costly to be God. And so they so often destroy themselves.
I hope you don’t think heaven will be boring. Don’t think harps played alone seated on your own cloud. Think best concert you’ve ever been to, times a million billion trillion, with all your real friends and real family in Christ, with God and Jesus centre stage, the angels all there, with the apostles and prophets and every redeemed human in all of history. Rock and pop concerts are just s pale and shallow aping and copying of heaven.
What we do here in church, Sunday by Sunday, is as close as you can come to heaven on earth. We are the corner store of the Kingdom of God. This is the local outlet of heaven, where you can taste what the future world will be like. We are a little outpost of heaven. Katoomba convention, even Hillsong or the Bill Graham crusades, they are just a foretaste, a sampler. The future world is a gathering of human beings, around their Creator and Ruler and Redeemer, God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, with angels and redeemed humanity there praising Father and Son for creation and redemption in the power of the Holy Spirit.
I have been reading Vishal Mangalwadi’s book, ‘The Book That Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization’.[2] Vishal is an Indian Christian, who is familiar with Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim thinking and culture. And he starts his book talking about music. Music is a western thing, and produced by Christianity.
Vishal says that Buddhism left no musical tradition in India. Indian Buddhism invented no musical instrument. Because Buddhism has no heaven filled with music. The pessimistic philosophy of silence in Buddhism could not produce music or joy for Eastern culture. It is the Western culture that produced music.
Neither did Islamic culture produce music. The mosque does not sing in worship. Islamic Shariah law bans music and singing and sees it as Western immorality. So the fatwa of British Muslims I read said that Shariah law bans ‘musical instruments such as the drum, violin, guitar, flute, piano’. No instruments! They are never permissible. Only a tambourine can be used at a wedding. Men listening to women singing is not permissible. http://www.central-mosque.com/index.php/General-Fiqh/music-and-singing-a-detailed-fatwa.html. Welcome to Islam, which seeks to rid the earth of musical instruments.
It’s not surprising Islam has no music, since Islam doesn’t have a brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, to lead the singing. They don’t have a redeemer to praise. It is Christianity that has produced music and a singing culture.
And so we come to our very brief reading today. How are we to think about music and singing? Paul tells us. Let me read Colossians chapter 3 verse 16 again:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom and as you sing psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.[3] (NIV)
In our verse, Paul mentions three types of biblical song: psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. There seems a great deal of overlap between them.
The Greek word ‘psalm’ refers to a song sung to the plucking of a stinged instrument. It is a song sung to the ancient guitar or lyre. And the word is used of our Old Testament book of Psalms.
‘Hymns’ were particular religious songs, songs of praise to God. In the Greek Old Testament, some Psalms were described as hymns, showing the overlap.
And the spiritual song is a general term. It might be a song inspired by the Spirit, or a song about spiritual matters.
Now, in my talk today I want to make four points about our singing. In our singing of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, we are doing four things.
First, we hear God’s word, the word of Christ. God speaks to us through our singing Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Second, with our psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, we respond to God’s word, with thanks, or sorrow, confidence or determination, as is appropriate. Third, by our singing we teach and encourage one another. And fourth, we minister to ourselves with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Singing good decent Christian songs does these four things for us.
First, the ministry of singing ‘Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs’ is a ministry of God’s word to us. It is a word ministry, a teaching ministry akin to preaching. Singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs is one way we let the word of Christ dwell richly in us.
Now it is not hard to work out why that is. Words to music is a particularly memorable way of teaching. You know what it’s when you get a song in your head. Pop stars, moviemakers, advertising executives, and politicians, all want to have a catchy tune for their words, even if the words are innane and stupid. Music is the net that makes that catch.
Think of poker machines. They exist only to give out less money than people put in. And to make them better at that, poker machine manufacturers employ skillful musicians to write jingles and music to draw people in.
The music gives the message greater purchase in our minds.
Music can also make the Christian message catchy. Since music is an aid to the memory, as is poetry, a skillful songwriter can express deeply held truths with great power.
And leads to my second observation. Music is not only an aid to the memory, but it is also emotive. A skillfully crafted hymn or song is emotional, because music is emotional. Why else do movie makers put music into their movies? Because music triggers emotions and feelings. Music can manipulate the emotions. Violin music is famously sad. Distorted heavy metal guitars or drums anger. Deep notes are scary or ominious. Just think of the Jaws theme. Der Ner Ner. De De De… Or the Empirial march, when Darth Vader walks in. Der Der Der, Der De Der, Der De Der…
Music has an emotive component, which emphasizes and accents what it is teaching. That is why Nations have ‘National Anthems’, not just National Poems. Poems are boring, anthems are stirring, because that is what music does.
Yip Harburg, the man who wrote the lyrics for the Wizard of Oz said: ‘Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought.’
This power of music is also the danger of music. Music can manipulate the feelings. Mood music does this. And good music with skillful words make people loyal to the message and bound to the things that they are singing about. We develop an emotional attachment to the things we are singing about. We make a moral evalutation. It is not ‘just a song’. It is ‘our song’. It is a song with deep meaning for us, that is our song.
Now ‘the word of Christ’ includes primarily the word about Christ. ‘The word of Christ’ is first of all the message of the gospel, the message about Christ, of Christ’s Lordship, of who he is, as both God and Man, about what he has done, his saving incarnation, life, death, resurrection and return to the Father, and one day his coming to judge the living and the dead. And Paul wants us to be marinated in that message. He wants that message to dwell richly in us. And so he advocates singing it.
Some of our favourite passages in Paul were actually songs. Philippians 2:6-11 is thought by most scholars to be the earliest hymn written to Christ as God. Colossians 1:15-20 was probably based on a rich hymn to Christ as God.
So singing the Word of Christ is really a type of preaching and teaching. We are hearing God’s word. God is speaking to us when we sing a well crafted biblical song. The risen Christ is ministering to us through the song which brings us his gospel. And the way God is communicating to us, through the word in song, is powerful, because of the nature of music.
But the singing of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs also convey our response to God. Our singing is not just listening to God, but also talking to God. Notice the last part of verse 16 talks about our response of gratitude to God:
as you sing with gratitude in your hearts to God. (NIV)
People sing to say ‘thank you’ to God. The origin of so much sin in Romans 1 is ingratitude. It is being ungrateful.
they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him (NIV)
And so God handed them over to all manner of sin. But we have so much more to be thankful for. We have not just creation, but also redemption. We know how much God has done for us in Christ. So James says, ‘Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise’ (James 5:13 NIV).
We are happy because Jesus died and rose again for us. Sickness, death and suffering don’t win in the end. We have a home in heaven. God will remake the whole cosmos with Christ as King. So we sing songs of praise.
And sometimes, when we are not happy, songs can help us with our mood. Songs focus our minds on other realities by physically engaging our body in singing.
We are not always happy. And songs can also express our unhappiness or sorrow to God. The bible has laments as well as songs of joy. The Psalms express frustration and confusion and vengeance, as well as praise and joy and thanks. They also express personal and corporate penitence, or repentance and sorrow. So most famously, Psalm 51:
Have mercy on me O God according to your unfailing love. According to your great compassion blot out my transgression. Wash away my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. (NIV)
So well chosen psalms, hymns and spiritual songs not only preach the gospel, the word of Christ, to us. They also enable us to respond to God, in repentance, in faith, in sorrow, and in joy and gratitude. In this, they are a bit like our sacraments, the Lord’s Supper or Baptism. Not only do they contain the Word, but they have built in them a response of praise and prayer.
But not only does singing Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs enable God to speak to us and us to speak to God. This is the vertical aspect, God to us, and us to God. Singing is a form of mutual word ministry. This is the horizontal aspect. We minister to one another when we sing. Notice what Paul says in verse 16
as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom (NIV)
1 Corinthians 14:26, in an incidental way, speaks of the edification value of singing Christian songs. 1 Corinthians 14:26: When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.
Yes, it has to be orderly, not chaos, because God is a God of order. But a hymn can strengthen the gathered church.
Singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs together turns every Christian singer into a teacher. We all teach and admonish using the words of Scripture or the well thought out words of a hymn or Christian song. You don’t have to go to Moore College or write a sermon to do some teaching in church. You only have to sing some well-chosen psalms, hymns and spiritual song to one another. And in so doing, you minister one to another.
Leading church singing is not a solo performance. It is enabling every one of God’s people to join in the song. It is a mutual ministry.
So you can sing in public the ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘my’ songs. ‘My Jesus, my Saviour’ ‘I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, for Jesus Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me’. Amazing grace that saved a wretch like ‘ME’, singular. And I get encouraged because I am a ‘me’, just as much as you are a ‘me’, too.
But also, we can sing as a gathered people. We can sing ‘we’ and ‘us’ and ‘our songs’ ‘We, we are God’s people, once, once who were far away, saved by the blood of Jesus’. ‘Tis the Father’s pleasure WE SHOULD CALL HIM LORD – not just me, but also we – who from the beginning was the mighty Word.
But we should not just have the ‘I, me, my’ or the ‘We, us, our’ songs. We also have the second person, ‘you’ songs. There’s a song like this in the bible. Ephesians 5:14:
Wake up, O sleeper, And rise from the dead And Christ will shine ON YOU. (NIV)
Indeed, Psalm 95 was long used in our morning prayer services. And it is a ‘You’ song.
‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden YOUR hearts as YOU did in the desert... (NIV)
But there is one final aspect of singing It is the self-ministry, preaching to yourself effect of singing Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Our verse, Colossians 3:16, hints that there is a ministry to yourself in singing when it says:
as you sing psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God (NIV)
Singing is expressing gratitude that is in your hearts. But Ephesians 5:19 goes one step beyond this. Ephesians 5:19 says:
18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. 19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.[4] (NIV)
Literally, it is a command[5] to be filled with the Spirit. And that filling is done in three ways, which amount to commands. And each of the three ways involve singing words with music. First, we are to speak among ourselves with the same three musical items: Psalms, hymns and spiritual song (19λαλοῦντες ἑαυτοῖς [ἐν] ψαλμοῖς καὶ ὕμνοις καὶ ᾠδαῖς πνευματικαῖς). Moreover, we are to sing (ᾄδοντες) and make music (ψάλλοντες) in our hearts. Literally, we are to pluck the strings in our hearts. All this is to be done to the Lord. But the sphere it is occurring in is ‘the heart’, the inner person (τῇ καρδίᾳ ὑμῶν). It is the happy, joyful singing in your hearts that is the overflow of having the peace of God and the joy of Christ and the love of God shed abroad in our hearts.
Yes, it is praise directed to God. Yes, there is also the ‘one another’ direction.[6] But there is also the self-direction. It is singing and making music ‘in your hearts’. It is being so happy that you could sing. This is a ministry of preaching to yourself .
Martin Lloyd Jones in his book, Spiritual Depression, said, ‘We spend too much time listening to ourselves, and not enough time talking to ourselves’. In the words of Psalm 42 and 43, ‘Why are you so downcast, Oh my soul’. Put your faith in him, for I will yet praise him, my savior and my God.’ Preach to yourself.
And in 1 Corinthians 14:15, we see that Paul exhorts the Corinthians to sing using the mind. So Paul says, 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse 15:
15 So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind.
That is, don’t put your brain into neutral when you sing. Think about the words. Use that great big muscle of your brain.
Christianity has a unique place for music and singing. Building on the Old Testament heritage incapsulated in the Psalms and other great Old Testament songs, and the creational reality of God building music into our world, the final vision of Christianity includes a place where all creation praises the LORD God Almighty and the Lord Jesus Christ with words of never ending praise. We praise God for our creation and redemption. The bible includes in the praise God's redeemed people bring to him musical instruments, made with human skill and ingenuity, and played with skill. But music is not an object of devotion, but a means of praise and worship. Music is not the whole of worship by any means, but is part of our life of corporate worship both now and in the world to come. However, our music and singing praises to God is rightly seen as a key point of our devotion and praise to God as creator and redeemer. Our singing now is a foretaste of heaven, and should enable and be the vehicle for our praise and response to God, our listening to God by the preaching of the gospel and other scriptural truths to us, and ministering the word of God to one another and to ourselves. In this way, music is part of the teaching ministry in the church.
[1] Briefing, 252, May 2001, 8 quoted by Vaughan Roberts, True Worship, 84.
[2] I am indebted to chapter 1.
Ὁ λόγος τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐνοικείτω
ἐν ὑμῖν πλουσίως,
ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ
διδάσκοντες καὶ νουθετοῦντες ἑαυτούς,
ψαλμοῖς ὕμνοις ᾠδαῖς πνευματικαῖς
ἐν [τῇ] χάριτι ᾄδοντες
ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν
τῷ θεῷ·
[4] 18καὶ μὴ μεθύσκεσθε οἴνῳ,
ἐν ᾧ ἐστιν ἀσωτία,
ἀλλὰ πληροῦσθε ἐν πνεύματι,
19λαλοῦντες ἑαυτοῖς [ἐν] ψαλμοῖς καὶ ὕμνοις καὶ ᾠδαῖς πνευματικαῖς, ᾄδοντες καὶ ψάλλοντες τῇ καρδίᾳ ὑμῶν τῷ κυρίῳ,
20εὐχαριστοῦντες πάντοτε ὑπὲρ πάντων
ἐν ὀνόματι τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ
τῷ θεῷ καὶ πατρί.
[5] The mood of the finite imperative πληροῦσθε (v18) is picked up by the three participles in v19, speaking (λαλοῦντες), singing (ᾄδοντες) and making music or ‘psalming’ (ψάλλοντες).
[6] In Ephesians 5:18 the reflexive is used, which could mean each individual is to speak to himself, or it could mean that the group is to speak among themselves.