We’ve heard it all.
Worship isn’t about music. It’s all about the heart.
Still, no matter how often you place the emphasis on anything but music, music remains a big deal.
Not only do our worship services revolve around music, we even have entire tours that revolve around worship music.
Music is everywhere. It has become synonymous with worship.
Yes, it’s a big deal in the church today. But it’s also a big deal in the Bible.
Consider a few verses:
“David told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their fellow Levites as musicians to make a joyful sound with musical instruments: lyres, harps and cymbals” (1 Chronicles 15:16).
And
“My heart, O God, is steadfast, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make music” (Psalm 57:7).
And
“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts” (Colossians 3:16).
Why Music?
My question today is, “Why?”
Why this emphasis on music?
Why did David appoint musicians and singers to stand before God for hours and hours?
Why is music such a massive part of the church today? And are we using music as God intended?
On your mark, get set, comment.
Question: Why do you think music is such a big deal in worship? What is its purpose? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
[ois skin=”Next Level Optin”]
Funny enough, just blogged about the same question this week. http://www.worshipperiod.com/and-sometimes-why
Nice! I suppose we’re both hearing form the Holy Spirit, right? 🙂
Paul mentions for us to worship through psalms hymns and spiritual songs in many of his letters actually, so it’s interesting because you tell he’s giving that message to all of the church that we should worship with music.. My thoughts are probably that music can be a catalyst for much deeper emotions, it can make us feel happy, upset, angry, peaceful, or just about any way, all being deeper than normal too. So my thoughts would be that we use music in our worship to deepen our worship and emphasize our response to his love. (so long as we don’t let emotions bring fake worship)
Good point, Brandon. I think it was John Piper who said that glories of God are meant to be sung – not just thought about or spoken. It helps take our affection to another level.
Music is the only human expression that affects all three parts of us, our heart, soul and body. This is why I LOVE it so much, it’s even more evidence of the Triune God, only music transcends our thinking, reaches our heart and moves our body.
Given by God, for God’s glory. Make great music people.
M_
Love this!
One interesting thing about music is that it is an artistic expression of worship to God that EVERYONE can engage in. Not everyone can paint, or make a film, or act….but everyone can sing. In terms of modern expression, it is also accessible- nearly everyone is exposed to music on a regular basis.
Good point. But what about people who don’t like to sing? People who don’t connect with music?
This is the question because there are a lot of people who don’t want to sing, period. I wrestle with this as a worship pastor whose passion is leading in sung worship. But there are a lot of men specifically who just don’t feel comfortable singing with people. I think a few things will help them:
1.) Give them something to engage with intellectually ie do scripture readings, creeds, beyond only doing songs – maybe the songs will mean more to them when given good theological background
2.) beware doing too many “love” songs that men don’t relate well with – “he is jealous for me” is a hard pill to swallow for your construction worker friends to sing at the top of their lungs.
I’d love to hear others’ feedback on this because it’s an issue I’m wrestling with
Chad, these are great tips. I also wrote a post on it here (might provide more insight): https://www.davidsantistevan.com/dont-like-music/
Why music? I don’t know if there is just one obvious reason, but there are many possible reasons and speculations. Marcmillan’s answer was very concise and insightful. Singing or playing an instrument with someone gives a common purpose and spiritual connection with other singers/players. Even more so when praising Creator God. Music is a “universal” language, and I think God created it that way. We are all effected by organized sound. Plants, animals, and humans are all effected. The most primitive people alive find a way to make music. The most advanced societies deem it even more important and fund it through commissions and symphonies. I have the idea that no one really hates music or singing. That is a defense mechanism to cover insecurities about ability or talent. Almost every one sings in the shower, or in the fields, when they think no one is listening.
The ancient Greek word that we translate as music was a word for the science that included all sciences. The harmony of the heavens as it were. I have heard it said many times that music is the only art on earth that will be found in Heaven. ??
So, we get a thousand people from different places, all with their own problems coming together, talking, walking around etc. We begin to sing praises to God. The words we sing, the emotions created change our heart and focus. We find ourselves with everyone singing praise to God. We are uplifted, encouraged and united in one Spirit. Harmony is such a basic law of physics, it affects every part of Creation from a vibrating harp string to the rotation of galaxies. Why would it not affect us? I suppose that is “Why Music”.
Yeah I think you’re right – basically everyone does love music. So maybe its a discipleship thing to help people vocalize their faith together in song and we shouldn’t let people off the hook too fast ….
CHAD and DAVID both, I hope you are still watching for comments. Chad you hit on something that started me thinking. Your comment about the construction worker and “He is jealous for me”. There is a technical reason we exclude men from singing. Follow me for a second. Contemporary Christian Music has gone the way of pop music. It is usually a band with a rock style tenor, so the voice sounds above the band. Your lead singer is higher than every one else. In the old days with 4 part harmony, more men sang, and sang their hearts out. I was just watching a Chris Tomlin video who has a very high male voice. We lower his songs a couple of half steps so the the women can reach it. So you have your average mezzo-soprano and tenor comfortable, but still too high for altos and baritones and especially for basses. Hymns were arranged SATB, soprano, alto, tenor, BASS !!
When I was a kid we used to make fun of Frankie Valli “Walk Like A Man” ( You Tube). We would sing,” walk like a man, sing like a girl”. No one sings BASS any more. It has been excluded form pop music. The “manly man”, i.e. deep voice, has become an object of ridicule in pop, metro-sexual culture. Most men are bass/ baritone. If you have an average mezzo-soprano melody, it needs to be a 4th or 5th Lower to be comfortable for an untrained baritone or bass. In the old style quartets, they would sing parts, but the piano player would modulate to different keys so the solos would be in a comfortable key for each singer. Men are not singing as much because worship leaders are not giving it enough thought. If you pick a song they like, you still must get it in their key. If you did both, you might have to have the roof repaired on the sanctuary. Don’t be afraid to modulate to accomplish the task. Get some more use out of that capo. To be inclusive in worship we must work on this problem!
Brilliant
What we reach out to our congregation is that music can be a plow. Just as a plow tills fallow soil to provide a better environment for a seed to grow, so can music open one’s heart to better receive the Word.
Scott, I agree with you.
I have also found that music is the best response to the Word. Once we have heard the Word, we are able to physically respond, engaging our heart in a response to God, as a community of believers, through song. Pretty cool deal.
In fact, at my church Pinelake, we have started singing at least half of our musical worship on the back half of the sermon. Amazingly, our pastor loves this. He believes it goes both ways, that his sermon plows the field, opening hearts to respond in passionate worship of Jesus.
A few quick thoughts:
I think of this sometimes in terms of worshipping in spirit and in truth. God made emotions, and while we don’t want to manipulate people, I think music gives us an emotional, artistic, spirit-filled way to give glory back to Him.
Second, when we think about emotional and artistic expressions, singing is possibly one of the most personal expressions. While a guitar or a painting is an external instrument, the voice is a part of us. There is a purity there.
Third, it is an active, physical, community response to God.
And last, the voice is a bit of a least-common-denominator. Even if you suck, you at least have one. Everyone can participate. We experience community as we all sing together.
Thanks for inspiring a few thoughts in me!
Chris, I love the idea of community. There’s something about singing that unites.
Music brings unity. Music is the only thing that can truly bring a group of people together to say the exact same thing at the same time. People walk away from church forgetting sermons, but a song that touches the heart stays with people all week. Music moves the heart and touches our emotions in a way that words can’t. Music is the incense that arises from the heart.
“Music is the incense that aries from the heart” – beautiful.
1. Music being cultural helps to localize worship, thereby making it accessible everywhere.
2. Music adds beauty and expression to prayers.
3. Scriptural music and song help us to remember the Word and our prayers.
3. Music helps to marry words with emotion and leads to better participation of our mind and heart in worship.
“How I wept, deeply moved by your hymns, songs, and the voices that echoed through your Church! What emotion I experienced in them! Those sounds flowed into my ears distilling the truth in my heart. A feeling of devotion surged within me, and tears streamed down my face – tears that did me good.” – St. Augustine
As Chris said, we do experience community as we sing together.
In fact, singing together is probably the time the church is most unified.
We are saying (singing) the exact same thing at the same time, we sing the same notes (arguably!) and sometimes harmonize as well, and we even breathe together. Wow! Is that not a beautiful expression of UNITY?
Even when we are listening to a great preacher together we are not this unified. It takes music to bring it to this level.
The word “worship” itself is a noun made up of the idea of worth, renown, high value, honor. Our church teaches on the subject by encouraging one another to think of it as a time of proclaiming in unity and aloud the worth of God, the indescribable value of Jesus Christ, and the precious gift of the Holy Spirit of truth. Our goal is to develope a habit of avoiding so much singing about ourselves and how we feel about God and to rather make out God’s glory for all to see and be amazed. As a father myself, I’m thrilled when my little ones say stuff like, “Papa, you’re so smart, ” or “Mommy, Papa is soooo strong!” It absolutely melts my heart when they tell me they love me, but I feel more honored and appreciated when they praise whatever particular attributes of mine they are amazed by. Generally speaking, I’m aware enough to realise that I’m not really that smart or strong, but to them, I’m the smartest and the most powerful man they know. In a similar way, I believe God is more moved by our direct praise of his attributes which amaze us than by our telling him our feelings about him. Which of these is a more God-centric statement, “God, you are a mighty fortress, an unbreachable bulwark,” or “God, I feel so emotionally moved that you are a mighty fortress, an unbreachable bulwark.”? In the former, the focus is purely on God and his attributes of strength. In the latter, the focus is immediately on me and my feelings about God rather than purely on God himself. Let’s be more focused on praising God directly than on telling him our feelings about him. While both forms are found in the Scripture, we ought to be careful of proportions, as one form makes him the center focus, the other makes us the center focus.
Steve, your remarks are so true about being God-centric. One of my favorite books about worship and music is “Selling Worship” by Pete Ward. He makes the same point in his book. Paraphrased, The desire to sing songs to God, rather than about God has tended towards a lack of interest in theological content. He also makes the claim that we are no longer worshiping God, but we are worshiping worship. Worshiping the attributes of God is replaced by self indulgent emotionalism. Worship has become more about the way we feel, than recognizing the qualities of God. It has become more about capturing the “feeling” than about carrying out the Great Commission. As you say, we need to be careful of balance and proportion.
Steve, please post more.
Why music? God is creator. We are made in His image. Music is something we can create and even argue that we can create something from nothing, as God did when He created the universe.
Why singing? Singing helps us put passion into our words. It expresses the emotions of the words as well as the truth or meaning of our expressions. It help us engage our whole being into the act of praising God.
Why music? Music is powerful. Its everywhere. It sells. It engages us with product, with story, with message. It has the power to help us remember. It excites us. It moves us. Even Satan knows this, and he uses music very craftily. Musicians have a powerful tool. I pray we use it we well.
That’s my two cents today.
Thanks for asking.
Brad Holmes
UNT ? University of North Texas in Denton ?