Intro
Music’s everywhere. There are 300 radio stations up and down the country – only a handful has no music. 1 billion tracks downloaded off i-tunes. Football terraces resound to guttural chants of the tribal fan; young mums instinctively sing their babies to sleep.
Music marks our experience. Couples remember ‘their tune’, whether from 5 or 50 years ago. 20 years after Live Aid and many who watched it on the day remember the video that went the song “who’s going to take you home” as the most poignant moment.
Music, like colour, is so much an aspect of our daily lives that sometimes we only notice it when it’s not there. A film or tv drama without music is a rare and very stark thing. A service of worship without music is also in distinct contrast to our normal pattern.
It’s impossible to cover the full spectrum even of Christian music – so will not attempt. I will attempt to present a biblical perspective of the spread of applications of music – and link as many of these as possible to contemporary experiences.
Just as we assume music as a part of our lives today, the bible does not ever feel the need to explain why we sing. It just exhorts us to do it.
There are some pointers though – music is alluded to in creation: in one of the oldest books of the bible here what God say’s to (Job38:4-7).
From creation to the creator – did you know that God sings? Here the promise of God to the prophet (Zephaniah 3:17).
So what are the characteristics of song in the Bible that we can apply today.
Songs help Ingrain Truth
The Song of Miriam and Moses (Ex15) told the story of the Exodus in a medium of song that would keep that story alive. It combined praise of God’s glorious deliverance with the facts of the story: the best of Pharaoh’s officers are drowned…by the blast of your nostrils the surging waters stood firm like a wall”. This at the beginning of what became 40 years in the desert – a song to help God’s people remind them of God’s ownership.
40 years later in Deut 31 and just before they are to enter the promised land God gives Moses and Joshua another song: commanding them: (Deut 31:19-21a)
The NT writers do the same. Paul to the Philippians: you’re attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus –then he quotes a hymn: (Philippians 2:6-8).
So music is there to help ingrain truth – whether as a stimulus to praise or to convict us again of our need of him, or by showing us Jesus instructs us as to how we should be.
And all of those work for us today;
He left his Father’s home above
So free so infinite his grace
Emptied himself of all but love
And bled for Adam’s helpless race
Songs Intensify and Assist our Expression
Music and words just go deeper than words alone. Here what happens when David re-tells the story of the death of Abner (2Sam3:33).
Of course the Psalms are packed with this stuff.
Ps 7 – David sings a plea for deliverance: A shiggaion of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning Cush, a Benjamite. (Ps 7v1).
Ps 18 – For the director of music. Of David the servant of the LORD. He sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.
Ps 51 - For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba (Ps51v1).
And we could go on: songs of intercession (Ps70), of declaration (Ps96), of dedication (Ps 30), of thanks (Ps 75), of simple joy (Ps 98); 15 psalms marked as “songs of ascents” – songs of preparation for entering God’s presence. Which of these did Jesus have in the desert? “Yea, though I walk through death’s dark vale”?
Why not just the words? Why not just beautiful poetry? A good joke defies explanation and so does a good song. Music moves us.
And music carries us to that we can express ourselves – encouraging us to make declarations we know to be true but struggle to voice. We shall sing later a song written by Matt and Beth Redman in the desert of their second miscarriage:
You give and take awayYou give and take awayMy heart will choose to sayLord, blessed be Your name
Music Involves Us All
Aside on those of you who think you can’t sing: God doesn’t care –hear the words of the lover (representing God) in Song of Songs: (SS2:12).
Twice Paul instructs different churches to sing together psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Colossians 3 and Ephesians 5). In both the context of is partly about contrast between the old life and the new life – the new life is focussed on God and singing is a part of how we maintain that focus. The other aspect of the context is about life together in the body of Christ: bearing with each other – forgiving – letting the peace of Christ rule and being thankful.
Singing is partly how we express ourselves as a body in a way in which every member can contribute. It is also how we do one thing together – a powerful reminder that we are called to belong. There’s a reason for the expression, “singing off the same hymn-sheet” as a metaphor for having common purpose. A reminder that together it’s just so much easier to praise God, an opportunity for us to encourage each other, to support each other.
Oh for a thousand tongues to sing my great redeemer’s praise.
Singing grants us an Insight into Heaven
The bible uses a fair amount of surreal imagery in heaven. But the songs – those we can understand: (Rev5:11-13). We’ll be giving each other a blast of that one shortly.
Handel's "Messiah", was written in 1741, and considered by many to be the greatest piece of music ever composed. He wrote the 260 page masterpiece in just 24 days, barely taking time to eat or sleep. It is said that while writing The Messiah, Handel literally saw visions of the subject about which he was writing; and, while composing the Hallelujah chorus, he said "I saw Heaven opened and the host of it worshipping the Glory of God".
Conclusion
So songs help to ingrain truth, to intensify and assist our expression. They involve us all and grant us an insight into heaven.
I long to be a part of that great multitude. And when we get there – one thing will be sure – we will, all of us, be singing the same song.
Readings – NIV
Intro
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?
The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.”
Songs help Ingrain Truth
Deut 31:19-21a
Now write down for yourselves this song and teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it, so that it may be a witness for me against them. When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, the land I promised on oath to their forefathers, and when they eat their fill and thrive, they will turn to other gods and worship them, rejecting me and breaking my covenant. And when many disasters and difficulties come upon them, this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten by their descendants
Who,
being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God
something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Songs Intensify and Assist our Expression
2 Samuel 3:33-34
The king sang this lament for Abner:
“Should Abner have died as the lawless die?
Your hands were not bound,
your feet were not fettered.
You fell as one falls before wicked men.”
And all the people wept over him again.
O LORD my God, I take refuge in you;
save and deliver me from all who pursue me,
or they will tear me like a lion
and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me
Psalm 51:1
Have mercy on me, O
God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
Singing Involves Us All
Song of Songs 2:12
My dove in the clefts of the rock,
in the hiding places on the mountainside,
show me your face, let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.
Singing grants us an Insight into Heaven
Rev 5:11
Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. 12 In a loud voice they sang:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honour and glory and praise!”
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 honour and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”