Trust Is The Key to Joyful Music

The psalmist said, “For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name” (Psalm 33:21). In context, we see that we can trust Him even when facing enemies (v. 10), the peril of battle against an army (vv. 16-17), death, and famine (v. 19). Whatever we are facing, we can trust Him and hope in Him.

Music has a way of being a barometer of the soul. If we come to the time of singing and have no heart for it—check your soul—how are you doing in the area of trust? Read His word with the eye of faith, and see how God has delivered in the past. Is anything too hard for the Lord?

His lovingkindness will be upon you according as you have hoped in Him (v. 22). If you have hoped a little, you may expect to see a little manifestation of lovingkindness. If you have hoped a lot, you may expect to see a great deal of His lovingkindness shown to you.

Draw Near To Hear, Not To Offer the Sacrifice of Fools

Recently God stopped me in my tracks with Ecclesiastes 5:1-2: “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God, and draw near to listen, rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools; for they do not know they are doing evil. Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven, and you are on the earth; therefore, let your words be few.”

We know we should rejoice when we go to God’s house (Psalm 122:1). But here God says, “Guard your steps,” so you don’t offer the sacrifice of a fool. The sacrifice of a fool in this context is when we foolishly don’t realize what we are saying. Today, as New Testament believers, we offer the sacrifice of praise (Heb. 13:15), or the living sacrifice of dedication (Rom. 12:1-2). But how often do we mouth the words of praise when our heart is secretly complaining against God on the inside? How often do we sing “Take my life and let it be consecrated” without true consecration? Or how often do we sing “I Surrender All” when it is not true?

This is sinfully foolish. God takes worship more seriously than we do. God says when we do this, we don’t realize we are doing evil (5:1). We might excuse this as negligible absent-mindedness. “I just wasn’t thinking.” Exactly the point!

God says we will give an account one day for every “idle” word (Mt. 12:36). The sacrifice of a fool is evil, whether it is in ritual, in song, or in normal speaking. Singing is the most likely area in which we say things we don’t mean. “Do not be hasty in word.” “Guard your steps.” God is listening and taking you seriously. Let your words be few. In a multitude of words there is no lack of sin (Prov. 10:19)!

The LORD Is My Salvation—Sing It!

When God repeats something in scripture over and over, we are wise to take special note.  In His Word, God calls us repeatedly to rejoice in Him as our Savior, often with singing.  Good Friday and Easter are a great time for Christians to remember this.

Israel, after being miraculously saved at the Red Sea, sang, “The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation.”  This exact theme is repeated in Psalm 118:14 and Isaiah 12:2. 

Through centuries of Jewish history, God repeatedly reminded His people of their Red Sea deliverance—even though some were not there, God wanted them to rejoice in the deliverance shown to their ancestors.  They knew the story well intellectually, but they always needed to feed spiritually on that great truth.

Likewise we should never tire of singing of our Savior.  The contents of our hymnal are a testimony to this.  God has led hymnwriters to rejoice in Christ as the great Savior.  His salvation is gracious, wondrous, secure, eternal and is His great glory.  Let us sing to Him and rejoice of His saving grace.

Ridding Joy-Killers (#2)—Past Failures

“The joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). This was the powerful message God gave the post-exilic people. Since music in scripture is an expression of joy, we could say that the music of the LORD is our strength also. Hasn’t sacred music so many times washed over your soul and led you to joy in Christ?

Another lesson in Nehemiah 8 is this: The Israelites were grieving over the past. They wept when they heard the words of the law and realized all they lost under God’s chastening in Babylon. True, grieving over sin is good. For a time. But then it becomes time to focus on the joy of God’s forgiveness.

After a parent disciplines a child, they then hug and reassure the son or daughter. The parent is sad if the child can’t feel the full forgiveness and move on. Likewise, as blood-washed children of God, we need to let the Holy Spirit teach us when to move from repentance to rejoicing. Don’t let undue grief rid you of joy. Your sins are paid for and under the blood if you have repented and confessed appropriately. Now God wants His joy (often expressed in music) to be your strength.

GOD MADE THE PSALMS TO BE SUNG

It should be clear in scripture—God made the psalms to be sung. This is what the word “psalm” means. It is from a Hebrew word meaning to make music. Some say the original root points to instrumental music making. But the word clearly came to be used of vocal music. “Psalm,” then is a synonym of “song.”

Second, the psalm inscriptions are filled with musical terms. They were delivered “to the chief musician,” as one translation would put it. The phrase, however it is translated, refers to a leader of music in some capacity.

Third, Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 refer to psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs as being sung. “Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” is at the core of our spiritual life in both of these passages. Even in the New Testament, with Jews and Gentiles, the psalms were to be sung.

Finally—an illustration. A mother makes a birthday cake for a son. A cake communicates by the words on the cake, but also by its sweetness in eating. The words could say, “Happy birthday! We love you!” But also, the sweetness of taste conveys the sweetness of the love in a way that words alone cannot. Mom does not simply want her son to read the words on the cake and never eat it. She labored over the sweetness and the beauty of the cake. (Nor does Mom want the son to savor the sugar without getting the message of the words, of course). Likewise, God wants us to get the word-message of the psalm, but also experience the sweetness of it in singing. He wrote the psalms to be sung!

What role should music have in my life?

Making music to the Lord should be at the center of our Christian life. This is taught in Ephesians 5:18-19. “And do not be drunk with wine, wherein is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.”

It is easy to think of this verse as simply telling us what to do when we are in gathered worship. But actually it is in the context of how to live hour by hour. It is an outgrowth of the Spirit-filled life, which of course is not just to be in gathered worship. There are verses that say, “When you come together, do such and such.” But this is not one of them.

May we rely on music day by day to speak to ourselves as we meditate on the truth of God. God wants these meditations on His Word to be carried along on the wings of song. That adds the joy, beauty and heart that God intends as we make melody to Him hour by hour.

The Power of the Word of God Is Present in Psalm Singing

“The Word of God is alive and powerful” (Hebrews 4:12). The Word’s power is present whenever and wherever it is present. This is true in reading the Word, preaching the Word, personal sharing of the Word, and also when we sing the Word.

There are many instances of scripture in hymns. Sometimes, when the words of our translation fit the poetic meter of a hymn, a phrase or sentence of scripture will appear verbatim. Other times it is paraphrased or merely alluded to. At these times, the power of God’s Word is present to bless hearts. But also when the Word is paraphrased in a hymn, it is powerful. Just as it is in preaching—when we paraphrase the Word, explain the Word, illustrate the Word, elongate the Word, and apply the Word. This is why singing hymns not only blesses our hearts—it also changes us.

But in psalm singing, the power of the Word is present in a more concentrated form. The theme, the content, the flow of thought, the illustrations of truth—they are all the Word. Sometimes it may appear verbatim from the Word. Other times it must be paraphrased in order to fit the meter of the tune. We may chant psalms verbatim, sing metrical psalms, sing paraphrased psalms, or hymns based on psalms. But the Word’s power is still present in a potent concentration. This is the greatest reason to sing psalms.

Ridding Joy-Killers

Music in scripture is often linked to joy. Therefore, any joy-killer is a music-killer and is hindering blessing that God wants us to have. Fear is a common joy-killer. Hundreds of times God in His Word commands us not to fear. But He not only forbids fear; He gives invincible reasons and truths by which we can overcome fear.

For example, Isaiah 43:1 reads, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine!” Redemption means God bought us back from the slave-market of sin by payment of a ransom—the blood of Christ. If He redeemed us, how could He not take care of us? We trust His care and do not fear the future. Nor the present!

And God’s deliverance of us was not impersonal, as if by an emergency worker, whose job it was to help people in need. God personally calls us by name, and says “You are Mine!” And He says in v. 2 that He will be with us in trials. In verse 4 He even says we are precious in His sight.

Brothers and sisters, let us not allow fear to kill our joy. Let us trust Him who redeemed us. And in this joy, let us thank Him with joyful songs for His pleasure and glory.

The Sound of Melody Is a Sign of Blessing

After much prediction of judgment in Isaiah, finally come the chapters of promised blessing. In Isaiah 51:3, the Lord promises restoration and rejoicing.

“Indeed, the LORD will comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places. And her wilderness He will make like Eden, And her desert like the garden of the LORD; Joy and gladness will be found in her; Thanksgiving, and sound of a melody.”

Often in scripture, as here, we see that music-making comes as a result of God’s blessing. God is so good, after the night of weeping to bring joy in the morning. Even a desert place He can make to blossom as a rose. He gives music, the sound of a melody, as an expression of our joy in Christ.

If we know His blessing in this way, we can praise Him for it. If we are struggling, we can look to Him, confess and repent of sin if necessary, and call to Him to restore to us the song of joy.

Is Psalm Singing a Jewish, Presbyterian, or Christian Thing?

When the Apostle Paul—in the heart of two inspired letters to churches—says to sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs—many modern believers just can’t imagine singing the psalms. We easily skim over the concept. Why? Because sometimes our experience speaks more loudly—it is not something we have done, and it seems Jewish, Presbyterian, or at least old-fashioned.

But the verses in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 were written to New Testament Christians—in a Gentile culture. When the church was born, the Jewish core of leadership had been singing the psalms from their youth. No doubt, when the Holy Spirit came in Acts 2 and the church was “born,” they did not instantly stop singing the psalms. They continued to sing the psalms, and so Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 would not have been jarring.

However, as they began to see the Old Testament through New Testament eyes, they would have fresh understanding of the Psalms. As they realized Messianic passages in the Psalms applied to Jesus of Nazareth, they likely sang the Psalms with new illumination, and possibly “Christianized” the words.

Everything we do is cultural to an extent, and sometimes we cannot get beyond the provincial limitations of our culture. But may we let the scripture speak more loudly than our culture—even our Christian culture. Today there are excellent, modernized, understandable versions of the Psalms to sing. And the singing of God’s Word is self-authenticating to those who experience it.

Beauty in worship—why does it matter? Or does it?

I was recently in the copier room of a church/Christian school. Someone had posted, “God looks on the heart, so it doesn’t matter how it sounds!” Good and true principle—bad application. . . . Judging from the handwriting of the post, it was written with a juvenile hand. I could have imagined myself saying something like that in my youth as well.

So does beauty matter in worship? We could save a ton of time in rehearsal if it didn’t matter. Let’s just then all pray and get our hearts right. However this has never been the Biblical model.

God’s heaven is stated to have beauty (Psa. 96:6). God’s call to worship Him in the beauty of holiness has ramifications for the excellence of our music. And God did say, “play skillfully with a loud noise” (Psa. 33:3). Also, the priest’s garments, and even all the tabernacle, was designed to be beautiful. It had to be “exceedingly magnificent” (I Chron. 22:5), precisely because it was for God, and HE is magnificent.

Let us all take care to minister in music with beauty. It matters because it makes a statement about our God. He is worthy of our best.