Why I Can't Stop Singing in Church - Part 2
Yesterday we considered the overarching arguments that persist in conversations concerning worship music. If you haven’t read Part 1, I encourage you to read it first. Since I have never seen a blog talk about the biblical approach to worship music in the Scripture in the same critique of modern worship, let’s take a moment to look. Take special notice of how biblical worship is different or similar to what people currently feel worship music should be.
Here are the instruments that were used in the Bible.
- Lyre or Harp
- Asor, a ten stringed instrument
- Lute, looks like a long violin or skinny guitar
- Shofar, a horn
- Trumpet
- Flute
- Reed Pipe
- Hand drum
- Cymbals
- Mena’anim, a shaken instrument with beads or strings that hit the exterior of the instrument
- Bells
- There are also a few unknown instruments that we don’t have any historical reference to adequately describe them.
Instrumental Observation
It is fair to say that if we want to be biblical in our worship, we all have a lot of work to do. Very few people know what a Lute is, let alone know how to play it. I struggle in conversations about recapturing the beauty of our past, the use of sheet music, the loss of choirs or the loss of beautiful and rich instruments when we don’t use the biblical ones anyway. Most who complain about the instruments used today are not proclaiming that we go back to using the ones in scripture. They are advocating for a return to the instruments they grew up loving.
What we are doing in conversation about instruments is merely speaking about preference. Preference, when it comes to the use of one instrument over another, is not a moral issue, spiritual issue, maturity issue or ethical issue. Preference is what it is and grace needs extended to others with different preferences.
Use of Light
It is not uncommon for some in Christian circles to be troubled by how light is used, or not used, in contemporary settings. “Why is it so dark in here?” “I can’t see!” “Aren’t we people of light instead of darkness?” These are a few of the comments I have heard or seen in social media. If we are going to have a conversation about the use of light, let’s look at how the Bible uses, or speaks of, light.
The first instance of light was ushered in by God at creation. There was darkness and God speaks the light. There was spiritual light because the scripture says God is light. However, physical light did not yet exist so God speaks it into being. Please hear this point clearly. Physical darkness in Genesis 1 was never about God lacking light. God is Light and in the spirit world no sun is needed. In a physically dark room spiritual light can and should remain bright!
Light (candles usually) are used to commemorate historical events, call our attention to the need to witness, to guide God’s people during the night and make people aware that God is present (i.e. tongues of fire and a blinding light).
I think of all the things we could agree on, the statement that lighting technology has advanced since the candle, is one of those things. Modern lighting technology comes alongside lyrics to create mood. Lighting can be used as something of an instrument that sets a beat. Lighting can be used to draw the attention of a worshipper to a particular message or metaphor. All of the potential uses of lighting are diminished when, as in one of the congregations I served, there are hundreds of 60 watt bulbs all on at full power all the time.
A critique at this point is that there is also a biblical understanding of darkness and that is a fair critique. However, the bible uses the darkness to demonstrate that light always conquers darkness. The biblical demonstration is that light wins over darkness. That metaphor is hard to capture if physical darkness never is seen in the worship center.
Participation
Worship in the Bible is done in a myriad of different ways. Worship is realized in music, sacrament, offerings scripture reading, prayers and the application of scripture. This is true in a more historical uniform way in the OT context.
In the NT we find the application of the OT worship models finding new application in the varied Jewish and Gentile contexts. How worship is realized in Corinth is different than how worship takes place in Ephesus or Rome. One of the NT struggles is trying to figure out what is central to worship (see previous paragraph) and what is cultural in applying those central elements.
Additionally, is it really the role of worship music to teach music? The focus of worship is The Most High God. He is the object and focus of our praise. I do not see anywhere in scripture where a part of worship music centers around teaching worship music to others.
Tomorrow we will consider the cultural application of worship music and wrap up this discussion with the goal of creating a platform of grace for those with different viewpoints than our own.