Meditation on the Text of the Week

Taking out the Trash

Now these are those whom David appointed over the service of song in the house of the Lord, after the ark rested there. And they ministered with song before the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, until Solomon had built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem.
I Chronicles 6:31,32

One of the more debilitating afflictions of the Church of the Lord, albeit well meant, is regarding Scripture as a collection of examples to be imitated and copied. Now, like all half truths, this is half true. Clearly there is an exemplary aspect to the lives and deeds of biblical figures—whether positive or negative. Scripture itself puts forth the ancient ones to us as examples to learn from. For instance, Paul says what happened to our fathers in the wilderness is to serve “as examples for us, that we should not crave evil things” as they did. (I Corinthians 10:6, 11) In Hebrews 11, Paul again offers up the roll of honour of our fathers' faith for our instruction, consolation, and example. He himself commanded the churches to imitate him and follow his example (I Corinthians 11:1)

But there is a kind of example-taking that is crass and unbiblical. Consider, for instance, the line of argument that runs along the tracks of the need to be relevant to the pop-culture of our day. When Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, it has been argued, He used bread and wine as the sacramental elements. But they were merely the common and ordinary food of the day. Thus, when we partake of the eucharist we should use coke and potato chips—and so follow Jesus' example.

In taking examples from the Scripture we need to be careful firstly to scope the example within the redemptive stage or development in which it is given and then make the necessary changes to apply it through to the current stage of redemptive history (which we may characterize as the days of Messiah the King, or the days of the Gentiles streaming to the root of Jesse (Isaiah 11:10—12). This is precisely what Paul does when he takes up the example of our fathers in the wilderness: he makes the necessary changes to apply the example the predominantly Gentile New Covenant church in Corinth.

David was appointed by God to introduce a new stage in public worship. He appointed song and instrumental music to be an integral part of worship. Under David, the sacrificial system became more than the sacrifice of animals, it became also the sacrifice of music and song—as our text reveals. In the New Covenant, the sacrifice of animals stops, once the blood of Christ had been shed once-for-all. Once the reality had come, the shadow and adumbration of animal sacrifice was useless and worthless. The is foretold in Daniel 9:27, where,we read Messiah the Prince will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering. The cessation of the sacrificial system is argued extensively and expansively in Hebrews chapters 5 through 10.

But the sacrifice of song and music clearly continues on. Paul instructed the Colossian church to teach and admonish one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs and to sing with thankfulness in their hearts to God (Colossians 3:16). Music and singing is an abiding and intrinsic part of worship in the New Covenant (Revelation 5:9).

But here is where we need to be careful not to fall into the “coke and potato chips” mistake. Firstly that sacrifice of song is enjoined upon the whole congregation, not just the musically trained and talented. Thus, musical instruments are to serve and assist the congregation as they worship in unison. They are not to perform for their entertainment. Here, we fear, many congregations have lost their way. Music has become a performance for the people, not an expression of the congregation's worship of the Living God.

Secondly, and related, the musical idiom in many churches these days takes its cue more often than not from professional musicians. The songs that are sung are frequently performance songs and music which requires trained and gifted musicians to perform well in order to make a lovely, harmonious and appropriate melody to the Lord. The music and lyrics have been taken from professional performance gospel-music artists and brought straight into the congregation. It is a disastrous mistake. In the end, congregations are silenced, put to shame, and the sacrifice of song is taken away from them and restricted to the the few. This is a travesty of biblical public worship by God's people.

Thirdly, whilst musical accompaniment from a variety of instruments is necessary and required, it ought never to drown out or deafen congregational singing. How can a congregation teach and admonish one another in psalms, hymns and songs if it cannot hear itself sing?

Fourthly, much of the musical idiom is that of worldly romantic love song-rubbish where Jesus our Lord is substituted for the lover in the secular song. “All I want is you, baby” is replaced by “All I want is you, Jesus.” This is an offensive abomination. It is “coke and potato chip” theology at its most egregious.

The sacrifice of music in public worship is so important it requires work, labour, study, education, practise, and application. God's people need to learn and grow in their musical sacrifices. It does not happen (at least not well) by accident. That means the accompanying musicians need to practice and prepare. The sound technicians need to mix skillfully so that the music at all times remains appropriately congregational, not performance. The choice of music needs to be discriminatingly biblical in its medium, idiom, content, theology and so forth. These things are not easy, and require dedicated labour and service to accomplish. Moreover, congregations need to be taught how to sing in four part harmony so that the congregation can sing well in appropriate beauty to the Lord.

There is much work to be done. It is all part of the labour of reforming churches more and more around the Word of God. The Reformation was largely a reformation about worship—stripping away the excrescences of unbiblical tradition and habit and returning to the purity and power of biblical sacrifice.

The work is ongoing. Much work remains to be done in our day. Let us arise and labour diligently to strengthen and reform the true abiding sacrifice of music in our public worship of the Lord of glory.