Words Mean Something
We live in a world today
where meaning of any text, whether it is a musical text, a visual
representation of art, or a written piece of literature, is now determined completely
and exclusively by the reader, the observer, the listener. In other words, when
it comes to the text of Scripture and hermeneutics it no longer matters what
the writer intended, what matters is what it means to you.
We have seen that music reflects
a worldview. This poses some questions in some people’s minds. One question
that has come in: In light of all of this, is it improper or wrong to listen or
play all secular music? What is the criteria? What is
the biblical basis for this issue? What we have gotten at in the last few
lessons is that secular music does have a worldview behind it, and we need to
be aware of what that worldview is. Obviously there are some kinds of music and
some kinds of lyrics that run completely counter to Christianity and we really
don’t want those kinds of messages rattling around inside our head. As we
mature and as we study the Word we are going to come to an understanding of
some of those things, just like some of the things we might read.
As a Christian we can approach
this in one of three ways. The first way is we can say, I don’t want to have
anything to do with the world around me so I’m going to run off an join a monastery. I’m not going to listen to any music,
I’m not going to watch any TV, I’m not going to go to any movies, I’m not going
to read any books, something might just leak in. And rather than think and use
critical evaluating skills and understand the world around as a believer
interested in taking the gospel to a lost culture, I’m just going to isolate
myself as a monk. So there is the ascetic response. Then there is the other
response: We are all part of the world and so we just have to get along, and
nobody wants to think we are weird. All the neighbours are going to think I’m
weird if I don’t watch certain movies, if I don’t listen to certain kinds of
music and do certain things. So the other extreme is thinking to culture is
neutral and just non-thinkingly and non-critically
immersing one’s self in the culture, just like everybody else. And that is what
is happening to a lot of people and why a lot of Christians are completely
ineffective in doing that. The cosmic system, the worldliness that exists
around us, is a system of thinking that is designed to help our sin nature
justify itself and make life work apart from dependence upon God. When we think
about the concept of worldliness one of the ultimate things we need to realize
is that one of the purposes of human viewpoint thinking is to give us a
rationale for making sin comfortable and making righteousness seem strange. Think about that. It helps us to stay in our
comfort zone of our sin nature rather than stepping out on the unique position
of the Word of God. So when we ask the question: Is it proper to listen to all
secular music? the word “all” is important. Some is
okay, there is some music that is better than others, some words are better
than others, but what is important
is—and you can add this to art—to understand where they are coming from, what
the thought issues were that impacted their thinking. This applies to all kinds
of things. We can appreciate the craftsmanship that is there. We can appreciate
the fact that these unbelievers are in the image of God and therefore are
creating as God created, and we can appreciate their creativity as reflecting
that imageness. We can also appreciate the fact that
they are wrestling with trying to explain meaning and purpose in life, and we
can see the tension that is in these fallen human hearts that doesn’t have an
ultimate reference point in the person of God. We can appreciate how they use
texture and how they use light and the colors without getting sucked into their worldview.
So it is not an issue of going away from it all, it is not an issue of just
swimming around in it all the time; it is an issue of recognizing how the human
viewpoint of the current culture is displayed in all of these things so that we
can come to them and not get absorbed or be influenced by the pagan,
existential, postmodern, relativistic worldview that
is there. In other words, you have to think. We can’t just go through life just
emoting about Jesus, which is what most people seem to want to do, because most
people are intellectually lazy.
Another question was: What
about when we go to these passages of Scripture that talk about music, such as
when Miriam and the women had been rescued from
We should not have a
legalistic approach toward music. We can have a lot of fun with some kinds of
Christian music in its right context. The thing we are focusing on is what is
involved in corporate worship in the meeting of the local church when the focal
point of the meeting of the local church is the exposition of the Word of God and
where the congregation is expected to concentrate, and to think and to follow
to some extent a sophisticated train of logic and knowledge in explanation of
the Word so that they can go new places with their thinking that they haven’t
been before.
We want to focus now on the
lyrics. That is not as much of a battle, at least theoretically speaking, as
the music is. Most people at a theoretical level would say that the words need
to be biblically correct and need to focus on God. Ultimately everything must
be handled by the Word and the real quality of worship isn’t evaluated on the
basis of how we feel.
We have to look at the lyrics
and we will do that by briefly looking at a couple of the psalms. Apparently
David composed 364 songs to be sung at the altar with daily sacrifices. That is
a lot more than we have in our Psalm book. He composed 52 songs to accompany
the Sabbath offerings throughout the year, and additional 30 songs for the new
moon festivals and other festivals. Solomon, according to 1 Kings, composed
over 1000 songs, including Song of Solomon. See the value that the Bible places
on music and singing. God gave us a standard for singing and it is called the book
of Psalms. The are many other psalms and poetry in the
Scriptures but the book of Psalms was the collected hymn book for the nation
Psalm 22 is a lament psalm.
Lament psalms had four categories to them. These were complex works of poetry,
they weren’t something that somebody just sat down and spun out in a hurry.
There is a lot of thought that goes into the structure of these words. The
Hebrews didn’t rhyme words, they rhymed ideas. Usually there are these four
elements in a lament psalm. There is an introductory cry to God—the first ten
verses of Psalm 22. Then there is a lament where the writer is expressing the
adversities, the problems, the difficulties he is a\facing in life. Then as he
goes through his lament he begins to focus more on the character of God, and
there is a tone shift there. We would thing that that would be radically
reflected in the music as he goes from talking about how “all the enemies are
against me, I am overwhelmed, and backed into a corner. No one loves me but
you, God.” There is a confession of trust followed usually by a petition or
prayer.
There are two sections in the
first ten verses of Psalm 22. The opening cry out to God in the first two
verses, followed by a historical rehearsal of who God is, what He has done, and
then in verse 6 it goes back to the problem and the cry to God again. Then
there is a confidence section. All of this is in the opening introductory cry.
But listen to how the words of the hymn (that is what it is) carry our thinking
on.
Psalm 22:1 NASB “My
God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Far from my
deliverance are the words of my groaning.” David is saying these things prophetically
and Jesus Christ quotes this psalm on the cross, but it is coming out of a
historical context of David’s own life and then the Holy Spirit applies it
prophetically later on.
[2] “O my God, I cry by day,
but You do not answer; And by night, but I have no
rest.” You feel the helplessness of the writer, he is
overwhelmed by the circumstances of his life. Then he shifts the focus. Think
about what the music would have to do if you were composing music to fit this.
[3] “Yet You
are holy, O You who are enthroned upon the praises of
Then he comes back to himself
[6] “But I am a worm and not a man, A reproach of men
and despised by the people.” He is on the virge of total self-absorption and
self-pity here, and God is not saying anything to him. [7] “All who see me
sneer at me; They separate with the lip, they wag the
head, {saying,} [8] Commit {yourself} to the LORD; let Him deliver him; Let
Him rescue him, because He delights in him.”
Then he comes back to his
confidence in God. [9] “Yet You are He who brought me
forth from the womb; You made me trust {when} upon my mother’s breasts. [10] Upon
You I was cast from birth; You have been my God from
my mother’s womb.”
Then there is a shift, he
starts to focus on the lament itself. [11] “Be not far from me, for trouble is
near; For there is none to help. [12] Many bulls have
surrounded me; Strong {bulls} of
The petition, where he develops confidence
again. [19] “But You, O LORD, be
not far off; O You my help, hasten to my
assistance. [20] Deliver my soul from the sword, My only
{life} from the power of the dog.
Now he skips to the praise.
[22] “I will tell of Your name to my brethren; In the
midst of the assembly I will praise You. [23] You who fear the LORD, praise
Him; All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him, And
stand in awe of Him, all you descendants of
We need to understand by just
reading this that it is structured, the words take us in a direction, there is
resolution in the words themselves, and the resolve in a statement of
declarative praise to God.
Declarative praise is another
kind of psalm, so we turn to Psalm 113. Psalms 113-118 is a collection of
Psalms that were called in the Jewish hymnal the Hallel
[praise] psalms. They were sung at the special feasts and festivals,
specifically at Passover. Before Passover they would usually sing Psalm 113 and
114, and then after Passover, when it was over with, they would sing Psalms 115
through 118.
In Psalm 113 verses 1-3 give
us the call to praise; verses 4-9 give us the cause to praise. Then call to
praise is a command to the people to praise God. What has happened in our
superficial world today is that people run around and sing Praise God and Hallelujah
as if those phrases have substance in themselves. They are so overused that
they lose any meaning. In the Hebrew the word hallel, which is the verb to
praise, is in the second person plural imperative. It is a command to people to
praise God, and in hallelujah, jah is the first
syllable in the name of God, so it is a command to praise God. You don’t praise
God by saying, Praise God. How do we praise God?
Ps 113:1 NASB “Praise
the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD, Praise the name of the LORD,” – His character,
the focus is on who God is. [2] “Blessed be the name of the LORD From this
time forth and forever. [3] From the rising of the sun to its setting The name of the LORD is to be praised.’ That is our call to praise.
Then we have the cause to
praise. Why should we praise God? Because [4] “The LORD is high
above all nations; His glory is above the heavens. [5] Who is like the LORD our
God, Who is enthroned on high, [the uniqueness of God] [6] Who
humbles Himself to behold {The things that are} in heaven and in the earth?”
God is a God who is intimately involved in His creation. He knows and pays
attention to what is going on in our lives. He cares about each one of us
individually and He is intimately involved in our lives. The psalmist gives two
examples, the first relates to God’s care for the impoverished. [7] “He raises
the poor from the dust And lifts the needy from the
ash heap.” These are the homeless. So God cares about us when we go through
those crises that leave us destitute, no matter what the cause may be. The
second is, [8] “To make {them} sit with princes, With
the princes of His people. [9] He makes the barren woman abide in the house [He
grants her a home] {As} a joyful mother of children. Praise the LORD!” So there
is a call to praise and a cause to praise.
That is our model, the standard
of how the content of songs should go. A couple of hymns, giving a contrast
between a couple of different things. One is one which
was written by James Dack, a Plymouth Brethren, and
it is a meditation on the ascension and session of Christ. When we sing this,
this is powerful. The words to this:
Son of God, you now are seated
High upon your Father’s throne
All your gracious works completed
All your mighty victory won
Every knee in heaven is bending
To the Lamb for sinners slain
Every voice and heart is swelling
Worthy is the Lamb to reign
Jesus, Lord, your faithful promise
Says, Behold I quickly come
And our hearts to yours responsive
Cry, Come Lord, and take us home
O the rapture yet awaits us
When we meet you in the air
And with you ascend in triumph
All your deepest joys to share
Lamb of God, when you in glory
Shall to this sad earth return
All your foes shall quake before you
All who now despise you mourn
Then shall we at your appearing
With you in your kingdom reign
Yours the praise and yours the glory
Lamb of God for sinners slain.
Notice how that takes us
through all the different doctrines we have been studying. It forces us to
think and concentrate on all that focuses on who Jesus Christ is and is doing.
This is fabulous worship.
The focus of the next hymn is
what many people call occupation with Christ, the focus on the Lord as the
focal point of everything in our lives. It is a prayer.
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true
Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for
the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.
Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty
praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.
High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.
For
contrast, a contemporary chorus that has been written with the same idea of
focusing on the Lord.
Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus
(The other verses in Be Thou
my vision sing, I want to think about you so that by contemplation of you drives me to a greater understanding and appreciation of who
you are.)
To reach out and touch Him.
(We are not going to do that
in this life. We learn Him through a contemplation of doctrine, the Scriptures
and thinking them through and correlating Scripture with Scripture and building
theology. That is how we understand and that is the depth of the Be Thou my vision
hymn. But here is all about Him doing everything for me because I am too lazy
to do anything about my spiritual life, and make it happen for me. It is all
self-centred., not theocentric or Christocentric)
Then another hymn:
He giveth
more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors
increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials he multiplies peace.
When we have exhausted our store of
endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.
His love has no limits, His grace has
no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.
In contrast, a contemporary chorus:
When the music fades all is stripped away, and I simply come
Longing just to bring something that’s of worth that will bless your heart.
I’ll bring you more than a song, for a song in itself is not what you have required
You search much deeper within through
the way things appear …. etc.
Compare that to what we have
just through in terms of those great hymns and the Psalms. See how shallow it
is, how self-focused it is: I want to impress you, God, with what I am bringing
to you. And this is one of the very popular songs that is
out there. They are using technique to drive the music, and what happens is
that the music can eventually eat up the words.
We need to have an
understanding of what singing and worship is all about, and how it important it
is that the words and the music fit together and the focus is on God, His work,
and what He has done in history. It is to reinforce the doctrine that we have
learned and our own orientation to the Word.