Glorify
God in Song and All Things. Colossians 3:16, 17; Ephesians 5:18-20
In
the Old Testament the importance of singing was emphasised. It is part of the
message of the Psalms calling us to sing to the Lord. We have an emphasis in
the Scripture of the importance of singing, and we see how we as a congregation
and everyone in the body of Christ coming together in corporate worship
glorifies God. We are to glorify God in singing, and we are to glorify God “in
all things,” everything that we do.
We
have this command in Colossians 3:16 to let the Word of God take up its
residence within our souls. That is the idea of to dwell richly in us. It is to
inhabit us. As the Word of God enters into our soul and we think about it,
meditate upon it, it is to live itself out within us. It is going to change our
values and change our personal tastes. As we grow as Christians we are going to
find that over a period of time God is going to change the desires of our
heart. He is going to help us to understand creation as he has created it and
those changes will come as the Word of God changes us. That is part of the
command we find in Scripture, especially Romans 12:2, that we are not to be
conformed to the thinking of the world or the cultural values around us, but we
are to be transformed by the renewing, the renovation, the overhaul, the
re-education of our thinking. So the Word of God is going to teach us how
things are in reality, not as our background, our families, our friends, or all
the influences on us as we grew up might have shaped us.
But
there is a major battle being waged in evangelicalism today over this very
issue of music. The Word of God teaches us how to deal with issues of life.
There is no area in life, whether it is music, politics, law, ethics, art,
literature, that is not addressed in some sense by the Word of God and giving
us a framework for understanding it so that we can be engaged in every area of
creation in a way that honours God. So we are to “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within us,” and this is
followed in the Greek text by two participles that indicate the result of this.
The first result mentioned here and in the parallel passage in Ephesians 5:19ff
are “with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another.” So we are to let the Word of Christ
richly dwell within us with the result that we will teach and admonish one
another in all wisdom. That phrase in the Greek essentially means “wisely.”
The
Greek word there is sophia, and
the Greek concept of sophia has more
to do with abstract knowledge and philosophy, but that is not the biblical
background for understanding wisdom. Wisdom is first introduced to us in the
Old Testament and, remember, the writers of the New Testament are all coming
from a deeply embedded understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures. So their concept
of wisdom is not influenced by Plato and Aristotle but is influenced by Moses
and David and Solomon, and it has to do with skill. One of the first times we
run across the Hebrew word for wisdom (chokmah)
happens in the context of God’s instructions to Moses and the Jewish people to
build the tabernacle. He puts His Spirit upon two craftsmen. God cares about
beauty so much that when He instructs the Israelites to build the tabernacle He
empowers these two men so that they can skilfully (chokmah) craft all of the different pieces of furniture, artefacts,
tools and vessels that were used in the tabernacle. They were made beautifully;
God cares about beauty. And in the Old Testament when the Israelites came
together to worship there was beauty there. There was probably the most
beautiful clothing and architecture anywhere in the ancient world, because it
was to glorify God. So the idea of wisdom from an Old Testament background was
the idea of skill.
So
in this verse telling us to let the Word of God dwell richly within us one
result is that we teach and admonish one another in all wisdom. And the
suggestion here is that it is to be done skilfully, not just haphazardly, which
all too often seems to be the case. There is a place for spontaneity but there
is also a place for training, for teaching, for instruction, so that we can as
a congregation sing better. We may not sing like some large congregation that
is made up of many people with a lot of money to invest in instruments, etc.
but we are to do the best that we can do and we should constantly challenge
ourselves to do better.
“…
with psalms {and} hymns {and} spiritual songs.” Each of these words is used in
the LXX to describe the book of Psalms, so
these are not talking about three different categories of songs that we sing
but they are synonyms of one another that refer to not just the Psalms of the
Old Testament but any songs that are sung glorifying and honouring God. So we
should understand this to be the command “let the Word of Christ dwell in you
richly, with the result that you are teaching and admonishing one another
wisely (or, skilfully), in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” And then we
hit a motivation, by means of “singing with thankfulness in your hearts
[thinking] to God.” This is talking about the mental attitude that is the
foundation of our worship. We are grateful to God for all that He has done and
supplied for us. We can sing with joy because it is a reflection of our own
understanding of what God has provided for us. So when we come together at any
time and sing it is not entertainment. We are singing to God reminding Him of
who He is, what we have learned about Him and what He has done for us, and
expressing our gratitude to Him in a way that encourages and teaches one
another.
Then Paul concludes: Colossians 3:17 NASB
“Whatever …” The Greek actually states it, “all that you do.” There is nothing
in our lives that is outside the authority of God’s Word directing us and
guiding us in how we are to think and live in these areas. There is no
neutrality. Everything comes under the authority of God. “…you do in word or
deed, {do} all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” What does it mean that we are to
these things in the name of the Lord Jesus? That means that we are to
understand that as believers in Christ, members of the royal family of God, at
the instant of salvation we are all adopted into God’s royal family. We are
given a new identity, new capabilities, new gifts, and are indwelt by all three
members of the Trinity. As such we have a new role as ambassadors for Jesus
Christ. We are either a really bad ambassador or a good ambassador seeking to
improve ourselves. But we don’t have an option as a Christian; we are
ambassadors; we are a representative to this world from the High Court of
Heaven.
Too often we are concerned about what
little we can do to get by rather than how I can do this in a more excellent
way. Too often we are asking the wrong question: Is this good enough? rather
than, how can I do this better? Our standards are mediocre, and this has really
impacted contemporary worship and music. We have, like so many areas in modern
American culture, targeted the lowest common denominator in the culture and
have imitated their tastes in order to attract them rather than shooting for
the highest common denominator and pursuing excellence in all that we do and
lifting up the culture. Some hundred years ago a historian by the name of
Arnold Toynbee observed that cultures on the ascent imitate the upper classes:
the fashions, the speech, the tastes of the people, imitates the upper classes.
They idolise the aristocracy, the wealthy. Cultures on the decline imitate the
lower classes. They have disdain for the wealthy, the aristocracy. We can see
where that applies in much of our contemporary political discourse. We are
always running down today, it seems, the person who is successful, the person
who has become wealthy. When it comes to music it is the music of the ghetto
that has become popular, it is the dress style of the ghetto that has become
popular.
We are a culture in decline and that
has leaked into the evangelical church so that we want to imitate the music
that the culture imitates. Rather than pursuing excellence and looking up we
want to imitate mediocrity. But that is not what Scripture indicates. We are to
do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, motivated by our gratitude to God
the Father through Him.
This is paralleled in verses such as 1
Corinthians 6:20 NASB
“For you have been bought with a price:
therefore glorify God in your body.”
1 Corinthians 10:31
NASB “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to
the glory of God.”
Psalm 86:9 NASB
“All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, And
they shall glorify Your name…. [12] I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God,
with all my heart, And will glorify Your name forever.” The Hebrew word that is
translated “glory” and “glorified” is a word
that means “heavy” literally, something that is weighty. This literal meaning
is easily translated to a figurative sense that if somebody was important,
significant in their contribution to society and you wished to honour them,
then you would glorify them, emphasise their seriousness, their weightiness,
their significance and importance to society and to the culture. So the word
came to primarily be used in this figurative sense of focusing on the
importance and centrality and importance of someone. When we glorify God we are
showing that He is the most important element of our life. To glorify God means
that we are going to do everything that we can to please Him because He has
given us everything in Jesus Christ. This is going to impact every single area
of life.
The conclusion is that the Word of God
gives us the standards for establishing excellence in every area, excellence
being identified as doing it to glorify God. In the Old Testament there are a
number of different words used, and used synonymously, to emphasise the value
of God’s character and that He is the ultimate standard for beauty, for glory,
for excellence—words such as glorious, magnificence, splendour, splendid,
beautiful, excellent. All emphasise God as the ultimate standard.
When to comes to music, how do we
establish some precise standards? With music and art it is difficult because it
is a little more abstract and a little more nebulous. But there are some
standards. The right question we should be asking is not, Is there something
wrong with this music? The question is: Is this the absolute best that I can
do? Is this something that I should value? Does what I am doing glorify God?
A second question that we should ask
is: Does this song that we are singing reflect the creative acts of God? That
is our standard. When we look at God’s creation and His creative activity we
see planning, order, that He is technically excellent down to the most minute
detail. Regarding music we know that music is good or bad, music can promote or
take away from positive morality, and does it have purpose and meaning? These
are questions that we should ask related not only to the lyrics but even of the
music. Another question: Does is display simplicity and complexity, unity and
harmony?
God is one but He is many. Deuteronomy
6:4 NASB
“Hear, O Israel!
The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!” That is really talking about a unity. He is a
multiplicity; He exists as three persons who are equally one. That is unity and
diversity. This reflects who God is. This does not mean that every piece of
music has an element of sophistication; there are different types of music.
Negatively, we should avoid
that which is unstructured, that which is difficult to sing, unplanned or just
simplistic—it can be simple but not simplistic. It shouldn’t be trivial
or banal, trendy or mediocre; and yet that is often what we find.
In Scripture we see an
emphasis on these values. In Philippians 1:9, 10 NASB “And this I
pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all
discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to
be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.” The Greek word for
“discernment” there is aisthesis
from which we get our word aesthetics. It is a form of knowledge. We are to
advance in knowledge and discernment for the purpose that we may approve the
things that are excellent. We are to be pursuing excellence, not mediocrity,
always pushing ourselves to the next level.
Philippians 4:8 NASB
“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is
any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell [logizomai] on these things.”
It is easy for people to
say they don’t want to sing anything that is not biblical, but “biblical” is
not just are the words right? There are a lot of biblical worship choruses that
take Bible verses and just sing them in unending repetition, and there is no
meaning there, no doctrinal development. The Psalms are the divinely inspired
standard for the kind of lyrics that we should have in singing. If we read
through the Psalms we see that they are not just endless repetition of a few
phrases.
David
Wells, distinguished research professor at Gordon-Conwell Seminary has analysed
a number of contemporary chorus and worship books and hymnbooks. He got as much
as he could and read through the words of all of these different things. What
he concluded was that of all of the praise and worship choruses sixty-five per
cent had no doctrinal development. They were just songs. Is it biblical? Yes.
Is it true? Yes. Is there any doctrinal development? No. The song dealing with
Psalm 103: “Bless the Lord O my soul, And all that is within me, Bless His holy
name.” That is biblical, but that is all there is to the song. It is just sung
over and over repetitively many times and perhaps add another couple of lines
from Scripture, but there is no doctrinal development; it is just singing the
same thing over and over again. This is what he is focusing on. Is there any
teaching there? Colossians 3:16—is there any teaching or admonishing; is
there any doctrinal development. He is not looking at whether the doctrine is
right or not; he is just asking if they develop any thought. If we look at all
of the traditional hymn books that have been produced over the last 1900 years
by Christians it is almost impossible to find a hymn that doesn’t have
doctrinal development. So this is a tremendous
indictment of the entire contemporary Christian movement because the writers
that we are developing are simply reflecting the impoverished doctrinal culture
out of which they come. If they have never learned anything how can they write anything
of substance? They can’t!
So when we have a dumbed-down,
theologically illiterate culture how can we produce artists that produce
excellence in terms of the content of their writings? They can’t, because they
don’t know anything.
Notice
the doctrinal development in Psalm 103. Psalm 103:1 NASB “Bless the LORD, O my
soul, And all that is within me, {bless} His holy name. [2] Bless the LORD,
O my soul, And forget none of His
benefits.” The psalmist doesn’t stop there; he begins to tell us what those benefits
are and why we should bless God. The term “blessing” is this kind of context is
used as a parallel to praising God.
Why should we praise God?
[3] “Who pardons all your
iniquities, Who heals all your diseases; [4] Who redeems your life
from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; [5] Who satisfies your years with good things, {So that} your
youth is renewed like the eagle.”
Then there is a focus on
who God is: Psalm 103:6 NASB “The LORD performs righteous deeds
And judgments for all who are oppressed… [8] The LORD is compassionate and
gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness…[10] He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor
rewarded us according to our iniquities. [11] For as high as the
heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who
fear Him. [12] As far as the east is from the west, So far has He
removed our transgressions from us.” What tremendous content we have here! This
is what they sang.
How do we pick music to sing?
1.
The lyrics should reinforce
and express biblical truth. The lyrics are to teach and admonish one another.
They should be based on biblical truth.
2.
The lyrics must follow the
principles of superb poetry. We should look at the words without the music and
ask if this is good poetry. Is it expressing sound theology in a way that
utilises the magnificence of the English language?
3.
The message of the music
(not just the words) of previous generations connects us to others in the body
of Christ who preceded us and prevents us from being overly impressed with the
present generation. If we are singing the great hymns of the history of the
faith it prevents us from becoming self-absorbed and arrogant. It reminds us of
our heritage, our history and our doctrinal distinctives.
4.
Wonderful, beautiful music
elevates our own appreciation for music. If we sing good music we will learn
what good music is. If we sing mediocre music we will only learn to appreciate
mediocrity.
5.
The timeless hymns that we
sing help develop an atmosphere of majesty, splendour and beauty. One of the
sad contradictions that we see when we watch the marriage of royalty in England
and know the music that they are singing, we know some of the garbage that goes
on in the background of royalty. But that music is majestic. Many of them are
great hymns of the faith and it elevates our consciousness just listening to
that music. It drives us up and not down. When we come together to worship we
come together to worship the God who created the heavens and the earth and the
seas, and who redeemed us. We are not singing songs to impress our next door
neighbour, so it should be different.
6.
The enduring hymns that we
sing should deepen and enhance our spiritual lives.
7.
What we sing should elevate
our thoughts toward God, His person, His work, and His gracious provision for
us, rather than simply elevate our emotions. It is not about us, it is about
God.