What do you think about speaking to each other in psalms, hymns, and spiritual
songs? Can I say "Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise" next time I see
you? Would that make you chuckle, or be encouraged? What is the not-so-literal
interpretation of that charge? (in your thoughts...)
First, yes, I grant you permission to say “Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise” to me next we see each other. Second, yes, I probably would chuckle, but maybe I shouldn’t.
As for your question, you are no doubt referring to Eph 5:18-19, where Paul states, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord…” This passage is similar to Colossians 3:16, where Paul says, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” I’ll deal mainly with the Ephesians passage, but the Colossians passage is helpful, since they are parallel (Ephesians and Colossians are very similar, which has led many scholars to think that they were written around the same time). Anyway, I think they’re basically saying the same thing.
What can we say about the Ephesians passage? First, “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord” modifies the main verb, “be filled with the Spirit.” This isn’t obvious in the NIV, which treats all the participles (speaking, singing, making melody, giving thanks and submitting) as separate commands. (I really like the NIV, but this is something they consistently get wrong. Thankfully the TNIV has corrected this.) The exact relation between the participles and the main verb can be debated, for now I’ll stick with the idea that the participles (speaking, singing, etc) are results of being filled with the Spirit. Clearly not the only results (Paul elsewhere talks about spiritual gifts, the fruit of the Spirit, and so on), but they are the results Paul chooses to highlight. People who are filled with the Spirit are people who speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (I wouldn’t make too much out of the 3 types of songs mentioned here).
So, part of life in the Spirit is speaking and singing songs. This shouldn’t be surprising, since in 1 Corinthians 14 (an extensive teaching on the Holy Spirit and corporate worship), Paul encourages his audience to have a psalm (among other things) when they assemble (v26). And the Colossians verse is really interesting because there songs are used for teaching and admonishing one another. I think that the same idea is present in Ephesians as well (community expressions of the Spirit filled life). So what we have here is the use of music and singing as a means of encouraging and teaching each other.
So what should we do? Well, for one thing, it affirms the use of music in the life of the Church. This, of course, is to be expected, since there is an entire book of songs in the Old Testament meant for God’s people. It also shows us that songs are used for more than just a nice beginning (and end) to our worship service. Songs of worship play a role in teaching the body (in seminaryspeak, they have a “didactic function”). Music has played an important part in most (if not all, I’m not an expert) cultures, why not the Church?
In my opinion, this should influence the music we choose to play in our churches. Do the songs we choose accurately reflect the teaching of the Bible? Do they reflect the character of God? Do they encourage/inspire/rebuke/challenge the people? I’m thankful that my church has a worship leader who puts a lot of thought into the music and chooses songs that are primarily God-centered (which is rarer than it should be).
Let me also say, however, that it has become more and more common to hear people bash modern worship songs as theologically shallow and weak, especially compared to hymns (this is quite popular in some circles, and amongst many in seminary). This bothers me, and I’m clearly a big fan of hymns. First of all, pick up a hymnal and you’ll find that most of the entries leave a lot to be desired. The best of the hymns are unbelievably powerful, but many are pathetic. Anyway, that’s not my main point, so please don’t get caught up in that.
Second, I think there are a higher percentage of quality modern worship songs than many are willing to admit. There certainly have been plenty of bad ones (anyone remember the Hop on the Bus craze of about 10 years ago?). But there are plenty of good ones. I think part of the problem is that people confuse simple with shallow. Jesus Loves Me is a simple song, but it is hardly shallow (that’s why it works so well with children). I’ve even heard people claim that a worship song was shallow, until I pointed out to them that it was taken practically word for word out of the Bible (I wish I could remember what song it was). It’s a matter of song selection, just like with hymns, we need to choose the ones that glorify God and edify the body.
Let me give an example from our worship service this past Sunday. We sang a song written by David Ruis called We Will Dance. I like this song, but I wouldn’t put it in my top 10 or anything. But the imagery used for the people of God really struck me. It relates the Church as people “from every tribe and tongue and nation” and a “pure, spotless Bride.” What an opportunity to teach about the Church! I thought about how I can look around at the people of God and not see a pure, spotless Bride. I certainly don’t feel pure and spotless. But this song accurately portrays the people of God, especially as we will be seen from God’s eyes at the wedding feast. I think this is a great way to teach people about how Christ has redeemed for Himself a people and the true nature of the Church (ecclesiology). And like I said, this isn’t even necessarily a great example of a theology-laden song (although I do think it has more than first meets the eye).
Let me make one final point about the Ephesians passage. Paul also says “singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.” It seems obvious, but it’s worth saying (in order not to forget) that worship through music exists first and foremost to bring glory to God. It does not exist primarily to provide us a medium through which God can touch us, although He may do that. And the best time for us to learn and be edified is when God is glorified.
Anyway, I’m not really sure I’ve addressed Pam’s question. I thought about this the other night and really wanted to put some great thoughts out, but who has the time? Instead, I’ll throw these out there and hope that someone will respond and refine what I’ve said. Does anyone else have any thoughts about how we can use music to help teach and encourage the Body?
9 comments:
Did you ever sing the "Revelation 21:8" song when someone lied? That was a mighty fun rebuke there, both to give and get.
Allow me to reproduce it here for those who come from a musically deprived background... (the tune is that of Frere Jacques)
Revelation, Revelation,
21:8! 21:8!
Liars go to he-ell, liars go to he-ell,
Burn burn burn,
Burn burn burn.
Thanks for that, Danny. You brought up some good things to think about. I appreciate your comments on worship songs, modern and traditional. I was particularly interested in what you said about how the verb used actually signifies a general "be filled with the Spirit." Sooo, let's see. We should be filled with the Spirit as we go about our days, and in that mode, we will be able to have our minds dwell on Scripture we've read, including psalms, and be reminded of songs we've sung, even being led to sing them to ourselves, or out loud as we walk or ride the T. And those thoughts of the Word, of psalms, of songs, will hopefully be able to be used to encourage others and speak life/hope/faith into their current circumstances. For example, someone shares with you about their recent relationship troubles, how they feel discouraged and that their life is sort of crumbling under them. You immediately think about the song you were singing to yourself that morning, and say "God is our Rock. He is our hiding place. He is who we can turn to. Your world is not falling apart." Now that I think about it, there have been times when I have been praying for someone and a song comes to mind that has encouraged me when I've been in a similar spot, and so I pray those words. So perhaps, this is that manifestation of being filled with the Spirit. Yes?
Oh, and by the way, I really like your title for this post.
Kurt, that is a terrific example of songs being used to rebuke someone. Especially if they're six.
Neave (can I assume it's Pam this time, you guys need to help a brother out), I think you're saying exactly what I'm saying (in about 8 fewer paragraphs). Yes, I do think your example would be a manifestation of the Spirit, and I think this is important for us to remember. Remember that the one of the primary evidences of the Spirit in our lives is how we act in the community of faith. The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 are largely corporate (most of those characteristics mean little if you are by yourself). Spiritual gifts exist mainly for the edification of the Church (see the first few verses of 1 Corinthians 14 about prophecy). To look at if from another point of view, if we aren't doing these things to build up the body, we aren't doing what Spirit-filled Christians (which is actually redundant, since all Christians are Spirit-filled) are supposed to do.
I agree that people are a little too quick in knocking the new, powerpoint only worship songs. The deal with hymns is that we only have the good ones. After 200 years we've forgotten the "Hop on the Bus" of the 18-century; maybe it was "Let us partake in venturing by the use of carriage."
As for how we can use music to teach, I'm gonna go on a little tangent. I think what American culture lifts up as the ultimate goal of our lives is emotional health, that we should be happy all the time. I think we also get bombarded by alot of information and stimuli, so that we can only be happy and content when we are just kind of lost in an experience, the need for our senses to be overwhelmed. Basically, we feel we have the right to be entertained all the time.
And it seems that this desire starts to infect our whole lives, including worship. If it happens, we feel that worship should be primarily an emotional, self centered experience, that we can get lost in the moment and just kind of turn our minds off; not think about what we are saying and just kinda sing along. And I don't think this is really helping anyone out, because emotional highs will fade and change over time. However, if we always keep the focus of worship on God, and exploring his character in relation to us, engaging our whole selfs and not just the emotions, then we got something that can build up the body.
Andrew, I wholeheartedly concur. But let me caution our readers against going the opposite extreme, which I've found to be quite common. That is, that any emotion in worship is wrong. It seems to me that if one is worshipping God, it can be expected that we could be touched emotionally. Why not?
The key is that one is moved emotionally as a result of the worship of our God, not because the experience of singing or whatever. Just because some seek an emotionally powerful moment does not mean all emotionally powerful moments are wrong. For the record, you haven't said this (as I said, I think you're dead on with what you say) but I gotta keep this train rolling, right?
Oh, and you're wrong, Springsteen's performance was awful.
One thing that I find very interesting about Paul's language is his discussion of our public worship as speaking to each other. Those who make public worship a private time of connecting with God have missed the point. Do that on your own. The public time of worship is the time to encourage each other, to sing to each other to remind us what is true of God, what God has done for us, and so on.
As you've said, it need not be complex or filled with lots and lots of truths (though songs rich with scripture are nice). It just needs to be saying something significant, and it needs to be focused on singing it in ways that will encourage the body and teach the body in the right sorts of ways. Including simple songs can serve to accomplish that. I don't see how singing a song with two or three lines of text for an entire half hour can serve such a purpose, but As the Deer (which is a psalm, for those who despise contemporary worship) has its place just as much as Days of Elijah or Holy, Holy, Holy.
It just occurred to me that the comment I just left never got around to the point I was originally going to make because I got distracted by what was supposed to lead up to it. My main point was going to be that the motivation of singing to each other is the result of being filled with the Spirit. I think a lot of people think being filled with the Spirit in public worship has something to do with connecting with God in an intimate way. Paul actually says the opposite. It's those who don't draw inward but who explicitly think on matters of how they are connected with those they're worshiping with who are displaying the work of the Spirit in the purpose of public worship.
Thanks for pointing us over here, Jeremy.
I agree with you and Danny. I would only add a word, which I doubt you would disagree with, that at any time of public worship individuals are experiencing a wide range of thoughts and emotions, anything from love, joy, peace and hope to guilt, grief, anger, and fear. Some of these things are between themselves and God alone or may involve others. They often walk in the door looking for something they didn't bring with them. Beginning where they find themselves before God is all they can do in that moment, in the acts of singing, praying, hearing the Word, and sharing. As a pastor and worship leader I try to be as sensitive as my own human weakness allows, depending heavily on the Spirit to guide as I seek to follow God's Biblically revealed will through an order of service. How we think things should be and how they often are can be a challenge.
I say these things in the context of your own comments, which I think are on the mark.
Just a quibble, because I like to quibble:
I like to make a little bit out of the different kinds of singing mentioned in these verses because the Greek word translated "psalms" refers specifically to songs set to instrumental music.
It's the only verse in the NT that specifically advocates instrumental music in any way - a useful thing to keep in mind whenever having a discussion about worship with those groups which believe that truly "spiritual" music should have no music.
I've actually had to have that conversation.
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