Worship and Music
As Christians, we should always have
God-honoring music as an integral part
of our corporate worship.
Here now is Gene Getz:
Well, King Hezekiah was the father of Ahaz.
And as we've seen in the unfolding story
here in 2nd Chronicles,
the review of the history of Judah
particularly, that Ahaz was a
very evil, very evil, wicked king.
The amazing thing is that his son Hezekiah
did not imitate his father.
That's an amazing story in itself
when you compare the two and what Hezekiah
did once he became king here in Judah.
The first step that he took was to repair the temple.
And here really, what we have called this
is Hezekiah's first steps in reformation and renewal.
He repaired the temple because the
temple had just gone to ruin
because of the evil that existed
under his father's leadership.
The second thing he did was
to reinstate the priests.
The fact the matter is, the priests
were no longer functioning as God intended
within Judah and within the temple.
In fact, pagan priests had taken over.
And so in conjunction with repairing the temple,
he reinstated the priests.
And then he removed all of the unholy objects
that existed right there in the temple,
in the temple courtyards.
And that's where we pick up the story
here in 2nd Chronicles 29, verse 16:
The priest went to the entrance of
the Lord's temple to cleanse it.
They took all the unclean things they
found in the Lord's sanctuary to the
courtyard of the Lord's temple. ...
When it says here,
they took all of the unclean things,
it's referring to pagan idols that
Ahaz had put within the temple of the Lord.
It means they removed all the
pornographic objects that were used
in pagan worship.
And so here we have a cleansing of the
temple in relationship to restoration
in terms of renewal and
reformation within Judah.
And then we read:
...Then the Levites received them...
That is, all of these unclean things.
...and took them outside to the Kidron Valley.
And as I was reading about that, jumping ahead
to what happened in the time of Jesus.
My mind certainly reflected on the fact
that when Jesus left the upper room--
after having the Passover with the disciples--
that He went by the temple.
The very location way back here in the
Old Testament setting.
He went by the temple. And He
descended into the Kidron Valley.
The very valley where all of these evil objects
were taken that were in the temple.
And the thought that went through my mind
is that Jesus was descending into that
valley across the Garden of Gethsemane
where He was going to pray.
Where He was going to pray:
Lord, if it's possible that this cup be
removed from me.
Speaking, I believe of the death that
He was going to die for all of these sins.
But isn't it fascinating that Jesus walked
through the very Kidron Valley in which
all of these evil objects were dumped?
And probably burned and destroyed.
So here we have the cleansing of this temple.
A very, very important step here
in terms of renewal within Judah.
Now the next step was to actually
begin to worship the Lord in the temple.
And that's where we pick up with
verse 27 of 2nd Chronicles 29:
Then Hezekiah ordered that the
burnt offering be offered on the altar. ...
He's reinstating, you see, worship.
This was something that was not done
during the time of Ahaz, Hezekiah's father.
In fact, they had pagan altars offering
offerings to Baal.
Even by the way, offering their children
in that valley that was right next to the
Valley at Hinnom.
We read on:
...When the burnt offerings began,
the song of the Lord and the trumpets began,
accompanied by the instruments
of David king of Israel. ...
And that, I think is very significant
because if you go back to the beginning
of the record here in 2nd Chronicles
regarding Hezekiah, this is what we read.
And let me just read it for you:
Hezekiah did what was right in the Lord's sight
just as his ancestor David had done.
And here in this passage, we read that the song
when the burnt offerings began,
the song of the Lord and the trumpets began,
accompanied by the instruments
of David king of Israel.
Hezekiah is going back to the instructions
and the practices of his father David.
We read on:
...The whole assembly was worshiping,
singing the song and blowing the trumpets--
[and] all of this continued until the
burnt offering was completed.
[And] when the burnt offerings were completed,
the king and all those present with him
bowed down and worshiped. ...
A fantastic scene.
...Then King Hezekiah and the officials
told the Levites to sing praise to the Lord
in the words of David and of Asaph the seer. ...
In other words, not only was he
reinstating what God said he should do.
But he's going back to the practices of David.
But actually using the psalms of David.
Actually using what David and another
seer actually wrote in terms of praise to God.
...So they sang praises with rejoicing and
[they] bowed down and [they] worshiped.
Now to go back to David,
let me take you back to 1st Chronicles,
which is really a record of David himself.
In 1st Chronicles 23:3 to 5.
And this is a record of when David
actually was instituting the worship
and reinstating worship.
And he knows that Solomon is going
to be building the temple.
And notice what actually David instructed:
The Levites 30 years old or more were counted;
the total number of men was
38,000 by headcount.
Of these, David said, 24,000 are to be
in charge of the work on the Lord's temple,
6,000 are to be officers and judges,
4,000 are to be gatekeepers...
See, he's talking about the Levites who are
appointed to oversee the worship in the temple.
But notice, we also read:
...and 4,000 are to praise the Lord with the
instruments that I have made for worship.
Can you imagine the scene.
4,000 praising the Lord with the instruments.
I'm not sure how many there were
at the time when Hezekiah reinstated this.
But it had to be an incredible, fantastic
demonstration of praise to God
here in this restored temple.
And restored worship.
Well it's interesting that as you
flow through the whole Bible.
As you come, for example to the
words of the apostle Paul.
Paul is really reaffirms what was actually
instituted in the Old Testament,
particularly through David.
And here's what we read in Colossians 3:16:
Let the message about the Messiah
dwell richly among you, teaching and
admonishing one another...
Those by the way, are the functions that
we're going to read about in terms of music.
...teaching and admonishing one another
in all wisdom, and singing psalms,
hymns, and spiritual songs,
with gratitude in your hearts to [the Lord.]
Three key words there: psalms, hymns, spiritual songs.
Now in terms of reconstructing some of that,
we can look at some examples.
For example, the psalms certainly were
the psalms of David.
Here in the New Testament church.
Actually taking some of those psalms that
were set to music in the Old Testament.
But now they're setting them to music
in the New Testament.
You know, centuries later. And by the way,
the musical score and the way they
express it would be different.
So we have psalms.
But it also says in hymns.
And in terms of let's say, a modern example
might be a hymn was that which was
an expression of the Word of God.
But wasn't the exact Word of God.
Such as a hymn that we all know,
"How Great Thou Art".
That's a great hymn.
There are many great hymns that have
been written over the centuries.
Including modern hymns that are written
to express praise and worship to God.
And then there are songs or in the
Greek text the word is "odes."
Spiritual odes.
These are more personal expressions
probably of our Christian faith.
One that certainly is very significant was
written by John Newton
and it's entitled "Amazing Grace:"
how sweet the sound that saved
a wretch like me.
See, that was his personal testimony of how God
saved him out of a life of debauchery.
And that's why I use the word "wretch."
Because that was a personal expression
of the depth of his sin as a slave trader
and how he treated people.
So there is a spiritual song.
Now the important thing to note here.
And I want you to listen carefully to this
very, very important point.
No where in Scripture--no where,
Old Testament, New Testament--
are we told what kinds of musical forms
and structures to use.
You know why?
Because if we had form and structure dictated,
it would have locked us into Hezekiah's day.
It would have one locked us into Paul's day.
It would have locked us in to the music
they used when Jesus and the disciples
sang a hymn before they left that upper room.
Remember, they sang a hymn.
We can't even identify, generally,
with the way that music was expressed
in that particular setting.
However, what we have here:
The words we set to music
are to communicate biblical truth.
That's the enduring concept here.
The psalms, and the hymns, the spiritual songs,
are to reflect biblical truth.
And they're to edify one another.
Remember what the functions are?
Teaching and admonishing one another.
with gratitude in our hearts to the Lord.
Ministering to each other
and worshiping God.
So we have two basic purposes with music.
It's to express the Word of God and
to build each other up as we express that.
Now the important thing is that
we're not told what forms to use.
I remember when my wife and I were in Nigeria.
We're with the Hausa tribe way out in the bush.
There were 600 people gathered--
300 of them were pastors,
300 their wives.
And I remember the service before I spoke.
They sang some very familiar spiritual songs
that missionaries had brought to
them from America.
I identified with those.
And then at a point in time,
a group came forward with their drums,
with their instruments. And they went into
an expression with their own
cultural forms of music.
Which was totally different than the
western expressions that they
had learned from the missionaries.
They had their own musical forms
but they were worshiping God.
And they were using the Word of God
with their musical forms.
Now it's very important that
we understand that.
So that leads to a very practical question.
And that is:
Why do some Christians have difficulty
when different musical forms are
used to worship God?
Well there's a very important reason.
Number one: musical forms conjure up memories.
More than any other thing in terms of forms.
You know, it's easy in some respects
to change the forms of structure of a church.
But the moment you begin to tamper
with the forms of music, it conjures up
feelings of emotion that people want
to go back to the past.
I have some those memories.
I have those memories when I
was first converted. Certain musical forms.
And you can't separate musical form
in some respects, from the words.
It's very emotional.
I remember just listening to a classical
music station. And all of a sudden,
I heard this incredible musical presentation.
You know what the theme was?
Raiders of the Lost Ark.
And what do you suppose, I saw visions
of that movie because of the music.
You see the remembrances,
the attachments that are there.
And what I'm saying is, it's easy to get stuck.
And not to give freedom in form
in terms of music and how it's expressed
in different cultural situations.
This [freedom in form of music] leads to tolerance.
It leads to understanding.
It leads to acceptance.
And it leads to freedom.
And that's something we really need to
think about in relationship to musical form
and how we use it to worship God.