Psalm Inspired Worship
Question: What drives your worship? In most of popular church, worship is driven by music. That is to say, that the thing most important for setting the agenda in a church is the music. In many places, particular mainline African-American churches, the most important people are the musicians and the music directors. The music sets the tone.
And so the question that I would ask to us and to all of the church is, “Is our worship word driven or instrument driven? Is our worship dictated by the music we hear or the words we confess?�
Now, don’t misunderstand me. Music is great. No one loves a worshipful and praise-inducing beat and melody any more than I do. Yet, I want us to be aware that God did not give us the music to the Psalms, but He did give us the words. This should tell us at least two things.
One, the music of the church is open to change, interpretation, and may be expressed with great variety. Therefore, we must not insist on only one type of music as we worship. If the music is useful, edifying, and does not distract from the glory of what is said, then it may be useful for our worship. Music that is done well; that promotes humility in the performer and exaltation in God is music that is useful for the service of God’s glory and the good of His people.
Two, while the music may change, the content of what is sang must stay consistent. The words of our songs must be reflective of the words of Scripture. We can not, we must not say about God what the Scriptures do not say about God. Here the Psalms should serve as our standard, our ruler, and our judge. While God has not given us music in the Bible, He has given us the words of the Songs that most please Him. He has not given us a demonstration of the melodies or beats which He most desires in worship, but He has given us the words, the content of the songs that have most pleased Him.
Let me put it this way. The next time you are inclined to want to sing a song in church that you heard on the radio or at the record store, as yourself the following questions: “Does the song reflect the words found in the Psalms. Can I find those same words consistently taught in the Word of God?� Next it would also be helpful if we would ask this question as well, “Does the song not only say what the Bible says, but does it mean what the Bible mean? Are the writers of the song simply quoting the Bible, but have totally removed the text from the context and are singing a pretext?�
I fear that many of us do not give as much discernment to the songs we sing as we would give to the sermons we hear. Just as we should be discerning about the words of the preacher, and test his teaching by the word of God, so too ought we to be discerning in testing the songs of the songwriter by the word of God. In this we should be like the Bereans in Acts 17:11:
These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.
One of the best ways in which to do this is to discover what the Psalmists have song about God. Here in the midst of the Bible, God has ordained praise and has given to his people example of those songs which please Him. And while we might employ our own creative minds in the writing of songs, we must be sure to check our songs by the Scriptures, particularly by the Psalms.
When we look at the Psalms, as we have over the pass few weeks, we see that the Psalmist are continually pointing Israel to the greatness of their God in worship. In other words, the Psalms make much of God and not so much of us. This is a poignant indictment upon much of popular gospel music today. Today men and women love to sing of themselves and to extol God while at the same time making much of themselves. For example, take the popular song, Falling in Love with Jesus by Kirk Whalum:
Now I know, many of you like that song. In fact, I enjoy the melody and rhythm of the song myself. And yet upon scriptural examination, it leaves me flat and wondering about the truth and thus the usefulness of the song. Listen again to the words:
Falling in Love with Jesus
Falling in Love with Jesus
Falling in Love with Jesus
Was the best thing I ever, ever done
Rather than do as the Bible does, and that is make much of Christ, this songs tells us of the virtue of the songwriter. Indeed, falling in love with Jesus, I suppose, is a good thing. But am I to point to my doing so in of the fact that the Bible says, we love him because he first loved us (1John 4:19). I can’t make much of what I do, and make much of Christ at the same time. There is not enough “much� like that to go around. A better and more biblical song would be:
Jesus loves me this I know,
For the Bible tells me so.
Again, the point here is to show us how subtle can be the deceptions in our own hearts. Brothers and sisters, our hearts are prone to wander, and quickly produce idols. No where is this tendency more pronounced than in the songs that we sing. Therefore, we must be all the more diligent to make sure our songs say about God what God says about God. And where do we find these directives? We find them most vividly, though not exclusively, portrayed in the Psalms.
(This is the introduction to a message preached by Anthony Carter on the evening of April 25, 2007 at Southwest Christian Fellowship)