The Music Exchange

How much are we supposed to enjoy ourselves when we sing in a Christian meeting? As evangelicals, our fear of going over the top with our emotions often leaves us bereft of any emotion at all.

We sing because they that’s what they did in the New Testament Christian gathering, so it must be important. Don’t know why it’s important, but better do it anyway.

This is a tough one to get to grips with. Some congregations have strong outpourings of emotion, but are singing about nothing at all. Others will sing deep truths about the glory of the grace of God with as much animation as a llama in a snowstorm. In this latter case, we’d want to encourage a more passionate response, though it would be wrong to force people to express themselves in a way that they don’t feel is appropriate. On the surface, the former case seems an easier problem to tackle — just give them better songs to sing. If only it was that simple in practice.

Excuse for no energy

In both cases, the defining factor is most likely to be the type of music that accompanies the singing. I’ve attempted to tackle this in previous articles, though it would be worth saying again that, in general, evangelicals are a still a long way behind others in investing in good quality music. Our temptation is to take our disapproval of the idolatry of music in other traditions as an excuse to invest no energy in music at all. Only last week, someone wrote to me saying that he’d been rebuked simply for playing bridges between verses (not that playing bridges guarantees good quality music). He comes from a church where they use a small band very rarely, and never with drums. He fears introducing any other instruments at all.

Musically repressed

It’s not an isolated case — we do seem to be quite unnecessarily suppressed about music, but that’s mostly because we are united by the gospel rather than the musical style, which is a good thing. If the music is spiritually the most attractive element in the meeting rather than the gospel, then the congregation will end up being made up of people who like that kind of music. Therefore, everyone’s happy with the music.

If, however, we are united in our desire to hear the Bible taught faithfully, then it is more likely that we will have a congregation of many different ages and cultures, all with a different idea of what sort of music is appropriate. The problem is that we are also a congregation of sinners. So, if we don’t believe that something is appropriate, then we make a huge song and dance about it (that is, song and dance without streamers and leotards). Also, we’ve developed the notion that because teaching the Bible is the most important thing, nothing else really matters.

Too cautious

It’s not only in matters of musical style that we swing the pendulum too far the other way, but in the content we sing too. We’ve been rightly critical of modern song books that have more songs beginning with ‘I’ than any other letter of the alphabet. However, I think we’ve become over-cautious about singing songs of a subjective nature. Many of the Psalms are deeply subjective, and many of them start with ‘I’ too.

The difference between the subjectivity of the Psalms and many of today’s songs is that the response of the ‘I’ is always deeply rooted in the person and nature of the ‘You’. E.g. Psalm 51.1, ‘Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.’ Similarly, Psalm 88.1, ‘O Lord, God of my salvation; I cry out day and night before you’ (ESV). In both cases the prayer for self grows out of an assurance of the objective truth of the grace of God.

Perfect balance

The psalmists strike a perfect balance between personal response and the statement of profound truth. This is what we should be aiming for as we choose songs to sing in our meetings, not throwing the subjective baby out with the bath water of no content.

Similarly with our style of music, if we have problems in this area, why not do a sermon series on Romans 12-16? If we are members of Bible-teaching congregations, then hopefully there will be ears to hear that we are there to serve the Lord Jesus and each other before ourselves as we live in the light of the mercy of God. It won’t fix the problem of sin, but it will help go towards us recovering an enjoyment of singing that isn’t about catering for subjective tastes, but which serves the truth of God in as dynamic and vibrant a way as the words require.

Don't get too excited?

Excuse for no energy

Musically repressed

Too cautious

Perfect balance

Richard Simpkin

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