The Music Exchange

Every now and then I walk into work. Usually it’s because I’ve been too lazy to cycle home the night before.

Occasionally, like last week, it’s because someone else has borrowed my bike in a permanent non-contractual arrangement. This time, the borrower was kind enough to leave my bike lock neatly propped up against the side of the church building. I don’t know if the circulation of Evangelicals Now reaches bike thieves, but if the borrower is reading this, I’d be interested to know if you’ve been able to get it into ninth gear. I never could. Also, the saddle chafes when it rains.

Walking to work has given me more time to think about the cause of the confusion about what goes on spiritually when we sing. I’ve always said that the root of the problem is a lack of confidence in the Word of God to feed us, leading us to use music as an alternative medium to scratch where we itch spiritually. That is still the case, but I think that there is a more specific problem, which we need to address as Bible-believing Christians if we’re to avoid confusion over the same issues.

Mishandling the OT

The problem is the way we teach Old Testament narrative. We’re careful to be ‘biblical’ about all the things we do, but if we’re not handling the Bible responsibly, then we’re really not being biblical at all. I’m no theologian, but what I do know is that we need to think very carefully before we take Old Testament characters or events, and read ourselves directly into those situations. One example is Joshua 1.8: ‘Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth... Then you will be prosperous and successful’ (NIV). Many people have read themselves directly into Joshua’s shoes, and have been disappointed to find that prosperity and success haven’t arrived in the same spectacular way as they did with Joshua.

The right way to apply these passages is to understand what the writer is saying about God (because the Bible is ultimately a revelation of his character and purpose). Then we need to understand what the writer is saying to those specific people in those specific circumstances. Then (and only then) should we ask what the writer is saying to us through those specific people and circumstances, and through the lens of the gospel.

Out of context

Here are some Old Testament ideas and passages that have often been taken as applying directly to us, which has caused confusion about Christian worship:

1) Exodus 3 Moses meets with God through the burning bush. God says to Moses, ‘You are standing on holy ground’. This doesn’t mean that whenever we engage with God, then the ground on which we’re standing is holy.

2) Exodus 25 God tells Moses that he will meet with him in the Most Holy Place within the tabernacle. This doesn’t mean that we have to go through some kind of liturgical or musical progression so that we’re able to meet with God.

3) 1 Samuel 16 The Spirit of God comes upon David as he plays his harp so that an evil spirit leaves Saul. This doesn’t give us licence to try and engage with some kind of spiritual warfare with our music.

4) 2 Samuel 6 David dances before the Lord, and tells Michal that he will ‘become even more undignified than this’. You can probably see where I’m going with that one.

All these passages are about God revealing himself at specific places and at specific times to specific people who in turn respond in specific ways. We are not those people. God is the same, and his revelation of himself through those passages is the same, but to say that we are Moses, David or any other character in biblical narrative is to say something the Bible doesn’t allow us to say.

Biblically biblical

If we view the examples above through the lens of the gospel we know that now Jesus has come and, if we believe in him, we are already and eternally in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2) and that the Holy Spirit lives in our hearts as a guarantee that we are his forever (Ephesians 1). Any indignity or foolishness we show is because of our belief and profession that the cross of Jesus is the only means of salvation (1 Corinthians 1).

The confusion comes from the fact that the language in the examples above is all ‘biblical’ in that it comes from the Bible. However, we need to be responsible in the way that biblical material is handled, certainly from our pulpits, but also in the songs that we sing. Don’t trust a song simply because it says, ‘from 2 Samuel’. We need to make sure that the songs we sing are biblically biblical: faithful to the whole sweep of Scripture, and not just ‘from Scripture’.

Confused about worship?

Mishandling the OT

Out of context

Biblically biblical

Richard Simpkin

Main Articles

Other articles