Dr. John MacArthur on the theme of music and the role that it plays in the church:
Quotes:
“The first misconception is that music is worship. That is not true. Music is not worship. They’re not synonymous. Music is music, and and worship is worship. But, typically, you hear people today say, ‘We’re going to worship,’ and then immediately that is essentially defined by music. Music is not worship. Music is a means to express worship, but it is not worship. Worship is the heart going up toward God in gratitude and thanksgiving for all that God has done: that’s worship. Worship is acknowledging God to be who He is revealed to be in Scripture. It is acknowledging what God has done; and in particular, that He has saved us, redeemed us, given us eternal life; and it is expressing gratitude to God. There are many ways to do that; music is one of them. But music is not worship. Music is a means by which a worshiping person expresses his thanks.”
Secondly, a misconception is that music motivates worship, music induces worship. That’s not true either. That is not true. It gives expression to love; it gives expression to adoration. But the motivation for that has to come from somewhere else, not from music. Music enhances and enriches. But the motive for all of our songs is not a sound, it’s a truth.
Another misconception is that when people have trouble worshiping, music will create worship, music will create the mood for worship. Worship is not a mood experience. That needs to be said loudly and clearly. You go to many ‘churches’ and you’ll be in the dark, and there will be sensual kind of music that appeals to the flesh at one level or another; and there will be lights flashing in all kind of directions. That has nothing to do with worship; and, frankly, does the opposite of inducing worship. It simply induces a fickle feeling. It’s a false substitute for true worship. See, true worship is a permanent attitude. John 4, ‘We worship in spirit and truth.’ That’s who we are. God seeks true worshipers. We are true worshipers. Philippians 3, ‘We worship in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.’ That’s a way of life. Our way of life is gratitude to God for who He is, what He’s done, and for our salvation and all of its blessing. We don’t need a mood created by some form of music that basically shifts – in many cases shifts the mind into neutral and generates a kind of neutral, empty, vacuous feeling. That’s not creating worship. It is true, there is something that creates worship – this will shock people – it’s preaching the Word, or reading the Word, so that when you know the truth, your heart reaches forward to God to express praise and gratitude.
Another misconception is this, that non-Christians aren’t going to come to church unless we import their music. Music so dominates our culture. It is so ubiquitous that if we’re going to appeal to nonbelievers, we’ve got to change our music. We’ve got to do the kind of music that they like and somehow baptize it if we’re going to reach out evangelistically. That’s not true. Never, never in Scripture is music ever, ever stated to be used as an evangelistic technique in some direct sense. In an indirect sense, it is because we’re singing of our Savior, right, we’re singing of salvation. But we’re singing to God, not the world, and not the unbeliever. There’s no mandate for the church to make its music appeal to the sons of Satan. So music is not worship. Music does not induce or motivate worship. Music does not somehow enhance worship by certain style and mood, nor is music ever intended for the satisfaction of nonbelievers as if that’s some entry into understanding the gospel.
So what is music? It is the gift of God, common grace to the world, to give them a means of expressing their emotion. That’s the broad part of music: their joys, their sorrows, their hopes, their aspirations, their disappointments. But for believers, it is a gift of God to allow believers to give expression of gratitude to God for who He is, what He’s done, and particularly for our salvation. The redeemed sing. Music reaches its highest level among Christians, its greatest usage among Christians. The music of the church is just that: it’s the song of the redeemed.”
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“One of the horrors of the Roman Catholic Church among many was that the Roman Catholic Church basically robbed the church of music for a thousand years. And by the way, Christians are the only religion that sing. Muslims don’t sing, Buddhists don’t sing, Hindus don’t sing. They don’t sing. Some chant in a minor key; Christians sing. But when the Reformation came, music was reintroduced to the church; and you sing a hymn written by Martin Luther who launched the Reformation: A Mighty Fortress is our God. Five-hundred years after that, we’re still singing that hymn.
From where does this music rise? It comes in the collective worship of God’s people, but it rises from your heart, end of verse 19, “making melody with your heart to the Lord, your heart.” It’s the expression of your mind. Heart, in the Hebrew perspective, is the mind: “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” So that’s the connection; it’s the mind. Amos, chapter 5, God says to the people, “Stop singing, your hearts aren’t right. Stop your songs, your hearts aren’t right. I don’t want your songs unless your hearts are right.”
So where does this take place in the corporate worship of God’s people? From where does it come? It comes from the mind that grasps the truth revealed in Scripture: the glory of God, His person, His work, His salvation.
To whom is all of this offered? The end of verse 19, “to the Lord, to the Lord.” Verse 20 adds to that, “always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father.” Our worship is directed to Him. It’s not even to us. It’s not certainly to unbelievers, it is to God. It is to God. He is the audience. He is the audience. We’re not here to entertain each other; we’re not here to entertain nonbelievers. Our praise is offered to God.
“When the priests came forth – ” in 2 Chronicles 5 “ – from the holy place, and all the Levitical singers, they were clothed in fine linen, with cymbals and harps and lyres, standing east of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests blowing trumpets in unison when the trumpets and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to glorify the Lord. And when they lifted up their voice accompanied by trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and when they praised the Lord saying, ‘He indeed is good for His lovingkindness is everlasting,’ then the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests couldn’t stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God.” The temple was complete, and God came down in the midst of them singing praise to Him. Our praise is “soli Deo gloria,” as Bach put on every piece of music he wrote, “glory to God alone.”
The question then about all music is, “Does it glorify God?” not, “Does it entertain me?” and not, “Does it have some worldly appeal?” But does it glorify God? Will it bring honor to Him, glory to Him? Is it expressive of truth in a lofty and elevated way?
And by what means do we make this music? Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs: psalms, psalmos. Usually associated with singing with strings. But psalms have come to be directed at the psalms themselves, and so it’s music that focuses on God’s glory, God’s person, God’s work – anthems to the Trinity you could say.
And then there are hymns. What are hymns? Songs of praise. Five times in the Septuagint, it’s used to speak of songs of salvation. So we sing, if you will, psalms to God, glorifying Him, and then we sings hymns of salvation.
And then spiritual songs. What are those? Those are testimonials to the work of the Lord in our hearts like O How I Love the Lord, any song of devotion, any song of dedication. So we have this range of singing to God to lift up His glory; to Christ, to sing the songs of salvation; and then even songs of personal testimony. What a priviledge.
Pilgrim’s Progress – I don’t know if you remember this – but every time Pilgrim got out of a problem, every time he exited some kind of conflict, every time he recovered from some harm or some near disaster, Bunyan writes, “And he went on his way singing. He went on his way singing.””