I Thessalonians 5:21 "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."
Probably the most common music question I get is something along these lines: “Bro. Nick, is this song okay to listen to?” A lot of times this question will come from my students, and I always appreciate that they are willing to ask me this. I have always appreciated the honesty and transparency of a young person. However, I have found that oftentimes the older we get, the less transparent we become, and the less we seek to find help in different areas of our lives. My fear is that music is a big question mark in many of our minds. A greater fear of mine is that often we only prove, test, or put our music on trial when it comes to the church setting, and not on a personal level. There is music we will allow on our phones, in our homes, and in our car, but would initially be shocked to hear in a church service.
There is so much we could look at to prove the point that music is very powerful and has a greater influence on us physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally than we may be aware of. There are solid biblical, historical, medical, musical, and scientific facts proving this point. With this being said, please do not have the attitude, “It does not matter what I listen to.” Because you’re wrong: it matters.
In this devotion, I want to give you a biblical template I use and that I have been taught when it comes to proving my music.
Ephesians 5:19 "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord."
A psalm simply put is a song that is scripturally based. Songs that take directly from the Word of God that was written by men of God inspired by God. In light of proving our music, we should consider the writer of the song. Not that they were inspired as the writers of actual Scripture, but that they have a heart for the Lord, live righteously, and obey the truths of God’s Word. I encourage you to research the stories of the writers of many of the hymns in our songbook. Through the hardships, trials, and burdens that these people carried, yet by the grace and strength of God they wrote powerful, inspiring words that still speak to hearts and lives today. Let's be careful of always running to YouTube or other music streaming services to find songs written by people who have not been proven spiritually and doctrinally. It does not make sense to sing a song about the Lord written by a person who does not know the Lord.
A hymn is song that speaks of the majesty of God. It is a song that magnifies the Lord for who He is. The message of our song should magnify the Lord. I have found that a common ingredient in Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) is that they are often very vague in their description of God. Many do not even dare mention the name, Jesus. They avoid biblical proper nouns (God, Jesus, etc.) by using pronouns (He, they, it, that, etc.). I want to sing and listen to songs that speak that name that is above every name, the name of Jesus. Another common ingredient in CCM is that often the message of the song magnifies our problems in life. This music is really just depressing. The message is almost portraying the mentality, “I’m just a failure spiritually.” We all have trials, shortcomings, and problems, but our music should magnify the God who gives us the grace and strength to overcome these. Yes, we fall, but we have Victory in Jesus, Grace Greater than Our Sin, and Amazing Grace that saved the wretches that we are. Yes, we have hardships and heartaches, but we can say It is Well with Our Soul, we can Rejoice in the Lord, we can find that His Strength is Perfect, because we have a friend in Jesus, and what a friend He is!
What is a spiritual song? A song that feeds our spirit and not our flesh. As we open up this thought, let’s first be reminded of the fruit (singular) of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. Each of these attributes combined together are the FRUIT of the Spirit. If we live and walk in the Spirit, our lives will produce this singular fruit balanced and functioning together. How do we apply this to music? Let me ask you this question: how do you express joy? How do you express meekness? How do you express peace? These are often expressed in our spirit or mood. If we think of a joyful person, we often think of their uplifting spirit, attitude, or mood. Music is always expressing a mood or spirit.
I John 4:1 "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world."
When we try the spirit of our music, what are the results that we come up with? Is it biblical love, not a sensual, selfish “love” that the world has wickedly portrayed? Is it joyful, full of life, enthusiastic? Is it temperate, balanced, and in moderation? Is it meek, is it under control? Or is the spirit or mood of the works of the flesh? “Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings.” Is it sensual, breathy, groaning? Is it uplifting idolatry, idolizing our fleshly humanistic desires? If we are filled with the Spirit, we will enjoy spiritual music and be more sensitive to fleshly music. We often desire music based on the mood we are in, but we can also dictate our mood by the music we listen to. If you listen to princess love music all the time, your life will be out of balance emotionally. If you listen to depressing music, you will be depressed. If you listen to hateful rock or rap music, you’ll be that guy in the car next to you who looks like he wants to beat you up for no apparent reason. Comical at times, but honestly, it is a sad reality.
Every song we sing and listen to has a spirit or mood, and it will either feed our spiritual being or fleshly being, some to greater extents than others. That is why we must try every spirit and not fall susceptible. May we choose music with no appearance of evil, not even a drop of the works of the flesh. May we choose music that is spiritual, filled with the fruit of the Spirit of God.
Lastly, let us consider the delivery of the song. How is it played? How is it sung? Has the singer taken careful thought to their physical appearance? Our music should be singing, not groaning, not sliding or scooping, not breathy, not screaming. I have been in church my whole life, and I have found that the delivery styles that are always trying to creep into our type of church can be narrowed down to worldly jazz, rock, or country. Our song delivery should not look or sound like these worldly genres. We are Christians, not crooners, not pop artists, not culturists. We should sing and present ourselves in a way that directs the congregation to the message of the song, not to us.
Our music should follow a melody. Worldly music often emphasizes the rock beat, the sensuality of the voice, and humanistic values. The melody should always be the emphasis. This is why songbooks are SO important. We will only be directed to the melody of the song by the songbook, the written music. The melody is the lead part, notes, or pitches of the song. Musically, everything is built around the melody of the song. This is so important, because there is no harmony without melody. Structured music will always be built off a triad: a chord consisting of three parts, three notes in perfect harmony, led by the melody. Interesting how it’s similar to our three-part God, Who is in perfect harmony. Written music can be compared to the Bible, and here is how: You can take two people from two vastly different parts of the world, different cultures, different genders, different upbringings, and they can be in perfect harmony if they fully commit and follow the written page. The songbook, like the Bible, is our direction in the area of music and singing in a church service. As a musician, it is very difficult for me to sing a song with just a lyric sheet or lyrics displayed on a screen. I want the direction by knowing the melody of the song. When I walk away from a service, I want to have the melody of the songs I sang in my heart –not the beat.
In closing, may we be reminded of the importance of the music we listen to, and may we prove our music with God’s Word. We looked at a template of four things. May we examine our music in light of all four aspects together and not one without the other.
1. Psalms – The Writer
2. Hymns – The Message
3. Spiritual Songs – The Spirit
4. Singing and Making Melody – The Delivery
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