Colossians 3:16
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and
admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord.
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Psalm 30:4
Sing unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the
remembrance of his holiness.
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I have been thinking about the subject of music in worship,
particularly as this subject has arisen much lately. When I think upon this subject, one thing
keeps coming to my mind: our minds are to be conformed to that which was in
Christ (cf. Phil 2:5; Rom 8:29; 12:2; Eph 4: 22-24; Col 3:2; 1 Cor 2:15-16). It seems that when this truly happens,
contentions over type, style, and manner of music will go away; and what will
remain is a vigilant determination toward whether the music leads to worship of
God in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24); or more succinctly put, worshipers
will discern the difference between a “musical experience” and music as worship
of God.
From the above scriptural passages (Col 3:16; Ps 30:4), I
glean that singing praise to God is for saints, and songs of saints are
directly related to God’s holiness. For faithful ancient Israelites, music in
their worship of God was a means to Spirit-led prayer and praise — not a path
to an emotional experience. It seems to me that for the Spirit-led Church, the
significance of music in our worship of God is also a means to Spirit-induced
prayer and praise, and one additional feature – the letting of the “word of
Christ” dwell in us through “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in [our] hearts to the Lord. (Col 3:16).
The power of music in the worship of the Church, including
hymns, then is a rehearsal of the power and majesty of Jesus Christ, but is
also a reflection of Christ in each and every worshiper. The hymn in Philippians 2:5-11 (known as the
Kenosis Hymn because of the Greek word ekenosen,
“he emptied,” in verse 7) begins with the exhortation to let “this mind be in
you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”
From the hymn in Philippians 2, I gather that the singing of
hymns in the early Church, rehearsed the exaltation of Jesus Christ as the Son
of man and Son of God. If the experience
of hymn singing in the modern Church reflects the power of hymn singing in the Early
Church, then should it not take on the same dynamism of the “word of Christ”
that ignited worship and resonated with the power of the Holy Spirit in the early
Church? Colossians 3:16 extols worshipers
to sing filled with the “word of Christ.” Singing certainly would have engendered
emotions, but the foundation for song worship in the early Church as witnessed
in Colossians 3 was the dwelling in and singing outward of the "word of Christ."
It seems to me then that singing saints can indeed sing
filled with the power of Christ. Paul’s
commendation to be “renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Eph 4:23) and to speak
“in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your
heart to the Lord” (Eph 5:19) is evidence of the role of the Holy Spirit in the
music of the early Church and is to be in the modern Church. Indeed, it seems
that for a Spirit-led Church, the significance of music as worship is aptly expressed
in Psalm 30:4.
. . . And more of my
favorite music as worship
