Note: this was a family service in which children stay in the service. We have a ‘main’ children’s item earlier in the service but also a short talk later in the service. This is to give something for the adults but which is hopefully not too difficult for children. Because it was about music and singing, I had a couple of short musical clips.
WHY DO WE SING?
As Christians, many of us sing. We sing hymns and Christian songs when we come to church. Many of us also sing when we’re on our own or we listen to Christian songs and music. But are songs and music important for Christians? And if they are important, why are they important?
Songs and music MUST be important! The Bible’s full of them! In the middle of the Bible, we have the Book of Psalms. The psalms are songs, and there are 150 of them. And the Book of Psalms is not the only place in the Bible where we find songs. All through the Bible people sang. David sang. Paul sang. Jesus sang! In the Book of Revelation, the 24 elders sing. Then the 144,000 who have come out of the great tribulation sing. Then John sees another group. They are standing with harps in their hands and they’re singing.
If there is so much singing in the Bible then Christian songs and music MUST be important. But why?
There are lots of reasons but today I’m just going to talk about two. One reason why songs and music are important is that they AFFECT us. A second reason is that songs and music HELP US TO EXPRESS FEELINGS.
Let’s think first about how songs and music AFFECT us.
We can see an example of that from early in David’s life.
Saul was the king of Israel but God wasn’t happy with him and rejected him. God told the prophet Samuel to anoint David as the future king of Israel. David was probably a teenager.
Something was wrong with Saul’s relationship with God. The Bible tells us: ‘Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.’
Saul was not happy. His servants had an idea. They suggested they find someone who was skilful in playing the lyre – that’s a musical instrument – ‘and when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well.’
Do you think it was a good plan? Do you think music could help King Saul out of his foul mood?
Saul agreed to the suggestion. His servants knew that David was a good musician so they asked him to come and play the lyre. Then it says in the Bible: ‘And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him’ [1 Samuel 16].
It worked! The music which David played helped King Saul. It’s a great example of how music can help us.
Doctors and scientists today agree that music affects us. Let me give you an example. This is not Christian music, but I think you’ll see what I mean about music affecting us.
[30 seconds from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.]
Did that music affect you? Did it feel a bit scary? Someone said this music made his hair stand on end. It’s an example of how music can affect us.
Music can be good for us but it can also be bad for us. The music David played for Saul was good for him. It brought him peace. But music can also be bad for us. Some music has words that are not at all Christian. Some music can over-stimulate us. Some music can cause us to feel depressed.
As Christians, let’s look out for Christian music that’s good for us, music that is encouraging and healing and gives us peace. Let’s immerse ourselves in music like that. But let’s watch out for music that would be bad for us, that would do us harm. The thoughts in many secular songs are not Christian. DO NOT listen to that kind of music! If a friend invites you to a concert and you strongly suspect the music will be bad for you, SAY NO! Don’t put yourself where you will be harmed.
Let’s go on to a second reason WHY songs and music are important. Songs and music HELP US TO EXPRESS FEELINGS.
We all have FEELINGS! Sometimes we have feelings of joy, sometimes of love. Sometimes we’re afraid, sometimes we’re angry, sometimes we’re sad, sometimes we’re angry, and so on. We want to express what we’re feeling. But often words aren’t enough to express what we feel. Hans Christian Anderson, the writer of fairy tales, once said, ‘Where words fail, music speaks.’ He got it right. Songs and music can help us to express what we feel.
I’m going to play you another piece of music. It was composed by someone called George Frideric Handel nearly 300 years ago. Handel had a strong Christian faith.
[30 seconds from Handel’s Messiah, the Hallelujah Chorus.]
Maybe this music affected you. Maybe it made you feel something. But that isn’t what I’m thinking about now. I’m thinking about what Handel was EXPRESSING. In this piece of music, Handel wrote ‘Hallelujah’ 23 times! Hallelujah means, ‘God be praised.’ Handel could have just said ‘God be praised.’ But he makes music out of it. It’s grand, expressive music. The music tells us what Handel is FEELING. He feels that there’s something that’s totally amazing, totally wonderful, and he is MEGA-EXCITED about it! What is it? The words continue: ‘The kingdom of this world is become, the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ, And He shall reign for ever and ever…’ Handel believes that one day, Jesus will come again and take up his reign. That is amazing and wonderful and MEGA-EXCITING. Handel could have just said ‘God be praised!’ But when Handel put it to music, he could really EXPRESS what he felt.
Christian music doesn’t just help the person who composes it to express what they’re feeling. It helps the person who sings it and the person who listens to it to express what they’re feeling too.
The first reason I gave why songs and music are important is that they can AFFECT US. The second reason I gave why songs and music are important is that they can help us to EXPRESS WHAT WE’RE FEELING.
Peter Gabriel was the lead singer for the group Genesis. He said that music is like an emotional toolbox. A toolbox is a box full of lots of different tools. You choose the right tool – a screwdriver or a hammer, for example – for the job you’re doing. In a similar way, music can be like a toolbox. You may know lots of songs and you choose the right song to express what you’re feeling. For example, you might be feeling joy, love, fear, anger, or sadness. You can often find a piece of music which helps you to express what you’re feeling.
That is certainly the case for the psalms. They express different feelings.
The most common reason why people in the Psalms sang is that they felt JOY or GLADNESS in their hearts and the psalmists wanted to praise God. What was the cause of the joy? Two big causes for joy are how great God is and how much God loves them. The writer of Psalm 105 wrote, ‘Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works!’ [Psalm 105:2]. David wrote, ‘I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning’ [Psalm 59:16].
So, some psalms were written when the psalmist felt joy or gladness. But in other psalms, the psalmist was feeling something else.
Some psalms express a feeling of abandonment. David wrote in one psalm, ‘How long, O Lord? Will you forget me for ever?’ [Psalm 13:1].
Some psalms express sadness. Bono was the lead singer for the group U2. He’s a Christian and he once wrote a foreword – a little introduction – to a book about the Psalms. He commented that many of the psalms are like blues music – they express a feeling of sadness.
David wrote at least one psalm when people were trying to kill him! He wrote, ‘For behold, they lie in wait for my life … Each evening they come back, howling like dogs and prowling about the city …’ But he continued, ‘BUT I WILL SING OF YOUR STRENGTH; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning’ [Psalm 59, excerpts]. It’s as if David was saying, ‘This is not looking good! But I’m going to sing anyway.’ That’s a great attitude!
The point is that the psalmists used songs to express whatever they were feeling at different points in their lives. We can use music and songs to do the same.
TAKEAWAYS
What should we take away from this? Let’s do what David did. If we can, let’s COMPOSE Christian songs and music. Let’s SING Christian songs and music. Let’s LISTEN to Christian songs and music. Christian songs and music will AFFECT US. They can bring us encouragement and healing and peace. And they will HELP US TO EXPRESS WHAT WE’RE FEELING – and especially, like Handel, to express our praise.
Let’s immerse ourselves in music like that.
TALK GIVEN AT ROSEBERY PARK BAPTIST CHURCH, BOURNEMOUTH, UK, 8TH SEPTEMBER 2024, 10.30 A.M. SERVICE
