Can you imagine going to church and not singing or hearing any music?
We gather to worship to hear God’s Word, give to God’s work, and fellowship with other worshippers - but gathering without songs of praise as part of our worship - how wrong would that be?
Church without the singing of praise would be like tea without sugar.
Go to some parts of the country and ask for sweet tea at a restaurant and they will look at you like your pixilated. The waitress will say, "Hon, the sugar and sweet-n-low are on the table. If you want sweet tea you’ll have to make it yourself."
Here in the south they know sweet tea. We know sweet everything. My wife is constantly trying to slip in this low-fat, no sugar stuff on me. She put some low-fat dressing on the chef salad and I complained right away. "It tastes the same", she said. If it tasted the same I wouldn’t have noticed it. It doesn’t taste the same - it tastes bland. I have one word for that low-fat stuff - Blah.
Church without praise to God is chef salad without the good tasting dressing.
One couple were in their eighties and had been married for sixty years. Though no longer young, they were both in very good health, largely due to the wife’s insistence on healthy foods and exercise for the past three decades.
One day their good health didn’t help when they were in an auto accident which sent them both to heaven.
They reached the Pearly Gates, and St. Peter escorted them inside. He took them to a beautiful mansion furnished in gold and fine silks with a fully stocked kitchen pantry. St. Peter said, "Welcome to heaven, this mansion will be your new home now."
After settling in they went for a stroll down the streets of gold and came across the most magnificent buffet they had ever seen. Every kind of cuisine imaginable was laid out before them, from seafood to steaks to exotic deserts, and beverages flowing free from numerous fountains.
The old man looked around and glanced nervously at his wife. "Well, where are all the low-fat and low-cholesterol foods, and the decafinated tea?"
"That’s the best part", said St. Peter, as he glanced over their shoulders. "You can eat and drink as much as you like , whatever you like, whenever you like, and you will never get fat or sick. After all, this is heaven."
The old man further inquired, "No gym to work out at?" "Not unless you want to", was the answer.
"No testing my sugar or blood pressure or..."
"Never again. All you do here is enjoy yourelf."
The old man glared at his wife and said, "You and your fat-free bran muffins. We could have been here twenty years ago."
Church worship without songs of praise not only wouldn’t be any fun, it wouldn’t be scriptural either. The Bible commands us to be "speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord." (Ephesians 5:19) It is the result of being filled with the Spirit. (Ephesians 5:18)
Let’s define each of the three types of church songs mentioned in the Bible:
PSALM = A sacred song sung to musical accompaniment. The New Testament Greek word literally alludes to the striking or twitching with fingers on musical strings. (Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words) The Old Testament Psalms were also sung with the accompaniment of stringed instruments like the lyre or harp. The harp in those days was not the large instrument we’re familiar with today - where the instrumentalist has to sit down to play - rather it was a hand-held stringed instrument, plucked or strummed. It would in many ways be comparable to dulcimers, autoharps, violins, guitars, etc. today.
HYMN = To celebrate God by a song of praise addressed to Him. (Vine’s) "How Great Thou Art" would fall into this category for instance. By this definition you can see that not every song in our hymnbook is technically a hymn. Some of the songs are sung "about" God rather than "to" Him.
SPIRITUAL SONG = An ode (poem put to music) sung in praise of God or Christ. (Vine’s) "Amazing Grace" is a well-known example of this type of church song. John Newton, the one-time slave-trading ship captain who repented of his sins and was later called to preach, penned it as a personal testimony of God’s saving grace.
Sometimes the songs we sing fall into more than one category, but you can clearly see the significance of each type.
We sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to God, and to men about God, as acts of worship and praise. New songs in each of these categories are being written all the time, as well they should be. This doesn’t mean we have to set aside the old songs, but we should be open to adding new expressions of praise to God.
Here’s a profound revelation for you. The "old" songs we sing were "new" once upon a time. This is actually a very important admission for a consistent philosophy of church music. What if John Newton’s generation had said, "Johnny, we can’t sing your new song, ’Amazing Grace’, because we don’t want to give up our old songs"?
The good news is, it doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition. It certainly wasn’t an either/or proposition for David as a songwriter. We can keep the old songs and add the new.
The youth of the church need the old songs to help connect them to their spiritual heritage, and our older folks need the new songs to help keep them from getting in a worship rut. The new songs help keep our relationship with God fresh - the old songs help to keep our faith stable. We combine fresh praise with a firm foundation.
David said here in the 40th Psalm that God was the one who "put a new song" in his mouth, "a song of praise to our God." He had been in some sort of trouble, the cause of which we’re not told. But that is not our focus at the moment. Trouble is trouble.
In verse two he poetically describes his predicament with a very effective word picture. "He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay; and He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm."
David’s footing was unsound and unsafe because the soil underneath him was miry. But God brought him up out of the muddy pit and placed his feet on a firm foundation. He wasn’t slipping and sliding any more in life. He was standing firm because of God’s intervention in his life. That’s when God put the new song in his mouth.
Out of the mire and into the choir!
How is that possible? How do we go from crying out to God in prayer for help to singing out in praise?
The essential discipline is stated in the first part of verse one: "I waited patiently for the LORD."
We’d just as soon compose a new song without the waiting, and certainly without the troubles that precipitate waiting.
If we didn’t have to wait we would become spoiled brats. God would love to dote on us but He knows all too well the weaknesses of our human condition. He’s interested in building character in us and making us more like Jesus. That kind of character building takes time.
Standing in line can be good for us. Whether we’re at the grocery checkout or the bank or the post office or the doctor’s office, or waiting for God to answer our prayers, we all want to be served immediately so we can get on with our important lives. When we stop and think about it, several important things happen while we wait.
It gives others a chance to be served. God is surely omnipotent and can serve everyone simultaneously. What would that teach us? That the world revolves around us? Waiting teaches us to be more like God and be considerate of the needs of others.
This is especially true of marriage and family life. It is said that marriages are made in heaven but so are lightning and thunder. If we don’t consider the needs of each other there will be plenty of lightning and thunder around the house. Holy wedlock can become holy headlock in a heartbeat.
The principle applies to all of our relationships. Wait for others to have their turn.
Waiting may also teach us why and how to comfort others.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort; who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God." (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
Waiting on God may also give us a chance to think about why we got into the mire to begin with. Was it because of a foolish act on our part? Did we fall prey to the trickery of the enemy? Is God teaching us humility, meekness, self-control, genteleness, etc.? Is He trying our faith and building up our confidence for future service?
Is He placing us in a position to witness His power and love? Does He want to display His greatness to others with whom we come into contact?
Lane Adams tells the following story in "Encounter With God".
Headed back to my hotel office, I pulled over to the curb, shut off the engine, leaned my head against the steering wheel, and groaned, "Lord, I’m in big trouble! I need your help."
This was my first season as manager. Rapidly trained for the job, I wasn’t quite ready. I’d overbooked the beachside hotel and taken large deposits to secure the rooms. But I didn’t have enough cancellations to accomodate all the guests who’d be arriving that day. I poured out my heart, committing the whole overbooking matter to Him.
Later the room clerk stuck his head into my office. "We’ve got a big problem," he said. "Two families arriving this afternoon and no rooms for them. What can we do?"
"Nothing," I responded, "but I’m trusting the Lord to take care of it. I don’t know how." He withdrew his head, but I could see his expression of bewilderment.
Shortly after that he stuck his head back in my office, wearing an even more bewildered look. "We’ve just had two early checkouts. Emergencies back home." And so it went. In one way or another we managed to accomodate all who came for the remainder of the season.
That story brings to mind the words of the English diplomat and author of the 17th century, William Temple, who said,
"When I pray, coincidences happen. When I don’t, they don’t."
There’s a song at the end of our trial if we will wait on the Lord in prayer.
