Worship Music

Worship Music: TRUTH vs. TRADITION

     In recent years it has become the established tradition to bring the world's music into the church in the name of 'contemporary worship'. Contemporary it is but worship it is not unless you are worshipping the desires of man and not the desires of the God of our Lord Jesus Christ for the desires of man usually are the direct opposite of the will of God. One notable preacher has said 'Find out what you think is the right thing to do and then do just the opposite'. As long as it does not violate a principle of the Word of God it will probably be the direction the Lord wants you to go, and that is exactly the situation we find the church in when it chooses to use the popular 'contemporary music' in an effort to worship God usually due to pressure and not Biblical principle.

     Now, please don't say that anything that is contemporary is not good, because there are good songs, hymns and spiritual songs that are contemporary in origin, but as a rule the contemporary scene is controlled by the contemporary music of the world called rock and roll which is controlled by the beat. If the beat drives the music, if the beat is the dominant feature of music, it is not fit for worshipping the God of heaven, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.

     Although all music has a rhythm or a certain amount of beats per measure, good Christ-exalting Gospel music never has as its emphasis the beat or rhythm. However, in the popular contemporary Christian music (CCM) the beat is predominant and does indeed drive the music regardless of what the lyrics emphasize for the lyrics become just a forgotten necessity instead of the focus of the music as is the case in Christ-exalting Gospel songs, hymns and spiritual songs.

     The beat was never a topic of discussion until rock and roll began its influence on Christian music during the last few decades. The beat has always been associated with the world's music even before the rock and roll era, however, rock and roll music has had one of the biggest negative influences on the church and society in general, due in part to the additional electronic tools the devil has at his disposal in the last half of the twentieth century and now increasing in the 21^st century. Radio, tape decks, compact discs, mp3 players, I-pads etc and the vast array of technology associated with the spread of music including the Internet have caused the rock and roll influence to be one of the most effective instruments of wickedness, diluting the very worship of the living God not only in our era, but, since the beginning of time!

     Why is that true, how can it be? Because music is the highest form of worship next to self-sacrifice for the cause of Christ! Music that pleases the heart of God is formed and produced by the Holy Spirit who lives in the heart of every child of God! Singing the praises of God by singing a new song from His holy Word back to Him, Who is holy in His very essence, is one of the most worshipful act anyone can perform excepting of course the giving of one's whole spirit, soul and body to God.

     David, the Praise-King of the Bible said 'Thy precepts have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage' (Psalm 119:54), and in response to that declaration you will find throughout the Psalms the singing of the all-powerful eternal Word of God. Singing and praising God is the preferred and highest form of worship a surrendered, self-sacrificed child of God can offer up to the Lord of lords and King of kings!

     And so, the devil, always the great impersonator, the deceiver who from the beginning who utilized deceit to bring about the fall of man continues to deceive through impersonation, offering up a false worship that in fact deceives the one who offers this worship often times attempting to worship by the flesh and not the Spirit.     Today, the worldly (because of it’s similarity to the world’s music) contemporary music has been injected into the services of many churches masquerading as true praise and worship music, but, in fact the false praise and worship being offered in most cases is being accomplished by the flesh and not the Holy Spirit. This is the deciding factor. But, many will say you can't judge the hearts of those who are involved in participating in this type of 'praise and worship' phenomena.

     However, the Bible must be the deciding factor and principles must be applied to resolve the matter instead of bowing to pressure and popularity. If there is a but one principle found in the Word of God that is violated by this worldly form of so-called praise and worship it must be abandoned and done away with and replaced with Biblically-based, Christ exalting praise and worship.

     The first two principles that determine and qualify Biblically-based music are found in I Corinthians 14:15: “I will sing with the Spirit and I will sing with the understanding also”. Therefore, singing must be done with the Spirit not the flesh, and singing must also be done with understanding emphasizing full comprehension of what is sung by the mind of the believer. This principle is taken from Psalm 47:6, 7 showing the appeal Paul made was not of a contemporary nature, but was fully substantiated by principles found in Old Testament worship which was established by David approximately 1,000 years before the New Testament was written.