Biblical Worship

Jeremy Begbie, in his book Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music (Baker Academic Books, ISBN 978-0-8010-2695-9, 2007) surveys music in Scripture, in historical worship practice and in contemporary culture.   In chapter 4 Begbie examines the use of music in worship by Martin Luther, John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli comparing the music and worship philosophies of these sixteenth century reformers.

Among the three reformers, Martin Luther is known as the strongest promoter of music in the church.  Although Calvin advocated congregational singing, he was much more restrictive than Luther.  Luther and Calvin both agreed on the importance of congregational singing especially since it had been all but lost in the Roman Catholic Mass of their day.  It was common at that time for all of the worship music to be performed by professional clergy who played the instruments and sang in the choirs.  Both Luther and Calvin wanted to give the worship songs back to the congregation.

Luther encouraged the writing of new hymns and Calvin authorized the paraphrasing of the Psalms for use in worship.  Calvin would only allow Scripture texts or paraphrases of Scripture texts for congregational songs.  These new Psalm paraphrases were to be sung with no harmony and without instruments (since there are no directives in the New Testament for use of instruments in worship).  Luther on the other hand encouraged part-singing (harmony) and the use of instruments in worship.

One of the other well known reformers of the sixteenth century was Ulrich Zwingli who although he was a musician was determined to have no music or singing in worship.  In his attempt to model a worship service totally free of any Roman Catholic influences, Zwingli thought that music was distracting in worship so he simply did not have music in his services.  Zwingli was known for having the organ dismantled from the Zurich church building where he preached.

Focusing on Martin Luther for a moment, I especially liked a quote from Luther on music and ministers in Begbie’s book:

Music I have always loved.  He who knows music has a good nature.  Necessity demands that music be kept in the schools.  A schoolmaster must be able to sing otherwise I will not look at him.  And before a young man is ordained into the ministry, he should practise music in school.

(Martin Luther, Martin Luther Werke: Kristiche Gesamtausgabe, vol. 30:2, Weimar H. Bohlau, 1909, 557, no. 6248 as quoted by Begbi, Resounding Truth, 98)

I would agree that all ministers should have some instruction in music.  Why?  Luther says because he who knows music  has a good nature, but  I would go further to say that at some point all pastors will be called on to lead congregational songs.  Many pastors serve in churches where finding music leadership can be difficult.  There is always the Sunday when at the last minute the congregational song leader is out sick.  Since most pastors will at some point supervise a worship leader, it would also benefit them to understand something of what this person is expected to do as a worship leader.

We are diligent to ensure thorough theological training for our pastors (and we should).  We should also be diligent to at least give our pastors some practical instruction in congregational music leading and worship planning.  If we were to take Martin Luther’s statement seriously about music and ministers, perhaps at the ordination council the young minister should also have to pass a basic congregational music leading test.

Growing up in a Southern Baptist church in Georgia I was accustomed to hearing songs about heaven in the worship services.   We use to sing songs like “When We All Get to Heaven,” and “In the Sweet By and By.”  I would venture to say that today we do not sing songs like these very often – songs focused on our eternal home.

I was reminded of that when I came across a song written by Bob Kauflin called “It Is Not Death to Die.”  Kauflin based this song on an older hymn text of the same title written in the nineteenth century.  Why don’t we sing songs in worship like these today?  Songs that give us an eternal perspective and remind us that “this world is not my home, I’m just a passing through.”

Is our lack of eternal perspective related to a culture focused on materialism and pleasure-seeking?  Do we really like our earthly home better? It  seems that those who speak of heaven and spending eternity with Jesus most often are those who are in the midst of strife whether it be health issues,  persecution or poverty. 

I know that I need to keep an eternal perspective and not be so focused on the distractions of this world.  I am reminded of the I John passage (2:15-17):

Do not love the world, nor the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.  The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of the God lives forever.

I appreciate songs like “It is not death to die” which gives an eternal perspective and reminds us of our real home with the Father.  I think we need more songs like this to help us stay focused on the goal (Hebrews 12:1-3).

It is not death to die,

To leave this weary road,

And join with saints who dwell on high,

Who’ve found their home with God.

 

It is not death to close,

The eyes long dimmed by tears,

And wake in joy before the throne,

Delivered from our fears.

 

Oh, Jesus conquering the grave,

Your precious blood has power to save.

All who trust in You,

Will in Your mercy find,

That is not death to die.

 

It is not death to fling,

Aside this earthly dust,

And rise with strong and noble wing,

To live among the just.

 

It is not death to hear,

The key unlock the door

That sets us free from mortal years,

To praise You evermore.

 Original words by Henri Malan (1787-1864).  Translated by George Bethune (1847). Music, chorus and alternate words by Bob Kauflin. 

Sample of song:

http://www.sovereigngracemusic.org/albums/category/sovereign_grace_music/come_weary_saints

I recently finished a book by Dr. Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis.  Gaines book, When God Comes to Church: Experiencing the Fullness of His Presence offers a number of excellent insights about planning and leading worship.  I like this quote from C.H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) that Gaines uses to emphasize the need of Christ-centered worship services.  In the quote Spurgeon is addressing young preachers when he states:

“Let your sermons be full of Christ, from beginning to end crammed full of the Gospel.  As for myself, brethren, I cannot preach anything else but Christ and His cross, for I know nothing else, and long ago, like the Apostle Paul, I determined not to know anything else save Jesus Christ and Him crucified [a reference to I Cor. 2:2] . . . . Preach Jesus Christ, brethren, always and everywhere; and every time you preach be sure to have much of Jesus Christ in your sermon . . . . We preach Jesus Christ to those who want Him, and we also preach Him to those who do not want Him, and we keep on preaching Christ until we make them feel that they do want Him, and cannot do without Him.”  (Gaines, p. 42-43)

I agree with Spurgeon and Gaines.  Our services should focus on Christ.  There should be a Gospel, cross-centered theme in our corporate worship services each time we gather.  More times that I want to remember I have attended Christian worship services where Christ or His cross were not mentioned the whole service.   Our songs, our prayers, our testimonies and our sermons should point to Christ. 

When a Christian tells his pastor he does not need to hear the Gospel story any more because he has matured beyond that point, we are in dangerous territory.  Christ is our Savior and Lord, our Great High Priest before the Throne, the Lamb of God.  We must preach Christ. 

Gaines closes his chapter stating that “a worship service without the awareness of Jesus’ obvious presence is a waste of time.  He is the One who deserves the spotlight.  He is the focus for every part of geniune worship.” (44).

Worship Leader – is your service full of Christ and His cross?  As David Prior once said: “We never move on from the cross of Christ, only into a more profound understanding of the cross.”

When God Comes to Church, Steve Gaines, Broadman and Holman, 2007, ISBN: 978-0-8054-4398-1.

In my worship class at Southern Seminary I usually show the students the following quote and ask them to determine when the quote was written:

For some years it has been apparent that the rage for novelties in singing, especially in our Sunday Schools, has been driving out of use the old, precious, standard hymns.  They are not memorized as of old.  They are scarecly sung at all.  They are not even contained in the non-denominational songbooks which in many churches have usurped the place of our hymn books.

We cannot afford to lose these old hymns.  They are full of the Gospel; they breathe the deepest emotions of pious hearts in the noblest strains of poetry; they have been tested and approved by successive generations of those that loved the Lord; they are the surviving fittest ones from thousands of inferior productions; they are hallowed by abundant usefulness and tenderest memories.  But the young people of today are unfamiliar with them, if the present tendency goes unchecked.

My students are usually surprised to discover that this quote was written by Basil Manly, Jr. (1825-1892), one of the founding professors of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky (www.sbts.edu).  These words appeared in the preface of a hymnbook edited by Professor Manly in 1892.  Manly, an Old Testament professor at the seminary was concerned  that the Gospel songs new on the scene were usurping the old hymns.  It seems that the young people were singing these new songs and not learning the standard hymns of the church.  These newer worship songs (perhaps by Fanny Crosby, Ira Sankey or others) majored more on the Christian experience and less on the objective truths of the Bible often found in the hymns.  Since we learn so much of our faith through our songs, Manly was concerned the newer Gospel songs were not carrying strong biblical content.

Although this quote is an isolated incident, I think a brief survey of worship music through the ages would reveal that this controversy of what songs should be used in worship is not a new one.  The church has always had an issue over what songs should be selected for corporate worship.

So how do we make sense of this issue today?

1.  It would be great if more theologically trained pastors were writing or selecting song texts for the church today.  So many of our great hymn texts in use today were actually written by pastors (Charles Wesley, Isaac Watt, John Newton – to name a few).  Basil Manly was a good model for pastors as a hymn text writer and an editor of hymnbooks for the church.  We also need worship leaders with a healthy biblical foundation capable of filtering strong theological texts from weak ones.

2.  All songs were new songs at one point.  We should seek to “sing a new song to the Lord,” but make sure our new songs have significant biblical content.  Why spend time singing worship songs that have vague biblical content?

3.  We need to keep singing the great hymns of the church along with newer expressions of faith.  These hymns remind our young people that they are not the first generation of Christians to seek to live a Christ-like life in the world.  Also, our senior adults need to learn songs that speak to a younger generation about the Gospel.

4.  Let the focus be on song content and not secondary issues such as whether we will use an organ,  piano or guitar to accompany songs.  Sure there are a number of discussions we can have on this point, but we need to start with the song text.  Is the text true to the Scriptures?  Does the text teach the great truths fo the faith?

5.  Finally, let’s seek to be pastoral in our worship leadership – caring for the Body of Christ, seeking peace and unity in worship.  Teach deference: “I can sing a favorite song of my brother in Christ rather than my favorite.”