MUSIC THEOLOGY
LECTURE 10
THE PURPOSE OF MUSIC
Is music’s purpose up to the discretion of the listener or player/singer of it?
Did God intend music to be used for entertainment, relaxation, background noise, etc.?
Did man invent music?
Does God have a unique specific purpose for music?
What God created, was created for a “perfect” purpose, and that alone. He created man for one purpose, that to glorify Him. He created music for the same; to glorify Him. In fact, everything that He specifically created was for that sole purpose. There would be no other purpose for Him creating it. Of course, we know that what His created purpose was for these was corrupted by mankind, with Satan’s help. This includes ‘music’.
Music was not invented by man after creation. It was clearly present before creation:
Lucifer was a created being with musical instruments built into his body.
Ezek 28:12-14 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
The angels sang together at the creation.
Job 38:7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
God Almighty is a singer.
Zeph 3:17 The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.
What music style does He sing? Country & Western? Southern Gospel? Pop? Rap? CCM? Hogwash!!!!
The Psalms are 150 musical psalms dedicated to the praise of God.
Ps 150:3-6 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.
The Psalms constitutes a large portion of our Bible. Surely this strongly supports the principle that God’s purpose for music is to “Praise Him”.
What type of music would you sing if you were to stand before His throne in the 3rd Heaven?!
Ps 100:1-2 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
Surely you would want that music to be of the purest and most holiest style possible. What would that be? How would that relate to the standard Christian music styles available today?
David established the music program for all the nation of Israel. This was to be the standard rules for music for God’s people; this should be applied in principle to God’s people today, also!
1 Chron 23:5 Moreover four thousand were porters; and four thousand praised the LORD with the instruments which I made, said David, to praise therewith.
2 Chron 7:6 And the priests waited on their offices: the Levites also with instruments of musick of the LORD, which David the king had made to praise the LORD, because his mercy endureth for ever, when David praised by their ministry; and the priests sounded trumpets before them, and all Israel stood.
4000 instruments were made with the sole purpose being for praising the Lord! God’s people need to understand God’s purpose for music.
All lands are to praise Him by singing.
Ps 66:1-2 Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands: Sing forth the honour of his name: make his praise glorious.
If all of us are to do this, then that sounds like it is a universal plan for music; a universal purpose for music.
As long as we live we are to be singing praises to Him.
Ps 104:33 I will sing unto the LORD as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
If we are constantly singing God’s music, then there would be “no” time really left for any other type of music.
In every passage of Scripture dealing with music in a positive way, the teaching is that music is solely for the spirit of man communicating through the Holy Spirit to God the Father.
Eph 5:18-19 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
All we really need to know, principally speaking, is contained in the Bible; including the topic of music. If every passage dealing with music in a positive light is solely focused on pleasing and glorifying God, then that is what we need to know about music. That is what music is for!
We are to sing to each other for spiritual edification.
Col 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.
We are not to sing to each other (including CD recordings) for fleshly or emotional edification; it is to be specifically ‘spiritual’.
The Bible speaks of only two types of music, godly and worldly; spiritual and fleshly; good and bad. Here are a few instances of worldly, wicked music mentioned in the Bible:
Israel made their own kind of music when they committed idolatry and immorality (Ex 32:17-10, 25) (Aaron and the golden calf; later they danced and then rose up to play – sexual immorality).
Nebuchadnezzar used his music for the purpose of alerting and preparing the people to worship his statue (Dan 3:4-16).
The wicked make their own kind of music to entertain themselves and to help them ignore God.
Job 21:12-15 They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave. Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways. What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?
The world’s music is strongly tied to drinking; they both complement each other.
Isa 5:11-12 Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them! And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.
Herodius’ daughter danced seductively to music in order to lure the king to do something evil.
Mark 6:22 And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee.
Oh the similar plight that is brought about by much of today’s ‘Music Videos’! Oh what seductive deception that goes on across our computers, TV’s, and Ipods!
Just like the use of the “wine” in the Bible, so is “music” used. It can either be the right kind or the wrong kind. The context of the passage explains to us which kind is being used. If evil and immorality is being protrayed, then we logically have to conclude that it is evil music associated with it.
Music was mentioned as raunchy and wrong way back in time; in 297ad Arnobius wrote: “ …that being of a sacred andaugust race should here practise singing and piping… raising the loud din of the castanets, by which another crowd of souls shoud be led in their wantonness to abandon themselves to clumsy motions, to dance and sing, form rings of dancers, and finally, raising their haunches and hips, float along with a tremulous motion of the loins?”
Probably the most misunderstood aspect by Christians concerning music is that of it being used for entertainment purposes.
Many Independent Baptist pastors will say that ‘there is the music that is sung and played in a church setting, and then there is the music that I listen to at home; much of the music I listen to at home I would not allow to be played in ‘church’”. These pastors (and there are many) have their church music and their ‘other’ music; I would assume that this ‘other’ music is strongly used for its entertaining affect.
Most conservative, fundamental Baptists have 2 purposes for music: 1) to sing in church to God; and 2) to entertain themselves outside of church. This very well might be where the Devil maintains an invisible stranglehold on many of today’s otherwise godly Baptists!
Almost all people today consider that the purpose of music can be for: amusement, relaxing, mood setting, breaking the silence and boredom, taking mind off of things, waking up, motivation, partying, dancing, and the ultimate experience of attending a live rock concert.
Some nominal Christians try and use 1Sam 16:15,16,23 to show that music can be used for other than spiritual-related purposes.
1 Sam 16:15-16,23 And Saul's servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee. Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on an harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well.
And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.
However, the music’s purpose there was not for entertainment, encouragement, or emotional stabilization; it’s purpose was to get the evil spirits away that were tormenting him; i.e. a spiritual purpose!
Entertainment of one’s flesh, and all its potential wickednesses, is not at all what God intended you to use music for.
1 Cor 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
All that you do with your body should glorify God (i.e. singing, playing music, listening to music). God intended for you to use music to glorify God by.
The flesh and the spirit are at odds with each other.
Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Music can’t be for glorifying God “and” entertaining the flesh.
Most of what we Christians listen to is for the sole purpose of entertaining our senses, with a stamp of approval by God put on it by having some spiritually weak lyrics added.
There should be no doubt in your mind that the world’s music style is designed specifically to appeal to one’s flesh. So, how can merely adding some Christian-like lyrics to this flesh-appealing music make it ‘ok’?! These 2 are contrary the one to the other! Sothat you cannot do the thing that you would…i.e. praising God and edifying your spirit!
Today, the church is mimicking the world and trying desperately to dry clean or launder the music to make it acceptable for worship. Christians, and their churches, want 2 purposes for their music combined into one: awesome soul-inspiring lyrics combined with awesome flesh-stimulating music! “And can it be?!”
With its sensual tones, Voodoo beat, and night club presentation, this new style worship and praise musick is by design to have an appeal just like the worldly music; i.e. its appeal is to the flesh…not the spirit! It motivates the carnal interest instead of the new nature. Instead of God honoring psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to build up and edify the believer, church services groan with a relentless voodoo pagan beat which is purposely aimed at the physical and sensual instead of the spirit and the spiritual. Praiseworthy lyrics being sung by a blood-bought Christian to the music of contemporized ancient paganism is outrageously absurd! Can these 2 dwell together?!
2 Cor 6:14,17 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
God’s purpose for music is that it should point to Him, praise Him, and prepare the heart to receive from Him
Music is to “point” our minds and hearts to God and away from the world. It is not to point our minds and hearts to dancing, clapping, toe tapping, musing, sitting back and relaxing, pumping us up for the day, etc..
Music is to “praise” God by ascribing worth to Him. It is not to praise our favorite music artist’s talents and fame.
Music is to “prepare” our hardened hearts to receive the Word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s not to prepare our bodies for the latest nifty dance moves, nor prepare our bodies for the 8 hours of work we have ahead of ourselves, etc..
Most music today points to the flesh, senses, desires and cravings of man’s wicked heart. It praises sensuality, sexual freedom, having fun, exciting the body, and rebellion. It prepares us for unbridled fleshly passions!
God’s purpose for music is that it should be peaceful, pure, peculiar, and profitable
If listening to our so-called “Christian” music causes discord, stress, unspiritual thoughts, then it is far from being “peaceful”. Most popular styles in CCM are anything but peaceful.
God’s music is pure, unadulterated, unstained, totally right. It can’t be 80% godly and 20% worldly. Would God agree for you to listen to music that was 20% worldly?! Just how pure and holy does God want you to be?!
Godly music is very “peculiar” to the lost, wicked, world. It should not sound like theirs! Remove the lyrics from your “godly” music and see if you can tell the difference between what the world listens to. God created music to be profitable to Him, and to us too. It stirs the spirit for greater devotion to God. This is very profiatble to us.
God’s purpose for music wasn’t for it to be culturally “popular”, fleshly “pleasurable”, or blatantly “profane”
But that sure does seem to be what man’s purpose for music is; and, is at least one purpose for music of Christians! Most Christians are very fond of the ‘popular’ styled CCM; they find their music ‘pleasurable’ to their body; and their music follows a very ‘profane’, common, non-holy style.
God is very specific and serious about what He has created: man, the family, government, the church…and music. All these were created for the sole purpose of glorifying God. It wasn’t created for man to do with it what he willed. It isn’t a “neutral” entity that can be used as desired by mankind. It isn’t ours to control. It is God’s!