1st Chronicles 25 MAKING MUSIC Occasionally people have made comments about the kind of music we have in assemblies of believers who gather in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some have said, "Why don't you have music?" Other comments are made regarding the singing of hymns by the whole congregation rather than the congregation sitting in silence and listening to trained singers or a choir of select people. Actually, we each bring our own personal instrument with us when we come together (our voice) and are able to use it to edify ourselves and others as we participate in this "service of the Lord." This chapter gives some practical principles relating to music when the people of God gather together to worship the Lord. David the king, and the "captains" of the army recognized music as a way to keep order when a large company of people are gathered in one place. A structured method that has been used throughout history is to use music. Otherwise the sounds of a large gathering of people are only discordant noises that sounds like a riot rather than worship and praise.
Music is the coordinated combination of sounds made by the vocal cords in each human or by instruments played by humans to produce a form of beauty, harmony and a means to express emotions. Organized sounds affect us by impacting our perception of a subject. One kind of music can make us feel happy and carefree, and another can make us sad and serious. Even our body movements are influenced by music. Our feet move when certain musical sounds are produced. Order can be maintained by a large group who march together by the sound of music. A melody is a sequence of tones that are quite close together that coveys to our brain thoughts and actions. It is hard to listen to music without some kind of physical and emotional response.
Linked with melody is harmony; the combination of tones that go well together. The pitch of a melody is a vibration that produces a certain kind of "color" in our minds. A high soprano or tenor linked with a low alto or bass - and the other tones in between, has the ability to make us shed tears of joy or sorrow. The very rhythm - sounds that are linked in time to a heart-beat, creates suggestions to our mind that can move us to act in a certain way. The loudness or softness of music, the dynamics if you will, can make us march in time and order with thousands of other people. That is why soldiers are taught to march in basic training. Order and control over hundreds and thousands is made possible by band music. But that is control, not instruction or edification.
The quiet harmony of "soft" music creates reflection and a restfulness that controls our emotions and pacifies us because it has the ability to focus one's attention on a subject or matter at hand without being too intrusive. Repetition of sounds creates an atmosphere or an ambience we associate with certain events of the past or situation in which we are at present. Repetition can be very annoying if only two or three varying sounds are made or if the sounds are too close together like "a broken record."
In the context of spiritual things, the sounds must be connected by words to have any real value in our worship and service. The sounds themselves have no instruction for us. They only give us feelings of emotion. Really, in themselves they are valueless. David and the leaders with him knew how important it was to have the structure of music to focus the attention of large numbers of God's people on God Himself rather than on the place or people who were gathered at the temple. So they chose certain people to make sure this structure was made and maintained. David had written and sung many psalms in his life before the temple was built and had apparently accompanied himself and kept tune by playing the harp.
The psalms he wrote were mainly a repetition of thoughts rather than mere tones. So any music that he was arranging for ahead of time, even before the temple was built, was to emphasize the words he wrote because this was a means of "prophesying." This was not for entertainment. The words were what was important and were able to be effective by an appropriate melody that accompanied them. The unity of words sung by the whole congregation was kept orderly by the use of instruments that were louder and sharper in tone than voices. Asaph and his sons "prophesied according to the word of the king," his supervision. They did this with singing the words. Jeduthun and his sons were to use instruments to "give thanks and praise." Heman, the king's seer, with his sons and daughters apparently were those who organized and made sure that all was done right by the 4000 musicians and singers in their two-week shifts. There were 288 of them who were in charge of groups who came at their appointed time throughout the year.
The "songs, hymns and spiritual songs" we sing when we gather together at assembly meetings should be suitable for the event. In our remembrance meetings we reflect on our Lord by praise in which we focus our attention on Him personally as to who He is and what He means to us. We also give thanks to Him for what He has done for us and the blessings that come to us because of His grace. Our Gospel testimony is greatly enhanced by spiritual songs of testimony, "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound," "Power in the Blood," and other similar messages as words of instruction, reflection and serious warning. Order is maintained and minds are directed to specific truth when a whole congregation says the same thing at the same time in a way that impresses them with the value of the message. Our children learn and remember much from their childhood through the songs they sang when they were young.
"The service of the house of God" is why the singing of the saints is important. In this way we exalt Him, or "lift up His horn," and testify to our faith in Him. Those ancient people were instructed in "the songs of the Lord," that they would sing together when God's people gathered at the temple. Appropriate songs and hymns for each gathering of God's people is learned by instruction. The people of God were "instructed in the songs of the Lord" when David was king, and now many years later, the Jews who returned from Babylon had to be reminded of their heritage of music, how it was to be done, and why. Our children should learn from us how and why we make music the way we do. We "edify" ourselves and we "edify one another." We should give our music our best effort and sing with enthusiasm and skill to the Lord with the best of our ability.
Probably all who read this will remember the singing of our mother as she went about her work, or the words our fathers read as he gave out an appropriate hymn at a meeting. "Man of sorrows, what a name, for the Son of God who came...," or "When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of Glory died," will stick in our minds because we sang it with meaning and harmony, and in unity with many others. The songs of the Lord are out of place "in a strange land." To sing them at a drinking party in a worldly way merely for entertainment, is not right. But in the house of God where entertainment is not the point of music. The "Lord's songs" can be sung from the heart, and joy with united fellowship with God's people, ministers to our hearts and strengthens us in our resolve to live and walk by faith.