Thousand Oaks Baptist Church

Music in God’s Work

Chapter 1

The Bible's commands and examples

regarding the PLACE of music:

Old Testament Passages 

What does the Bible say about music?  What commands, principles, and examples does God's precious and holy Word contain for our admonition and blessing?

 

I.       The Old Testament is filled with commands, principles, and examples of music.  Let's look at a few of them together.

 

A.      In Psalm 33:1-3, we are given five commands.

"Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: for praise is comely for the upright. Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise."

Four of the five commands relate directly to music; the fifth (the first in the passage) probably also relates to music, since it is in a musical context.

 

Three of the commands relate to instrumental music, instructing us to accompany our sung praise to the Lord skillfully and loudly on the harp, psaltery, and ten-stringed instrument.  And one of the commands gives us permission to sing a new song unto the Lord (cf. 2 Cor. 5:17).

 

B.      Two more commands are given to us in Psalm 47:6-7. 

"Sing praises to God, sing praises: sing praises unto our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding."

Here we are four times commanded to sing praises to God our King.  We are also instructed to sing those praises with understanding (cf. 1 Cor. 14:15).

 

C.      Psalm 81:1 commands God's people to sing aloud and to make a joyful noise to God.

"Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob."

D.      Psalm 98:1, 5 gives three commands.

"O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory. Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm."

We are to sing (compose?) a new song to the Lord every time He does something new for us.  We are to sing to the Lord accompanied by musical instruments.  And we are to sing with the voice of a psalm (we shall define psalms later in this study).

 

E.      Job 38:7 tells how the morning stars (or perhaps the angels) sang together when God created the heavens and the earth.

"...When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"

F.      The passage beginning at Exodus 15:1 recounts how Moses and the children of Israel sang to the Lord when they had crossed through the Red Sea and Pharaoh's armies were overwhelmed by the returning waters.

 

G.      In Deuteronomy 31:19, 22, 30 and 32:44, the Bible tells us how Moses sang the testimonies and commandments of the Lord to the children of Israel, and commanded them to learn the song, and then to teach it to their children, down through the ages.

"Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel. ... Moses therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel. ... And Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of Israel the words of this song, until they were ended. ... And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun."

H.      In 2 Samuel 22:1, we are told how David praised the Lord in song after being delivered from Saul and from his enemies.

"And David spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul..."

I.       In fact, each of the Psalms is an example of Old Testament hymn writing.  David wrote many of the Psalms; these were songs used in the Tabernacle - and later in the Temple and synagogues - to praise the Lord.  The Jews used the Psalms just as we use our hymnbooks today.

 

Psalm 150:3-5 lists eight different instruments to be used when praising the Lord in music.  The Psalmist also mentions praising the Lord with what our King James Version translates as the dance, but clearly the dancing that praised the Lord in the Psalmist's day had no similarity to contemporary, sexually suggestive dancing.  Inasmuch as customs have changed so drastically over the years, I personally rather doubt that we really have any idea of how praise dancing was done in the Old Testament times, and any dancing today would quite likely too easily remind observers and participants of contemporary dance.

 

J.       According to 1 Kings 4:32, Solomon wrote an amazing 1,005 songs!

"And he spake three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five."

K.      1 Chronicles 15:16-28 and 16:4-9, 42 tell us something of the instrumental and vocal types of music that were used to praise the Lord when David finally brought the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem. And when the Ark was placed inside the tent, the people stood around it singing.  Verse 42 indicates that certain instruments were considered to be "of God."  That is, they were dedicated only to the Lord, and they were only to be used to praise Him.

 

L.      In Psalm 100:2, we are commanded to come before the Lord's presence with singing.  God apparently loves to hear His people sing!

 

M.     Bringing the Ark to Jerusalem is mentioned again in Psalm 68. In verse 25, the singers were to go first, followed by those with instruments, including the women who played timbrels (ancient percussion instruments similar to tambourines).  Women played their part, too.

 

N.      2 Chronicles 5:12-13 testifies that music was in abundance at the dedication of Solomon's temple.

"Also the Levites which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets:) It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD..."

 

And then 7:1 tells how God came down to that temple.

"Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the house."

The verses that follow then tell how the people again sang praises and the Levites again played their instruments.

 

O.      Many years later, 2 Chronicles 23:13 recounts how God's music accompanied the overthrow of the wicked queen, Athalia.

"And she looked, and, behold, the king stood at his pillar at the entering in, and the princes and the trumpets by the king: and all the people of the land rejoiced, and sounded with trumpets, also the singers with instruments of musick, and such as taught to sing praise. Then Athaliah rent her clothes, and said, Treason, Treason."

As the music played, the worship of Baal (its house, altars, and pictures) was torn down and its priests slain.  The good king, Joash, was then set upon the throne of Israel, and the worship of God was reestablished with rejoicing and singing.

 

P.      Years later, when Hezekiah became king of Judah (2 Chr. 29:25-30) after a period of apostasy, he reestablished the worship of the Lord.  The musical instruments commanded by the Lord (cymbals, psalteries, harps, the instruments of David, and trumpets) were brought into the house of the Lord.  The ordained ministers led the music and singing in the temple.  The Levites played the instruments and sang.  The priests played the trumpets; the appointed choir sang.

 

The singing began when the burnt offering began, and continued during and after the offering.  The playing of the instruments also continued during the offering of the sacrifice, but then ceased when the offering was completed.

 

God recorded for our instruction the type of singing, the source of the words, and the deportment of the singers.  The music was praise to the Lord - worship songs.  It was joyful, with gladness.  It was loud enough so that all could hear.  The words came from the Scriptures in the words of the psalms of David and Asaph.  The music continued day by day (30:21), and they sang with bowed heads.  Obviously, the instrumental portion of the music was not so loud that the words could not be heard and understood by all who were assembled there; a balance of volume is clearly implied.

 

Q.      After Hezekiah recovered from an illness, he said (Isa. 38:20):

"The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD."

R.      In 1 Chronicles 25:1 and following, David's musicians are enumerated.  Some prophesied with harps.  Some prophesied with psalteries.  Others prophesied with cymbals.  Two hundred eighty-eight who were cunning (mentally and spiritually discerning, with excellent abilities) were instructed in the songs of the Lord; these cast lots to determine when they should sing.  David established twenty-four groups, with twelve singers in each group.  These then sang with instruments in the house of the Lord.

 

S.      In 2 Chronicles 34:12, again in the days of Joash, those who had skill of music were asked to play their instruments in the Lord's service and were paid for doing so.

 

T.      When King Joash died (2 Chr. 35:25), his death was mourned in song by both men and women.

 

U.      Nehemiah 7:67 recounts that, out of the 42,360 Jews who returned to Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon, 245 were professional, paid singing men and women in the service of the Lord. (That's about 1 out every 200.)

 

V.      Ezra (2:65) mentions 200 singing men and women in his group.

 

W.     When the rebuilt wall of Jerusalem was dedicated in Nehemiah's time (Neh. 12:27-29), singing and playing of the Lord's instruments formed a large part of the ceremony.

 

X.      In Psalm 32:7, God promises to surround His people with songs of deliverance.

 

Y.      Job 35:10 tells how God gives songs in the night.

 

Z.      Isaiah 26:19 says that the saints will sing in the resurrection.

 

AA.   During the Millennium, when Christ returns to rule and reign on earth, God Himself will rejoice over the redeemed, restored Jews with joy, love, and singing (Zeph. 3:17).  And Psalm 87:7 tells us to expect singing and instrumental music in Zion, the New Jerusalem.

 

AB.    But not all music in the Old Testament was used to praise the Lord.  Some types of music were used to dishonor the Lord and to bring shame to God's people and to others.

 

1.       Genesis 4:21 - One of the descendants of Cain invented the harp and the organ (reed pipes), and set the first standard for worldly music in an ungodly society that became so wicked that God had to destroy it in the Noahic Flood.

 

2.       Exodus 32:17-19 - After God had delivered Israel from Egypt, Moses returned to the camp with the Ten Commandments after being with the Lord up in Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights. But the first noises he heard and the first sights he saw were the children of Israel, naked, singing and dancing in praise and worship to the idolatrous golden calf.  Three thousand men died as the result of that sin involving evil music and idolatrous dancing that day.

 

3.       1 Samuel 30:16 - The Amalakites, enemies of David, had raided David's camp, stolen his goods, and kidnapped his wives and servants.  Then they paused in their escape to relax and eat and drink and dance.  David caught up with them as they were dancing to their heathen songs, and utterly wiped them out, except for a small group who escaped on camels.

 

4.       Job 21:11 - Job made a protest concerning the children of the wicked.  He said they dance and sing and play instruments in an ungodly way, and they are wealthy and happy.  But they reject God in all that they do, not desiring the knowledge of God's ways.  I guess many godly Christians have the same complaint today.

 

5.       Psalm 69:12 - David also had some complaints.  He disapproved of the sneering, mocking, demeaning song of the drunkards who blasphemed God and God's king.

 

6.       Amos 5:23 - God refused to hear the religious songs of apostate Israel.  He even called their music "noise."

 

7.       Amos 6:5 - God condemned the chanting and the musical inventions of apostate Israel.

 

8.       Amos 8:10 - God said that He would turn all of the religious songs of the apostates into lamentations. 

From the Old Testament passages that I have cited above, I think it is certain that God commanded the Old Testament saints to sing songs of joyful praise, in His presence, accompanied by dedicated instruments.  God commanded music to be used to teach His precepts to the younger generation.  Glad, joyful, praiseful singing always accompanied revival and faithful obedience to the Lord and His Word.

 

Only in times of great distress and captivity did God's people hang up their harps and sing sad songs (Psa. 137:1-4).  And in times of spiritual apostasy, God condemned the songs of the religious apostates, and called those songs an abomination.

 

The Old Testament ends by telling us to expect a rejoicing God to sing along with a ransomed, redeemed, happy people during the Millennium.  The future of godly music has great expectations for all of God's redeemed people.

 

In the next chapter of this article, we'll examine what the New Testament says about music.

Please click here to proceed to Chapter 2