Worship Old and New Part 7[1][2]: Music and Singing

Bible Readings [] =omitted from sermon https://youtube.com/watch?v=sWD3LAFe9gs&si=SNeDyxRQXPLETsBW

Ex 15:1-18 Psalm 116 Rev 15:1-4

Introduction

[Long ago I realised the power, promise and pitfalls of singing.] As a very young enthusiastic believer I dropped in to a Divine Light Mission[3] camp, a group active on the streets which was Hindu-based. What astounded me was when these cult members started their gathering by getting us all to sing……‘Amazing Grace!’[4] How was this possible? Because the verses we are most familiar[5] [6] contain no references to the death-and – resurrection of …Jesus.[7]

From conversion on I have enjoyed singing, and day by day when I leave home early in the morning to pray[8] the first, and typically last, act I perform is to sing[9]. I have adopted this practice by faith despite some criticisms about my singing voice[10]. Pain from this experience has taught me not to be directed not to focus on how I hear myself, or how others might hear me, but to the fact that God the Father is thrilled with Jesus and never desires anything more than the passion and love offered him by his Son. In our union with Christ, our Father is forever thrilled with our worship[11]. As we grow “in Spirit and truth” (John 4:24) we can sense more and more the Father’s delight in our worship. Through Christ we can ever more fully appropriate the power of the remarkable prophecy in Zephaniah 3:17, “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” [This must mean that hearty singing is a sign of the presence and power of the Spirit of God.]Nevertheless, I have found preparing this sermon on music and singing [as vital dimensions of worship] rather intimidating[12]*.

Singing Today: drowning in our own subjectivity  

Through the lens of Church history, it is hard to miss that whereas the Eucharist was the focal point of God’s presence in the ancient Church, and the pulpit recentred everything at the Reformation, music is where the “action” is today. And it is where the poverty of good teaching cripples the Church[13]. The lack of prophetic and theological depth in many pastors’ lives flows into contemporary songs lacking the glory of the trinitarian dynamic[14]. The “popular Jesus” has a status in our songs far inferior to his identity as the glorified Son of God. De-emphasising God’s saving personal activity in Christ we are driven to focus on the worshipper expressing their love and adoration to the Lord [as the direct object of worship.] The understanding of true worship becomes located in “me” as the most important experiencer. I act as if I exalt God in the heavenlies so he will become pleased with me on earth. This is all back to front; Jesus is the central actor who in always responding to the Father forever offers unsurpassable worship on my behalf to God in heaven.

Captured by popular culture an ignorant Western Church has moved from hearty communal congregational singing to being led by “worship leaders” at the head of a professional quality teams of musicians.  This has created a dominant performance and concert-like atmosphere in churches that bypasses the power of singing resident in ordinary Christians assembled in love for Jesus. As crowds in the Roman arenas created an atmosphere of spectacle that gripped the participants[15], the rock concert is a phenomenon of our times that has so invaded our megachurches that only a holy revival can ever dislodge its grip. Only a much bigger story can free us from spiritual enslavement.

In the Beginning

Long before sin spoiled our experience, we read of excitement at the time of creation when “the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (Job 38:7). [The songs of angels[16] is a dimension of their being in praise and thankfulness to God for all his great works.] The same spiritual atmosphere is expressed in Proverbs 8, “I (divine wisdom) was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his (divine wisdom’s) delight, rejoicing before him always,31 rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man.” God’s creation of human beings [in his likeness,] as sons in his image (Luke 3:34), this was accompanied by his unbounded pleasure and the praise of all creation. [Since the beginning and the end of God’s great plan in Christ are richly harmonious[17],] these Old Testament texts provide us with rich insight into their completion in the book of Revelation [4- 5] through the sacrifice of the Lamb. In Christ we are forever united to the total history of divine praise [eucharistically].

 

The Image of God

Made in the image of God, humans were symbolically destined to be like a multi-stringed instrument in God’s hand tuned to his ultimate glory. Since the Fall brought a separation and reversal of human ability to thank God,  blessing the Creator has turned into cursing (Rom 1:21; Rev 16:9, 11, 21), making all the powers that hold body and soul together[18] antagonistic to the one Father of all[19]. We are so lost that nothing less than a complete coming of God-as- human can save us.

The Presence of the Lord

From the time God expelled humans from Paradise and sent cherubim to guard access to Eden (Gen 3:22-24), humanity has been groaning (Rom 8:22-23)[20],[ both consciously and unconsciousl] for a return of the glory of God. Across the planet humans have sought the manifest presence of the Lord in every possible way. This long history of idolatry (Rom 1:18-23) is the background to the old covenant where, by sheer divine kindness, God’s presence was concentrated in the tabernacle/Temple (Ex 25:8-9; Lev 12:4; 21:12;1 Ki 8:10ff). Now, through the gospel, [Jesus promises, “I am with you always” (Matt 28:20 cf. Matt 18:20; John 12:26; Acts 18:10), [a pledge supremely actualised in the Eucharistic memorial; “this is my body/blood”.]] the Lord who walked with Adam and Eve in Eden walks amongst the seven golden candlesticks of the churches (Rev 2:1) fully accessible as a glorified human presence. Our unshakeable assurance of Jesus’ presence isn’t found in heightened experiences of spiritual ecstasy (of which I have had many), but in the power of his death [seeing that the darkness of the cross as the place where the face of God as Father was fully concealed from Christ for us (Mark 15:34).] whilst the way back into God’s presence in Eden was barred to sinners by the fiery cherubim. the temple veil was embroided with many cherubs (Ex 26:1, 31; 36:8, 35). So when this veil was supernaturally torn in two at the time of Christ’s death (Matt 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45), unimpeded access into the presence of God in the heavenly holy places was opened [through the blood of Christ (Heb 8-10).] [Having groaned for the return of God’s glory throughout his life, but particularly in his Passion (Heb 5:7),] the Spirit was fully given to Jesus without measure in his return to the Father’s presence (John 3:34; 17:5; Rom 8:26-30).]

[It is a mistake to seek what is generally called “the presence of God”, far better to ask for the gift of the Spirit testifying and sealing our presence with Christ before the Father[21].] The gospel of Jesus has secured a radical transformation in humanity’s condition before God. True worshippers no longer stand outside the holy places, the veil has been done away with and Christ has brought us into the very presence of God, “he has taken us with him into heaven, [for we are his manhood, his person, his ascended body” (Richardson)][22]* (Heb 10:20) [Christ is everywhere one, complete here and complete there, one body.] before moving to Jesus the Singer, I need to make some notes about how old covenant patterns of worship have corrupted current worship.

Old Testament Patterns of Worship Today

Tragically, the focus in many churches on singing as “worship” conforms to the dominant Old Testament pattern of devotion to God. Worship at “the place that the LORD your God will choose [out of all your tribes to put his name] and make his habitation there” (Deut 12:5, 11, 14, 18; Josh 9:27 etc.) is central to old covenant devotion. [This can be expressed in touching language, “For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.” (2 Chron 7:16).] Despite wonderful promises from God, Old Testament worship is formal and ritualistic with patterns dependent on special times, places, and anointed worship leaders (2 Sam 12:20; 2 Chron 20:18-19; 29:28-29). Such patterns have been powerfully, if unconsciously, imitated in our age. Let me give some examples.

Today there is a popular understanding of praise and worship that involves a sequence of fast and slow worship songs to “bring people into the presence of God”. Or, using the Old Testament pattern, moving the congregation [via the worship leader] through the outer courts of the [tabernacle/]temple into the Holy Of Holies. Or, bringing people from a consciousness of what has been done for them to who did it for them. Or, as some would put it, from praise to worship. The final phase of this “entering in” is often called experiencing “the manifest presence of God.”  [A liturgical sequence understood as, 1invitation 2. engagement 3.adoration 4.intimacy with God.]  Such approaches to worship utilise lengthy repetition to bring people before the Lord. This addictive emphasis on the power of music and song leaves little time for the Word and Lord’s Supper as divinely appointed means of grace. [The significance of the worship = song leader leads to a professionalism unmatched in the New Testament.] These major emphases of popular worship point to an unperfected conscience that testifies of being separated from God[23]. The real problem with all this is the absence of the living Jesus.

[These old covenant patterns of worship have become obsolete because Jesus is now “the place” where God’s name and glory dwells (John 1:14). Christ is now the temple of the Lord (John 2:21), and in union with him God’s people are a spiritual dwelling place (1 Cor 3:16-17; 2 Cor 6:16; Eph 2:21).]

Song sung here.

 

 

The Worship of Jesus[24]  

[The Old testament has something to teach us about worship, but in a surprising way, but not once we factor in the typological character of the Bible[25], ] The first mention of “worship” in scripture, under the old covenant, is in fact the height of its prophetic message about Jesus. It refers to the so-called “sacrifice of Isaac” when Abraham, in ascending the mount to slaughter his son,  says to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” (Gen 22:5). This points us to the cross and resurrection (cf. Heb 11:17-19). Whilst Genesis is mute about Abraham’s emotions, the surrender of Jesus as the one and only beloved Son (John 3:16) teaches us that however contemporary Christianity has mangled the connection between singing and worship[26], genuine worship in Spirit and Truth demands everything of us.

[Relatively few today have confidence to move into “the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” (Heb 6:19-20). Such liberty is a blood bought freedom enjoyed “in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” (Heb 10:22)] There is nothing that quite tests our spirituality like singing. Whilst most of the Church imagines Jesus “according to the flesh/from a human point of view” (2 Cor 5:16), few have a revelation of Christ with them as the beginning of the “new creation” (2 Cor 5:17; Col 1:18). The Jesus presented in the Gospels, walking, talking, eating, suffering, dying and rising presents little challenge to us. But the ascended heavenly Lord is another matter altogether. [Paul, with the whole New Testament, encourages us to think of the heavenly Lord as more active than ever in bringing us to God as his Father, “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5).] significantly for our topic, Jesus continues to have a rich worshipping life at the right hand of God for our sake. To share in his heavenly worship we must see that his whole glorious history of singing as substitutionary. We first encounter Christ as a singer just after the Last Supper. “And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” (Matt 26:30) where Jesus was arrested. The Last Supper was a Passover meal which included special hymns known as the Hallel Psalms (“Praise” psalms). One of these is particularly powerful in the context of Christ’s journey to the cross. As Jesus heads out into the night anticipating his [imminent] arrest, trial, and crucifixion, he leads his disciples one of the great psalms of God’s faithfulness in delivering his servants from death[27].

“The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.4 Then I called on the name of the Lord: [“O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”....8 For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling;9 I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living....12 What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? 13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord....16 O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your maidservant. You have loosed my bonds. 17] I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord.” (Psalm 116:3-4, 8-9, 12-13, 16-17)

[If the sacrifice of the cross is the ultimate act of spiritual worship (Rom 12:1), the resurrection and ascension vindicated the faithfulness of God to those who worship in Spirit and truth.] Our Lord was not deprived of the gift of praising his Father when he went to heaven, Jesus is a perfect worshipper forever. In Romans Paul applies David’s victory psalm to Jesus; [“Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, 9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.] As it is written, “Therefore I will praise you among the nations, and sing to your name.”” (Rom 15:8-9 from 2 Samuel 22:50, Psalm 18:49). [As the triumph of the gospel of Christ extends through the world, God receives praise through lives offered up to him (Rom 15:16; compare Phil 2:17; 2 Tim 4:6).] A chorus of song proceeds from the highest heaven across the world. Hebrews is emphatic concerning this dimension of cosmic life in Christ.

“[For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who makes holy and those who are made holy all have one Father. That is why] he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, 12 saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”” (Heb 2:10-12). “congregation” (ESV) in Hebrews 2:12 is ecclesia, the usual New Testament word for “church”. This means Jesus is tonight singing the praise of God in our midst (cf. Rev 1:13; 2:1).[28]

This is a quote from Psalm 22:22. The first verse of which Jesus quoted from the cross, ““My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”” (Mark 15:34). Today[, following Jesus’ experience of the suffering on the cross and the triumphant delivering power of resurrection,] he is in the Church speaking from heaven of what the Father has accomplished in his life. He tirelessly declares the delivering power of the one whom is now “our Father” (John 20:17). Christ is singing through our singing. [This is an essential part of “the testimony of Jesus” and the mystery of God.] The Pentecostals I knew as a young Christian loved Psalm 22:3 (KJV), “But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel/his people.” What they never explained is that this is true because God the Holy Father (John 17:11) first inhabits the praises of JESUS. A genuine Christ-centred [and gospel -focussed] approach to worship changes everything. It means that those who lead us [in the holy vocation} in song,[ whatever their natural talents,] must know “the power of the resurrection and the fellowship of the sufferings” (Phil 3:10) [which alone makes “worshippers in Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).] if worship is as deep as the life of Christ, its breadth of impact must be without limit.

Restoration

[Through its ongoing worship of Christ the Creator] the liturgy of heaven imparts order and harmony to the earthly realm of which as fallen it is intrinsically incapable[29]. [This brings renewal in advance (proleptically) of the fullness of the Spirit’s outpouring to create the new heavens and earth (Isa 65:17; 66:22; 2 Pet 3:13; Rev 21:11).] By faith and in the Spirit of Jesus we inhabit the new song the Lord has forever sung over: creation,  Fall (lament), and the  new creation in Christ (joy of resurrection life). This is part of the eternal plan of God for us in his image, to quote theologian Thomas Torrance, “as the priest of creation, through whose service…the marvellous rationality, symmetry, harmony and beauty of God’s creation are being brought to light and given expression in such a way that the whole universe is found to be a glorious hymn to the Creator.” (Eph 3:10)

Why Music[30]

[From the psalms onwards, the Church has always had sung hymns and music[31];] the distinctive of Christian hymns (Phil 2:5-11, Col 1:15-20, 1Tim 3:16, Heb 1:1-3, 1Pet 2:21-25) is their Christ-centredness. They tell the story of Messiah, whose bloody death procured humanity’s salvation, and who is resurrected and enthroned at God’s right hand as his powerful agent ruling the church, and who will one day be revealed as the rightful ruler of the world. Jesus alone is worthy of praise.

[Speaking generally, a contemporary commentator declares, “If you have someone playing a pad sound on the keyboard in the background, charismatics will do anything.” This is the pragmatic advice of Andrew Wilson in relation to how to get anti-liturgical Charismatics engaged with using the creeds.] all of this begs the question as to why God created us as musical beings to begin with[32].

[There is something very primal about} music[[33], it has the power to release an inner non rational part of our being as a means by which the mystery of Christ is approachable, it witnesses to the transcendence of God and] is a “means by which the earthly worshipper is drawn into the heavens to stand with the heavenly throng as they offer praise to God”.

Philosopher James K. A. Smith believes that music in the Pentecostal tradition has “[a certain effacement of the cognitive, a displacement of the “executive” function of deliberation, opening the person to operations of the Spirit on the affective register…] a kind of mystical function”.[34] [We should not ignore the biblical testimony that the cessation of music in the world is part of the divine curse for covenant infidelity (Jer 7:34; 16:9; 25:10; 33:11; Lam 5:14-15 cf. Rev 18:21-22)].

Dynamism of Song

A key to God’s creation of music is found in its connections to prophecy as testimony to the Word. Firstly, “David and the chiefs of the service also set apart for the service the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who prophesied with lyres, with harps, and with cymbals.” (1 Chron 25:1)[35]. Several centuries later, when called to prophesy, Elisha summons a musician and proceeds to give the word of the Lord (2 Ki 3:15-16). Then in the New Testament we hear exhortations, “be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart” (Eph 5:18-19 cf. Col 3:16-17), [“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (Col 3:16-17),]. Finally, in the book of Revelation, trumpets (8:2, 6-12) and harps (14:2-3) appear signalling judgements or accompanying songs of redemption.

The “word of Christ” we sing is more than a word about Christ, it conveys Jesus’ own living presence experience of victory over tribulation. As the Lord and his assembled people sing along together the delivering power of God in the gospel is conveyed to the Church. In union with Jesus’ “new song” (Rev 5:9; 14:3) the Spirit goes on revealing the wisdom, goodness, victory etc. of God in the life of Christ. Jesus declares through our praises his Father’s victory, and by inspiration from heaven we declare this on earth to each other. This is how our hearts are tremendously strengthened to go on obeying the Lord; in being living sacrifices which is our “spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1). Next week I hope to expound reasons why I sense that for is survival the Western Church will need to undergo a massive transformation in its life of worship if iot is to meaningfully survive.

Conclusion

The worship of God in Christ according to God’s plan powerfully and permanently transforms human being. As we worship the Lord our spirits sense that [the difference and distance between God as the object of worship, and Jesus as the perfect active worshipper [the subject of worship] has been overcome in the glorification of his spotless humanity] every opposing 2-sidedeness [[dialectic] between the divine/objective and human/subjective between pride and shame, between ritualistic human effort and entertainment etc. and worship in Spirit and truth has been overcome in the Incarnate life of the Son of God as the one true and perfect worshipper[36]. Most experiences of Christian worship today are NOT like this. [A reformation in music awaits a Gospel reformation which will change everything.] If “The theological depth of the church’s music can be correlated to the strength of the church’s missionary endeavours in history”[37], we must accept that the ever-extending dominion of Jesus through the earth [which is the goal of God’s plan] awaits a great change in what we sing as Church[38].  The popular Church music scene is building a faith lacking depth, one that is simplistic, pleasure oriented, emotionalist, intellectually weak and influenced by a market driven entertainment industry. In his wisdom God has given much of Western Christianity over to a withdrawal of his Spirit-presence so as to create in us a hunger for the real presence of Jesus, [especially in the Lord’s Supper,] and an intense longing for his Coming/Parousia which will change all things.

A contemporary prophetic writer says of the eighteenth century Evangelical Revival “[John] Wesley’s great achievement was not that he sang his own song but that he rediscovered God’s song (cf. Zeph 3:17) and sang it afresh over a newly emerging landscape.”[39] We too are in the midst of a newly emerging social landscape; one far more radical than the expanding industrial, philosophical[40] and political revolutions of Wesley’s day. The world of Christendom as the nominal religion of the West has disappeared in my own lifetime. Since most of the Church is still struggling to come to terms with this, we must accept that only when the fulness of the Word joins the fulness of the Spirit will we see the biggest move of God the world has ever seen.[41] This is the vision of eucharismatic worship to the glory of God, Father, Son and Spirit.