What kind of music does God desire today? God has always commanded that His people make music in offering praise to Him, but He has required different kinds of music during various dispensations. We need to know what He requires today.
Because this is such an important topic, seeing that one cannot worship God acceptable if he gets this wrong, I want to spend a few blogs dealing with the music that God desires today. Let us first set the stage.
We have already seen in these lessons on the Lord’s church that we cannot worship God in just any way that we desire. Only worship that is done in spirit and truth pleases God, and worshipping God in truth has to do with doing so according to his word (John 17:17).
To worship God in truth involves having authority for every act of worship in which we engage. It is hard to overemphasize this point. Remember, Nadab and Abihu had fire rain on them from heaven because they offered to God something unauthorized (Leviticus 10:1-2). Religious people need to realize that worshipping God in vain is possible. Jesus said, “…in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9). We can avoid doing this by making sure everything we do is authorized by the word of God.
Colossians 3:17 (ESV)
17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
This passage covers everything we preach and practice religiously. All that we do in worship must be by the authority of our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is only when this is done that we can claim that we are continuing in the apostles’ doctrine (Acts 2:42) and abiding in the teaching of Christ (2 John 1:9).
To have Bible authority for something, one of three things is needed—a command, example, or necessary inference. When we relate this to the kind of music that God desires today, we find that we are authorized to sing praises to Him. Notice the verse above Colossians 3:17—
Colossians 3:16 (ESV)
16 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.
The apostolic command here is to sing. When we search through the entirety of the New Testament, all we find are commands to and examples of that kind of music. The only exception is found in the book of Revelation, and all we find there is what is going on in heaven, not what the Lord’s church did on earth.
Someone might ask about the Old Testament. Don’t we find God’s people praising Him with instruments of music back then? Yes, we do, but they were under a different law than we are today. This is the next step in truly understanding what kind of music God desires today –knowing where to go to find authorization for our worship. This is what I will discuss in tomorrow night’s blog. For now, make sure you have firmly planted in your mind the absolute essentiality of having Bible authority for everything that you do when attempting to worship God acceptably.
As you wind down for the night, think about these things.