More Than a Song?

When we gather as believers, why do we sing songs accompanied with instruments? Why do we gather?
We gather to please God. Psalm 149 tells us how much pleasure God has when He hears our praise whether singing individually or corporately in the congregation:

Praise the LORD!
Sing a new song to the LORD,
And His praise in the congregation of the godly ones...
They shall praise His name with dancing;
They shall sing praises to Him with tambourine and lyre.
For the LORD takes pleasure in His people...
The high praises of God shall be in their mouths...

Psalm 150 adds that He is glad when He sees free expression in our praise. As the Hoy Spirit leads we can be as quiet as a the harp or as loud as the resounding cymbal:

Praise God in the sanctuary... Praise Him with trumpet, harp, lyre, timbral, dancing, stringed instruments, pipes, the loud cymbals, resounding cymbals, let EVERYTHING that has BREATH praise the Lord.

A congregation is full of "breath" - so why does the church in general, gather and largely remain silent?

To Hear from God
Surely we gather to hear from God and as I see it there are two hindrances to Him speaking.

Firstly, an overly guarded leadership style that focuses on the pulpit so that only the "anointed few" can contribute, rather than accepting God's command that we are to gather and "speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs". Little room is given for the local congregation to function because most churches function on the "conference" style, i.e. one to many. If a group is more than say, 150- 180 people, you cannot have a contributing church easily because it would be difficult hear the person on the other side of the room. So if a church is growing larger than this, either they need to divide or have house groups of around 30 to get the more variety of the gifts. And I'm not forgetting that Jesus said: "Where two or three gather in my name, I am in the midst" (Matt 18:20)

Secondly, those gifted in music will play a more prominent role in hearing God in regards to their thoughtful selection of songs for the church to sing to be sure. In the same way teachers, prophets, healers, helps etc will also lead more prominently in their area of "five talent gifting". We have as our example 1 Chron 15:22:

Chenaniah the chief Levite was in charge of the singing, he gave instruction in singing because he was skillful"

However praise leaders are to assist the church to focus on God Himself, not to overwhelm the room with their talent and instruments. When the music is so loud that it dominates the room and drowns out the priesthood of all believers, the aim of "praising God in the congregation of the godly ones" is lost. All the beautiful voices, the harmonies, the able singers who cannot be heard and enjoyed by those around them is missing the mark.

Music leaders who carefully choose song lists - and this is their right, but who do not pause to allow the congregation to bring a song, a reading, a revelation or a prophecy as they may feel prompted as they praise in any part of the praise time, is to quench the Holy Spirit. Music is to be a catalyst for the moving of the Spirit to bring out His gifts from the people.

Jesus said:

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.” (Jhn 3:3:8)

Music is Spiritual
When King Saul was tormented by a demon his servant said:

..."Have them search for a man who is a skillful musician on the harp; and it shall come about whenever the evil spirit from God is upon you, that he shall play the harp with his hand, and you will become well.” ...“Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse... who is a skillful musician, ...and the Lord is with him.”... So it came about whenever the evil spirit from God came to Saul, David would take the harp and play it with his hand; and Saul would feel relieved and become well, and the evil spirit would leave him.

When we praise, we are acknowledging the might of God, we cannot have spiritual revelation without Him.

Or again when the King of Israel came to Elisha for a prophetic word, Elisha said:

“As surely as the LORD of armies lives, before whom I stand, if I did not respect Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look at you nor see you. But now bring me a musician.” And it came about, when the musician played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him. And he said, “This is what the LORD says..."(2 Kings 3:13-14)

As the musician played and Elisha turned his thoughts and prayers to God, he was moved to prophesy.

This is why Paul told the Corinthians, "I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also" (1 Cor 14:15) connecting us body, soul and spirit with God.

When Saul was told by Samuel that he would be the ruler of Israel he told him that he would meet some prophets:

“Afterward you will come to the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is... you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and a lyre in front of them, and they will be prophesying. “Then the Spirit of the LORD will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be changed into a different man.” (1 Sa 10:5-6)

Here again they are with instruments praising the Lord and prophesying, so much so that when Saul comes near to them he also receives the anointing from God and starts prophesying too!

Paul's Expectation
We gather to be edified. Paul's expectation of larger church gatherings or smaller house meetings was quite simple:

What is the outcome then, brothers and sisters?  When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. All things are to be done for edification. (1 Cor 14:26)

He doesn't just grab this thought out of thin air, but on centuries of God's expectation in public meetings as stated in the Scriptures: "tell of Your Name" in Psalm 22:22 & 25, "giving thanks" in Psalms 35:18 & 111:1, "the women who proclaim the good tidings" in Psalm 68:11, "sing a new song" and "praise" in Psalm 149:1 & 6. If Paul came into your meeting, would he hear one teaching, one reading a psalm, a revelation, giving a teaching, sharing a revelation, giving a tongue message, an interpretation or a prophecy, or an exhortation?

Is room given in your church to the saints to "offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name..."? (Heb 13:15). Paul spoke with this clear expectation of contributing saints in mind:

You can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all maybe be exhorted ...desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak in tongues. But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner. (1 Cor 14 31, 39-40)

Praise is called the "fruit of our lips" (Heb 13;15). Praise, like fruit, is a result of abiding. A tree grows in good ground, sun and water. In a similar way praise is the result of abiding in God's wisdom, living a life that recognises His goodness and is grateful and thankful and ever conscious of who we have been saved by and that He has become "to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation" (Heb 5:9)

Paul wrote that we are to:

Pursue love, yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. ... the one who prophesies speaks to people for edification, exhortation, and consolation ... the one who prophesies edifies the church. Now I wish that you all ...would prophesy; ...so that the church may receive edification. (1 Cor 14:1-5)

Prophecy is God communicating to man. That is why we have to desire it. I have had many people over the years give direct prophecies to me that were absolutely accurate and others who were in conversation with me and had no idea that they were speaking the very heart of God to me - but I knew. When people love and want to serve God they wont be able to not to speak by His Holy Spirit.

Remember the goal of 1 Cor 14:26:

What is the outcome then, brothers and sisters?  When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. All things are to be done for edification.

Each one is to edify -  the many, encouraging the many.

Temple Praise

The following portion of verses from 1 Chronicles is what prompted me to write all this article. God was very specific on how the temple duties were to be performed. Let's look at the Temple praise:

1. Their number:

...four thousand were praising the Lord with the instruments which David made for giving praise. (23:5)

2. They used instruments:

...these were... to sing in the house of the Lord, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, for the service of the house of God (25:6).

3. They were trained and skillful:

...Their number who were trained in singing to the Lord, with their relatives, all who were skillful was 288 (25:7).

4. They were dedicated to this one purpose:

Now these are the singers, heads of fathers’ households of the Levites, who lived in the chambers of the temple free of other duties; for they were engaged in their work day and night (9:33)

5. They were led by a skillful leader:

All these were under the direction of their father... (25:6).

6. There was no hierarchy in their ministering

They cast lots for their duties, all alike, the small as well as the great, the teacher as well as the pupil (25:8).

Now we come to the main point. David made praise a priority because it wasn't just about music you see, God required more than a song:

• Moreover, David ... set apart for the service some of the sons of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, who were to prophesy with lyres, harps, and cymbals; and the number of those who performed this service... (25:1)
• ...under the direction of Asaph, who prophesied under the direction of the king. (25:2)
• ... under the direction of their father Jeduthun with the harp, who prophesied in giving thanks and praising the Lord.(25:3)

And women were also included in this full time temple service:

• ...  for God gave fourteen sons and three daughters to Heman.  All of these were under the direction of their father to sing in the house of the Lord, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, for the service of the house of God. (25:5-6)

All these particularly anointed singers and musicians sang and played in order that they might prophesy. Think on that! That is the aim of music and song - to prophesy. It's to create atmosphere to hear the Holy Spirit. That they would hear from God through one another.

For a more detailed teaching see: "Blueprints of the Church" by Graeme.

Conclusions
Paul was clearly aware of these Scriptures when he wrote to the Corinthian church telling them, "for you can all prophesy one by one" (1 Cor 14:31) This is a vital gift of the Holy Spirit that must never be suppressed. We must always be willing to hear prophecy, and the Scriptures teach us that we have the ability to discern if it came from God. This can come through a reading, a song, a tongue and interpretation, a revelation...

Do not quench the Spirit, do not despise prophetic utterances but examine everything; hold firmly to that which is good, abstain from every form of evil (1 Thess 5:19-20)

There must be an atmosphere in the congregation for all who wish to contribute, and then those prophecies given can be heard by all and judged by all. We must never fall into arrogance and despise the saints. Consider David's attitude:

As for the saints who are on the earth
They are the majestic ones;
in whom is all my delight. (Ps 16:3)

If God is willing to trust His people to offer spiritual sacrifices and minister to each other, shouldn’t we? God instructed King David to assemble everything that was needed for the temple service, and King Solomon carried those instructions out to the letter knowing that "the temple is not for man, but for the Lord God" (1 Chron 29:1). So that being said, how much more should we be careful to not change God's pattern in our local churches? Do you think it doesn't matter to Him? It has been said to me a number of times that God doesn't care about such details, or right definitions of words.  Do you think He doesn't care?

We are His living temple , which He paid for with His life, how much more attentive to the accuracy of the behaviour of His priests as the living stones (1 Pet 24-5) do you think He would be? Just as much.