Music should vitalize and brighten the whole ecclesial atmosphere. If properly employed, music can and will do what mere exhortation can never achieve. Men have been moved by music as they have never been moved by logic.
The ecclesia therefore ought not to expel the trumpet, the organ, the cornet, guitar, cymbals or any other musical instrument. Psalm 150:3-5 tells us in no uncertain terms that we should praise God with these and other instruments. Unfortunately, in most of our ecclesias there are no musical instruments. A fraction may have an organ or piano. So if that is all we have, then we should use that to the fullest, in offering our praise to our God.
However, sadly, there are not many of us who are skilled in the art of playing musical instruments, but we all, or nearly all, have a musical instrument that surpasses all other instruments. That is our voice! There is no other instrument that can equal the human voice: it is of God’s fashioning; it is the manifold instrument; it is all instruments shadowed and glorified by one action.
It follows then that we are all responsible for the quality of music that we produce in our ecclesia. If we render our praises to God by singing with our whole heart and mind and with thanksgiving, with or without instrumental accompaniment, then our music will be joyful and melodious and pleasing to the ear — and more importantly to our heavenly Father.
After all, the singing of hymns and spiritual songs is an express commandment of the New Testament. Its purpose is to “teach and admonish one another” (Col. 3:16). We are to “sing with grace in our hearts.” This is usually the only time during the course of any meeting when everyone is actively involved. It is then that the spirit of fellowship is most strongly sensed, a feeling which then climaxes into that oneness as we partake of the emblems together. Meaningful music therefore must be a part of our ecclesial life. Without it our meetings become unstimulating.
Concentration should be placed on the words of the hymns as we sing them, because it is the words that set the mood of our performance. We must never degenerate into “vain repetitions,” where only the sounds and not the meanings are heard.
The young ones among us in our Sunday schools, Youth Circles, and Youth Fellowships should be encouraged and taught to love and appreciate music and song so that they will bring this attitude over into the ecclesias, thus making ecclesial life far more musically enriched.
Let us therefore endeavor to exercise more musical interest by contributing our God-given abilities to make a joyful noise unto the Lord in singing and making melody to His honor and glory. Music that makes us feel most deeply is beautiful music. Music has meaning; music is important; music is powerful.
Together then let us “sing and make melody to the Lord” (Eph. 5:19) in music that will ring out to inspire and uplift us, thus making all our ecclesias more musically aware assemblies in which to worship.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One