The role of music in worship-part 2

                                

 

       In yesterday’s post we began with a definition of worship.  Today we will continue to consider philosophically what worship is and is not.  Kenneth Osbeck put it quite well  when he defined worship as, “An act by a redeemed man, the creature, toward God, his creator, whereby his will, intellect and emotions gratefully respond to the revelation of God’s person expressed in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, as the Holy Spirit illuminates God’s written word to his heart.”  The Ministry of Music, p. 177. So, worship is man's response to the Trinity, and man’s relationship and adoration to God for who He is and what He has done.  It is not about a religious event ,what a worshiper gets out of the worship experience, or a worshipers favorite style of music. 

       It is literally a Sacrifice of Praise--The worship experience should be a sacrifice of praise unto God that gives off a sweet fragrance which will edify the believers and make sinners hungry to have fellowship with God.  Although the sinner cannot truly worship God, (because he is merely an observer) it is very worthwhile for the unregenerate to experience believers genuinely lavishing praise upon the Trinity through musicing.  Musical worship has a spiritual drawing power. The Holy Spirit is able to draw sinners to Christ as believers music unto God.  The experience of Christians singing and playing worship music will cause the unregenerate to realize that the Christians are experiencing something he or she cannot fully enjoy, ipso facto, they are not believers who have experienced the new birth. 
       So, we have considered that worship is man's response to God.  It is not man centered but rather God centered.  Those who do not know the Lord as their personal Savior can not truly worship, but the Holy Spirit is capable of using their observance of Christians joyfully musicing unto God as a means of convicting them of sin and making them hungry to have a right relationship to God.