Music Organizations-part 4

              Learn to  make music unto the LORD

        II Chronicles 23:13 states, "And she (Athaliah) looked, and, behold, the king stood at his pillar at the entering in, and the principles (sar 8269 ) and the trumpets by the king: and all the people of the land rejoiced, and sounded with trumpets, also the singers with instruments of musick, and such as taught (yada 3045) to sing praise (halal 1984 ). "

       The portion of the verse  that I want to explain to you is “such as taught to sing praise” The word translated taught in the AV is yada which comes from a primitive root work meaning “to know”.  This teacher "knew", was aware, was cunning,  and had knowledge of the proper way to sing praise (see I Chronicles chapter 25).  He also was able to discern how to teach others to sing praise.  He could perceive because he too was instructed in the songs of the LORD.   It is one thing for a church music organization member to not know how to minister musically, but it is another to be "under the hands" of a director who does know how to minister efficaciously and not take advantage of that knowledge.

        The Temple music directors mentioned in the first book of Chronicles were not trying out the latest Hivite style music or how to sing the songs of the Lord  in the style of the Philistine's  but were instructing those "under their hands" to sing the songs of the LORD.    If you are ministering under this kind of music director, learn from him or her how to music effectively.

     The words  sing praise in the AV are translated from the Hebrew word halal which means to be clear or to celebrate.  He did not sing the re-tasked secular music of Sumer and Akad but rather the music considered appropriate for the house of God.  This we know from chapter twenty-five of I Chronicles.  The Bible message given here is very clear,  In Ancient Israel they made a difference in the sacred and the profane.  Learn from a director who distinguishes between the sacred and the profane.  There is a difference between music that is truly "sacred" and music that is "profane".  I Believe that God inhabits praise music that is appropriate for the awesomeness and solemnity of worshiping a triune God who is" high and lifted up"(see Isaiah 6:1).