Seven is the number of perfection so I could end this discussion of musical understanding with this post. Don't hold your breath--I merely said I could stop here. This topic is so huge and so vital to twenty-first century musicing that we could discuss it indefinitely! Think of it, if those who believe that music can not express or say anything at all are accurate in their philosophical hypothesis, then music surely isn't very valuable to our whole life philosophy.
No wonder Nick Page titled his book on church music, And Now Let's Move Into a Time of Nonsense. He stated ,"I believe that the modern worship song is an immensely powerful vehicle for worship, and a major factor in encouraging, sustaining and strengthening the spiritual lives of many Christians around the world". I believe that his statement is true, but if he is wrong, then our music worship is a "time of nonsense". If the words and the music part of music are so benign that they can not aid our understanding, then we are wasting much valuable time when we try to worship God with this lackluster art form we call musical worship.
Notice Psalm 49:4, which declares, "I will incline (natah 5186) mine ear to a parable: I will open (pathach 6605) my dark saying upon the harp." The words natah and pathach are used in a great variety of applications but I believe what they mean here its is that " the playing if the kinnor will enable you to understand this "dark saying" i.e. puzzle of thought or difficult question. This OT passage is a striking example of the power of musicing with instrumental music. So again the Bible instructs us that all music ( including instrumental music) may be used to increase our understanding. Therefore, it behoves us as Christian musicians to be aware of what type or types of understanding our musicing brings to the people we are trying to munister to musically.
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