Sacred Music Should Be Worthwhile Music-Part 10

Sacred Music Should Be Worthwhile Music-Part 10  

      Psalm 85:10 states, “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other”.  God is worthy to be praised because of his great mercy to all of us when we were yet sinners.  However, God is not only the Lord of “mercy” but also “truth”.  To only sing praises about His love is shortsighted.   Any musical ministry that only includes praise is an incomplete ministry.  The complete truth of the gospel is that God is not only a God of love but also a God of justice.  I want to make it very clear that I consider praise music to be not only appropriate for public and private worship, but also very necessary for true Christian worship.  However, it is only part of what needs to take place in public musical worship.

        Prayer songs, songs of supplication and confession, songs about Gods claims upon the born again Christian, and songs of admonition are just as vital and necessary to public music worship.  So, religious music that omits the claims of the gospel and thereby avoids any content that might be convicting to those who attend church, but do not love and serve the Lord, has a tendency to tend toward that which is shallow or incomplete at best.  It isn’t music about God being holy that confronts people, but rather songs that teach “be ye holy for I am holy”.  (See Leviticus 20:7, I Peter 1:15 & 16.)  

       What I am contending for is a balance and thoroughness in one’s music ministry.  Although many Christians are unaware of the fact, there is a battle going on over song texts that speak of God’s wrath or judgment. For instance, there has been a recent conflict over the Presbyterian Church (USA) refusing to include Getty and Townend’s hymn In Christ Alone.  The conflict came when the composers refused to let the hymn be published with an amended text that drastically changed its meaning.  It is alleged that the hymnal committee wanted to amend the words “the wrath of God was satisfied” to read “the love of God was magnified”.  Again, we see an attempt by modern church musicians to keep all worship music “happy” and without any confrontation that occurs when a congregation musics the truth of whole gospel.