Understanding God’s Building Blocks of Music-part 3

Understanding God’s Building Blocks of Music-part 3   

            The notion that God does not have anything to say about sacred and secular music is false.  As a matter of fact, this faulty view actually denies God’s authority over the whole of creation which includes the whole of music.  It behooves all of us to study His Word in order discern His will concerning how we music.  It is also safe to conclude that all music matters very much to God. Although it is presumptuous to claim to know exactly all that God thought when he thought music into existence, we do know from His infallible *inspired Word more about how to *music unto Him than many Christians suppose. 

            The study of the meaning of what the Bible teaches about music and musicing is fraught with mystery and misunderstanding.  One of the reasons writers misinterpret and misunderstand this music of antiquity is that they are dealing with the Sacred Writings about the music of the Bible that were written thousands of years ago.  A second reason is that we have a propensity to view the whole of music through Western eyes through the philosophical window of the music of the Occident.  A third reason that the study of music in the bible is so fraught with mystery and misunderstanding is that when we read about the history and practice of ancient Hebrew music, the writings of of these historians and musicologists many times are filled with incorrect and very incomplete information about this ancient music.  A fourth reason that protestant musicians often misinterpret what the Bible teaches about music is that many of them do not read after great Jewish music scholars who many times have a much better understanding of ancient Bible music.  This misfortunate circumstance has caused a plethora of misunderstandings of the well-known history and practice of music during Bible times.  However, in fairness I would admit that the writings of some of the Jewish scholars in the twentieth century were also fraught with misunderstandings concerning what the Bible and ancient history teaches about this music.