Thought for the Day

Thought for the Day  

The fact that instrumentalists in ancient Israel (in the case of the shofar) and the flute and pipe during Paul’s lifetime, were expected to perform accurate notes with clear tone shows how developed instrumental music was during Bible times.

 

Musical Meaning in Musical Sounds part 2

Musical Meaning in Musical Sounds part 2    

As Bible music historians know, both of these instruments were pitch producing instruments which were capable of playing accurate musical melodies.  With this knowledge in mind one can understand the meaning of the Greek words diastole and phthoggos which were translated “distinction in the sounds” in the AV.  The word diastole means distinction or accurate and the word phthoggos means the musical notes being played.  So, if the instruments played the intended notes accurately their sound sent a distinctive message to the hearer.  Note that nothing is written in this passage of Scripture about the singing of words.  The distinction of the message came through the sounds produced by accurate production of the musical notes being played by the instrument.  The message sent by the musician was the result of the message of the music rather than by words sung by a musician. 

        The common man in ancient Israel knew what the sounds meant merely by the selection of tones that the musician played.  I believe that there is much more musical truth imbedded in the meaning or this Bible reference than is commonly believed or understood by musicians today. We know that the way that the ancient musicians musiced sent either clear or “uncertain” messages to the hearer.

 

 

Thought for the Day

Thought for the Day 

 

The very fact that St. Paul used a musical illustration gives credence to the belief that music was treated with great respect during his lifetime.

 

Musical Meaning in Musical Sounds part 1

Musical Meaning in Musical Sounds part 1

 

        One of the objectives of developing a Christocentric music philosophy is to incorporate musical principles into systematic beliefs about the nature and value of a musician’s music praxis.  Every Christian must recognize that if the words of the songs we sing are truly biblical then they embody truth.  These music texts represent truth because the message of the “words” is true.  They represent what Francis Schaefer called “true truth”. 

       If the texts of Christian music must be constant and reliable then it stands to reason that the styles of singing should be constant i.e. consistent with the message of the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ and the entire God Head.  First Corinthians 14:7 teaches, “And even things without life giving (didomi, 1325) sound (phone 5456), whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction (diastole 1293) in the sounds (phthoggos 5353), how shall it be known what is piped or harped?” 

Some explanation of the words giving sound and distinction in the sounds is in order at this point in our discussion of I Corinthians 13:7.  The words that have been translated “giving sound” are referring to musical instruments that produce sounds and they specifically refer to the sounds of the aulos (836) which was a type of flute or pipe. The word kithara (2788) refers to a hand held lyre.

 

Prayer,Song, and thought for the Day

Prayer for the Day  

LORD, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil; and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee, the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.  The Book of Common Prayer 1892, p. 176  

Song for the Day    So Send I You by Margaret Clarkson   

Thought for the Day  

It is my opinion that every Christian musician is called by “I AM” to music unto Jehovah Elohiym.

God’s Strong Identity Part 2

God’s Strong Identity Part 2  

            God was faithful to Moses who had seemed to lose his courage and identity by expressing to Moses His strong identity, “I AM THAT I AM”.  Adam Clarke gave this lengthy and wonderful explanation, “These words have been variously understood.  The Vulgate translates EGO SUM QUI SUM, I am who am.  The Septuagint… I am he who exists.  The Syriac, the Persic, and the Chaldee preserve the original words without any gloss.  The Arabic paraphrases them, The Eternal, who passes not away; which is the same interpretation given by Abul Farajius, who also preserves the original words, and gives the above as their interpretation.  The Targum of Jonathan, and the Jerusalem Targum paraphrase the words thus: "He who spake, and the world was; who spake, and all things existed."  As the original words literally signify, I will be what I will be, some have supposed that God simply designed to inform Moses, that what he had been to his fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he would be to him and the Israelites; and that he would perform the promises he had made to his fathers, by giving their descendants the promised land.  It is difficult to put a meaning on the words; they seem intended to point out the eternity and self-existence of God.” Clarke’s Commentary, by Adam Clarke, Vol. 1, p. 306   As I read the above explanation of how scholars have rendered the Hebrew words, EHEYEH asher EHEYEH my heart soared with praise unto the God who is.  This is the identity of the God who spoke from the midst of a burning bush to the confused, lonely, and insecure Moses.

            If you are questioning who you are and what God wants you to do at this time in your life, lean hard on the Lord God’s strong power, sure identity, and strong name.  There are two name of god recorded in YHWH (3068) which means the self-existent independent eternal god who now is and  Elohiym (430) which means the supreme exceeding God.  He not only was during Moses’ lifetime, but He also is right now.  This strong existence and identity separates Him from all other false gods who are now dead.  They are incapable of helping you because they are dead—they do not exist now so they cannot say “I AM”.  However, I AM is sending you into this sin curse wicked world to testify of His strong name and identity. 

 

Prayer, song, and thought for the Day Part 1

Prayer for the Day 

“Blessed Lord, who has caused all holy Scriptures  to be written for our learning; Grant that we in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope for everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ.  Amen.” The Book of Common Prayer 1892, P. 54  

Song for the Day  I Belong to the King  by Ida Reed Smith  

Thought for the Day 

  I have a strong identity because I am a child of the King whose name is Jehovah Elohiym.

 

God's Strong Identity Part 1

God's Strong Identity  Part 1

In the third chapter of Exodus Moses said in the eleventh verse, “Who am I…”  Moses was raised in the palace of Pharaoh and became the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.  Moses was treated like a son in that palace but he became estranged from Pharaoh when he slew an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave.

            Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh to the west side of the Midian desert to a place near to the mountain called Horeb.  There he transitioned from being a prince in Egypt to being a shepherd of Jethro’s sheep.  Somehow Moses seemed to lose his identity and self-respect.  While he was in this state of mind he asked God, “Who am I?”  In his change of situation from being the son of Pharaoh’s daughter to being just Moses the sheep herder, he became very insecure.

            In the midst of all this change and insecurity, Moses saw a bush flaming but not being consumed.  Moses saw an angel of YHWH in the midst of this bush so he went to see this unusual sight.  “And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I” (Exodus 3:4). 

Prayer for this blog in June

Prayer for this blog in June

Lord, please allow this Music philosophy blog to be a blessing during the month of June. As I have prayed so many times, please let this blog go around the world to places where I cannot go.  Lord, thank you that you are answering my prayer by guiding people from seventy five countries find and read my blog posts. Help me as I prepare a post for each day to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit.  Only you know Lord who is out there ministering musically that needs a fresh anointing for musical ministry.  Help me to know which philosophical and devotional topics are important and will be a blessing.  I am asking You Lord to give special help as we include more posts on Christian music education. Lord, you know that at times I am not sure what topics to write about concerning music. Please anoint the blog and the blogger.  These things I ask in your wise and wonderful name.  Amen.

Thank you for a Great Month of May

Thank you for a Great Month of May 

 Last month was the seventeenth month of my blog which contains devotional and philosophical thoughts for Christian musicians.  It is my sincere prayer that my posts in 2014 will stimulate your thinking and that they will brought honor to our heavenly Father.  My posts in the month of May were devotional and philosophical in nature.  Notable in this month were some posts about the philosophy of truth in music education.

      Since we began on January 2 of 2013 we have received a total of over 25,000 page views with about 1,200 views in May of 2014. Since I started this blog the page views have come from 76 different countries.  These views have come from Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Cayman Islands,  China, Congo [DRC],Croatia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Honduras, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland (Republic of),  Iran, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia,  Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Porto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Turks & Caicos Islands, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uruguay, and the USA.

 I would like to welcome the Countries of Luxembourg and Saudi Arabia which were added to our blog family during May.   The ten countries with the most page views in May were: USA, Germany, France, Ukraine, China, United Kingdom, Turkey, Spain, Philippines, and Malaysia.   If you are from a country that has been omitted please email me your country’s name.  Please pray with me that God will allow this Music Philosophy Blog to continue to go places where I will never have the opportunity to minister musically in person. Please pray for me, I am in the process of writing a general music philosophy book and a devotional book for musicians.

       Again I want to thank all you busy pastors, parents, and musicians who have taken the time to view my music philosophy blog during the month of May.  Please continue to pray that God will guide each post and allow it to reach those who need encouragement to keep ministering for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

       The main reason that I started this Music Philosophy blog is that although there is much music philosophy information on the net, not very much of it is from a biblical perspective.  Please share the blog address with your friends.   If you have an area of music or fine arts philosophy that troubles you, please feel free to let me know and I will include it in our discussions.  My email address is Garenlwolf@gmail.com.