Music Endeavor Should begin and End with God

Music Endeavor Should begin and End with God

Christian musicians often question the necessity of developing a series of systematic beliefs concerning the nature and value of the whole of music.  Furthermore, they often seem to believe that those values set forth by major public colleges and universities are adequate for Christian musicians.  After all, aren’t the elements of music the same for Christians and non-Christians?  The philosophy of a musician who does not bring all of his musical endeavor under the Lordship of Christ should never be trusted. Not only can you trust a communist to be a communist, you can also trust an unregenerate musician to be worldly in his or her philosophical basis.

            Remember, direction determines destiny!  Any musician who believes the end of all human endeavors is the gratification of self will ultimately come to different philosophical conclusions than a musician whose life is sold out to Christ.  For the committed Christian, music begins and ends with God.  To the humanist, music begins and ends with self.  The musician who has submitted his or her music to the Lordship of Christ believes that all church music is sung and played to glorify God since God owns music.  Conversely, the secular humanists (and the religious humanist) believes that music belongs to man’s true humanness since all music is about self-actualization.  This type of thinker owns his or her music.

 Thought for the Day

 Certainly any quality music endeavor should bring a measure of satisfaction to the musicer, but that does not mean that music endeavor should be about the gratification of self.

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 forefathers 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 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 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 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 Savior 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.

No Room for Jesus at Easter-part 3

No Room for Jesus at Easter-part 3

The last two blog posts have been reminders of how those in ancient Bethlehem and all of us in this century have treated Jesus.  It is one thing for the un-regenerated to ignore Jesus, but is another thing for Christian to unintentionally push Him into the background during the Easter season. 

Luke 21:34 warns,” And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.”  Hopefully, those who call themselves Christians aren’t guilty of drunkenness or surfeiting (kraipale 2897) i.e. a headache caused by getting drunk.  However, we are susceptible to letting the “cares of this life” push Christ into the background during the Easter season.  So, musicians should make sure that the musicing  during the Easter preparation is much more thorough than a few songs about resurrection on Easter Sunday morning.

No Room for Jesus at Easter-part 2

No Room for Jesus at Easter-part 2

You may be wondering just why I am presenting this discussion so early in April.  Before I continue, I want to simply say that I am presenting this for Christian’s consideration  early enough so that musicians can make sure that the worship music leading up to Easter Sunday helps to prepare worshipers hearts and minds of the real reason that we celebrate Easter. 

St Luke 23:33-34 records the real message behind the celebration of Easter, “And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.  Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do…”  The message of Easter is truly the “greatest story ever told” because it is a story of mercy and forgiveness.

Ephesians 2:1-5 tells our story, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved).”

Thought for the Day

Sometimes we may want others to think that we were always a nice person.  However, since God sees us in His divine “Ground Positioning Satellite”, He knows the rest of the story.

No Room for Jesus at Easter-part 1

No Room for Jesus at Easter-part 1

St. Luke2:7 states, And she brought forth her first born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”

       Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus were certainly good people.  Why did God the Father let Jesus, His only begotten son, be born in a cattle shelter which was perhaps a cave?  From our very finite understanding it would seem that there could have been at least a tiny room that no one was using.  However, God the Father let His only son be born in obscurity and humility.  On this blessed day of days, we should remember that, regardless of our circumstances, most of us were not born in a place of humility like Jesus.

       We enjoy the Bethlehem story at Christmas time, but we have a tendency during the Easter season to do the same thing to Jesus.  If we are not careful, we will get so involved in new Easter outfits, Easter baskets, coloring eggs, and patching holes in those awful blow up yard toys, that we forget the real story of Easter.  We won’t admit it, but we are so busy that we may not tell the good news of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection that brought complete victory over sin.  Romans 6:23 reminds us, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”   

ARE WOMEN MUSICIANS MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE? Part 6

ARE WOMEN MUSICIANS MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE? Part 6

            Women in the Bible were reported as singing a low kind of music.  Even at its best it was for dancing or funeral mourning and at its worst to aid in the sensuous appeal of harlots on the street.  Isaiah's satire (23:15) states, ". . . after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot” (or KJV margin, "It shall be unto Tyre as the song of an harlot") It is no wonder that women were not used in Temple worship since it was so closely related to paid dancing at weddings and funerals and was associated closely with harlotry in ancient Israel.

            The question of importance to Church Musicians today is, should we or should we not use women in church music?  Should we consider the disuse of women in the music of Temple worship, and the Biblical silence about women in public worship as "proof" that women should not be used in church music today?  The Bible is silent concerning the use of women in Temple worship.  However, this silence does not implicate that women should not be used in church music today.  Remember that part of the reason that women were not used in Temple music was because of the type of music they sang and played and the association of women's music with harlotry.  However, the ancient customs of Israel concerning women did not allow for them to be used as Temple musicians.  It is safe to conclude from the research that there is no evidence given in the Bible to cause us to exclude women from church music today.

Thought for the Day

The most important issue of church music today is not who we use in our musicing unto God, but rather how we use music in our musicing unto God.

ARE WOMEN MUSICIANS MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE? Part 5

ARE WOMEN MUSICIANS MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE? Part 5

            Now let us look at some reasons why women were excluded form music in the Temple.  Although we know that women were involved in non-Temple public religious music, Curt Sachs explains some conservative changes in the music of the Temple.  "Firstly, almost all musical episodes up to the time of the Temple describe choral singing with group dancing and drum beating. . . And secondly, this kind of singing was to a great extent women's music. . ."  Curt Sachs, The Rise of Music in the Ancient World, p. 90. He stated furthermore that, "The essential fact is that such a species of music exists and is strictly separated from men's music both in style and performance."  Ibid. p. 91.  Sachs also quoted Dr. Lachmann, a writer on Jewish cantillation, "The production of the women's songs is dependent on a small store of typical melodic turns; the various songs reproduce these turns - or some of them - time and again."  Ibid. p.91. He also quotes Lachmann as saying, "The women's songs belong to a species, the forms of which are essentially dependent not on the connection with the text, but on processes of movements.  Thus we find here, in place of the free rhythm of cantillation and its very delicate line of melody, a periodical up and down movement.”  Ibid, p. 91.  Finally, he quoted Lachmann as saying, "The women accompany their songs on frame drums or cymbals which they beat with their hands."  Ibid, p. 91.

Thought for the Day

It is a strange and novel thought to many church musicians that men’s and women’s music was essentially different in ancient Israel.

ARE WOMEN MUSICIANS MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE? Part 4

ARE WOMEN MUSICIANS MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE? Part 4

            At this point in our discussion it would be helpful to clear up some misconceptions concerning the use of women in the Temple.  They are never mentioned as part of the professional Levite musicians.  I Chronicles 25:5b states, "And God gave to Heman fourteen sons and three daughters."  Many Bible commentators and writers on church music have taken this as evidence that Heman's three daughters were Levite musicians.  They were, of course, Levites, but they were not used in the Temple as musicians.  Verse 7 gives the total number of Levite musicians as 288 and verses 8-31 give the twenty-four divisions of musicians, each under the direction of a man, his sons, and his brethren.  None of the three daughters of Heman are mentioned.

            Statements in Ezra 2:64-65 and Nehemiah 7:66-67 refer to the number of those who returned from Babylon - 42,360 of the congrega­tion and an additional 7,337 servants.  Out of this group of servants there were from 200 to 245 singing men and singing women.  They were all servants, not Levites.  Likewise, the musicians mentioned in II Samuel 19:35 and II Chronicles 35:25 were public professional singers and mourners, not Levite musicians who performed a part of Temple worship.

            The use of the Hebrew word alamoth (5961) in I Chronicles 15:20 and in the title of Psalm 46 is often mistaken for the use of women in Temple music.  The word alamoth (5961) is the plural form of almah (5959), which is always, translated virgin, maid, damsels, and virgins.  A correct rendering of 5961 is probably soprano-like, in the range of maidens, soprano, or falsetto like.  The word probably should be rendered an octave higher that the voice of a man.  The subject of the use of a seven or eight note scale has been discussed more thoroughly in Chapter VIII of my book Music of the Bible in Christian Perspective.

Though for the Day

It is surprising that for centuries so many scholars of ancient music stubbornly resisted the thought that ancient music utilized octaves.

Thank you for a Great Month of March 2019

Thank you for a Great Month of March 2019      

            This month was the 72nd month of my blog which contained devotional and philosophical thoughts for Christian musicians. I have written over 3,468 posts since this blog was started in January of 2013. There have been several times this year when I have experienced a certain amount of writer’s burnout.  However, I am praying that my posts in 2019 will stimulate both the regular and new blog members to remain faithful to their musical ministries.  The over 3,327 page views of my blog this month were experienced by people who read a mixture of philosophical and devotional thoughts.  We have had over 140,697 page-views since the blog was started in January of 2013.  Since I started this blog the page views have come from 132 different countries. It is interesting to note that a little over one half of the total page views since we began in January 2013 have come from the United States and the other one half have come from a varied combination of 131 countries scattered around the world.

            These views have come from Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Argentina, Armenia, Angola,  Aruba, Austria, Australia, Azerbaijan, Barbados, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Czechia , Czech Republic,  Colombia, Congo [DRC], Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Fiji, France, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guyana, Herzegovina, Honduras, Hong Kong,  Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland (Republic of),  Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordon, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kosovo, Kuwait, Lebanon, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia (FYROM) Macau, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Malta Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia,  Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, Netherlands, (Antilles) New Zealand, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Oman, Palestine, Paraguay, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru. Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Porto Rico, Qatar, Réunion, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand,  Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks & Caicos Islands, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Unknown Region, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, USA, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

             The ten countries with the most page views this month were: United States, France, Unknown region, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, Poland , Portugal, South Korea, and the  United Kingdom.