Metacommunication and Sacred Musicing

Metacommunication and Sacred Musicing

In the early 1970s, Gregory Bateson coined the term metacommunication to describe the underlying messages in what we say and do. Metacommunication contains  nonverbal actions like one’s tone of voice, gestures, body language, and facial expressions  that communicate understandable meaning that either enhances or hinders what we say in words.  Metacommunication can also be applied to a musician’s actions that accompany musical actions. 

One of the most important concomitants of sacred musicing is believability.  What we actually sing and play is of utmost importance, but so are the verbal and non-verbal actions that surround our sacred musicing.  The Christian musician’s tone of voice, gestures, body language, and facial expressions communicate understandable meaning that either enhances or hinders what we sing and play.  Those who hear our sacred musicing also observe how we music.  People believe or disbelieve not only what they hear but also what they see.  When it comes to sacred music and musicing, actions often speak louder than words.

Thought for the Day

When it comes to our sacred musicing, we never get a second chance to give a first impression on those who observe our musical actions.

Remembering God as the Object of Worship

Remembering God as the Object of Worship

             In the process of developing a Bible based Christocentric music philosophy and praxis the following should be seriously considered: Who is the center of public worship?  Is it man or God who is honored in the worship experience?  Who receives the preeminence?  Is worship an event or the Christian’s response to God?  Whom should the musician strive to please with his or her musicing?  Is it proper for God to share the glory of the worship experience with a performer?  Should there be any difference in the music part of the music that a Christian musician considers to be sacred or profane?  Are these differenced apparent when one musics unto God?

              When in a musician’s musicing there is no difference made between sacred music and secular music that is composed to appeal to the lust of the flesh, will this musicing be appropriate and congruent with the purposes of worshiping God?  These questions must be answered by every Christian musician who personally musics unto God and leads others in musicing in the context of public worship.  When it comes to using music as a vehicle of worship, the end does not justify the means.  The notion that sacred musicing must please the worshiper.  What about pleasing God?  What about using worship vehicles that properly represent the moral nature of God?  Somewhere in every Christians music philosophy and praxis, the concept of God as the sole object of worship must be considered.

Deliverance for Chief Musicians

Deliverance for Chief Musicians

       In Jeremiah 20:13 those who love God are told, “Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.”         The enemy of the Christian musician’s soul desires to take his revenge out on the Christian musician.  He waits for an opportunity to enticed Christian musicians into sin.  Satan is smart and he is subtle.  Jeremiah 20:11 says, “But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail.”  Although Satan is crafty by using other people to persecute the chief musician, our God is a “mighty terrible one”. Satan is no match for our Lord.  God is big enough and mighty enough to not only fight Satan but to also to win the battle for the Christian musician’s soul.

       Jeremiah was a lot like Christian musicians.  He was prone to depression

( see Jeremiah 20:14-18) and so was Elijah ( see1 Kings 19:4).  One moment their faith reached out to YHVH and in the next they were deep into despair.  We as musicians should learn from these men’s mistakes.

       When Satan begins to accuse you, you must look to Jesus for deliverance.  In the time of depression move in closer to the great heart of God and trust Him and believe his Word.  You will find strength in reading Scripture, praying, and singing His praises.  You should count your God given blessings and resist Satan in the name of the LORD as we are instructed to do in James 4:7. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”  On the authority of God’s Word if we resist, Satan will have to withdraw because of the power of our God that surrounds us.

       Note that Scripture admonishes us to sing unto the LORD.  When you are oppressed and become depressed, praise the Lord with singing.  If you praise God with singing, God will “inhabit your praise” (Psalm 22:3).  Our heavenly father will abide with you i.e. he will dwell with you because Jesus is a friend that will stick closer than a brother.

Psalm Superscriptions

Psalm Superscriptions

Psalm 53:1 To the chief Musician upon Mahalath, Maschil, A Psalm of David. Psalm 54:1 To the chief Musician on Neginoth, Maschil, A Psalm of David…  Psalm 56:1 To the chief Musician upon Jonathelemrechokim, Michtam of David…Psalm 58:1 To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David…Psalm 65:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm and Song of David…Psalm 69:1 To the chief Musician upon Shoshannim, A Psalm of David…Psalm 70:1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance…

          The Superscriptions listed above are only a few of those found in the Book of Psalms. Chapter six of Music of the Bible gives the meanings of the Psalm Superscriptions.  There is a plethora of confusion that surrounds the many authors opinions about their meaning.  Frankly, although they are at times shrouded in esoteric meaning, their meaning is not nearly as exotic as many authors conjecture.  Their meaning is worth exploring because they often give much meaning to the psalm setting, its history, and musical instruction for performance.

           Some pitfalls to avoid are that they represent tunes.  This notion is totally without authority because we know that the te’amim found below and above give us the accurate precise well-preserved melodies and embellishments for each psalm.  The exotic hypotheses about the Superscriptions being tune names for secular ditties to which a particular song would be sung are totally without scholarship or authority.

          The thing that really matters is that these Inscriptions give, instrumentation, author and musical explanation of how to perform the particular psalm.  The inscriptions give us knowledge that ancients were concerned about how to properly sing and play the psalms.  This knowledge helps to put to rest the faulty notions about the ancient  Israelites singing , or worse yet screaming out, the psalm at the top of their lungs in an unartistic manner. 

Josephus on Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Josephus on Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

 Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews stated: “And now David being freed from wars and dangers, and enjoying for the future a profound peace, composed songs and hymns to God, of several sorts of meter; some of those which he made were trimeters, and some were pentameters.  He also made instruments of music, and taught the Levites to sing hymns to God, both on that called the Sabbath-day, and on other festivals.”

          Josephus follows this discussion with an explanation of musical instruments and does not explain anything about the difference in "hymns" and "songs."  One of his statements is in line with the Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 statements "making melody in your heart to the Lord" and "singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."  He explains that King David taught the Levites to "sing hymns to God."  So, at the time of the preparing of this work we have no Biblical or archaeological evidence that tells us precisely what the word humnos (5215) means.

          Finally, are the words spiritual (pneumatikos 4152) songs (oide 5603)J.  As has been alluded to earlier, St. Paul was careful in both his letter to the Ephesians and to the Colossians to carefully state that the third category of songs was to be spiritual songs.  If he hadn't, there could have arisen the belief that he was condoning the singing of secular odes unto God.  There is some conjecture among writers that there is no real distinction between the terms psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.  If this is the case, why did Paul use three distinctly different Greek words in this passage?  So ends our discussion of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs at this point.  The section on Significance of the Holy Spirit in Music Ministry in Chapter IV will discuss the phrase "singing with grace in your hearts."

PSALMS, HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS DEFINED

PSALMS, HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS DEFINED

           Let's take a look at exactly what psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs are.  First is the word psalms (psalmos 5568)  is the term for a Jewish cantillation for voice and instruments.  It is the Greek word for the psalms of the Old Testament (see Music of the Bible Chapter VI Music in the Book of Psalms).  Second is the word hymns (humnos 5215).  This word is derived from the Greek word hudeo which is not used in New Testament Scripture.  Hudeo means to celebrate, so it is considered a song of praise.   Kittle gives this explanation of the word humnos "Christ's word lives in the Church's songs to God, which extol from the heart his saving work (Col. 3:16).  In Ephesians 5:19 praise is addressed to the Lord with God's saving work again as the theme."

          Delling explains that the exact meaning of the word hymns is quite uncertain when he states: “Attempts have been made to distinguish Christian hymns in the New Testament, but these are hypothetical in the absence of clearly discernible laws.  The Magnificat and Benedictus are Jewish in style.  Ephesians 5:14 and I Timothy 3:16 are in fixed form but are not necessarily fragments of songs.  Philippians 2:6ff seems to be a pre-Pauline song, and Colossians 1:15ff may be a hymn that the author has taken over and augmented.  Elements of songs are perhaps worked over in I Peter 2:21ff, and the song-like portions of Revelation (11:17-18; 15:3-4) show what form Christian hymns might take.  Yet the mere presence of lofty speech or integrated structure does not have to denote a hymn."

Musicians Known by Their Actions

Musicians Known by Their Actions

             In the process of developing a Bible based Christocentric music philosophy and praxis the following should be seriously considered: Who is the center of public worship?  Is it man or God who is honored in the worship experience?  Who receives the preeminence?  Is worship an event or the Christian’s response to God?  Whom should the musician strive to please with his or her musicing?  Is it proper for God to share the glory of the worship experience with a performer?  Should there be any difference in the music part of the music that a Christian musician considers to be sacred or profane?  Are these differences apparent when one musics unto God?  When in a musician’s musicing there is no difference made between sacred music and secular music that is composed to appeal to the lust of the flesh, will this musicing be appropriate and congruent with the purposes of worshiping God?  These questions must be answered by every Christian musician who personally musics unto God and leads others in musicing in the context of public worship.

           So, by a musician’s musical actions, he or she is capable of placing approval on what the world is doing musically that is not   congruent with what the Bible teaches about music and musicing or the changed life of a Christian.  When this happens, Satan effectively closes the mouths of Christian musicians and silences the Christian’s philosophical musical witness.  When music ministers are completely squeezed into the world’s musical mold, these musicians do not have much of anything to say that is philosophically different from those who are antagonistic toward our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, faith based musicing and, of course, placing all musical actions under the Lordship of Christ.   Hence, there is so little being written about faith-based music philosophy.

God Created Sound

God Created Sound   

               If you have read the first chapter of St. Paul’s epistle to the Colossians you will remember that in chapter one verse sixteen it states that God created the visible (horatos 3703) and the invisible (auratos 517) part of music.  Christian musicians are much more familiar with God creating the visible than they are with his creating the invisible.  Twenty-first century Christian musicians are often much more fascinated with God creating the musical notation (the te'amim) of the O.T. than with the importance of God’s creation of sound. 
              We get caught up in discussions of the possibility that Moses came down from the mountain with the te'amim engraved on the tablets. We may postulate that Jehovah possibly revealed them to Moses and that Moses added them to the Decalogue. We may wax eloquent in our notion that Moses developed the system of   notation used in the Old Testament since he could have learned about musical notation from the Egyptians. (We know from Acts 7:22 that "...Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.")  An even wilder hypothesis is that he learned notation from the Sumerians or the Akkadians since we know that they had written notation at least 1400 to 1500 years before the earliest surviving Greek fragments in a written notation.   
               However, although we now know much more about the history of world music, it is still an abstract thought to many Christian musicians that God created sound i.e. the invisible part of music.  It is what I call the "music part of music."  You cannot touch it, or see it, but it is very much there.  The invisible part gives music life and great power.  It gives our musicing the ability to function, develop, come "alive", and be efficacious.  Therefore, Christian musicians should give very serious consideration to the sounds (aoratos-i.e. the invisible part of music) that we connect to the Logos Christos.

Thought for the Day

If you wish to get out from under the complete Lordship of Christ over music and musicing, you should adamantly deny that sound matters when musicing unto God.

You Are What You Music

You Are What You Music

          It is reported that Dr. Jack Hyles said, “You are not going to be what you decide to be, you are going to be what you decide to be around.”   I want to thank God that I had the opportunity to be around Christian musicians while I was growing up that were more interested in God receiving glory from their musicing than they were with being on the cutting edge of musical worship style change.  I often wonder where I would be today if I had grown up around Christian musicians who were more interested in becoming famous or well-known than they were in musicing in ways that brought honor and glory to God.

          Musically speaking, a young church musician becomes what he or she musics.  A young musician makes choices of the music that he or she will listen to and perform.  It is sobering when I realize that Dr. Hyles was right when he said, “you are going to be what you decide to be around”.  Not is that statement true of young musicians but also of adult musicians as well.  So every Christian musician must develop systematic Bible based beliefs about the nature and value of music to help to guide his or her musicing and musicing throughout life.  There is no doubt about it, When it comes to what a musician listens to and performs throughout life will play a major factor in the development of that person’s moral character.  Every now and then the Christian musician must take thought of what the types of music he or she is involved in are doing to that person’s whole-life.  A young musician becomes not only what he eats but also what he musics. 

Prayer for the Day

My precious Lord and Savior I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity at an early age to music unto You and to sing Your everlasting truths to others.  I also want to thank You for allowing me to be surrounded by Christians who loved and served You with musical offerings that brought honor and glory to Your matchless name.  I am asking You to help me to share the rich musical heritage that I experienced with others.  Lord, thank You for giving me the unbelievable privilege to share my musical with those who did not love and serve You over many year of my life.  My heart is filled with praises to You for the many musical blessings that I have received.  These thanks I give to You.  Amen 

Music Endeavor Should begin and End with God part 2

Music Endeavor Should begin and End with God part 2

Some musicians are now so squeezed into the world’s mold that they do not seem to realize that the whole belief-system that music is amoral is the result of autonomous music philosophy.  It is no wonder that you can trust a humanist to conclude that all music endeavors begins and ends with man.  The philosophical bias of a humanist will always be that all meaning in life (if there is meaning in life) will be the result of self-actualization and the act of a person’s free will.

This musical mind believes wholeheartedly that in the beginning was “ameba” or worse yet in the beginning was “nothing”.  This musician believes within himself that man came from nowhere and is ultimately going nowhere.  It is not hard for him to believe that man exists in a purposeless universe and that he is “caught in the wheel of time”.  This musician also believes that music came from nowhere and is ultimately going nowhere. 

To this humanistic musician the only thing that really matters is “me”.  This type of thinker concludes that music is amoral since man is God and God is man therefore God is in man because man created God.  So, man is God of his music.  Any music that he composes or performs is God’s music i.e. all man’s music is created in God’s image since God is created in man’s image.  Any music that pleases man will also please God and conversely no music that displeases man is pleasing to God.  So, if you can wade through all the previous mumbo-jumbo, you will be able to understand why a synthesis thinking religious humanist, who is autonomous, believes that all musical roads lead to heaven – why there is no profundity in music – why all music is appropriate for public worship and ultimately why music is all a matter of taste.

Thought for the Day

A musician will either say to God, “Your will be done in all my musicing” or God will say to that musician, “You can have your own way if you are going to refuse to retain my knowledge in all your musicing.”