We Worship a Jealous God—part 1

We Worship a Jealous God—part 1

            Exodus 20:3-6 demands that, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.”  God declares who He is and what He is like in this passage of Scripture.  He is YHVH (3068) the self-existent eternal God who is and He is Elohiym (430) the exceeding God. 

            He also tells us what He us like when He declares that He is a “jealous God” (qanna el 7067 410).  The words qanna el connote that He is moved to show strength because of His jealousy toward us. Why is He jealous?  He is jealous of our worship because He is OUR GOD!  Remember that as He explains in Exodus 20:2 “I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”  He was Israel’s deliverer and He is also our deliverer.

 

 

 

Thought for the Day

Thought for the Day

Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”  Do you resent anyone giving you instruction about how you should music unto God?

Music and the Genesis Record—part 4

Music and the Genesis Record—part 4

            The way a composer or arranger organizes and utilizes the building blocks of music will give them the propensity to either be *congruent or incongruent with the purposes of sacred musicing to a high and holy triune God.  It is not the building blocks of music that are good or evil, but rather it is how they are arranged and performed that gives them positive or negative meaning.  To be more specific, it isn’t diatonic seventh chords, incomplete dominant ninth chords, augmented sixth chords, Neapolitan sixth chords, syncopated rhythms, put beats, dynamics, or hemiolas that are profane.  It is the way that a composer, arranger or performer uses them that determines their appropriateness or inappropriateness.  

            There is no such thing as an evil chord, dynamic or rhythm per se, but every astute performer, composer or arranger understands that they may be used inappropriately in a given situation.  Furthermore, the inappropriate *juxtaposition or *amalgamation of styles of music is capable of making subtle, or not so subtle, jest of the very thing that a Christian musician is supposed to be expressing when he or she musics unto God.

Thought for the Day

Thought for the Day

If a Christian musician professed to be operating in his or her own wisdom and power when developing a music philosophy, then claiming wisdom in how one should music unto God would be somewhat egotistical.  However, 1 Corinthians 2”6 promises that the sold out Christian can “have the mind of Christ”.  I believe this promise of God extends to how one should music.

Music and the Genesis Record—part 3

Music and the Genesis Record—part 3

                It stands to reason that God created the building blocks of music to be exceedingly good and that it is the objective of Satan to pervert them by negating their “goodness”.  Since in this instance ma’od towb also means that  the elements of music were created to be the very best, we may safely deduce that it is the will and work of Satan to pervert a proper arrangement  of those elements (building blocks) of music that make them exceedingly “good”.  Satan is capable of influencing a composer’s arranging of the building blocks of music. When Satan has an influence that produces a perversion (incongruent ordering of the building blocks), then this perversion does not produce “good music”.

              I do not know about you, but I do not want to agree philosophically with the belief that Satan’s influence on music is good although it is perverted or that Satan’s influence on music makes it better.  I find it hard to imagine how any thinking Christian musician could agree with those who believe that anything that Satan is responsible for is good or that he does not negatively influence performers, arrangers, and performers.

             Although it is possible for a composer who is not a Christian to order the building blocks of music in a fashion that will make them congruent with the purposes of scared muscing, it is the responsibility of the Christian composer, arranger and performer to be filled with the Holy Spirit in order that his or her involvement with music will be influenced by the Spirit instead of Satan.  Romans 8:6-8 instructs Christians to be filled with the Spirit “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.  So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”  Furthermore, 1Corinthians 2:14 explains, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”   However, 1Corinthians 2:6 promises that the Christian is not alone in his or her musical endeavors, “For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

Thought for the Day

Thought for the Day

It should not be considered strange when a Christian builds his or her music on beauty rather than on distortion and noise.

Thought for the Day

Music and the Genesis Record—part 2
                 A review of Scripture (much of it later than the Genesis record) reveals that during Israel’s early period of nomadic life, instrumental music was well developed.  I will say again that music's beginning can be traced back to creation, but most of its mention in the OT was recorded after the Book of Genesis.  You may wonder what I am trying to establish philosophically by nailing down the facts of music's beginnings in God's creative acts and its early mention in Genesis. A simple answer is that there are ancient landmarks of musicing recorded in the Bible and their origin is found in God’s creative work i.e. “in the beginning God created…”

                There is another concept of God's creation recorded in the Book of Genesis that we should discus at this point.  As I said before, Genesis 1:31 records the fact that when God created music its condition was very (ma’od 3966) good (towb 2896).  In other words, His music creation was not merely good, but it was exceedingly good or beautiful.  The Hebrew word ma’od is a superlative term.  To God, music was not “just there”, but rather it was exceedingly good when used as He intended.  Towb connotes not only goodness but also beauty.  Although it is difficult to fully ascertain what is meant by beautiful, it is possible to understand that God created music for His glory and also created it to be exceedingly beautiful and wonderful. We can also justly conclude that this creation which was ma'od towb was exceedingly valuable to mankind.  It was very beautiful, valuable, meaningful, and had the ability to be very efficacious either for good or, if perverted, for evil.

 

Thought for the Day

Thought for the Day

I get weary of reading after so called musical scholars that treat the Genesis record as though it was a fairy tale.  I am offended when a writer refers to the accounts  in Genesis as “stories” or “legends”.

Music and the Genesis Record—part 1

Music and the Genesis Record—part 1
            The Genesis record does not have very much to say about music in very ancient times.  However, we are not completely left in the dark concerning the beginnings of music since we have the mention of Jubal and his music instruments early in the Genesis record.   As early as in Genesis 4:21 we learn that Lamech’s wife Adah gave birth to Jabal, “And his brother's name was Jubal: he (Jubal) was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.” You will notice that he was referred to as the “father” but never as the “creator” of music.  Genesis 4”21 refers to Jubal as the ab (01) and not as the one who created (bara' 1254) music.  He is referred to as the father “of all such as handle the harp and organ”.  The Bible calls Jubal the handler (taphas, 8610) or manipulator of music.  He, or anyone else for that matter, is ever referred to in the Bible as the creator of music.

            The harp (kinnor 3658) mentioned here was a hand held lyre (not a harp) and the organ (ugab 5748) was a reed instrument (not an organ or pans pipe as some suppose).  By the time of Jacob (Genesis 31:27), we have record of songs (shiyr 7892), the frame drum translated tabret from toph (8596)in the KJV which was a small breast drum, and the lyre (kinnor 3658) that was again translated harp in the KJV.  For a thorough discussion of ancient musical instruments mentioned in the Bible, read chapter seven of my book Music of the Bible in Christian Perspective.

Thought for the Day

Thought for the Day

Christian parents must know first know if the education of their children is the responsibility of parents, and second whether or not to enroll them in a Christian school.