Music is the sound of the soul and a medium for meeting with God. Although the Old Testament records that the Jewish nation used to worship God through music and singing, such as David and Asaph in their psalms, it is also recorded in the New Testament that “Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them” in Acts 16:25. However, there are endless debates on worship music from an Orthodox perspective and whether it should catch up with contemporary music.
A Psalm of Asaph.
“Sing for joy to God our strength;
Shout joyfully to the God of Jacob.
Raise a song, strike the timbrel,
The sweet-sounding harp with the lute”
Psalm 81:1-2
Question: Why do we have to pray using the “traditional” music that the Orthodox church offers? We’re all different, so each one of us should pray with our favourite type of music.
Answer: We should first understand why we use music in worship. We worship to converse with God. We do not gather for worship to be entertained, or to express our preferences in art or music at the expense of the whole. So, when we sing to the Lord, it’s more than the beat that makes it real. Personal taste rather than faith often dictates an external form of worship, one that focuses on the self and affirms individual tastes, but true worship offers a glimpse of The Divine; it allows you to move beyond simply knowing about God, to seeking personal encounters with God… it’s something that would give one a taste of heaven, of God, and not of the world.
In his book, “The Weight of Glory”, C.S. Lewis points out that
“the books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing”.
So, it’s never the worship music’s quality or genre, but rather an intimate experience with God that makes worshipping fulfilling. This very experience is expressed by St. Paul as “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” in Romans 11:33, and St. Peter elaborated that this experience would be of an “unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight” (1 Peter 3:4).
Question: Worship music helps us to “get in the mood” of praising God, so why can’t we just worship without limits if it’s in the name of showing an overflowing love and gratitude to God?
Answer: Let us take a look at the verse that later became a proverb in 1 Samuel 19:24, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”. It describes that even though Saul “seemed” to be praying and worshipping God and that “the spirit of God was upon him also” (1 Samuel 19:23). Saul was “in the mood,” yet he actually wasn’t after God’s own heart. His “spiritual worship” didn’t purify him, but rather he kept on doing evil works until he had gone to total perdition. So, let us not confuse emotional reactions with true spirituality. We don’t praise God with our feelings or voices alone, but with our thoughts and deeds as well.
This, of course, doesn’t mean that spiritual songs or hymns are pointless! St. Paul teaches in Ephesians 5:19 to “speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord.” So, worship music is of extreme importance and influence as it nourishes the soul with tunes, and elevates the spirit closer to God.
But is it important to note that the word of God said through St. Paul always alerts the church to pray with spirit and with understanding together; and this is clear in 1 Corinthians 14:15 “So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding.”
Question: We can find many characters in the Bible singing to the Lord while also dancing as King David, according to 2 Samuel 6:12–14: “David was dancing before the Lord with all his might.” So wouldn’t dancing during church worship be something desirable?
Answer: Research shows the psychological effects of music and how it impacts the mood and inspires action, and the scene described in 2 Samuel 6:12–14 is a true implementation of this. But let us take an analytical look at what happened in this incident.
It was after so many years that the Ark of the Covenant finally returned to Jerusalem and David celebrated this event in a great procession in the street. So, first, he wasn’t dancing every time he worshipped God and, second, these dances weren’t in a sacred place as the Holy of Holies or even in the tent of meeting, they were leaps of happiness in the street, not a form of worship in a holy place.
To further prove this point, in the New Testament, there aren’t any commands or even comments showing believers dancing while worshipping God in church.
In Luke 18:13, Jesus told the story of the tax collector who “stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” He wasn’t making great moves, or singing hymns with great passion; he was just… humble!
Question: Wouldn’t adopting modern worship music appeal to youth and therefore help our church grow young?
Answer: Not as per the research in the US by Powell et al*. Quoting from their book “Growing Young”, their research data indicated that
“while many young people are drawn to ‘casual and contemporary’ worship, others are drawn to ‘smells and bells’ high-church liturgy, and everything in between.” (p. 41) and when they asked, “What makes your church effective with young people?”, only a quarter mentioned worship at all, and only 12% mentioned anything about music (that figure dropped to only 3% when they isolated the top third of churches most effective with young people). (p. 171) *.
To sum up, God tells us: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God” (1 John 4:1). So, let us strive to do all things honourable and to glorify Him in everything.
References:
* Powell, Kara; Mulder, Jake; Griffin, Brad. Growing Young. Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
