This week I am conducting a music festival for my young musician friends in the Kentucky/Tennessee Conference. A student asked me yesterday about how we choose sacred music. I told him that we have biblical principles to guide us, and I also explained how our local culture can influence our decisions. Music can often be a cultural issue. Many people who have been in the mission field can tell you about the different ways people express their joy in song and the different instruments that are used.
In Northern India and the Punjabi-speaking parts of Pakistan, psalms are called zab’ur. They are sung with vigor and enthusiasm. The tunes are lively and the tabla and dholak (hand-drums) keep up the tempo. An enthusiastic leader lines out the verse, and the group picks up the refrain. The small accordion-like harmonium adds to the lilting melody, and a general mood of joy accompanies the singing. In the early morning the women start a singing party. Singing zab’urs, they go from house to house and call out to their friends to join them. They may pile into a horse cart and visit a neighboring village, gathering Christians there to join the psalm-sing.
They sing joyfully. How can we do otherwise with the wonderful news of salvation that is ours? There are sorrows enough in this world, but even then, we have scriptural lamentations to get us through those dark times. When Job was going through his valley of darkness he states, “My harp plays sad music, and my flute accompanies those who weep.” (Job 30:31)
I like how American songwriter Pete Seeger said it:
Some music helps you survive from your troubles
Some music helps distract you from your troubles
Some music helps you understand your troubles
Some music helps you do something about your troubles.
It’s this last line that is particularly relevant to musical principles in scripture.
Through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs we find our burdens lifted and our souls filled with a fresh breath of life. In the world body of Christ, we do this in so many different ways. So then, is it alright to celebrate as another culture does?
We must also realize that music never stays static; it is always changing. How do we, as a Christian community of believers, deal with that change? This is often harder for an older generation, who has already sorted through these issues and come up with their traditions, than the younger generation who has not.
We must rely on biblical principles, not on our traditions, to deal with change.
Consider Phillipians 4:8: “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
In another place Paul speaks in Ephesians 5:19 about building the community of Christ by speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. This admonition serves to both build the body and point the music in the proper direction.
So let’s sing to build up the body of Christ like our Christian brothers and sisters in Pakistan. We have a joyful story to tell through song; let’s find a way to let our music become unifying, not divisive.
Navigating this very challenging topic of music in worship calls for wisdom, patience, and education in all generations and persuasions but, when all is said and done, our music should always call for and point to Jesus.
Richard Hickam
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