Pastor did ask me to teach a lesson on Psalm singing.
And so turn with me to Ephesians chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5.
Last night when I was getting up to preach the last session at
the conference there, or my last session, I told the people
there, I said, I've decided to switch sides to the Rebel South
and I'm going to the South tomorrow.
I've heard the Confederates are winning down there.
Nobody laughed, but you laughed, so that's good.
No one laughed. I thought that that I was trying
to be funny, but I thought I'll back out of that one.
I'm about to get shot by these Yankees up there.
OK, Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5.
And we're going to read some well known verses here and and
I'm going to speak about Psalm singing tonight and we'll get to
that. But I think it's important to
see it in context. And so I'm going to teach a bit
of a lesson here on spirit filled church music.
And so some of the points we'll just touch on give you the the
fill in there. And then we'll do some some some
teaching on the Psalm singing aspect of the passage here.
But Ephesians chapter 5. And let's read verse 18 and 19
together on the count of 3123. And be not drunk with wine,
wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to
yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and
making melody in your heart to the Lord.
All right, let's pray and ask for the Lord's blessing on our
lesson tonight. Gracious God in Heavenly Father,
I thank you for the privilege of being here in this church.
Thank you, Lord, for the oneness of Spirit.
I sense already with the brethren here, Lord, and we just
thank you for faithful churches dotted across the globe for the
family of God. Thank you for the pastor of this
church, Lord, and His stand. Thank you for the church.
We just pray for your hand to be upon our time together tonight
in your word. We pray that Your Holy Spirit
would give us guidance and direction and help as we look
into your word tonight. We pray for your blessing on the
weekend to come with the missions emphasis that you'd be
with us there and that you just give us a good time together in
your word. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.
I know you already take a good stand on the subject of music
tonight and that's wonderful, but it's always good to revisit
these texts of scripture and be equipped with what the word of
God says concerning this important subject.
Now as you look at the passage here, verse 18 and 19 of
Ephesians 5, in verse 18, you'll notice the command there to not
be drunk with wine, but to be filled with the Spirit.
And that's a very significant statement there, very
significant command. And what follows is really the
outflow of a spirit filled life. If you turn over to Colossians
three, you don't have to do that now, but Colossians 316 says,
let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, OK.
And similar words, teaching and admonishing one another in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, OK singing, you're making
melody in your heart to the Lord.
And So what we see is these two verses go together.
You say, well, is it the word of God in my life that produces the
right kind of music? Or is the Spirit, is it the
Spirit of God? Well, it's both because the
Spirit of God uses the Word of God in our lives.
And So what we see in this passage is that when our lives
are full of the Word of God and when our lives are full of the
Spirit of God, it produces the right kind of music.
It produces the right kind of family life, It produces the
right kind of church life. And so in your introductory
notes there, you could just note that the spirit filled life
produces harmony in these three areas.
We could say it produces harmony in God's house.
That's true, isn't it? When we're full of the Spirit of
God and we're being controlled by the Spirit and and influenced
and controlled by the word of God, that brings harmony in the
church house. Then it brings harmony at my
house. This is all the outflow of the
Spirit filled life. How are you going to have the
right kind of husband, wife, relationship, the feeling of the
Spirit of God? You've got to be filled with the
Spirit to be the right kind of husband.
You've got to be filled with the Spirit of God to be the right
kind of wife. OK.
And then we could also say that it produces harmony at the
workhouse. OK, so between masters and
servants and so, but tonight we're focusing on how the Spirit
of God produces in our lives the right kind of music.
And what you're going to find is that the kind of music that the
Spirit of God is interested in producing or interested in
blessing is actually very different to the world's music.
It's very different to the music that's often played as spirit
filled music in churches today. Well, we just need to have, we
just need to be full of the spirit man and, and just have
this, have this rock'n'roll and this band.
And no, the Spirit of God has nothing to do with that.
That's a false spirit. That's a manufactured spirit.
We want to have the right kind of music, and the Spirit of God
is the Holy Spirit. And so therefore anything that
that he puts his touch upon is going to have holiness.
OK. The Holy Spirit is interested in
holiness, not wilderness. That's right.
So what we're going to do is we're going to look at six, six
lessons really in relation to church music and with an
emphasis tonight on as the past is requested, the singing of
Psalms. But let me just give you these
points 1 by 1 and you can fill them in there.
We'll see how we go for time and and trust the Lord with that.
So firstly, the musicians of spirit filled music, the
musicians of spirit filled music.
Again, I've already spoken about this, but we see that the
filling of the Spirit of God produces the right kind of
singing, the right kind of music.
So as we think about what kind of music is acceptable to God,
we do need to think about the source of that music.
Are the producers of that music spirit filled people?
Are they people who are filled with the word of God?
What kind of people are producing the music?
That's an important consideration because, you know,
a lot of the music that's produced out there, that's
called Christian music is actually produced by very
wicked, sinful people. And now they often have a facade
of Christianity and a facade of holiness.
But it happens all the time where, you know, it hits the
news that these Christian musicians have been been up to
their eyeballs in a whole bunch of sin.
OK, So we do need to think about that and and also think about
that in our church ministry, as you play an instrument, as you
maybe sing in the choir, remember you need the help of
the Spirit of God in order to really minister.
Remember that you need to you need to be empty yourself and
full of the Spirit. In fact, that would be a great
prayer to to pray before you get up to play an instrument, before
you get up to sing, say Lord, empty me yourself because it's
not about me, is it? And fill me with your spirit.
OK, so the musicians, but let's move to the next point #2 the
message of spirit filled music. And here we draw on Colossians
316, that parallel verse. You might like to turn there and
just have a look at it if you would like to there.
But Colossians 316 says, let the word of Christ dwell in you
richly in all wisdom. So good music in the church,
good music in our lives as believers is music that
communicates truth. OK, It communicates truth.
In John chapter 4 verse 24, Jesus said God is a spirit and
they that worship Him must worship him in spirit and in
truth. The Spirit of God is interested
in truth. There are people today say,
well, I don't really care what the Bible says.
The Spirit told me this, well, I'm sorry you didn't hear the
voice of the Spirit because the Spirit of God will never lead
you contrary to the word of God. In fact, he's called the Spirit
of truth three times in the Gospel of John.
And so the Spirit of God is not going to produce worship that is
contrary to the word he inspired.
And so as we think about acceptable music, godly music in
the church, we need to think about whether that music
conforms to the truth of God's Word, both in its lyrics and in
its music. What we want in good, what we
want in our music is a consistent message between the
sound and the words. That's right.
Because what you have in some some modern contemporary songs,
sometimes the words are actually, oftentimes the words
are shallow. But sometimes, let's be fair,
sometimes the words are good in some of the songs.
But the problem is you've got maybe good words to music that
sounds like the nightclub. And so you have a contradictory
message there. The words are trying to say one
thing, but the music is communicating a very different
message. And, and, and, and music is a
very powerful form of communication.
In fact, I find when I listen to maybe a new song, a sacred song,
often I'm impacted by the music before I really digest the
words. Sometimes I have to listen to it
several times before the words start to sink in because the the
music itself is saying something.
And so we want to have music that's governed by the truth of
God's word, both in the music and that's found here in the
passage very clear. It's not rocket science and what
what and in the words So we could say good Christian music
should be a vehicle for the truth of God's word.
That's the that's the that's the purpose of it.
Good Christian music needs to be doctrinally sound and good
Christian music needs to have lyrics with substance.
Now, that doesn't mean a song can't be a convey a simple
message. There can be a song with a
simple message, but it needs to be a scriptural message.
It needs to be something that's that's that's in line with the
word of God. And so we really need a mix.
It's good to have simple songs of testimony.
It's also good to have some to sing hymns that are very
theologically rich. And, and in fact, I love hymns
that make me think. It's great to sing hymns that
make you think and, and that's it's very edifying experience #3
#3 the ministry of spirit filled music.
What is church music actually for?
And this is very important. Look back at verse 19 of
Ephesians 5, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to
the Lord. It'd be good for you to
underline the words to yourselves and then to the Lord.
Music in the church is for each other, and it is for the Lord.
We could say #1 under that that church music is for the
edification of the Saints and #2 the exhortation of the Savior,
the edification of the Saints and the exhortation of the
Savior. Or we could put it this way,
Church worship music is for Christians and for Christ, for
Christians and for Christ. So that means that Christian
music is for edification, not entertainment, not
entertainment. And this is the problem.
The contemporary church has done the truth of great disservice
because it's conditioned literally hundreds of thousands
of people, if not millions of people to expect a low standard,
sloppy entertainment orientated service.
And I'm sure you have the same problem here.
Sometimes people come to a church like this and go, boy, I
love the preaching, but I can't. It's just the music where the
music, it's so dead. But the problem is they've been
conditioned to expect this high energy, pounding, kind of a
shallow entertainment kind of service.
But that's not what we find in the Bible.
Now we can enjoy and we should enjoy sacred music.
We can even feel moved emotionally.
That's OK as long as the emotions are under the control
of the Spirit of God and really what the proper order in good
sacred music is. You're impacted by the truth of
that song and then the emotions follow.
So your mind digests the truth and you know, you sing some of
those hymns and you can't but be moved by the message of those
hymns. And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood?
And, and, and you just go on there amazing love.
How can it be that thou, my God should die for me?
Your hearts move. But it's being moved not by this
shallow emotionalism. It's being moved by truth.
That's right. So Christian music is for
edification, not entertainment. And Colossians 316 really
emphasizes that. It says teaching and
admonishing. So can you see that good music
in the church has an instructional element to it?
It's teaching you. You're learning something or
you're at least being reminded of truth.
And it even admonishes you. That's interesting, isn't it?
Did you know you can actually be convicted and even reproved
singing a good song? Good music will actually at
times, good sacred music will actually make you pause and
reflect. So how many of you know that
hymn, eh? You left your room this morning.
Did you think to pray? That's admonishment because
you're standing there thinking, singing that and going.
I didn't pray. Lord forgive me.
OK, so admonishment, the word admonish there means to caution
or to reprove gently. Now the modern contemporary
church doesn't want it's completely, this idea is
completely absent from the whole contemporary Christian movement
out there. They don't want to sing anything
that's going to make them actually feel convicted.
It's all about making me feel good, making me feel pumped up
in some false sort of sense of, you know, God's presence.
So that's where when we're going to get to this.
The Psalms actually contain sometimes themes of God's
judgment. Now, how many churches today
sing anything that speaks about God's judgment?
It's totally foreign people just even in independent Baptist
churches, I think would freak out a bit at that.
How you, how you going to sing this Psalm that's talking about
God's judgment and God's wrath? Well, obviously God wants us to
sing those things. We sang in hymn recently we
found an old hymn by Isaac Watts.
How many of you have heard of Isaac Watts, the famous hymn
writer? And it's, it's, it's called the
Last Judgment in Hell. I mean, it is a, it's a very
powerful hymn and a very sobering hymn.
It's a real challenge to the lost.
And it's all about God's fiery wrath being poured out.
I mean, are you going to ever hear hymn like that in the
contemporary church? So music is for edification, not
entertainment. We can say that Christian music
is for edification, not evangelism.
Now, I would challenge you to show me one verse in the Bible
that says that music is the primary means of bringing
sinners to Christ. Now, can God, as a part of His
working in a sinner's life, use the truth of a good evangelistic
song? I'm sure he can.
But what I'm saying is, scripturally, the preaching of
the gospel is the primary means of evangelism.
That is absolutely clear as crystal in the Bible.
You say why do you emphasise that?
Well, do you know why? Because most churches that bring
rock'n'roll music in, guess why they guess their guess.
Guess what excuse they use? We need to reach people.
If you don't have the band, if you don't have some, some drop
kick of a bloke with his pink hair spiked there belting your
drum, you're not going to reach the young people.
And so the argument, I've heard it so many times, you're not
going to reach people, you're not going to get the young
people. You've got to bring the band in
to reach people. Excuse me, where in the Bible do
we read that music is the primary means of evangelism?
The apostles did not go around holding concerts to reach
people. They preached the gospel, and it
was the gospel that brought people to repentance and brought
people to salvation. And then the primary function of
music then is for the edification of the Saints and
the exhortation of the Savior in the church.
It's more for Christians really in the church.
And again, I'm not saying God can't use God will always bless
his word. And, and I've heard of
testimonies of people who've maybe got something, an unsaved
person who's got something out of a good, a good evangelistic
song. And when we have evangelistic
meetings, we normally have a, if we're going to have a choir
song, we'll normally pick something with a strong gospel
emphasis. Sure, but I'm just saying we
have to push back on this idea that's being promoted out there
that you have to have the band, otherwise you're not going to
reach people. No, we reach people with the
gospel. We reach people with the
preaching of the word of God. And then the music is there to
edify the Saints, please God by the foolishness of what
preaching to save them that believe.
And God hasn't changed on that. I remember listening to listen
listen to an interview with a Christian filmmaker once, and he
made this statement. He said if the apostle Paul was
alive today, he wouldn't go around preaching to everybody.
He'd make a movie. No, if the apostle Paul was
alive today in Virginia, he would preach the gospel because
it's the preaching of the gospel that God uses to save people.
So let's we have to get those things into our minds.
It might sound very basic, but you're going to be confronted
with those kinds of arguments how you're going to reach people
without this rock'n'roll music. Well, excuse me, music is not
the primary means that God uses to reach people.
So it's for the edification of the Saints and the exhortation
of the Savior to yourselves and to the Lord.
That means that our music in the church needs to be Christ
centered and Christ focused rather than artist centered.
OK, what you see out there in the world is and in the
contemporary church is a, is really almost a, it's getting to
the point where it's almost worshipping the singers and it's
all about the performers. OK, Now again, I'm not, I'm all
for choirs and for good music in the church.
That's wonderful. But just remember, if you get up
to sing, it's not about you. You're not, you're not a pop
star. You're not there to try and be a
Taylor Swift. You're not there to be some rock
star. You are there to exalt the Lord
and edify God's people. Keep cross.
We have a motto for our choir. Sing for the audience of one.
Why? Because we want our people to
focus on who they're really singing for.
You're singing for the Lord 1st and then each other.
Really. That's really the way the order
works. OK #4 #4 the medium of spirit
filled music. Did you say there was some water
up here somewhere? There it is, the medium of
spirit filled music. And here we see that there are
three musical genres that God has ordained for use in His
local churches. Look at verse 19 again, speaking
to yourselves in what say with me?
Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
That's it. And by the way, you should not
have a double standard where you sing psalms, where you have
psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs in the church, but then
you rock, you rock away in the car, you come and sing.
You come and sing hymns in church and then you're listening
to junk in the car. Because I even met one guy who
said he told me that. He said, Oh no, I agree with
you. We shouldn't have rock'n'roll in
the church, but in my car, it's fine.
Well, hang on a second. The Holy Spirit of God wants
this kind of music to be the soundtrack of your life, OK,
whether in the church or outside of the church.
Now, as we think about this psalms, hymns, and spiritual
songs, we could say there's both scope and constraint in those
three categories. Scope meaning there is
tremendous room for godly creativity in produce in the
producing of sacred songs for worship within the boundaries of
God's Word, God's laws for music.
And I'll tell people there is no need to turn to the garbage can
of CCM. We have just a wonderful
treasure trove of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs that we can
sing, OK? And so there's no need for that.
So there's there's there's some wonderful scope there for godly
creativity, not against believers today writing new
sacred songs. Really, it doesn't matter
whether the song was written 5 minutes ago or 500 years ago, as
long as it conforms to scriptural principles.
OK, so there's scope there, but also constraint.
It's there's constraint because clearly this instruction rules
out the kind of music that the world has.
There's just no doubt you read this passage.
It's no, there's no doubt. These verses teach that worship
music is something distinct from the wicked world.
You know, when the Lord saved you, he put a new song in your
mouth and that new song probably sounds different to the old song
you used to sing. That used to be the way it was.
You got saved you. You got rid of your, you got rid
of your old rock'n'roll records. You got rid of Elvis.
Elvis was not a godly person. You know, some people say, oh, I
don't listen to all that modern junk pastor, just the oldie
Goldie's. No, Elvis was a wicked
fornicator as serial adulterer. Oh, I just listened to The
Beatles. No, they were very wicked men,
had a very destructive effect upon our societies in the
Western world. So let's look at these three
categories. And I'm going to spend a bit of
time now on the Psalms. How much time we've got left
Now? I'm from Australia.
I can't interpret American times, so that means I can keep
going. All right, So you wave at me
when you want me to stop there. When did we start?
It was about 25 minutes ago, wasn't it?
OK, we've got a little bit of time.
Yeah. OK.
Back at the verse there. Speaking to yourselves in
Psalms. What's the first one on the
list? What's the first one on the
list? Psalms.
So it really shouldn't be too controversial that we would want
to sing Psalms in church. It's the first one on the list.
True. And this is a New Testament
passage. So the psalms were the psalms
were the were sung by Israel in the Old Testament.
It was the hymn book of the Old Testament, you could say, but
clearly it's meant to carry over into the New Testament church
because here we have an instruction to the New Testament
church. And the first one on the list is
psalms. Now that word psalms comes from
the root word basically meaning to pluck a string.
That's the original word as I understand it.
And obviously it's a reference to the psalms of the Old
Testament, which was the was the hymn book of Israel.
James 513 says, is any among you afflicted?
Let him pray is any Mary, let him sing psalms.
So if you're happy, sing a Psalm.
How are you going to sing a Psalm if you don't know a Psalm?
OK, so it shouldn't be a controversial thing that your
pastor wants to bring some psalms singing to the church.
It's very scriptural. In fact, it's not even, it's not
suggested here. It's actually commanded.
So if we're going to be a New Testament church and we're going
to be biblical, then we do need to try and sing Psalms in the
church. Now for those who might object,
you do actually have in living hymns, a few psalms, not many,
but one one's there. Psalm 23, it's from the Scottish
Psalter. You can look it up.
So we even, we do have a few psalms in there, which is, which
is good. So we could say number one there
we need to sing Scripture songs, Scripture songs, Scripture
songs, Psalms. So why sing Psalms in church?
Or very simple answer, because it is biblical to sing Psalms in
church. Now the challenge then is, well,
how do we do that? How do we in a practical way
fulfill that command? Well, in the past churches used
to use psalters, Psalters in order to do this, and I want to
explain what that is. A Psalter is basically a book
containing A hymn rendition of the hymn renditions of the
Psalms. And there are a number of
soldiers out there, and some of them go back literally hundreds
of years. And Psalm singing was a very
strong practice even in Baptist churches in bygone years.
So we could say it's a biblical practice, and it's even a
Baptist practice. So don't let people tell you,
well, that's just something for the Reformed churches.
No Baptist. Baptist churches have sung
Psalms for hundreds of years. It did fall into disuse at the
turn of the of the century. But you go back in history and
Baptist sang psalms. So you have, for example, the
Scottish soldier of 1650. And then you have a lot of
psalms or renditions of the Psalms written by Isaac Watts.
Again, how many of you have heard of Isaac Watts, famous
hymn writer? He wrote a lot of hymn
renditions, I call them of the Psalms.
Basically what he did was take the themes of a Psalm and put it
into a hymn. And when you think about it,
that's really what a good hymn is.
It's taking a truth from Scripture and putting it into a
singable format. Makes sense.
So if you. Let's see.
Yeah, I'll get to that in a moment.
So. And then Charles Wesley also
wrote, for example, renditions or hymn versions, hymn Singapore
hymn versions of the Psalms. So you've heard of Charles
Wesley and can it be that's one of his famous hymns, for
example. So for our church, we've been
basically using those three at the moment.
There are some other ones, but they're probably three of the
most famous. We have the Wesley insulver, you
have the you have Watts renditions of the Psalms, you
have the Scottish soldier of 1650.
Spurgeon had a whole section on psalms in his hymn book heard of
HCH Spurgeon, and he entitled that section The Spirit of the
Psalms. And I like that.
What are we trying to do? We're trying to sing the spirit
of the Psalms because sometimes people object, object and say,
well, hang on, when when you talk about singing psalms,
pastor, we're singing this Psalm, but it doesn't sound
exactly like the King James. Well, it's basically like any
other hymn, OK? It's taking the truth of that
passage and putting it into a singable format.
So it's singing the spirit of the Psalms.
It's seeking to sing the truth of the psalms, and it's a good
practical way of doing it. Now, a psalter is basically
where you have the psalms put into a poetic form.
It's put into meter to be sung as a hymn.
Now, you know that all of our hymns are actually in meter.
So let me give you an example. Do you have your Living Hymns
hymn book there? Turn to hymn 418 and we're going
to use this tune a little bit later to sing a Psalm
so that the psalters, OK, or the metrical psalms are where you
have the Psalm put into a poetic form so it can be sung as a
hymn. And you know, if you read a hymn
out loud without singing it, you will notice it's basically
poetry. So let's look at verse one of
faith Is the victory there? And let's read it all out
together. Following my lead on the count
of 3123. Encamped along the hills of
light, ye Christian soldiers, rise and press the battle.
Uh, the night shall veil the glowing skies against the foe in
veils below. Let all our strength be held.
Faith is the victory we know that overcomes the world.
Can you see that has a rhyme to it?
It's it's beautiful. And you read most of the hymns.
They have that sort of rhyming to it.
And so that's what they did with the Salters.
Believers evolved. They basically took the Psalms
and tried to put them into a meter like that, similar to the
basically the same thing as a hymn so that it could be sung.
Makes sense. And that's where you actually
find in some hymn books, you can actually see sometimes the
meter, and often we don't notice it.
A common meter, for example, in fact, it's called the common
meter is 8686. And this hymn here is an 8686
meter. You say, what does that mean?
It means the first line has 8 syllables, the second line has
86 syllables, the third line has 8 syllables, and the fourth line
has 6 syllables. And it goes through like that.
So think about that. You can actually count out the
syllables with the first line. There, encamped along the hills
of light is 8. Ye Christian soldiers rise 6 And
press the battle air the night 8 syllables shall avail the
glowing skies 6. So when we're talking about
meter, that's what it means. And you've got different
different meters. 8686 is a very common one for hymns.
It's called the common meter. For example, Amazing Grace, how
sweet this sound 8 syllables. First line that say the Wretch
like me 6 syllables. I once was lost, but now I am
found was blind, but now I see 8686 right?
And so the the Psalm we're going to sing tonight is like that.
It's from Psalm 1 and we're going to use the Scottish solder
for this one. That man hath perfect
blessedness, who walketh not astray in counsel of ungodly
men, nor stands in sinners way, nor sitteth in the scorner's
chair, but placeth his delight upon God's law and meditates on
his Lord day and night. You see that?
That's a beautiful way to sing that Psalm.
We're not we're not messing with the King James or doing anything
like that. It's just like any other hymn.
We're taking that passage of Scripture and very often with
the Psalms in a in a really wonderful way, bringing even a
lot of the words from the very Psalm into the into the poetic
form there so we can sing the truth of that Psalm and be
edified by it in song. Does that make sense?
OK, so that's what we're talking about.
So when we, when we're talking about singing a Psalm, A
metrical Psalm or a Psalm from a Psalter, we're just talking
about a Psalm that is being put into a, a, a meter like a hymn
so it can be sung like a hymn. And that's a great practical way
to be able to fulfill that command to sing psalms in
church. Now let me just address what
could be a few possible objections to psalms singing in
church that may come up. The first one, we've never done
this before. OK, Now we're not for changing
when it comes to the clear. You know, a lot of churches
today out there are changing and going against the word of God.
We don't want that kind of change.
All right. But if there's something so
plainly commanded in Scripture that we're not doing, we need to
do it. OK, There's, it's absolutely
right and appropriate to do that.
So we believe, don't we? Or at least we say we do as
Baptists in that the Bible is the sole authority for faith and
practice. So the fact that maybe
independent Baptists haven't been real strong on Psalms
singing is not a reason not to sing the Psalms.
OK. And I'm not saying we should
throw out all of our godly selection of hymns.
No, we, we need both. We need a good mix there.
Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs. And some churches have gone to
extremes. I know that there are some
churches that, for example, that only sing psalms.
They won't sing any hymns, nothing else.
Especially in the Presbyterian, some of the Presbyterian
churches. In fact, I met a man once and he
would, he'd, he'd actually taken a vow to only sing metrical
psalms with no instruments. Might sound spiritual, but it's
not scriptural. OK.
In fact, I met another guy who also was of that persuasion and
he was against instruments in church.
I said, that's interesting you say we should only sing the
Psalms. Do you know how many references
in the Psalms? There are two musical
instruments. So you're saying you want the
text of the Psalms but not the instrumentation of the Psalms
Because you see both. In fact, sometimes there were
little musical instructions at the beginning of the Psalms, you
know, upon the string instrument, instruments or
whatever. So instrumentation in church is
actually biblical. It's biblical to have
instruments to accompany the singing.
OK, OK, God's words, the final authority and it's just plainly
commanded here, Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs.
So it's absolutely biblical and right for you as a church to to
seek to do that under the leadership of your pastor.
So get behind him with that. Then another one that I heard
and this was it came from a sincere hearted St.
He was confused. He said we're singing Psalm one,
for example, but it doesn't sound exactly like the King
James. And what I had to explain to him
is no, what we're doing here is is like like what we do with any
other hymn. We're basically singing a hymn
version of this. So if you turn to Revelation 19
verse 12, let me just illustrate this as we think about what
we're doing here. Revelation 19, verse 12,
Revelation 19, verse 12. His eyes were as a flame of
fire, and on his head were many what crowns.
And he had a name written that no man knew, but he himself does
any. Can anybody think of a hymn
based on that text of Scripture? Crown him with many crowns.
So has the hymn writer done something wrong against the King
James? No, He's taken the verse and
he's put into a beautiful he's put together a beautiful hymn
that makes us really think about the truth of that verse.
OK, So what we're doing with the Psalms is the same thing.
We're going to the Psalm. Well, this is what what's been
done, OK, that the Psalm has been meditated upon and then the
themes of the psalms of that Psalm have been put into a
singable format. Makes sense.
That's what Watson Wesley did, for example.
And I love Watson Wesley's psalms because often they bring
in some New Testament truth as well.
So you have Christ mentioned in there.
That's fine. We have the the New Testament
light and Revelation and many of the Psalms do speak of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So what I do is just compare the
three and sometimes maybe even tweak the wording a little bit
just to make sure everything's accurate.
And then it it, it's a wonderful way to sing the Psalms.
All right. Another objection might be,
well, don't the Reformed churches sing Psalms like the
Presbyterians? Well, I don't think that's a
good argument because they also sing many of the great hymns of
the faith that we sing. And like I said to you before,
Baptists also used to sing the Psalms.
It's a biblical and we could say a Baptist practice.
So that's very, very, very good to do that.
OK. So hopefully that'll help you.
And in a moment we will, we'll have a try of singing through a
Psalm together so you can get a sense for it.
Now, you will find this, that the Psalms are going to make you
think, singing the Psalms in church.
It's going to make you think that the words are often very
rich. There's a lot of depth in the
words and that's a good thing. We found as a church we had to
grow a little bit of muscle, if I could put it that way, when it
came, when it when it came to singing the Psalms.
And the more we've done it, the more we've enjoyed.
The more, the more we have been edified by it, the more we enjoy
it. But you know, it is going to
take a little bit of work for you just to get used to singing
the Psalms. But it's a wonderful edifying
experience. All right, so we have Scripture
songs, the Psalms, then we have sacred songs, hymns.
What? What time do you normally finish
on Wednesday night? And I'll just stop then. 9:30.
Oh, beautiful. OK.
All right, I'll wrap up soon then.
So we have scripture song. Is that making sense?
Yep, making sense. All right, we had to sing Psalms
and and in the church. All right, sacred songs, hymns,
so we have the first one, Psalm. Moist is the Greek word hymns,
whom noise is the Greek word there.
And hymns are poetic material that that hymns are poetic
material and either a sighted or sung in praise to God.
And there's an emphasis on praise, as I understand it, with
a hymn. OK, it's a hymn of praise.
It's focusing on on God, Jesus and his disciples.
They sang a hymn at the conclusion of the Last Supper.
So if you don't like hymns, you don't like the music the Son of
God likes. OK, Jesus loves hymns, So should
you. So it's wonderful to sing the
great hymns of the faith, isn't it?
So it's so edifying and encouraging.
Such a wonderful, wonderful thing.
Then we have this third category, spiritual songs.
So what kind of music should we have in the church?
What kind of music should we have in our lives?
Well, Scripture songs, the Psalms, sacred songs, hymns, and
then spiritual songs. Now this word song is a more
general word. In fact, it's the word hodice.
Our English word ode is derived from this Greek word.
Now if it just said songs, that would be a very broad category.
But notice it's qualified by the word.
What spiritual you say? What's spiritual?
Well, I guarantee you it's opposite to worldly.
I guarantee you it's opposite to fleshly, right?
OK, it's spiritual. In fact, that word spiritual
comes from the same root word as the as, as Spirit, Holy Spirit.
So, so it's, it's a spiritual kind of music.
Spiritual music is opposite to that which is carnal and that
which is fleshly. We could say it's music that
ministers to the spirit rather than the fleshly appetites of
the body. That's actually what we want.
We want music that ministers first and foremost to the Spirit
that can impact us, yes, on emotional and even physical
level, but it's the right order there, OK?
We're under God's control and we're being ruled by the in the
spiritual realm and the body and the emotions coming under that
that control. So while godly music can stir
the emotions in a balanced and a controlled way, it is not
experienced, focused or targeted towards the emotions.
Like contemporary praise in sacred songs.
The truth of God's Word ministers to the Spirit through
the mind and the feelings follow.
OK, lesson #5 and I'll only just be able to touch on this and I
know I'm sure your past has taught you on these things #5
the melody of Spirit filled music.
Look back at verse 19 again, the melody of spirit filled music.
Let's read the verse again just to make sure we're all awake.
123 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
I find it very significant that the Bible highlights melody as
being a key feature of spirit filled music.
When when it comes to the world's music, what is
emphasized? Melody or rhythm?
It's rhythm, isn't it? In fact, it's interesting, isn't
it? When, when, when man gets away
from God. It seems the further man gets
away from God, the more rhythmic his music becomes and you end up
with jungle music which is basically banging sticks and
shouting no tune, no melody at all, just just heathen Pagan
drumming. That's, that's not like rap
music. It's like virtually no melody.
There's like just a beat and shouting that, that that's not,
that's not something the Spirit of God has produced.
These Christian rap artists. What utter rubbish.
What? How ridiculous to even suggest
there's such a thing as a Christian rap artist.
So melody highlights that aspect of music which is to dominate.
And it's the it's the tune, it's the tune, it's the simple tune.
And so good music is melodious music.
It's it's full of melody. You listen to some of the old
composers like Bach and there was just often his songs were a
tapestry of melodies, beautiful melodies there in his excellent
book, A Music in the Balance by Frank Garlock, he says the part
of music to which the Spirit responds is the melody.
Ephesians 518 and 19 gives us a clear indication that the part
of music which God wants to be preeminent in the music of a
Sorry. Ephesians 518 to 19 gives us a
clear indication the part of music which God wants to be
preeminent in the music of a Christian.
Verse 18 commands us to be filled with the Spirit.
The word filled literally means to be controlled.
The very next verse then states that we should be making melody.
Thus, when the King James Version of Scripture follows the
command to be filled with the Spirit, with the musical form
melody, it is accurately teaching that this element of
music and God's control in our lives are closely related.
So this verse clearly teaches that the kind of music the Holy
Spirit Spirit's feeling produces is melodious, tuneful music.
This is the opposite to rock'n'roll music with its
rhythm dominated, which is rhythm dominated with its
backbeat and central dance rhythms.
OK, to understand that on a very basic level, you say what's
wrong with rock music? Well, the, one of the main
issues is the beat and they're pushing in this beat that
doesn't even conform to the melody.
And it's just, it's a, it's actually a rebellious element
that's actually forced in on the music and, and it's rhythm based
there. And that's, that's the, that's
the trend today, isn't it, towards music that is very much
rhythm focused. It's all about the beat.
You know, that's where people come and they try and sing the
hymns and they go, I can't feel it, you know, because they're
used to, you know, they're used to this, this, this beat all the
time. Well, that's, that's not the
right kind of music they've gotten.
They've gotten used to fleshly music.
That's the problem. And so you can even read, for
example, quotes by secular rock'n'roll musicians and they
will tell you exactly what their music is about.
That will just tell you that their music is beat orientated,
Jimi Hendrix said perhaps my music is sexy, but what music
with a big beat isn't? Gene Simmons of the band Kiss,
Extremely popular rock band, one of the world's most popular.
He said that's what rock is all about.
Sex with 100 megatone bomb the beat.
So these secular rock'n'roll as they know what their music's
about, and they're just stating a fact that their music is all
about immorality and that immorality is promoted by the
beat. Listen, there's something wrong,
isn't there, when people can dance in the nightclub to that
kind of beat and then come and hear that same beat in church?
Something terribly wrong with that, where your church is using
the same kind of music you would expect in the nightclub.
And it produces, unsurprisingly, very bitter fruit.
Because if you sow the flesh, you're going to of the flesh
reap corruption. OK, Is there a one and two under
that? OK, so just to fill in, just so
you've got the fillings there. Number one, this I call that the
standard of melody in godly music, the standard of melody in
godly music. So melody is to be the dominant
element and then harmony and rhythm really come under the
control of melody, just like we need to come under the control
of the Spirit of God. Good music has to be dominated
by the melody. And yes, there is, there is
actually rhythm in a good hymn. That's why sometimes you find
yourself tapping your foot. You can't help it.
Onward, Christian soldiers. OK, there is there is some pulse
in the song there, but it's it's not drawing attention to itself.
It's in submission to the melody.
The melody's governing the song. And I haven't seen anybody
rapping out to that song yet. OK All right.
It's like when you do, you have military parades here sometimes
with your veterans and things. You hear that powerful March
music, there's a powerful beat there, but doesn't make you want
to do that, does it? You know, I mean, if you want to
get an illustration of what the beat does to the body, just take
your 3 year old to the shops and they haven't learned anything
about music. But all of a sudden you see your
little, your little child doing this in the trolley or you call
it a cart, don't you? A trolley?
Why were they just doing what their bodies just responding to
what the beat's telling them to do?
All right, so in many ways the we could say that melody affects
the spirit harmony to a degree the mind and rhythm speaks in
many ways to the body. And, and so yes, every song has
rhythm, but with, with rock'n'roll, it's, it's rhythmic
based and rhythmic focused. And you've actually got
something being forced into the music there because rock'n'roll
music emphasizes weak beats. OK, you have strong, weak,
strong, weak in music. And so it's actually a
rebellious element that's being forced into the music.
It's not, it's not in submission to the, to what the melody is
trying to do at all. And we could, you know, you
could do a whole series on all of that and we did in our
church, but hopefully that just gives you a little summary
there. So we have the, the, the
standard of melody and godly music.
Then we have the source of melody and godly music.
It's in your heart. So it's the work of the Spirit
God. It is the work of the Spirit of
God in the heart which produces godly melody.
Beautiful, tuneful, melodious music is the fruit of revival
and the genuine work of the Spirit.
That's why the greatest hymns of the faith have come out of times
of spiritual reformation, revival and refreshing.
Think about that. You you go back and look at the
hymns we've got. Many of them came out of times
of spiritual revival. Or maybe we're written by a dear
St. in a time of deep trial. OK, like it is.
Well, with my soul. You're probably familiar with
the story behind that. And so you can see that's,
that's the kind of music the Holy Spirit produces in the
heart. And it's, it's, it's, it's
melodious. It's, it's beautiful.
It's, it's full of light. On the other hand, dark rhythmic
beat dominated music is the fruit of man's deprived
appetites under the influence and control of Satan.
And there's a lot of very dark demonic music out there, isn't
there? Just dark and demonic.
You hear it almost makes you feel afraid.
You can feel the presence of the devil there.
Well, no surprise, a lot of these pop stars and singers have
given themselves over literally to the devil.
They they literally actually sometimes even pray satanic
prayers over their albums. And so there is power in rock
music, but it's a satanic and dark power and it's believes we
don't want that kind of music in our lives at all.
Last point, if you notice there the motive, the motive of
spiritual music, singing and making melody in your heart to
the Lord, and we've already talked about that and emphasized
that in a previous point, but the motive there is for the
Lord, for each other and for the Lord.
Johann Sebastian Bach said, I believe he was probably,
probably was a saved man. He said the aim of all music is
the glory of God. The aim of all music is the
glory of God. Read Revelation sometime and see
as God rolls back the curtains of heaven there and you get a
window into the kind of worship that takes place in heaven.
It's not a rock'n'roll concert. It's worship that's emphasizing
the Lamb, the Lamb on the throne and glory to the Lamb of God.
They're worthy is the Lamb. That's the kind of music Christ
centered, Christ focused, Christ honoring music that we need.
So hope that's helped you. We got through the lesson and
we'll do something else on for Sunday school on on on Sunday
morning, the Lord willing. All right, with that in mind,
let's get those words up on the screen.
We'll have Missus boots come and play the tune for us.
So what we've been doing as a church is basically finding well
known tunes that we're all familiar with and then singing
the Psalms to those tunes. And what's good about that is it
means you can go straight into singing the Psalms.
You can learn the words, but you don't have to learn a new tune.
So we're going to sing to the tune 418 in Living Hymns.
Now, how many of you know that tune?
Faith is the Victory? Very well known hymn, isn't it?
All right, Encamped along the hills of life.
You Christian soldiers rise. OK, And we're going to sing the
Psalm to that tune. So why don't we stand up?
OK, let's give. It a try that man hath perfect
blessedness, who walketh not astray in counsel of ungodly
men, nor stands in sinner's way, nor siteth in the scorner's
chair, but placeth his delight upon God's law, and meditate on
his Lord day and night. Now the chorus.
Of all the word of God, think on the word of God, and thou shalt
fruitful be and walk in victory. Verse 3 In judgment, therefore
shall not stand such as ungodly, nor in the assembly of the just
shall wicked man appear. For why the way of godly men
unto the Lord is known, whereas the way of wicked man shall
quite be overthrown. Love, O the word of God.
Plenty of plenty to pull from with that.
But you know, one of the things and and we're just going to
close in a word of prayer here, but one of the things that I
thought of while you especially there at the end, you know, when
it comes to like contemporary Christian music and things, if
if you're going to accept CCM, then by the very nature of what
that is, you have to accept every other form of music too,
right? I mean, if you're going to say
that that singing rock music with Christian words is OK, then
how are you going to say that rap music with Christian words
is not OK, right? Or that.