Category: Worship

Worship: A Life Laid Down (part 1)

Posted on by Kyle Fuller

I guess one thing we all have in common is that we tend to “compartmentalize.” I am not a psychologist (a few of my friends probably thing I need to see one though), but it’s my understanding that each of us separate thoughts and actions into “compartments” in order to cope with reality. Psychologists tell us that compartmentalization can be used as a defense mechanism, one that assists people in dealing with tragic occurrences in their lives. I’m one who would rather folks come to Jesus in situations like that, and let him actually heal and restore instead of simply tucking away the hurt, but that’s another conversation altogether. My point is that I think maybe we all do compartmentalize in one way or another, and I don’t think it’s always good. And, I think we as Christians tend to be among the chief “compartmentalizers.”

So many Christians separate their lives into compartments: this is work, this is family time, this is time with my friends, and this over here is my “God-time.” Our “worship services” are put into different compartments as well: this is worship time, this is offering time, this is prayer time, this is preaching time, and so on. Something that I have come to understand is that true worship is a life laid down. It’s the place where sacrifice and obedience meet through our trust in the Lord. There is no need for compartments-Jesus is my life. If you look into the Bible you’ll find many references of people who wanted to be religious, who kept offering up sacrifices, but whose lives were compartmentalized to the point that they did not understand that their disobedience revealed the fact that they were not true worshippers of God, that they did not truly know him.

          King Saul is a good example of someone who didn’t understand that worship is a life laid down. You may recall that Israel had wanted a king.  Saul, who the Bible describes as tall and handsome, was anointed the first King of Israel. You can see from the beginning that it appears that Saul only had a relationship with God when someone else was around (good observation Mike). The only time you see him interacting with the Lord is when he was the prophets of Gibeah, or with Samuel the prophet. In fact, if you read on in the Old Testament you’ll discover that during the reign of Saul, the Ark of the Covenant (representing God’s presence) was not sought at all. Saul never came to know the Lord.

In I Samuel 15, Saul had been commanded by God to utterly wipe out the Amalekites- I mean utterly. However, Saul decided to spare their king along with the choice livestock to “sacrifice to the Lord.” When the prophet Samuel arrived, Saul rushed out to meet him proclaiming, “I have obeyed the commandment of the Lord!” Samuel asks, “Well, what’s up with all the sheep I’m hearing?” Saul replies, “Oh, we only spared the best of the sheep and the oxen for God, but we destroyed everything else.”

Samuel then proceeds to rebuke Saul, reminding him of how God had made him king, and asking him how he could not then obey the Lord’s commands to utterly wipe out the Amalekites. Saul persists, “But I did obey the Lord. I have brought Agag the king, and destroyed everything else. Only the best part of the spoil was saved to sacrifice to the Lord.” Samuel replies,

“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.

 For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.”

Rebellion is an act of usurping an authority, in this case God. Samuel said that rebellion is similar to witchcraft or divination. How’s that? Well the ultimate goal of witchcraft is to manipulate events. The sorcerer seeks to manipulate spiritual forces so that a desired result will be manifested in the physical. When Saul rebelled against God, he was taking matters into his own hands in an attempt to bring about the outcome he thought was best. He wanted to exercise authority. God had spoken, but he rejected his authority and chose his own way.

Samuel went on to say that stubbornness or insubordination is like idolatry. Say what? Well, when we rebel against God, stubbornly pushing against him, or trying to push him to do what we think is best; we are setting ourselves up as God- idolatry. (Oh, I forgot to mention the fact that just before his meeting with Samuel, Saul had set up a monument to himself in Carmel.) In his stubbornness, Saul had declared, “I am god!” His rebellion and stubbornness blinded him to the reality of his disobedience.

Okay, so how does all of this apply to us? The reason Saul, and we as well, are rebellious and insubordinate towards God is because we don’t trust him. God is working in the events of our lives (even the hard ones) to help us get to know him and thereby trust him. He wants us to listen to his voice, lay down our lives and surrender to him, not just offer up what we think he wants. As we learn to trust the Lord, our sacrifices and obedience come together in a life laid down. Saul never learned that. God used him, he won many battles and was the champion of Israel, but; he never came to trust in the Lord. God had a little compartment in Saul’s life to live in, and he only got to come out when Samuel was around. Saul only sought to manipulate God through offering up the sacrifices he thought would push God towards doing what he wanted Him to do. And in the eyes of God, this was akin to witchcraft and idolatry.

We, here in the West, consider ourselves far too civilized and advanced to worship some kind of idol made of wood or stone, instead; we have proclaimed ourselves as god. Even we who name the name of Jesus are guilty of creating a god after our own likeness and worshipping it instead of the true and living God. We have invented a god who is okay with our witchcraft and idolatry, one who winks at our rebellion and insubordination. We have turned his grace into a license to sin. Like Saul, we offer God our disobedience as a sacrifice, and cry foul when he demands our lives instead. True worship is not simply an act that we perform. True worship is born out of our trust in God. True worship is the place where our sacrifice and obedience come together, expressed in a life laid down.

To be continued… (Next, we look at Abraham.)

(By the way, Christians, we need to repent of reading horoscopes and the little magic emails that guarantees a “blessing” if you just forward it to ten people. That’s straight up witchcraft-just saying)

The Best Kept Secret Regarding Worship: Bible Study

Posted on by Kyle Fuller

Did you know that the Rabbis view the study of the Torah (first five books of the Old Testament) as the highest form of worship? One early Rabbi said, “When two sit together and exchange words of Torah, then the divine presence dwells among them.” That sounds vaguely familiar doesn’t it? Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in the midst of them.” Yeah, the Rabbis say that when you pray, you are talking to God, but when you study Torah, God is talking to you. Isn’t it strange, so many of us claim that we never hear God speaking to us when He has provided a book with about 774, 746 of His words that will speak to us as often as we will read them?

When it comes to worship, we place so much emphasis on relevance, worship music, worship style, and whatever else you can think of, but it seems we have overlooked the very important fact that Bible study itself is worship. You’ll hear it said in our churches, “Well, we’ve had a wonderful time in worship today; now let’s turn to the Word.” (Insert wrong answer buzzer sound effect.) No, studying the Word is worship!

After God had delivered the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt, they traveled in the desert for a long time. As they made their way, God told them how he was to be worshiped. He had laws for this, ceremonies for that, different sacrifices and feasts, and at the center of it all was the Shema. Check out Deuteronomy 6:4-9:

“Hear, O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

Can you see the application in this for us 21st century Gentile Christians?  Can you see the relationship between loving God, and God’s Word? The Israelites were to give prominence to God’s word in their lives, and so are we. In fact, if we are not interacting with the Word, if we are not spending time studying the Word; our worship is incomplete.  Just read Psalms119, and you’ll get a clear picture of how the study of God’s word was looked upon as worship. I know it’s unpopular to tell Christians that they must do something. I know we don’t like to hear that we must study. After all, that sounds so Pharisaical. We have reduced worship to merely being entertained, getting’ my praise on, and all of that kind of thing. The truth is that part of our worship is studying God’s word. The reason that deception and apathy are rampant in the churches of America today is due largely to the fact that we have failed to teach our people that the study of God’s word is every bit a part of worship as prayer and singing songs! So what, Shema, Shema you say. That’s that Old Testament legalistic stuff; we’re under the new covenant brother. It’s all about grace and mercy, and we don’t have to do anything.

Jesus himself said that man lives by every word that God speaks (Matthew 4:4). Jesus even said it is those who hear his words and do them that are truly his family (Luke 8:21). How are we to hear and do today? It is in worship, studying his Word. We are exhorted to study God’s word knowing that the scriptures were breathed out by God as he used men to write them down. It is in our worship time of studying the Word that we are made complete and equipped for every good work (II Timothy 3:16, 17). In his encounters with the Jews of his day, Jesus didn’t condemn them for the emphasis they placed on the scriptures; he rebuked them for failing to understand that it was the scriptures they claimed to love so much that testified of him. This brings me to my next point. Our worship through studying the Bible is to lead us into a living encounter with Jesus. You know, maybe we need to reexamine our definition of “Bible study.”

For so many Christians, Bible study has been reduced to the time they come to church, get situated in their seats, and listen to someone else tell them what the Bible means. I think somehow we’ve missed something. Glance back up at the scripture we looked at in Deuteronomy 6, notice how it speaks of Bible study in an organic way. It was discussed as they were together, as they moved, as they went about living. It was not a static experience; it was a living thing they experienced together. Yes there were teachers, scribes whose job it was to teach the Torah, and we have been given Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers to teach and equip us as well. However, the normal Christian experience is not to come to church, plug in and get the latest download. We are to spend time in personal worship, personal study of the Word, but we are to interact together, experiencing God’s Word together. As we do this, the Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus, and we become built up and encouraged in the Lord. Remember the words of Paul found in Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” And again, in his words to the Corinthians, “What then, brothers, when you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up” (I Corinthians 14:26). Our time spent in personal worship, in personal Bible study is to be that which the Holy Spirit later uses to minister to our brothers and sisters when we come together.

In II Timothy, we find Paul at the time immediately preceding his death. He would soon be beheaded; it was only a matter of weeks or perhaps months. He was in a Roman prison and writing what was to be among his final words, he said to Timothy, “When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments” (II Timothy 4:13).  We don’t know for sure which books, which parchments he was referring to, but I wonder if maybe he desired to have portions of the scripture with him. Maybe there was an old copy of the Septuagint (Greek translation of Old Testament) he wanted to have with him. Knowing how the Jews (especially a man like Paul) viewed Torah study, I wonder if perhaps being in that prison, that old beat up body of his made it difficult to bow, to kneel, and maybe he figured, “I’ll offer you my worship by studying your word Lord.” Maybe, I don’t know.

Yes, we must worship through prayer, in singing, and in countless other expressions the Spirit may birth in our hearts, but let’s not forget that the study of God’s word is every bit as much a part of worship as those things are. Hear me friends, there is going to be ever increasing deception as this age draws to a close. Be complete in your worship. Spend time in God’s word, and as you do; you will encounter the risen Lord.

Jacob: Worshiping God, Reflecting on the Past

Posted on by Kyle Fuller

I was reading the story of Jacob as he was approaching death, and it provoked a couple of thoughts about worship I wanted to share with you. At the risk of being perceived as reading too much into a certain passage,  it seems to me that here, in this story, Jacob  reflected on the past, considered the present, and pondered the future,  and he was moved to worship. First, let’s go back.

“By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.” (Hebrews 11:21) We find this story originally told in Genesis 47, and I think it captures Jacob at his finest moment. Here is an old man who truly has lived a full life. He has seen and experienced so much, and now, at the end of it all, he worships.

I’m sure that Jacob, there bowing over his staff, remembered how it had all begun. He must have thought about how he had cheated his older brother out of the blessing that rightfully fell upon the eldest. He had had to flee for his life to his Uncle Laban’s house. And in Laban he had found someone as conniving as himself. Jacob had been cheated and manipulated by Laban, but he remembers now how God had been with him even then.  Jacob had only vowed to serve God if God would do certain things for him, and now, bowing over his staff, here at the end of his life, he recalled that God had been faithful beyond his wildest dreams.

Jacob remembers how he had wrestled all night with that mysterious “man” who dislocated his hip, giving him that limp that he walked with for the rest of his life. That “man” had blessed him and changed his name to Israel. It seemed so long ago now. Jacob recalls the fear he experienced when going back to meet his older brother Esau after so many years had passed. Then, there had been the rape of his daughter Dinah, and the subsequent murder of the rapist (along with the rest of the men of the city) by his sons Simeon and Levi. He remembers the death of his beloved Rachel for whom he had worked so hard.

Jacob had truly seen it all, and now here, at the end of his life, he can see how God had worked in it all, and he worships the Lord. Reflecting on the past, Jacob was moved to worship.

I don’t know what has happened to you in the past. Like Jacob, like all of us, there has probably been a mixture of love and pain. I’m sure there have been things done to you, things you’ve done to yourself,and pain you’ve brought to others. Can I tell you something? If you will let him, Jesus will give you the faith and love that will produce in you the ability to see your past in such a way that will actually cause you to worship the Lord. Jesus can bring you to a place, where you realize that the pain and suffering, all you have experienced in the past, was not meant to destroy you. It sounds crazy, I know, but in Christ; you will come to the place where you don’t deny the past, the pain, the hurt, the lies, etc…instead, you (like Jacob) will see that through it all God was bringing you to a place of intimacy with himself. Not only that, you will be able to glorify God as you encourage someone else who is going through circumstances similar to what you have experienced.  And, you will worship.

Moved By The Music

Posted on by Kyle Fuller

(We have covered a lot of ground in our discussion about God Music. It’s getting to the point where it’s kind of impractical to list all of our previous observations at the beginning of each new post, so, I invite you to go back and check out the previous articles entitled “Talk About…God Music”). We all know that music can move you. There is something within the chords and rhythms that can actually produce an affect upon people. Many within the church insist that such “musical manipulation” has no place within the worship experience as it is worldly and/or demonic. Again, as we have in our previous discussions, we want to know what the Bible says about this. I can’t think of a better place to go than II Kings 3: 14-16.

“And Elisha said, ‘As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, were it not that I have regard for Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would neither look at you nor see you. But now bring me a musician.’ And when the musician played, the hand of the Lord came upon him. And he said…”

First, let’s provide a little context. Jehoram, king of Israel, and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, had gone to Elisha the prophet to inquire of the Lord. They were preparing for battle and needed God’s word concerning the situation. Elisha had no use for Jehoram because of his idolatrous ways, but he had respect for Jehoshaphat, and agreed to meet with them.

We are told that Elisha asked for a musician to be brought in. It is obvious that Elisha sought to use the music as a tool through which he would more readily receive from the Lord. Elisha purposefully employed music to “manipulate” his own disposition. His apparent motive was more than a desire for an emotional release; he wanted to hear from God. (Interestingly enough, if you remember, we learned that when David instituted the Levitical ministry of music, it was looked upon as a form of prophecy.) There is so much that could be inferred from Elisha’s actions, but I want to stick with what the Bible makes plain. Elisha used music to purposefully create an environment which would assist him in receiving from the Lord.

The musician is unnamed. Obviously he was skilled and anointed of God; however, we don’t know who he is, and we never hear from him again. He apparently didn’t start a traveling “Prophecy Mantle Impartation Tour” throughout the kingdom. He was used of God, and then disappears into the pages of antiquity. One thing to note is that it was Elisha that purposefully utilized the musician and his gifts, not the other way around. So often, within our contexts, the musician is asked/required to get the people “in the mood” to encounter God. Elisha’s heart was already going after the Lord; the ministry of music only aided him in his pursuit. I think we need to really consider this point. God Music doesn’t seem to be intended to manipulate people into encountering God. It is for people who already desire Him.

Next, we find that the hand of the Lord came upon Elisha when the musician played. Elisha’s heart and the God Music were both factors in this God encounter. The Lord gave Elisha the words to speak to the kings, and His name was glorified.

In II Kings 3, the Bible gives us a wonderful example of the relationship between music and worship. Our hearts must be inclined towards the Lord with a desire to encounter the living God. Only then can God Music be a means by which His name is glorified as the hand of the Lord comes upon us.

Talk About…God Music: The Levitical Band

Posted on by Kyle Fuller

Recently, we have been talking about God Music. We have sought to explore the Bible and let it speak to us concerning the relationship between music/singing and worship. One of the hardest things for any of us to do is set aside our presuppositions and allow the Bible to simply speak for itself; nevertheless, we are prayerfully attempting to do exactly that as we consider God Music. We all have personal tastes, likes, and dislikes when it comes to music. Various people groups and cultures differ greatly in how they sing. Our goal is to learn what the Bible has to say about how God’s people are to employ music/singing in worship. On our way, we have observed the following:

1) Worship (including singing, music, and dancing) is a natural response to salvation.

2) Worship (signing) is a natural response to God’s provision.

3) Worship is not a spectator sport.

4) Worship (and the music that accompanies it) is to be 100% God centered.

5) Musical style is not the defining element of authentic worship. The same style of music can be used in both the true, spiritual worship of God, and idolatrous abandon. It is the Object of worship and the disposition of the heart that makes God music.

6) Worship can include singing about the very thing God has provided.

7) Worship (singing) can be an encouragement to God’s people along with being a song to God himself.

8) God himself wrote a song, and commanded Israel to learn it.

10) Singing/Music, in the context of God’s people, may sometimes involve instances where some sing and others listen. (In such cases, the song is still 100% God centered.)

11) God Music can include mention of the people he uses to accomplish his mighty deeds.

12) There can be elements of rebuke in God Music.

Now we come to the period of time when King David ruled Israel, and we find him introducing music/singing as an integral, continuous aspect of worship. We have discovered that the Bible presents music as always being part of worship. However, under Moses, music was not formally set up as a regular duty of the priests. Now, under David, music/ singing became a distinct Levitical function. II Chronicles 29: 25, 26 tells us that it was the Lord himself who instructed David to make these priestly revisions. “…stationed the Levites in the temple of the Lord with cymbals, harps and lyres in the way prescribed by David and Gad the king’s seer and Nathan the prophet; this was commanded by the Lord through his prophets. So the Levites stood ready with David’s instruments, and the priests with their trumpets.”

The Bible says the following:

“David… set apart some of the sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals. (1 Chron.25:1)

“All these men were under the supervision of their father for the music of the temple of the Lord, with cymbals, lyres and harps, for the ministry at the house of God.  Along with their relatives—all of them trained and skilled in music for the Lord—they numbered 288.” (1 Chron. 25:6, 7)

“David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before the Lord, with castanets,harps, lyres, timbrels, sistrums and cymbals.” (2 Samuel 6:5)

“David told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their fellow Levites as musicians to make a joyful sound with musical instruments: lyres, harps and cymbals.” 1 Chron. 15:16)

“He appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, to extol, thank, and praise the Lord, the God of Israel: Asaph was the chief, and next to him in rank were Zechariah, then Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-Edom and Jeiel. They were to play the lyres and harps, Asaph was to sound the cymbals, and Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests were to blow the trumpets regularly before the ark of the covenant of God.” (1 Chron. 16: 4-6)

I think it’s obvious from these verses that music/singing became an integral part of the people’s worship when David came to power. We can also observe a few things in these passages that I think are relevant for application to us today.

1) God Music is intended to glorify God. It is ministry to the Lord.

2) Music/singing was a priestly function. Under David, not only were priests responsible for sacrifice, and all the things we are familiar with that God told Moses to institute, certain ones were now set apart for musical worship before the Lord as well.

3) The music, along with the instruments used, was indigenous to the culture of the time. It appears that no instrument was “off limits.” They used what they had to worship the Lord. They wrote the songs, and they employed familiar instruments in their worship.

4) The musicians/singers were skillful. They were taught and instructed.

5) This worship was looked upon as prophesying.

6) This music was not to entertain people; it was to worship the Lord. Interestingly enough, it would appear that this music/singing was something that continuously went on before the Lord. The Levites ministered before the Lord even after the people had gone home. The music was not solely intended to enable people to “get their praise on.” The music/singing continued in the people’s absence.

It would appear that not only is God Music a natural part of our worship of God, but it is also a priestly function.  We will see, as we later move into the New Testament, that singing and making melody is to continue as an integral part of our worship experience.

To be continued…

Talk About…God Music: The First Duet

Posted on by Kyle Fuller

We are continuing our look into music/singing & worship, i.e. God Music. We are attempting to honestly set aside our presuppositions, and see what the Bible has to say about this topic. We have observed the following:

1) Worship (including singing, music, and dancing) is a natural response to salvation.

2) Worship (signing) is a natural response to God’s provision.

3) Worship is not a spectator sport.

4) Worship (and the music that accompanies it) is to be 100% God centered.

5) Musical style is not the defining element of authentic worship. The same style of music can be used in both the true, spiritual worship of God, and idolatrous abandon. It is the Object of worship and the disposition of the heart that makes God music.

6) Worship can include singing about the very thing God has provided.

7) Worship (singing) can be an encouragement to God’s people along with being a song to God himself.

8) God himself wrote a song, and commanded Israel to learn it.

I suppose the next place to look is at the song of Deborah and Barak found in Judges 5. The period of the Judges, as you recall, was a time in which the people of God were all doing their own thing- whatever seemed right in their own eyes. However, there were times of great deliverance and revival. Singing/music continued to be a part of the worship experience.

In Judges 4, God had wrought a great deliverance through Deborah and Barak (as well as Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite). Then, in Judges 5:1, the Bible says, “On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song…” Here is an overt mention of what we would call today a “duet.” All of the other passages we have studied have more or less shown that worship was corporate, involving everyone, or at least the majority of the people. Now, we find Deborah and Barak apparently singing while the others listened.

“Listen, you kings!
Pay attention, you mighty rulers!
For I will sing to the Lord.  I will make music (ESV says, “I will make melody…”) to the Lord, the God of Israel.” (Judges 5:3 NLT)

We find that Deborah and Barak sang a song of praise to God, employing music that would have obviously been indigenous to their culture. The song they sang was about the way God had saved them, the people through whom he had worked, and even contains what may be taken as rebuke to those who had not participated in the battle. In this song, the people were also encouraged to tell of the things God had done.

Obviously there is much that could be gleaned from this passage of scripture, but what can we learn from this incident that speaks directly to the subject at hand? How about the following:

1) Singing/Music, in the context of God’s people, may sometimes involve instances where some sing and others listen.

2) In such cases, the song is still 100% God centered.

3) God Music can include mention of the people he uses to accomplish his mighty deeds.

4) There can be elements of rebuke in God Music.

To be continued…

Talk About…God Music: God Writes a Song

Posted on by Kyle Fuller

Our topic is music, worship, and the relationship between the two. Basically, we are going to the Bible, starting with the earliest references on the subject, then working our way forward letting the scriptures speak for themselves. I’ve tried my best to refrain from expository preaching, and simply allow the Bible to do the teaching. (On a side note, I think something we could all benefit from is letting the Word define our experience instead of our experience defining the word; however, that’s a whole other conversation.)

We’ve made some observations, so just to bring you up to speed (in case you haven’t read the other segments); we have found the following:

1) Worship (including singing, music, and dancing) is a natural response to salvation.

2) Worship (signing) is a natural response to God’s provision.

3) Worship is not a spectator sport.

4) Worship (and the music that accompanies it) is to be 100% God centered.

5) Musical style is not the defining element of authentic worship. The same style of music can be used in both the true, spiritual worship of God, and idolatrous abandon. It is the Object of worship and the disposition of the heart that makes God music.

6) Worship can include singing about the very thing God has provided.

7) Worship (singing) can be an encouragement to God’s people along with being a song to God himself.

Obviously, I believe the Bible teaches us that music has been employed in worship since there have been people on the earth (probably before there were people as well); however, there are those who see no place for singing and music in a “worship setting.” Hmm, I wonder how we then deal with the fact that God himself wrote a song, dictated it to Moses, and commanded him to teach it to the people. Let’s look at Deuteronomy 31:19, “So write down the words of this song, and teach it to the people of Israel. Help them learn it, so it may serve as a witness for me against them.” Most call this song (you can read it in Deuteronomy 32) the “Song of Moses,” but I really don’t think Moses himself would take the credit for it seeing as how God dictated it to him. It is what it is, as they say, a song of which God was the lyricist, and Moses wrote it down.

Much could be expounded on as to the content of this song, but for our purposes it is enough to simply observe that at least in this one instance, God himself wrote a song, and commanded Israel to learn it. He even states the purpose of the song. He told Moses that this song would later testify on God’s behalf against a people who would betray him. God intended that this song remind the people that all the judgment they are to later experience is because they have abandoned him, and he told them they would do this beforehand. The song also gave hope in that God says he will “avenge the blood of his servants; he will take revenge against his enemies. He will repay those who hate him and cleanse the land for his people.”

As we consider Deuteronomy 31& 32, we see that God himself wrote a song which was to be used as a testimony. The song God wrote showed that he knew the future, that he had been a faithful father to his people, and because of their unfaithfulness would bring judgment. He commanded this song to be learned by the people in order that when all the things foretold in the song came to pass, they would be moved to repentance. Apparently, God can/will use songs for his purposes.

To be continued…

Talk About…God Music: The Well Song

Posted on by Kyle Fuller

We are exploring what the Bible has to say about the relationship between worship and music. There are so many opinions as to acceptable musical styles, and the role of music itself as it is used in worship. We have decided to lay our presuppositions aside and let the Bible speak for itself regarding the subject.

We first looked at Exodus 15. We came away with the following observations:

1) Worship (including singing, music, and dancing) is a natural response to salvation.

2) Worship is not a spectator sport.

3) Worship (and the music that accompanies it) is to be 100% God centered.

Next we went to Exodus 32 (the Golden Calf passage.) Here, we learned that musical style is not the defining element of authentic worship. The same style of music can be used in both the true, spiritual worship of God, and idolatrous abandon. It is the Object of worship and the disposition of the heart that makes God music.

The next time we find mention of singing is in Numbers 21.

“From there the Israelites traveled to Beer which is the well where the Lord said to Moses, “Assemble the people, and I will give them water. There the Israelites sang this song:

‘Spring up, O well!
Yes, sing its praises! Sing of this well,
which princes dug,
which great leaders hollowed out
with their scepters and staffs.’”

The Israelites are still traveling through the wilderness, and God has provided water (again). Once more we find that the people, presumably all or most, sing a song of thanksgiving to God. Interestingly, we find something new in this passage- they sing of the well itself. The first song we found, the one in Exodus 15, was sung to God and about God. Here, we find that while this is obviously a song of thanksgiving to God, they sing about the object of provision. Once more we find that it seemed natural for the people of God to sing praises after God moves on their behalf. It seems that this song is also designed to bring encouragement to each other as they sing of what God has done.

While it is indeed tempting to delve into a little preaching as we consider the applications  found in this passage of scripture, I suppose we should stay focused. What can we take from this “well song” that furthers our understanding of the relationship between music and worship? Well (no pun intended), I think we can make the following observations:

1) Worship (in this case signing) is a natural response to God’s provision.

2) Worship can include singing about the very thing God has provided.

3) Worship (singing) can be an encouragement to God’s people along with being a song to God himself.

To be continued…