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This edition of Ask the Pastor features Pastors Mike Clement and David Clement.
Mike Clement
We were asked if we'd be willing to put together a couple of programs where we talk about some of the great hymns of the faith and look at maybe their hymn stories and the content of the hymn, and some things like that. So when we really want to share something with you before we get started with this, I got 10 points. So if you've got a pencil and paper, you can write down 10 points. Can't preach that on a Sunday morning, it takes too long. Number one, music is a primary form of worship. Now different churches and different traditions have handled music in different ways. I read that some of the reformers banned music entirely in their worship services. Calvin, didn't think a whole lot of it, John Calvin, he kind of tolerated it, but he put it on a very low level. Actually the guy who was the president of the school that I graduated from, put it way below the preaching ministry. He didn't, and I heard of a pastor in Philadelphia, back the turn of the previous century. And he wouldn't allow a choir in his church. Yeah. He said, in fact, he said from the pulpit, when Satan was thrown out of heaven, he landed in the choir loft. And so he just wouldn't allow it. Martin Luther though, elevated music to the same level as teaching and doctrine. He thought it was really, really important. Scripture mentions music as a form of worship. Psalm 100:2 says, "Serve the Lord with gladness, come into his presence with singing." Dave. You've got a couple of verses there.
David Clement
Yeah. And Ephesians 5:19, it says, "Speaking to yourselves in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord." And then over in Colossians is a similar verse. It says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing, one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart unto the Lord." And we could see pictures of this all throughout those scriptures. One that comes to mind vividly of me obviously, is David, David wrote many of the Psalms. He was very gifted in poetry if you would, and in songwriting. And he wrote many of the Psalms and many at times, how he went to singing his praises of the Lord, or, you know, some of them more prayers that he had to the Lord. I think of a Psalm 52 is a prayer that David wrote unto the Lord and talking about his own sin, his life, and just praying to the Lord through hymns, through songs, through spiritual song. I think it's very, I think it's great. And we see that in the scripture,
Mike Clement
We don't have a lot recorded in scripture as to what the early church services were like. And God probably did that so that we wouldn't be caught up in just imitating, the rituals and so forth. But there were some things, the preaching of the word was primary and there was also music early in the first century church.
David Clement
Actually in the first prison ministry, it started with--thrown into prison there at Philippi. They were at midnight, they opened their voices and they were singing praises unto the Lord at midnight. And then there was the first prison ministry, right.
Mike Clement
There you go. Third thing we have is two primary goals of music and worship are, first of all, to praise and glorify God. And secondly, to encourage and exhort other believers. I'm reading a book right now by A.W. Tozer. Tozer wrote that serious students of God's word should equip themselves with a good translation of the Bible and a hymn book. And he just emphasized that many of the doctrines of God's word are found in good Godly hymns that were written down through the ages. And so he said that was a great way to learn the truth of God's word is through the hymn book. Another thing, music is used in worship, but it must always reflect the person and character of God. Now there is secular music, there's cultural music, there's just all kinds of different forms of music. But when you talk about what's going to be in church, in worship or, an individual using it for worship, well, that's a whole different level. Mom, when she was a young teenager worked for, American Missionary Fellowship, which was the organization that had Camp Rock at that time. And she was a summer missionary and she was sent out to remote areas to do vacation Bible schools. And it was an all day vacation Bible school. And they did all kinds of things, but one of the things they did was they sang hymns. Well, some of these kids had never been in church, so they didn't know any of the hymns. And she told how with one group, she sang a hymn with them, or a camp song and then said, "Well, what would you like to sing?" And one of the little boys said, "Jimmy, Crack Corn," There's nothing wrong with secular music and things that are not sacred. But when you're talking about in the worship service, when you're worshiping the Lord, either in a service with other people or by yourself, then it ought to reflect the character of God.
And what we find in Isaiah 6, is Isaiah is caught up into the throne room of God. And he sees things that he can't even describe and he is struck with his own sinfulness. One of the things he says though, is he sees angels on either side of the throne of God, and they're calling to one another. Holy holy, holy. And there are a lot of hymns that talk about the holiness of God. Holiness, actually has the connotation of something that is different and something that is set aside from other things, and God is different from his creation. There is a view of God called pantheism, which says that God is in everything, He's in the rocks, He's in the trees, He's in the birds. And there are people that get all off on that kind of thing. You know, God is in nature. God is outside, he's in our world, but He's outside of our world. He is not part of creation. He created creation, he made the universe. And it also has the idea of being separate and separation is always separate from something and separated to something else. And this conference that I went to this weekend, Dave, one of the guys brought that up and he said, "You know," he said, "Sometimes in our circles, we get all hung up about separation. Oh, we need to be separate from this and separate for that." He said, "We got it backwards. We need to be separated unto God. And if we're separated under God, then some of these other things just need to fall by the wayside. They they need to be taken out of our life so that I'm more dedicated and more separated for the Lord. And I really like that music in worship is to always reflect the person of God, the character of God and the truth of God's word. I remember years ago there was a very popular song and, I like it. It's a Christian song, but some people had some problems with the theology in it. They didn't think that it was accurate theology, and they expressed that to the writer. And the writer's response was, well, this is the way that God gave it to me. Well, I don't have a problem with the song, but I really didn't like his answer. Seriously, he's kind of elevating his songwriting to the level of the inspiration of God's word. God's word is inspired, God's word is without error, God's word is God's truth. God may move us to do something and encourage us, and bring things to mind, but good music needs to always be in agreement with God's word. And if it's not, then it's not good music, right. There's a problem with it. Well, a couple of other things at the end, not all old music is good. We were, we were in a church in New Jersey and they had a choir, bless their hearts. They would just be up there just singing away. I couldn't understand what they were singing. It wasn't a real good choir. In fact, if I wanted to get anything out of their singing, I had to take my hymn book and find the hymn that they were singing and follow along so I knew what it was. We know a fellow who started a new church over in Wyoming, and he really started a church with a bunch of people that were totally unchurched. He had very little music. They would have one hymn in the worship service and they'd sing it three times cause they didn't know it. And he said he never had just instrumental music because people didn't know the hymns. It didn't mean anything to them. Anyway, not all old music is good. Not all new music is bad. There have been some more recent things, and I'm going to mention Majesty. And somebody's gonna say "gracious that is ancient." Not as ancient as I am now. When that came out, it just really touched my heart, and it focuses on God. And that's something that I didn't put in our little outline here, Dave, but in most hymn books, in the beginning of the hymn book, there is an index, and the index will point out sections that are dedicated. So there's a section for Christmas music. There's a section for the other music. The vast majority of our music written today and written in the past is testimonial, and testimonial hymns are not bad. This is what God means to me. This is what God did for me. But most hymn books have a very small section that's dedicated to worship and that focuses only on the Lord. And I think that's kind of significant anyway. Not all popular music is good, just because people like it doesn't mean that it's good now. They like, it means something to them, but the teaching behind that music and, and the presentation of it, may not be good at all. Music is different from one culture to another. In fact, it's even different in different parts of our own country, where you've got a local flavor. We live in the west and we get a lot more country western stuff. And I never used to listen to bluegrass music, but I've kind of developed a taste for it. I'm enjoying it, the Rochesters and some people that we know. Music is different from one culture to another. And another thing for us to keep in mind is that those who are musicians and singers in the Old Testament were priests. They were priests, they were called of God. Now in the New Testament, it says that all believers are priests. Were a holy people, were a peculiar people, were a royal priesthood. But the whole area of worship in the Old Testament, that was led by Godly people, people that were to know what God's word has to say and be familiar with it. I met a fellow one time who was a part of a music group. And they were a very popular music group, but he shared with me, "If the kids knew the lifestyle that I live off of the stage, they never would listen to what I have to say." And unfortunately that can be true of pastors and preachers as well. So all we're going to do is we're going to look at some hymns that have passed the test of time. They're found in most hymn books, been used by most churches. We intend to look at the stories behind them. And we also intend to look at some of the things that they teach. So that's the game plan. And we were right, Dave, all that we got through was the outline, right?