Why Is Some Music Not Biblical?

Too much rationalization is being used to justify the infusion of many new sounds into church music. It is crucial that we face this truth and take the measures necessary to protect the sacredness of the sounds used by saints in righteous activities.

A lot of music today is neither a product of nor a result from spiritual maturity. Instead, it has the potential of being based solely on its appeal to human motion. Every kind of music appeals to emotions, but when the goal of music is to appeal to human emotion it will always divide believers, never unite them, because of different emotional compositions among listeners. There will never be a single kind of music that appeals to everyone. If we base our church music on what appeals, then we end up like a church that might use one kind of music for those who like serious music and another kind of music for those who like something else—and the church is divided.

In addition, musical sounds have tremendous power to drive human emotions in spite of the words that accompany them. This can be good, as in the case when David played his harp for Saul. Saul was in a place he should not have been, David's music took him to where he was supposed to be. But this driving power of music is precisely why maturity in truth is a prerequisite to the selection of musical forms. About 200 years ago Adam Clarke spoke about music as a language that communicates on a level beyond words. He said, “It is too often the case, that in public worship, men are carried off from the sense of the words by the sounds that are put to them. And how few choirs or singers are there in the universe whose hearts ever accompany them in what they call   ‘singing the praises of God.’”

One of the arguments used in favor of newer forms of Christian music is the good words that accompany them, but the sounds can make a listener miss the words altogether when the sounds are not compatible with the words. The listener can be driven by emotions that make it impossible to appreciate what is being said. Adam Clarke was saying that even in his day music was performance-driven. Their heart was not in it. Their emotion was in it. They were more interested in the praise of men for their performance than they were in expressing the unity of the spirit that already existed in the assembly.

It is essential that we have discernment to select music that drives our emotions in the same direction as the words we use. Instead, too many are accommodating human feelings by attaching indiscriminate sounds to godly words. In doing so, there is great potential that those appealing sounds will drown out the message as they drive emotions in the opposite direction from truth.

Every kind of music drives emotions, regardless of the words. In fact, all sounds, musical or not, drive the emotions. A siren startles us. The droning click of a clock can annoy us. The raising and lowering of the voice affect the listeners’ interpretation of what is being said. How can anyone conclude that musical sounds are neutral?

4000 years ago it was the same. In Exodus chapter 32, Moses was coming down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments on stone tablets. Joshua was waiting for Moses on the lower portion of the mountain. Together they heard the noise of the people worshipping the golden calf. To Joshua, it sounded like the noise of war, but Moses recognized it as the noise of singing. The sounds that were accompanying this sensuous worship of an idol did not sound like worship at all. They were more like the sounds of war.

What does our church music sound like to those listening in from the outside? Will they be sounds that are distinctly reverent and worshipful? Or will they not sound like worship at all but have some other signification, of worldliness and sensuality and irreverence? Those listening from outside the church will be able to tell. Maybe we should be listening to what they are saying.

(Excerpt from the book “God's Song” by Pastor David E. Moss. Complete copies of the booklet are  available here)