Thoughts on Worship Music

With the aim of shaping Christ Church worship more toward God’s preferences than our personal preferences, the elders continue to think through various questions about music. For those interested, here are just a few, recent thoughts along that path.

Discerning theology

Like everything else in Christian living, worship music comes to us in the midst of deep cultural struggles between light and darkness. No aspect of our lives, including our judgments about music, stand alone, untouched by theology. Some theology will always shape our personal judgments about music.

When we find ourselves disliking (or liking) a piece of music, we should try to find the assumptions that guide that particular judgment. Then we should ask ourselves if that assumption is biblical. We’ve absorbed many of our assumptions about beauty from the modern world, a world often hostile to Christianity. Assumptions about simplicity, speed, and time are central to music, and yet these topics are a major source of disagreement between Christianity and non-Christianity.

Modern Assumptions

One of the key modern assumptions that keeps many Christians from appreciating much great music is the simple idea that old is bad and new is good (C.S. Lewis calls this “chronological snobbery”). In an evolutionary world that would be true, but in a biblical world it often gets reversed. Sometimes we’re told to “ask for the old paths, where the good way is” (Jer. 6:16), and sometimes we’re told to avoid the old ways (Heb. 3:9,10). It takes wisdom to discern when to do what, but the modern world is largely dedicated to whatever is the “latest.”

Similarly, modern attitudes like to make light of everything but death. So they can’t imagine using solemn sounds for anything but a funeral. They never think of associating joy and solemnity. So much gloriously solemn music is automatically classified as a dirge or funeral music. But Scripture says that other things, like joy and delight in the presence of God, often demand solemnity too. Psalm 92:3 shows God’s lovingkindess can be expressed “upon the harp with a solemn sound” (cf. Eccl. 7:3,4). A more biblical sensibility discerns between the types of solemnities. Some solemnity is joyful, some full of awe, and some is tragic.  

Of course, personal prejudices can run the other direction too—liking only old music. That’s not our conviction at Christ Church. But the simple fact is that the deepest theological meditations on musical theory and composition come from more mature Christian eras than our own. Modernity is simply not saturated in Christian assumptions about beauty the way the medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation periods were. But that’s not just a prejudice. We all long for the day (and hope for it from our own congregation) when we can compose greater music than past eras. Some of that happens in our own day, but very little, especially in worship music.

Discerning the Beauty

Some of us may have thought through the worldview issues, but we still can’t see the beauty in some older pieces. Of course, every era has plenty of inferior work. But, once again, it’s possible that modernity has prejudiced us to count only surface-level beauty as real beauty. In other words, we discount things that aren’t immediately beautiful to our personal tastes. We can tend to want everything to be immediate and automatic, and we cast off whatever doesn’t instantly please. That is one reason why non-Christians treat Scripture lightly; they refuse to look deeply. They can’t see the beauty in the story, though it jumps out at those who love God. 

We also tend to think that if we’re merely regenerate, then we can easily discern between what is beautiful and ugly. But wisdom always takes time and discipline and pruning. Scripture orders us to “incline your ear to wisdom” (including musical wisdom) and “apply your heart to understanding; . . . If you seek her as silver, and search for her as hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord” (Prov. 2:2-5). Mining takes great labor and exercise. Discerning beauty is like that. It often takes great effort to train ourselves to see profundity.

Rising to the Challenge

Sometimes, though, even if we grasp the complex beauties at work in a piece of music, we get frustrated because of its level of difficulty. Yet here too we need patience and discipline. Reading English was once hard, but we overcame that. Singing shouldn’t come easily. Learning to sing glorious music will take years of education. We rob ourselves of wisdom if we judge a hymn or psalm after one singing. We don’t even truly know it at after only a month of singing. It can require a long period of meditation and work. The worship service itself is an important place for learning new music. After confession and assurance, the focus of worship turns to rebuilding and sanctifying worshipers. Both sermon and song train us up at this time.

Whenever we are weaker in some good thing, we should aim to rise to the challenge. Depending upon where one is, it may mean studying more music, joining a choir, reading more musical history, taking instrument lessons. We have many grand hopes for such things within Christ Church. But whatever it takes, we should all aim to apply ourselves to grow in our worship—“Sing out the honor of His name; Make His praise glorious” (Ps. 66:2).