I love music. Always have done and always will. Ideally
turned up loud and with me dancing with wild abandon, although I do have my
more chilled moments where I am soothed by an exquisite classical concerto, or
quietly get on with tasks around the house with jazz playing in the background.
Rather like food, music features in all cultures; and plays a central role in many
life events. From the dance-athons that are most wedding receptions to the
funeral dirges sung at our earthly departures, music punctuates it all.
Once, whilst putting together a playlist, I was challenged by a friend, who is new to the
Christo game who said I wasn’t honouring God as I listened to secular music. In
fact a stronger term was used; the devil’s music. Okay, I conceded most of the
love songs did not have as their starting premise a happily married in church couple
who were both virgins on their wedding night. And true, a lot of the hiphop
tracks that had made my selection didn’t depict peaceful tableaux where group
hugs were the order of the day. But to label everything, and I am including the
Contemporary Christian and Gospel music tracks in my list a non-starter seemed
a tad fundamentalist. However, as I researched their points, I found loads of
blogs and websites agreeing with their opinion; that music could only be enjoyed
and consumed if it was worship in its purest sense. And furthermore, any modern
worship songs that sounded similar to whatever was topping the iTunes charts
were also to be treated with suspicion, as they were guilty of mimicking the
very same genres that were not Christ centred and were in fact Team Red’s
aiders and abetters.
Not willing to be defeated I rooted round my bible for a
passage that was entirely focused on worship matters and found a whole psalm
instead:
“Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens. Praise him for
his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness. Praise him with the
sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with
timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, praise him with the clash
of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals. Let everything that has breath
praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.” Psalm
150
The first and last verse immediately brought to mind two
classic tracks: Kurt Carrs’ We Lift Our Hands In The Sanctuary and
Matt Redman’s Let Everything That Has
Breath, but moreover the whole point of worship as an expression of
gratitude, wonder and joy for all that God has done and continues to do in our
lives. The psalmist pretty much lists all the instruments of the time from
trumpets to harps to lyres to cymbals. Would it be too much to not consider
that just as all of the Ancient orchestra is included that every single current genre
out there could be used to create music for God’s glory too? Furthermore
considering content both in terms of inclusion or omission, isn’t music like all
art, a reflection to a greater or lesser degree of who and what we are, and
thus to remove our humanity, in all its messiness and frailty would be disingenuous
when communicating with God? Loving and
following God doesn’t preclude feelings of sorrow or doubt or desperation. In
fact, the Psalms, the original worship songs if you like, run the gamut of
human emotions, with entreaties of death and destruction for enemies also
getting a hearing! And as we return to Psalm 150 with its mention of dancing,
one can’t help but think that the whole passage has an open tone to it, and
that’s at the heart of worship – a willingness to meet with God as you are.
I feel that decrying contemporary Christian music misses its
purpose. It sounds like everything else, because like Jesus it is meant to meet
people where they’re at and give them a glimpse of what’s to come. The magic or
rather the mission comes in the lyrics, all focused on Jesus, the one who surpasses
and easily meets all of our human needs. So, if you like early Mumford and Sons you’ll
love Tim Hughes, if you love the Afro-Pop of Chidinma then check out Sinach and
who can’t resist Michelle Williams’ Say Yes
which featured her former Destiny’s Child band-mates Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland
and sounds as good in a church as it does a club? As the 19th
Century English Non-Conformist Reverend Rowland Hill said in his most quoted sermon; “The Devil should not have all the best
tunes.” God, the author and perfector wins every time.
