Psalm 92:1-8; Col 3:12-17

Now music and love, go together like a hand in a glove, don't they? (And that line illustrates one of the annoying things about songs, doesn't it - the tyranny of Rhyme). Moon always has to rhyme with June, boy with joy, and the Beach Boys made a whole career out of one rhyme - fun and sun!

But in our experience of modern music, music and love, or 'lerv' as most singers seem to pronounce it, are almost always connected. Let's face it, most songs are about 'lerv' aren't they? Romantic love. Passionate love. Unrequited love - that's where you love them but they don't return your love. Love gone wrong. Good love, bad love, secret love, puppy love. We are no strangers to the link between music and love. Mostly it's romantic, boy-girl love, but it also includes family love, patriotic love, songs about people going off to die for their country, or giving their life to save a busload of children, or just loving their best friend or even their dog. Most songs we hear are about love of one kind or another.

But the bible teaches us about a very different kind of love to any human love. It teaches us about the love of God for us in His Son Jesus Christ. It teaches us about the love we share for each other because of God's love for us. We've been looking at that love in this series of talks. We've talked about love and marriage, love and church, and love and money. Tonight it's love and music.

Now I said music and love go together, didn't I? But if that's true, why is it that Christians fight so much over music?! Far from producing love, it seems to me that music too often causes rather a lot of hate! Disputes over what kind of music we have in our gatherings of God's People can be very intense. Music is one thing that seems to bring out the worst ungodliness amongst believers. Why is that? Why do people get so passionate about what style and standard of music we should have, and what kinds of lyrics we should sing in our churches? It's a very important question. That's why I'm going to give you an opportunity to make comments or ask a question at the end of this talk. So if you have a question, write it down, and ask.

I'm going to look at this topic under three headings. God's Love for Us; Our Love For God; and Our Love for One Another. I want to ask, how does the music we listen to and play relate to God's love, our love of Him, and our love for others? How can we make sure that our music teaches us about God's love, helps us to express our love for him, and urges us to love others, both within and outside the church?

First, God's love for us. And the first thing under that heading I want to suggest is that Music is…

Music, like sex, is one of the greatest of God's gifts to humanity in general, and like sex, one that is capable of great misuse and perversion. All music; and all musical talent, is from God. It is a gift of the Holy Spirit in creation. The emotional effects of music on the human soul are a gift from God. Music engages our emotions. This is neither good nor bad in itself. It is a gift from God - he has made us as beings who enjoy being creative like him, and that includes making and listening to music.

Second, music is not just a gift God has given to all humankind in creation. It is especially a gift that He has given to His chosen people in Salvation. It is…

Throughout the Old Testament, there are heaps of references to God's people praising Him in song. Music was always a part of life in God's covenant community. In fact, when God set up his chosen community in the desert under Moses, He instituted music and singing as part of Israel's worship of Him. In the Tabernacle, the movable tent, where the sacrifices were offered, and later in the Temple building, music was a central part of God's Presence with His people. God gave instructions for the Temple worship, and there were various musical instruments, and huge choirs which sang psalms.

The New Testament also shows us music as God's gift to His church. More about that later.

Well let me go on to my third point under the heading of God's love for us, and that is that…

There are many, many songs in the bible. One hundred and fifty of them are in the Psalms, but there are others as well, such as the Song of Moses in Exodus chapter 15, which the Israelites sang after God saved them from Egypt.

Exodus 15 verse 1:

Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD:

‘‘I will sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted.

The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea.

2 The LORD is my strength and my song;

he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him,

my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

The whole song is about how God has loved Israel by saving them from the Egyptians.

In judges chapter 5, Deborah declares what God has done for his people by singing a song. She says, ‘Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers!

I will sing to the LORD, I will sing; I will make music to the LORD, the God of Israel.' And she goes on to praise God for what he has done for His people.

In Isaiah chapter 38, God spared the life of King Hezekiah, and he says in verse 20:

20 The LORD will save me, and we will sing with stringed instruments

all the days of our lives in the temple of the LORD.

In Psalm 57, the psalmist says, "9 I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations;

I will sing of you among the peoples. 10 For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;

your faithfulness reaches to the skies."

Or look at Psalm 92, which was read for us earlier by Simon. Psalm 92

A psalm. A song. For the Sabbath day.

1 It is good to praise the LORD

and make music to your name, O Most High,

2 to proclaim your love in the morning

and your faithfulness at night,

3 to the music of the ten-stringed lyre

and the melody of the harp.

Or Psalm 98:

1 Sing to the LORD a new song,

for he has done marvelous things;

his right hand and his holy arm

have worked salvation for him.

2 The LORD has made his salvation known

and revealed his righteousness to the nations.

3 He has remembered his love

and his faithfulness to the house of Israel;

all the ends of the earth have seen

the salvation of our God.

It's all about the love of God for His people. And most of the songs of the bible are about that. I could spend all night just reading you similar words from the Psalms.

So, music is a loving gift of God in Creation and in Redemption. And we can use music as God's people to talk about His love for us. The songs of the bible declare God's loving actions for His people. Well, what about music and our love for God?

Music is one of the ways He has given us to express our love for Him.

The first thing under this heading I want to say is that…

That is, it's something we do together. It is not just individualistic piety. It is an act of love we participate in together with God's people. Sure, you can praise God with song by yourself, just like you can pray to Him alone. You can be encouraged by listening to a Christian song on your walkman. But the emphasis in scripture is on music as a community activity of God's people.

Psalm 95: Come, let US sing for joy to the LORD;

let US shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.

2 Let US come before him with thanksgiving

and extol him with music and song.

That's something that really struck me very clearly as I looked at dozens of references in the bible to singing and music. Nearly all of them were in the context of great rejoicing and joy. Like in verse 4 of Psalm 92:

"For you make me glad by your deeds, O LORD;

I sing for joy at the works of your hands."

Making music before the Lord is a joyful activity. That's why so many of the old hymn tunes are just woeful. They are like funeral dirges. We should not be afraid of expressing our emotions of joy in our music. But we need to be careful how we use our music in this regard. It is not that we aim to produce an emotion by our music, but that our music expresses the emotions that the gospel produces in us.

We see the relationship between music and emotions in James 5:13. It says "Is anyone happy? He should sing songs of praise." Music should be an expression of the emotion that is already there, not an attempt to manipulate or produce emotion. The emotional response comes from the gospel, not from the music.

Third point under this heading.

Music is an act of love, an expression of our corporate love for God because of His prior acts of love for us. I think you have probably already seen this in the verses I have quoted so far. Let me just give one other example. At the start of Psalm 18, it says, "David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hands of all his enemies... He said, "I love you O Lord my strength." "

In song, we can really pour out our love for God.

Now songs and music are not just expressions of joy. We can use songs as prayers. We can use them in any way that prayers are used.

Many of the psalms of David are like this. Psalm 51 is the great psalm of repentance and confession. In other psalms David pleads for God to save him from his enemies, or merely tells God how he is feeling that day. Songs are a great part of the way we express our relationship with God to him in prayer.

Finally, how do music and songs relate to our love for one another as God's people?

First, Music must serve the pursuit of love and unity. 1 Cor 14:26 "What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.' So our singing, like everything else, must be done to strengthen the church. Not to strengthen our egos, or to make us feel good, but to build the church of God.

Colossians 3: 12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Musical tastes can cause friction amongst believers. But music is meant to be a mere tool to help us serve us each other in love. In our musical tastes, as much as in any area, we ought to be thinking about others, and putting them first, rather than wanting to get our own way all the time. We need to be sensitive to other people's needs. We need to ask, 'what will encourage and lift up this group of people and glorify God. Because friends, that is the bottom line. The purpose of our music is to glorify God and love his people.

Now, there is no such thing as 'godly' music. One musical style is much the same as another. Music is largely a neutral medium. That is, the musical score in itself is neither good nor bad. It is the lyrics, and the social context, that matters. If the words are bad or unhelpful, or if you use the music in a way that is unloving, then it becomes ungodly.

What is unhelpful in music? - songs or music with hopeless tunes. I've already mentioned those old tunes that are so slow and boring and just plain un-joyful. Psalm 98 verse 4 says, "Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music!" But we stand there droning away at some awful 19^th century tune that is supposed to be oh so dignified and sombre.

But there are also those modern tunes that are unsingable for the average person. That's unhelpful too. Too much modern Christian music is written by musicians for musicians. It's not only modern music of course - lots of the old hymns seem to be written for sopranos and choirs to sing in three part harmony.

Congregational songs should be easy to sing. Does that mean we can never use more musically challenging songs in church? Does it mean that our musicians are not allowed to fulfil their potential and use all of the skills they have? Well, it might mean that. Musicians need to realize, as do preachers, teachers, and anyone else that exercises a spiritual gift in the congregation, that they are there to glorify God and serve His people. They are not there for their own fulfilment. However, no that doesn't mean we can only sing simple songs that are not challenging to play. We can save more complicated things for the musicians to present as an item. That will build people up far more than trying to make ordinary people in the church sing songs they don’t have the skill to sing. And of course our own musicians have shown us that in what they did last night at the Jubilee dinner and at this morning's combined service and again here tonight.

What else is unhelpful in church music? Words that are meaningless or hard to understand. We should sing songs that have words that are easy to understand and which glorify God. The lyrics are more important than the tune. I would rather sing a song with a bad tune but that has encouraging and theologically correct words, than a song that is just great to rock along to, but with words that do not teach me the Truth about Jesus.

What else is unhelpful? It is unhelpful to have a monopoly on church music. For several centuries, until a couple of decades ago, church music was trapped in the hands of the organist. It is really great to see the number of congregations who now allow many more than one person to exercise their spiritual gifts of music in the church.

How can we use music to love each other in the church? By singing songs that are easy to sing, that encourage appropriate emotional and intellectual responses to God's grace in Jesus. By encouraging our musically talented people to use those skills to serve God's people. By writing and choosing and playing, songs that clearly glorify God in Jesus.

Ask for questions or comments.

Pray thanking God for the gift of music in Creation and Redemption, and asking Him to help us to use it show our love for Him and to teach and encourage one another.