Moses' Song

Moses' song, recorded in Exodus 15, is the first major song recorded in the Bible. Moses leads the people of Israel in singing this song after they are delivered from Egypt and the Egyptian army is drowned in the Red Sea.

It is a long song (18 verses in our Bibles) and is basically a song rejoicing in God's utter destruction of the evil Egyptians. It can be roughly outlined like this:

I. I will sing to YAWHEH for He has delivered me (1-3)

II. Vivid description of judgment on the Egyptians (4-12)

III. The Nations fear the LORD (13-18)

This song focuses most on points 2 and 4 from my earlier post ("mighty acts of salvation recorded," and "His acts of judgment are rejoiced in") which I believe are the weakest areas in our worship music today. What if people today wrote songs recounting how God has blessed the Church and punished/judged the forces of evil? It is obviously a little easier for Israel in this case since the were the people of God, as a nation, they were all in one location, and God worked very directly in history to save them from the Egyptians. In fact, this event is mentioned in many more songs thoughout the Bible, including Psalms 78, 81, 105, 106, 114, and 135. I have a hard time thinking of how we could write songs for worship today that reference specific salvation events in "modern" history (partly because the Church is so divided...), but I'm sure it is possible.

How many songs do we sing that have lines like these?

"The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. The floods covered them: they went down into the depths like a stone. Your right hand, O LORD, glories in power, your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy. In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble."

This song is about salvation for the people of God, but the other side of that is God's terrible judgment on His enemies. We just don't sing this kind of stuff unless we sing the songs of the Bible! The only way we will be able to write songs like the ones God has given us is if we raise up a generation saturated in these songs from the Bible. Maybe we can only sing slightly odd versions of these songs (I'm for the chant version), but I think that it is most important that we learn these words, these songs that God has given us, and use them as a pattern as we write worship songs for today.

"God's Lyrics"

I haven't posted here for well over a year now! I've been busy graduating, getting married and working and haven't had a lot of time to devote to this area. I've just started reading a book that is reviving my interest and enthusiasm in the area of Church Music.

So far God's Lyrics by Douglas Sean O'Donnell, promises to be a fantastic read. His basic idea is to look at the songs from the Old Testament that God gave to his people, analyze them, and compare them with the songs used in worship over the past century or two. He specifically focuses on a handful of the longer and more prominent songs in the Old Testament including Moses' song of victory after the Egyptians are drowned in the Red Sea, Moses' song he teaches Israel before he dies, Deborah's song, Hannah's Song, and "the Song of Habakkuk." I find it a little odd that he doesn't use a Psalm, but I bet he will address that before the end of the book.

O'Donnell identifies four major themes he claims are the "meat" of the OT songs:

• The LORD is at the center: our God is addressed, magnified, and adored.
• His mighty acts in salvation history are recounted.
• His ways of living are encouraged.
• Finally (and I think most notable for our culture and time), His acts of judgement are rejoiced in.

I think that much of 19th century hymnody is fairly strong on points 1 and 3, but I don't think points 2 and 4 come up much in the worship music I am familiar with.

Hymns vs. Praise Choruses

In my "Music and Christian Faith" class, we are having a lot of discussion about the value/importance/use of hymns and praise choruses. We discuss the content of the two forms, which has more intrinsic value, what worldviews they might promote, what purpose they might fulfill and if the musical setting is even important at all, but while we think about these two forms, I think we take a very narrow view of the options for musical worship. We start to think "Hymns or praise choruses," but I suggest that these are not the only options out there!

The Psalms seemed to be ignored in this debate over hymns and praise choruses, and this puzzles me a little. The Psalms have been the primary source of songs for worship for thousands of years, but they have been largely abandoned in the Evangelical Church today. Complete Psalms have not been set to "chorus" music yet, but they can be sung in metrical styles (like hymns), and plainchant, in monotone chant, or in Anglican chant, all of which are possible for a congregation with a knowledgeable leader and a little practice.

Second, I think we can expand the definition of "hymn." In my class, I think most people are unconsciously defining "hymn" as 18th and 19th century devotional poetry set to 19th century music. Augustine defines "hymn" as "a song in praise of God," which covers a lot more than the common definition above (praise choruses would actually be under Augustine's definition as well). We should expand our thinking about hymns to cover the songs written by men from the Early Church and the Medieval Church. Why limit ourselves to the past 300 years?

It is easy in America today to forget that we, as the people of God, are part of a family that includes Adam, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Ruth, Job, David, Jehoshaphat, Isaiah, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary, Peter, James, John, Paul, Basil, Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory, Anselm, Bonaventure, Josquin, Luther, Calvin, Schutz, Richard Cameron, Bach, John Bradford, George Washington, Haydn, R.E. Lee, Mendelssohn, Jonathon Edwards, Spurgeon, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Van Til, Rushdoony, Jim Jordan, and Dennis Tuuri. When we sing the songs the saints have used throughout the centuries, we remember that we as Christians are here for the long-haul. We can learn from these saints who have gone before. Try to sing songs from across the breadth of Christian history. It will bring that "cloud of witnesses" one step closer.

CREC Memorial on Worship

The Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches has a number of "Memorials" that outline the official position of the the denomination on different issues (abortion, homosexuality, terrorism and other current topics). My pastor (Dennis Tuuri) wrote the majority of the memorial on worship. We have been talking through it the last couple weeks on Sundays. The whole memorial is a little over two pages long, but here is paragraph eight, which is specifically on music:

8. We believe that these portions of the Bible also teach us that each of these glorious aspects of worship are to be set in the context of beautiful music that is maturing in both voice and instrument, to the praise of Christ the King.

Supporting Scripture passages include I Chron. 15:16, 25:6, 7; Ps. 98:4-6; 144:9; 150; Rev. 5:8; 14:2,3; 15:2, 3.

This single sentance covers a lot of ground. 1. What we do in worship is done through music (not all, but most). 2. We aren't making this up. The Bible teaches us to use music, and it has been practiced by the Church through most of history. 3. The music is to be "beautiful," which is hard to define, but it suggests there is some sort of objective standard for beauty that we can work towards. 4. We are to keep maturing. We are to move from glory to glory (II Cor. 3:18) moving towards Christian maturity. God is pleased with simple music if it is the best that can be offered, but you shouldn't stay there. 5. We are to use instruments as well as voices. This is clearly stated throughout the Bible, but especially in the Psalms and in Revelation. If David, a man after God's own heart used instruments (and even invented new instruments!) and instruments are used in heaven, I think we can safely say God is pleased when we use instruments for His praise. 6. Our music is to be made in worship to God. It's primary purpose is not to make us feel good or worshipful, or to make the visitor feel comfortable or good about themselves. Its first purpose is to glorify God through reflecting the Beauty, Goodness and Truth of His character. If it does this properly, it will result in the maturation of the Saints.