THE MINISTRY OF THE HYMN
All
songs or psalms are made up of meaningful words and spiritual music. Hymns are
songs of praise, adoration or the Gospel of God. Secular songs are not hymns
but rather songs or ballads unless they are for honor or praise of a cause or
leader, such as “Hail the Chief”. Secular songs do not engage the same spirit
as do Church hymns and Gospel songs; the spirit of the secular is the spirit of
the world, and therefore in many cases of a fleshy origin, their words bearing
proof of the source.
Hymns
are meant for group or individual edification. Secular songs are intended as
entertainment for a gathering, or for individual preoccupation.
Christian
hymns are intended for corporate participation, which is a ministry for
effective unity of spirit in the Body of Christ, along with the preached Word
of God for the Saints, and the Gospel for the lost. It is an important part of
the Church’s worship and evangelism. Without hymns our churches would grow cold
in spirit.
Hymns
of the Church are not just a New Testament
ministry to God, but the Old Testament Scriptures are replete with
Psalms of praise and adoration, of hope and victory. When David brought the Ark
of the Covenant to the temple of God, there was a great number of musicians
that went in the forefront of the procession. Read the account of King David’s
instructions, following: (1CHRONICLES 15:12-24)
“And (David) said unto
them, Ye are the chief of the fathers of the Levites: sanctify yourselves, both
ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel
unto the place that I have prepared for it.
For because ye did it not at the first, the LORD our God made a breach
upon us, for that we sought him not after the due order. So the priests and the
Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel.
And the children of the Levites bare the ark of God upon their shoulders with
the staves thereon, as Moses commanded according to the word of the LORD. And David spake to the chief of the Levites
to appoint their brethren to be the singers with instruments of musick,
psalteries and harps and cymbals, sounding, by lifting up the voice with joy.
So the Levites appointed Heman the son of Joel; and of his brethren, Asaph the
son of Berechiah; and of the sons of Merari their brethren, Ethan the son of
Kushaiah; And with them their brethren of the second degree, Zechariah, Ben,
and Jaaziel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Unni, Eliab, and Benaiah, and
Maaseiah, and Mattithiah, and Elipheleh, and Mikneiah, and Obededom, and Jeiel,
the porters. So the singers, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, were appointed to sound
with cymbals of brass; And Zechariah,
and Aziel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Unni, and Eliab, and Maaseiah, and
Benaiah, with psalteries on Alamoth; And Mattithiah, and Elipheleh, and
Mikneiah, and Obededom, and Jeiel, and Azaziah, with harps on the Sheminith to
excel. And Chenaniah, chief of the
Levites, was for song: he instructed about the song, because he was skilful.
And Berechiah and Elkanah were doorkeepers for the ark. And Shebaniah, and
Jehoshaphat, and Nethaneel, and Amasai, and Zechariah, and Benaiah, and
Eliezer, the priests, did blow with the trumpets before the ark of God: and
Obededom and Jehiah were doorkeepers for the ark.
Here
we see the honor afforded the presence of God. There was no presumption among
them nor was there a lack of real self or corporate dedication to the purpose
of the gathering, the bringing forward of the Ark, the dwelling place of the
Spirit of God. The best of
what they had in the musical offerings
of the faithful Levites and their instruments was provided. Their duties were
ordered by God’s anointed, King David, the king after God’s own heart, the
representative of the eternal throne of Christ, the anointed One. How proper
that the anointed of God, the King of Israel humbled himself in obedience and
with a repentant spirit to correct the presumption of his earlier mishandling
of the Ark of God.
Our New Testament music ministry has
a similar purpose, our offering to God of joy, victory, honor and reverence. I
recall the great processional hymns of the liturgical churches where order was
expected and manifested. The great organ sounding out with power and
anticipation, the choir proceeding from the Narthex and through the Nave with
the Cross, then the ministers, all in their respective vestments; the call to
the worship of our God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. What a glorious hymn it is,
this processional hymn to the acknowledgement of the presence of our God.
People for some reason tire of
regimen, always looking for something new and different, but somehow seem to
return to the solidness of the same regimen they left. Without spiritual
stability there is no power. That stability is found in words to be the
unchanging Gospel, and in music the unchanging, anointed hymns of the Church.
There is no substitute for either of these two “Word and Spirit” ministry of
the Church, nor can they be separated for they represent in worship “Faith and
Works” which stand together.
Churches may bring in changes from
Church discipline in order to attract people, but what they bring to replace
the irreplaceable will in time fade for lack of spiritual power. The lack of
power is the lack of the Holy Ghost’s presence in the churches who elect to
divert from the steadfast to the temporal. Hip-hop music is hardly able to
replace a hymn, and if the present trend continues, we will see this come to
pass. For the present we have “Christian Rock” and its spirit, a spirit of the
world which cannot substitute for the Spirit of God. So, regardless of the
words of this “Rock” music, there is no power of God’s Spirit present in the
performance of it. Neither does “joyful noise” describe the cadence of “rock”
whose source is the drug dens of the 1960’s, a time of spiritual rebellion
throughout America and since spread to all the listening world.
When the old Christian processional
hymns return to the Church with repentance to God for our carelessness of
worship, we will see a revival that will stir the souls of every true Christian
and move their feet to carry the powerful Word of God to the streets around
them, preaching the loving Gospel of our Lord for the saving of lost souls.
How
will this begin? When you and I call for the old hymn books to be put back in
the racks, and call for the music director to repent of the “rock” music, and
when we ask the Pastor to preach the old solid ways of the Church and repent of
his public speaking exercises that are wrongly called sermons. Revival is
coming, but only if we call for it out of a repentant heart for the apathy we
have displayed in God’s house on the Lord’s Day by not taking our complaints to
God and to the Pastors. We who profess to be Christians will be held
accountable to God for our lack of commitment to His Word and music, our
spiritual food and joy, the power that brings souls to the Cross of our Christ.
WTL Ministry 1/19/03 www.wtlministry.org Help us:www.wtlministry.org/invitationtohelp