SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/24/2019
9:58 AM
My Worship Time Focus: To Whom Do
Believers Sing
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
5:19
Message of the verse: “Sing among
yourselves psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, your voices making music in
your hearts for the ears of the Lord!” (Philips).
The
last part of verse 19 answers the question to whom do we sing to, and that is
for the ears of the Lord as seen in the Philips paraphrased Bible. I think that when we sing praises to the Lord
in our churches that we do it to God as an audience of One, even though we do
sing among ourselves. There are other
times in our walk with the Lord that we sing praises to the Lord just because
that is what we desire to do.
Here
is what happened at the dedication of the first temple as seen in 2 Chron.
5:12-13 “12 and all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their
sons and kinsmen, clothed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps and lyres,
standing east of the altar, and with them one hundred and twenty priests
blowing trumpets 13 in unison when the trumpeters
and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to
glorify the LORD, and when they lifted up their voice accompanied by trumpets
and cymbals and instruments of music, and when they praised the LORD saying,"
He indeed is good for His lovingkindness is everlasting," then the
house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud,” and then verse 14 adds “so
that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the
glory of the LORD filled the house of God.”
Verse 14 gives us the fact that the Lord was pleased with their singing
and the playing of the instruments before Him.
MacArthur adds “It should be the heart desire of all Christians that
their praise of God in music, and in every other way, be ‘in unison’ and that they
‘make themselves heard with one voice to praise and glorify the Lord’—because that
is the only way God’s people can acceptably praise and glorify Him.”
7/24/2019 11:37 AM
The
following is a quote from Johann Sebastian Bach, who probably is the greatest
musician of all time and he said “The aim of all music is the glory of God.” I would say that this is a great statement
and something that we can trust. I want
to say that when God created the earth that everything was perfect, but since
sin entered into the world things that God made perfect can become sinful when
used in the wrong way. God gave us food
to eat, yet we can eat too much and cause our bodies to become sick. God gave us the gift of music, and yet when
music is not sung to the glory of God then it is not done for the purpose that God
gave it to us.
We
have been talking and studying about two issues that are controversial and I
have done my best to write what I believe are things that honor God. The drinking of wine and the music that
Christians sing has always been controversial issues within the church and so I
hope the things that I have written on these two subjects will be a help to all
of those who read them.
John
MacArthur concludes this first main section on being filled with the Holy
Spirit with the following “It is not possible to submit the spiritual effects
of music to scientific testing, but it is beyond question that music that
focuses the heart of praising God can help heal the spiritual ills of His
people.”
Today’s quotation is from another
unknown author: “Fear knocked, faith
answered. No one was there.”
7/24/2019 11:52 AM
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