The purpose of church music: The glory of God

-         Rev. Beongun Sun (P.C.K.)

Both the Old and New Testaments display the same purpose in praise:

The people I formed for myself
           that they may proclaim my praise. (Isaiah 43:21)

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. (Ephesians 1:3-6)

Every historic Christian community has praised God through music according to the purpose of creation and salvation. The styles, forms, languages and situations were all different, but one thing was common; they have all sung of the glory, power and grace of God (Ephesians 5:19).

It is very interesting to study how music—especially what we call ‘church music’—has been accepted in worship services.

In the Medieval Catholic era, church music held an essential role in liturgy. So they established music school (schola cantorum) to teach music and nurture professional musicians. However, in Protestantism, the Word of God was the most important. The motto ‘scripture alone!’ was not only Luther’s motto; the importance of the word (sermons) was emphasized by Calvin, and Zwingli maximized this emphasis on scripture. Therefore, when we study their attitudes towards worship music in their sermons, Calvin limited church music to Psalms in single notes, while Zwingli did not allow any music during the worship service.

No one could oppose this trend until recent times. Therefore, it was understood that the role of music in a worship service was to serve the sermon and to prepare the congregation to receive the Word. However, in modern days, there is one noticeable phenomenon. The role and importance of singing is not only increasing, but also being maximized. This phenomenon is more evidenced in churches that prefer modernized worship styles than churches that have traditional worship services. In modern worship services, music has basically been divided into two parts: the tunes and the words. The music leader’s role is more important than ever, and the role of singing is expanded.

Unfortunately, when worship music is emphasized too much, the balance of worship is broken and faces theological criticism. The problem is that modern music tends to be more man-centered music. Dae Kwon Kim points out that these modern worship songs are very emotional.

We need to be free from sentimentalism which focuses on expressing the emotional experience of worship. Of course it is possible to change our hearts, but having this experience as the goal of worship should be avoided. Rather, we need to focus on a life filled with the Holy Spirit for renewal of our emotions.

If the music in worship is intended to lead to celebration or an emotional atmosphere, it already has lost its validity. It is because the true value of worship music is to remember and to commemorate God, the object of the worship. When the Levites sang before the ark of the Lord, the Bible describes their intention as “… to record the Lord” (1 Chronicles 16:4). The Hebrew verb ‘to record’ is zakar, meaning to remember, think or commemorate. Zakar indicates that music does not just have emotional value. Music is emphasizing meditation, appreciation and commemoration of the Almighty God who rules and leads with unchangeable justice and love. (Dae Kwon Kim, 2008: 31-32)

Abraham Kuyper said, “True religion is not man-centered but God-centered, and does not exist for man but for God”. In the same way, Robert E. Webber pointed out that one of the problems with modern worship is it attempts to “satisfy the secret happy life”. He stressed that worship should change from anthropocentrism (man-centered) to complete theocentrism (God-centered). “When we forget the joy of God in order to pursue the joy of being blessed, worship can be nothing but self-centered worship” (DaeKown Kim, 2008: 24-25, requoted).

We have to remember that worshippers can experience the joy and restoration of grace as a result of worship, but that should not be the goal of worship. This problem is not limited to music. However, music has the elements which lead people into temptation. It is an undeniable fact that music is directed toward man. Music without theology or the philosophy of the church becomes music for man (Amos 6:5).

I would like to find answers to the problem of man-centered church music by asking the following questions. First, what is the purpose of church music? Second, what is the direction of church music? Third, how can we harmonize the glory of God and man’s response? Fourth, what is the glory of God and what are worship and praise? Lastly, how do we handle the glory of God in church music?

Music which glorifies God only

Soli Deo Gloria. This is a phrase that Johann Sebastian Bach wrote on all of his works. As a Lutheran church member, he dedicated music only to serve God and was interested in the glory of God.

Dr. Albert Schweizer, a Bach-researcher and organist, praised Bach when he said, “Bach is the end of music. No one can lead but, everything is led by him.” Also, Ludwig Van Beethoven said that Bach was not a stream (the word Bach means stream) but an ocean. Thus Bach is recognized as an important composer in western music history; at the same time, he was a church musician who wrote valuable church music such as Mass, Passion and Oratorio. He wrote 300 chorals, which are the core of Protestant music; 200 of them have survived to this day.

The reason I am paying attention to Bach is because I believe that there are a lot of things to learn about music, more specifically worship music, from him. Church music has to be right in two aspects. One aspect is the lyrics, and the other aspect is the tune which expresses the lyrics. Church songs with excellent lyrics don’t always have excellent tunes; not all beautiful church tunes express right theology or faith in the lyrics.

Bach is outstanding because his church music satisfies both aspects. As he composed the Passion or Cantata, he broke boundaries and formality and opened a new world. These characteristics are found in both lyrics and music.

When we speak of lyrics, pre-Bach music was limited to using Bible verses, while Bach used lyrics which express the truth of Christian theology poetically. Bach’s personal conviction is best expressed in Cantata. The word cantata was first used regarding Lutheran Church music by Erdamn Neumeister (1671-1756), who was a pastor and a poet. Bach added music to many of Neumeister’s writings. Cantatas were an innovative beginning to a new music era; they were a departure from early Lutheran church music which only used the scriptures in their music, such as Heinrich Schutz(1585-1672) did. Departing from using scripture directly could seem to be going in the wrong direction, but the words Bach used in his cantatas are so outstanding that they are acknowledged as musical masterpieces which express the truth of Christianity in music.

Bach used words and melody similar to those of traditional Lutheran choruses, and although the congregation did not sing along together with the choir, the Cantata was recognized as worship (Andrew Wilson-Dickson, 2001: 95).

Not only that, Bach was more interested in the expression of faith rather than in the expression of beauty. We can see his musical viewpoint from the next statement:

In order to work toward the goal, in other words, in order to create well-organized church music, for the glory of God... the ultimate purpose and objective of all music is glorifying God and regenerating the heart. If music does not demonstrate this, it is not true music, it is only the noise of the devil. (Andrew Wilson-Dickson, 2001: 95-96)

The intention of Bach’s music is well expressed though his typical symbolical and emotional style. Such a technique, which expresses emotion through music, is called figurenlehre; a technique which relates a figure to a concept. This type of figure is symbolical, which Bach typified.

Just like his contemporaries, Bach had accepted this theory and applied it to church music. This characteristic is noticeable in his passions and cantatas, where music helps and assists lyrics in order to make messages audible and visible through music. Regarding affektenlehre, which expresses emotion, Bach stated that:

“Joy enlarges the spirits of our life, therefore, it is best expressed through interval. On the other hand, sadness is when small parts in our body are shrinking, therefore, a narrow interval is the most appropriate.” (Andrew Wilson-Dickson, 2001:97, re-quoted)

In handling church music, we cannot take Bach’s point of view lightly when he wanted to glorify only God though every musical element.

The glory of God and man’s Response: The perspective of contrafunctus

The most noticeable characteristic of Bach’s music is that melodies are contrasting, antithetical, similar and conflicting to one another. This type of music is called contrafunctus. The origin of this music can go back to the 9^th century. This was developed to be the cantus firmus from the Gregorian Chant, and further developed to be a contrasoggetto, in which one or more voices are performed at the same time. This was further developed, and in the 18^th Century tonal contrafunctus was established.

Bach had maximized all possible contrafunctus, including fugue. Bach’s music has been standardized these days. (Music Encyclopedia, 1989: 256)

As Bach’s music symbolizes the instability of human relationship, the stability of the kingdom of God and desire for oneness, it transforms horizontal varsity (many voices) into a vertical oneness (well-structured harmony). (Andrew Wilson-Dickson, 2001; 96)

What is interesting is that Dietrich Bonhoeffer described the true nature of Christ or life model of Christian life through polyphony, especially contrafunctus.

I hope you love God and his eternal nature from your heart. That love does not weaken or hurt the love of the world. Rather, this is like the love as a kind of cantus firmus which play along as the other counterpoint plays. The love of the world is perfectly independent, but works as a theme of counterpoints. When cantus firmus is clear and firm, counterpoints can be performed to its full potential. Counterpoints and cantus firmus are like the human nature and the divine nature of Christ in the Creed Chalcedon; they are inseparable, yet distinctive. The multi-voice in music is like the nature of Christ; therefore, the nature of Christian life. Isn’t that the reason that it is familiar and important to us? (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1995:171)

Bonhoeffer must have understood the cantus firmus as the divine nature of Christ or the love God in the Song of Songs. And he understood counterpoint as the human nature of Christ or the faith and love of Christians in response to the love of God. As the human nature and divine nature of Christ are independent yet inseparable, cantus firmus and counterpoint in contrafunctus are independent yet inseparable; when they are separated, they lose their meaning and value. Understanding this, he advised his friend who visited him at a prison:

What I want from you is playing the cantus firmus right. Then, complete and full sound will be made, and you will understand that counterpoint is always being supported... You will understand that when cantus firmus is in counterpoint, its life become complete. At the same time, when the cantus firmus is firmly maintained, no trouble will ever occur… Also, when the day comes where they have to be separated, do not hate or fear the dangers as a result of it, but trust cantus firmus. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1995:172)

Using cantus firmus, Bonhoeffer is advising his friend to reveal the will of God through his life and completely trust God without fearing the sufferings.

According to the viewpoints and understanding of Andrew Wilson-Dickson and Bonhoeffer regarding the glory of God, cantus firmus is a good spectrum to use to understand human or church benefits. This means cantus firmus can be a tool to verify the direction and purpose of church music. In other words, this is related to the question of which direction church music should take between horizontal or vertical.

The Bible does not insist on one way. However, skewed men are breaking the balance and focusing on only one of the two.

God wants to use his glory as the cantus firmus, and human response to the counterpoints. This is evident in the message of loving God and loving other people, the glory in heaven and peace on earth.

Therefore, one thing we have to remember is that, as Bonhoeffer said, we need to play cantus firmus definitely and clearly in order to firmly support counterpoint. It is important to be benefitted through music, but, the first priority in church music is glorifying, honoring and pleasing God our Father.

The glory of God, worship and praise in the Bible and etymology

The word ‘glory’ generally refers to wealth and possessions, success and fame arising from ability. However, in Christianity, the meaning of this word is far greater. The word kavod in Hebrew means ‘heaviness’ and a lump. In the Semitic language, what is heavy is important and valuable (Christian Sentence Encyclopedia Volume 15, 1994: 398).

Dr. Stuart Sacks also explained the word ‘glory’ that Hebrew uses in regard to the glory of God:

This word has the meaning of ‘heaviness’. The characteristics of this age is the weightlessness in the concept of God. This tendency is apparent in the songs people sing, in their prayers and in their attitudes. However, in Israel, the weightiness of God is felt in everything he does and his existence. The glory of God that the Israelites witnessed in Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:16) was enough to fill the whole world. The kavod (glory) which was revealed though the Messiah, the Son of God, can be acknowledged by everyone who believes in the salvation of God... What was applied to the believers in the 1^st century is also equally applicable today. When we face sufferings of life, we have to focus on our glorious God. John Owen, a great Puritan in the 17^th century, pointed this out when he said, “In my experience, we can estimate how far one will fall in growth and glory based on how much he meditates the humanness and glory of Christ”. (Stuart Sacks, 2006: 25)

The word ‘worship’ itself also reveals the worthiness of the one who is worshipped, which means we can worship him by ascribing and proclaiming the highest honor to him only when we acknowledge the worthiness of him.

We can find the same principle in many Hebrew words for ‘praise’. First of all, the word halal in the word hallelujah means to give compliment or to boast and to congratulate. The next most common word is yada. This word came from yad, which means to lift up hands to praise, to raise two hands and to thank God. So this word was often translated ‘to give thanks’. And the word barak means to bless, to kneel, and to praise. Myung Hwan Kim said the meaning of the word barak is closer to the meaning of ‘to bless with singing’ than ‘to praise’. He teaches that the meaning of kneeling down in this word suggests what is significant in praise. Shabah and rum are other words translated as ‘to praise’. The word shabah is used in the context to express the power and glory of Jehovah and his holiness, while the word rum means high, which implies that the true nature of praise is an act to uplift God (Myung Hwan Kim, 1999: 21-27).

Through the etymological study of the words glory, worship, and praise, we can understand the worthiness of God and realize that we need to worship and praise his glory according to his worthiness. Psalm 96 helps us to understand these three words:

For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
    he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the nations are idols,
    but the Lord made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before him;
    strength and glory are in his sanctuary.

Ascribe to the Lord, O families of nations,
    ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
    bring an offering and come into his courts.
Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness;
    tremble before him, all the earth. (Psalm 96:4-9)

In this passage, the word translated as worship is histahawah, which literally means to lie on the ground face down. According to this Psalm, the reason we have to praise is the glory of God. Worship is serving God who has glory and power and deserves our service.

Based on Bach’s contrafunctus music and the etymological study of the word glory, I conclude that the principles of church music can be summarized in two parts:

1.      The purpose in the vertical direction. First, church music has to be God-centered music. Second, church music has to be for God. Third, church music has to be about God.

2.      In the horizontal direction, the following conditions have to be met. First, secular things cannot be the goal or in the center. Second, church music has to testify the gospel of Jesus Christ. Third, church music has to be prophetic proclamation for Christians and the world.

God-centered music and prophetic proclamation in music

Robert E. Webber said, “The focus of worship is not on human experience, lecture or religious pleasure, but on the life of Christ and his death and resurrection for salvation” (Dae Kwon Kim, 2008: 76). This view of worship agrees with Paul when he repeats three times in Ephesians 1 that we need to praise the glory of God in Jesus Christ. That is the purpose for which God called us and saved us.

This confession and thanksgiving can be expressed through music, but it is explicitly expressed through the Word. Therefore, church music focuses not on the music that touches human emotion but on the Word. Musicians need to be educated about this. Regarding this, Patrick Kavanaugh said, “Christian music does not cease to exist if it does not have harmony, rhythms, or melody. There is only Christian lyrics with simple music.”

Dae Kwon Kim clearly said that worship music need to focus on the glory of God. Here is his statement:

If the music in worship is for human pleasure, it only generates religious entertainment. Entertainment means diverting or distracting the mind or thinking; it is attempting to divert or distract our mind from the true problems in our lives and, instead, provide a happy feeling temporarily. Worship is an act of enjoying God and rejoicing. Humans can enjoy the joy and delight that comes from worship, but this cannot be the focus of the worship. The purpose of worship is the glory of God only, from beginning to end, therefore if it intends any other purpose or expectation, then it is not true worship. Christians exist fundamentally for the glory of God, purpose of God and joy of God, therefore worship has to focus only on God. (Dae Kwon Kim, 2008: 178)

Another point that we should not miss is that the glory of God should not be limited to church settings or worship. Michael Frost harshly criticized this in his book, Dangerous Memories, Promises, Criticism, Songs and pronounced that the church and Christians should be living missionally for the next generation of Christian culture.

Especially in Chapter 4, the ‘dangerous songs’ he starkly criticized were the overly emotional and soft Christian songs. Frost wrote about a female musician, Billie Holiday. She sang a song called Strange Fruit which vividly describes the social tension of African Americans in the late 1930s in America. To this day, this song is considered as one of the songs that changed America:

Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees. (Michael Frost, 2009: 616-617)

Luther’s first choral started by informing the world what had happened in Netherlands in the form of song. Jung Soo Hong said that the reason he started writing chorals is not because of the idea about worship but because of one incident that he faced in his dramatic life. His composition of hymns began as the gap between Catholicism and Protestantism deepened. The incident that he is talking about is the incident of July 1523, when two monks from the Augustinian Order in Antwerp were burnt when they publicly supported Luther’s teaching.

Luther wrote We are singing a new song, the Lord reigns (Einneues Lied Wirheben an, das waltGottunser Herr)”. He also made flyers and disclosed the evil deeds of Catholic church. Let’s take a look at some of his lyrics:

1. We start a new song. Our God reigns.
For the praise of glory of God, for singing the great things God has done.
Through two young men in Brasher of Netherland
God has revealed his wonderful might.
God gave abundant gifts to young men.

4. They sweet talked, they threatened, they tried to trick.
Young men stood like a wall and despised sophists.
Ancient enemies exhausted
The big enemies were defeated
Out of anger, enemies conspired to burn them.

8. They lit a big fire and brought the young men.
Everyone who hates such pain were surprised.
The young men praised God and joyfully went to the place.
This new fact discouraged sophists.
They showed this to God.

9. They regretted their mockery, and tried to correct it.
They kept this secret and tried to hide it.
Shame bit their hearts, and lamented to their friends.
But, the spirit was not silent.
Abel bleed because Cain betrayed. (Jung Soo Hong, 2002: 277-278)

As Michael Frost has stressed, we need to reveal the glory of God by telling the works of God to the world, because the Word of God is proclaiming this:

“I am the Lord; that is my name!
I will not yield my glory to another
or my praise to idols” (Isaiah 42:8).

Quotations

Dae Kwon Kim, Worship and Music, Seoul: Grisim, 2008.

Myung Hwan Kim, Temple of Praise, Seoul: New Praise Sponsors, 1999.

Jung Soo Hong, Church Music, Worship Music, Praise of Believers, Seoul: Presbyterian Seminary Printing, 2002.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, Prison Epistle, Seoul: Korea Christianity Printing, 1995.

Frost, Michael, Dangerous Church, Seoul: SFC Printing, 2009.

Sacks, Stuart, Book of Hebrews in Hebrews’ Eyes, Seoul: Christian Herald, 2006.

Wilson-Dickson, Andrew, History of Church Music Handbook, Seoul: Word of Life Books, 2001.

Christian Sentence Encyclopedia, Volume 15, Seoul: Bible Research Center.

Music Dictionary, Seoul: Seakwang Music Print, 1989.