–Pastor Mark Minnick, Sunday PM message, “Preachers and Missionaries UK 2023,” 8/20/23
I believe that these statements very insightfully express what really is at the heart of so many of the worship music issues in our day.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
I recently asked elsewhere online the following question:
Is there one verse or passage that you believe is the key to a fully biblical approach to acceptable music for corporate worship?
So far, I have received the following responses:
2 Chron 29:20-36, tells what kind of instruments.. the golden calf incident tells what methods were horrific to God.
I Corinthians 14, talks about music styles (March music styles influencing preparation for a battle) being distinctive and precise and significant.
No.
I would love to hear from the readers of my blog what their thoughts are about the answer to this question.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
For many months now, the focus of my study of what the Bible reveals about music has been on what it says about percussion instruments. To that end, I have been involved in two ongoing discussions on Sharper Iron:
Did the Israelites Use Drum-Like Instruments in the Worship in the Solomonic Temple?
Shamanism, Percussion, and First Corinthians 6:12
As God directs, I invite you to consider what has been discussed in these threads.
See also:
Are All Kinds of Percussion Acceptable to God for Use in Corporate Worship?
A Biblical Response to Robert Bakks on Percussion Instruments in Psalm 150
Image credit: Image was cropped from Image from page 330 of “The pictorial Bible and commentato… | Flickr
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Yesterday morning, I finished reading the book of Psalms for the twelfth time this year. I now have read the book 100 times in my life! Praise God!
| Year(s) | Times That I Read the Psalms |
| 1990-2011 | 25 |
| 2012 | 25 |
| 2013 | 1 |
| 2014 | 1 |
| 2015 | 1 |
| 2016 | 3 |
| 2017 | 4 |
| 2018 | 6 |
| 2019 | 4 |
| 2020 | 5 |
| 2021 | 8 |
| 2022 | 5 |
| 2023 | 12 |
| Total | 100* |
*I have read the Psalms through 96x in English, 2x in the Septuagint, and 2x in Spanish (Reina Valera – 1x; LBLA – 1x).
Schedule for Reading through the Psalms in a Week
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
I am getting closer to finishing the first draft of my book, “The Battle for Kingdom Music: A Call to Worldwide Consecration”!
Here is the current layout of the book:
| Section | Page Numbers | Total Pages |
| Title Page | i | 1 |
| Preliminary | ii-iv | 3 |
| Table of Contents | v-xi | 7 |
| Introduction | 1-3 | 3 |
| Part I | 4-12 | 9 |
| Part II | 13-32 | 20 |
| Part III | 33-60 | 28 |
| Part IV | 61-76 | 16 |
| Conclusion* | 77 | 1 |
| Appendices | 78-104 | 27 |
The page counts are for 8.5×11 pages, font size 12. The total length is 42,527 words on 115 pages.
*I have not done very much with this section yet and plan to work on it a good bit more.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Psalm 22:22 I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
Psalm 22:25 My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation: I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
Hebrews 2:11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12 Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee
The NT teaches us in Heb. 2:11-12 that Psalm 22:22 (and 22:25, based on the flow of thought in Ps. 22) are foremost the words of the Messiah!
We should also notice carefully that the NT quotation of Ps. 22:22 has “will I sing praise unto thee,” whereas Ps. 22:22 has “will I praise thee.”
Based on how the NT uses the OT in this passage, we learn a glorious truth—Christlikeness in corporate worship is to sing praise to God in the great congregation!
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
The Bible speaks about drum-like instruments in 16 verses.
Gen. 31:27 Wherefore didst thou flee away secretly, and steal away from me; and didst not tell me, that I might have sent thee away with mirth, and with songs, with tabret, and with harp?
Exod. 15:20 And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.
Jdg. 11:34 And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter.
1 Sam. 10:5 After that thou shalt come to the hill of God, where is the garrison of the Philistines: and it shall come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp, before them; and they shall prophesy:
1 Sam. 18:6 And it came to pass as they came, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tabrets, with joy, and with instruments of musick.
2 Sam. 6:5 And David and all the house of Israel played before the LORD on all manner of instruments made of fir wood, even on harps, and on psalteries, and on timbrels, and on cornets, and on cymbals.
1 Chr. 13:8 And David and all Israel played before God with all their might, and with singing, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.
Job 21:12 They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ
Ps. 81:2 Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.
Ps. 149:3 Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.
Ps. 150:4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
Isa. 5:12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.
Isa. 24:8 The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
Isa. 30:32 And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.
Jer. 31:4 Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.
Ezek. 28:13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
In his work, “Music Through the Eyes of Faith,” Harold M. Best asserts the following:
When people say that rhythms, chords, or textures cause sexual license, violence, or drug abuse; whenever anybody—missionary or tribal person—says that certain kinds of music or rhythmic types are satanic, they are caught up in the same dilemma that Isaiah speaks of (chapter 44). There is really no difference between someone carving a god out of what otherwise is a piece of firewood and someone else who happens upon or makes a certain kind of music, expecting it to govern the actions of those hearing and using it.
—Harold M. Best, Music Through the Eyes of Faith, 48-49
I believe that Best is profoundly mistaken in what he says about “satanic music” through these statements. As a finite human, he has no capability to legitimately declare what he does concerning satanic music.
See my post Resources That Provide Answers to Key Issues Concerning CCM for much more biblical information about issues concerning what music God accepts in corporate worship.
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Scripture reveals that humans can hear some supernatural musical sounds and correctly know that they are musical sounds, as the following two points show that I wrote elsewhere some time ago:
1. At Sinai, no humans were allowed to come near the mount, but trumpet sounds proceeded out from Sinai that were humanly heard and recognized to be trumpet sounds:
There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount. (Exod. 19:13)
And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled. (Exod. 19:16)
And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. (Exod. 19:19)
And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. (Exod. 20:18)
2. John heard the sound of harpers harping with their harps in heaven:
And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: (Rev. 14:2)
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
A little over four years ago, in an online discussion, I wrote the following in a comment entitled, “Single Musical Tones Were Not Humanly Created.” These points teach us why single musical tones are intrinsically moral:
See also, Assigned Musical Meanings and Christian Use of Rock Music
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
Rajesh Gandhi holds a Ph.D. in New Testament Interpretation from Bob Jones Seminary; he's a long-time member of Mount Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, SC.
