A People for His Name

An Unexpected Benefit of Spanish Bible Study!

February 4, 2013

I just finished reading and translating through Matthew in the Spanish RVR60. In this translation, Matthew 16:23 reads,

Pero él, volviéndose, dijo a Pedro: ¡Quítate de delante de mí, Satanás!; me eres tropiezo, porque no pones la mira en las cosas de Dios, sino en las de los hombres.

While translating this verse, I looked up poner in my Spanish dictionary to see if there might be some idiomatic expression used here that I did not know about. Not finding any such idiom, I then looked up mira and found the help that I was looking for:

“poner la mira en : to aim at, to aspire to”

Using this basic idea, I translated the latter part of the verse as follows: “because you are not aiming at or aspiring to the things of God, but the things of men.” Immediately, Colossians 3:2 came to my mind, so I checked the Spanish rendering of the verse to see if the Spanish might use the same idiom there:

^R60Col 3:2 Poned la mira en las cosas de arriba, no en las de la tierra.

To my great delight, I discovered that both verses used the same idiom! By reading Matthew 16 in Spanish, the Spirit thus quickened my mind to connect two passages that I do not remember ever connecting previously.

I had read the KJV of both passages numerous times before but not connected (as far as I can remember) the verses, perhaps because they use different expressions (in bold):

Matt. 16:23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Col 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

The relevant parts of the Greek text of both passages, however, do read similarly, so I could have made the connection in the previous times that I have read the Greek NT:

^SCRMat 16:23 ὁ δὲ στραφεὶς εἶπε τῷ Πέτρῳ, Ὕπαγε ὀπίσω μου, Σατανᾶ, σκάνδαλόν μου εἶ· ὅτι οὐ φρονεῖς τὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ τὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων.

^SCRCol 3:2 τὰ ἄνω φρονεῖτε, μὴ τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς.

At least on this occasion, the Spirit thus used my studying the Spanish RVR60 to illumine my mind to see parallel ideas that are in the Greek text and also are in the KJV through the use of conceptually similar wording (savour . . . the things vs. set your affection on things).

From my studying these passages in Spanish and English, God challenged me that I need to set my mind on the things of God, especially on the things that are above. I also learned that studying the Spanish Bible can help me see things that I have not previously seen in Scripture through my study of it in English and Greek!

In Bible reading, Biblical Languages, Spanish

The Profound Emphasis in the Psalms on Human Enmity against God and His People

February 2, 2013

Sacred history records that God’s people have experienced profound enmity from people virtually throughout human history. At least 218 verses in 91 Psalms speak directly about human enmity against God and against other humans, especially the righteous.

This profound emphasis in the Psalms should instruct us to give careful and thorough attention to this subject. At a time when it seems that open persecution of righteous people may soon take place here in the U.S., we who know God should immerse ourselves in the teaching of the Psalms about this vital topic.

To that end, I have compiled these references and listed them with a new line for every ten Psalms:

Ps. 2:2; 3:1, 6, 7; 4:2; 5:8, 10; 6:7, 10; 7:1, 4, 5, 6, 13; 8:2; 9:3, 6, 9;

Ps. 10:2, 5, 8, 18; 11:2; 12:5; 13:2, 4; 14:4; 15:3, 5; 17:7, 9; 18:1, 3, 17, 37, 39, 40, 43, 48;

Ps. 21:8, 11, 12; 22:12; 23:5; 25:2, 19; 27:2, 3, 6, 11, 12;

Ps. 30:1; 31:8, 11, 13, 15, 18; 35:1, 3, 4, 7, 15, 19, 20, 21, 26; 36:11; 37:12, 20; 38:16, 19, 20;

Ps. 40:14; 41:2, 5, 7, 9, 11; 42:9, 10; 43:1, 2; 44:5, 7, 10, 16, 24; 45:5;

Ps. 50:20; 53:5; 54:3, 5, 7; 55:3, 12, 18, 20; 56:1, 2, 5, 9; 57:3; 59:1, 3, 10;

Ps. 60:12; 61:3; 62:3; 63:9; 64:1; 66:3; 68:1, 21, 23; 69:4, 12, 18, 19, 26;

Ps. 70:2; 71:4, 10, 11, 13; 72:4, 9; 73:8, 9, 14; 74:3, 4, 10, 18, 21, 23; 78:42, 53, 66; 79:1;

Ps. 80:6; 81:14; 82:3, 4; 83:2, 3, 5, 15; 86:14; 89:10, 22, 23, 42, 51;

Ps. 92:9, 11; 94:21; 97:3;

Ps. 102:8; 103:6; 105:24; 106:10, 11, 42; 107:2, 39; 108:13; 109:2, 3, 4, 16, 20, 29;

Ps. 110:1, 2; 112:8; 118:7, 10, 11, 12, 13; 119:23, 69, 84, 86, 98, 121, 122, 134, 139, 157, 161;

Ps. 120:2; 123:4; 124:2, 3; 127:5; 129:1, 2;

Ps. 132:18; 136:24; 137:3, 7, 8; 138:7; 139:20, 21, 22;

Ps. 140:1, 4; 141:9; 142:3, 6; 143:3, 9, 12; 144:7, 8; 146:7

In Exposition

Learning from Isaiah’s Remarkable Dedication to Divine Service

January 30, 2013

Isaiah 20 provides a striking account of the willingness of a servant of God to do His will:

Isa 20:1 In the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod, (when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him,) and fought against Ashdod, and took it;

² At the same time spake the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

God spoke to His servant, Isaiah, to walk around naked and barefoot! Was Isaiah, in fact, actually required by God to be naked to in his service to God? The following verses explain the remarkable dedication that he had to have at this time:

Isa 20:3 And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia;

⁴ So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.

That Isaiah’s service to God involved actual nakedness at least to some extent[1] is made clear by the comparison that the Lord makes (“Like . . . So . . .” [20:3-4]) between what he did for three years (20:3) and what would happen to the Egyptians and the Ethiopians who would be taken captive by the king of Assyria—they would go into captivity “even with their buttocks uncovered” (20:4) to their shame!

Noting the extremely humiliating nature of the service that God called Isaiah to render to Him should challenge us to do readily whatever God may call us to do for Him, even though it may be quite challenging in various ways.

[1] “For three years Isaiah did not wear his outer garment of sackcloth (also the attire of Elijah, 2 Kings 1:8), or his sandals. (He was not completely naked.)” (John A. Martin, BKC: OT, 1067; emphasis in original). “Isaiah is to walk about partially naked and barefoot, v. 2.” (Peter A. Steveson, A Commentary on Isaiah, 167).

In Exhortation

Behold! Jesus Has a Profound Relationship with His Churches!

January 25, 2013

Revelation 2-3 provides striking information about the ongoing relationship between the glorified Jesus and His churches. Walking among His churches (Rev. 2:1), He knows them profoundly (Rev. 2:23).

If you belong to any kind of church that professes to be one of His churches, you would do well to meditate on all that Jesus knows about you and your church:

He knows the leaders of the churches (Rev. 2:1; 3:1)
He knows the works of all those who are in His churches (Rev. 2:2, 9, 13, 19, 22, 23; 3:2, 8, 15)
He knows of those who cannot bear evil people (Rev. 2:2)
He knows of their efforts in dealing with false teachers in the churches (Rev. 2:2)
He knows the profound dedication to His name that some in His churches have (Rev. 2:3, 13; 3:8)
He knows their minds and hearts (Rev. 2:4, 10, 23; 3:16)
He knows the causes of the problems that all who are in His churches have (Rev. 2:4, 20; 3:2, 15, 17)
He knows the solutions for their problems (Rev. 2:5, 10, 16; 3:2, 3, 18, 19)
He knows their righteous hatred of the deeds of evil people (Rev. 2:6)
He knows the importance of their overcoming (Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26: 3:5, 12, 21)
He knows their past, present, and future (Rev. 2:4, 10, 13, 19; 3:5, 10)
He knows their enemies, both human (Rev. 2:2, 10) and supernatural (Rev. 2:10, 13)
He knows the blasphemies of their enemies (Rev. 2:9)
He knows their sufferings (Rev. 2:13)
He knows those among them who hold to false doctrines (Rev. 2:14, 15) and those who are false teachers (Rev. 2:20)
He knows who are His bondservants (Rev. 2:20)
He knows those among them who have accepted the false doctrines of the false teachers among them (Rev. 2:22, 23)
He knows those who have not known the depths of the false teaching that some have taught among them (Rev. 2:24)
He knows who among them are not true believers (Rev. 3:1)
He knows the weaknesses of those who are in His churches (Rev. 3:2)
He knows their failures (Rev. 2:4, 14, 20; 3:2)
He knows what they have received and heard (Rev. 3:3)
He knows when those who refuse to get right with Him will not be watching for His coming (Rev. 3:3)
He knows those who have not soiled their garments (Rev. 3:4)
He knows those who will be worthy of walking with Him in glory (Rev. 3:4)
He knows those whose names are in the Book of Life (Rev. 3:5)
He knows what open doors He has set before those who are in His churches—doors that no one can shut (Rev. 3:8)
He knows what their enemies know and who they really are (Rev. 3:9)
He knows the faithfulness of those who have devoted themselves to Him (Rev. 2:13; 3:10)
He knows what all the people who are in His churches do not know about their own true state before Him (Rev. 3:17)
He knows those who are zealous for His sake and those who are not (Rev. 2:3, 19; 3:15, 16, 17, 19)
He knows the glories that await those who are truly His, which they have no ability to know about apart from what God has revealed to them in His Word (Rev. 2:7, 10, 11, 17, 26, 27, 28; 3:4, 5, 9, 11, 12, 21)

Because of Jesus’ amazingly profound relationship to His churches, we who are in His churches should commit ourselves wholly to the cause of Christ’s glory in the world through His churches!

In Exhortation, Exposition

"Amor, Amor" in my simple number format for guitar

January 23, 2013

Here is a PDF for playing a simple Spanish hymn, Amor, Amor, in my simple number format for guitar.

In Guitar Music, Spanish

Learning from A Conversation between Two Babies in the Womb!

January 19, 2013

The following was shared today by a friend on FB. He cited www.guadaluperadio.com as its source. If you do not know Spanish, see the translation below (I used GoogleTranslate and Spanishdict.com to do the initial translation and then I tried to smooth it out as best as I could). This is a tremendous analogy!

En el vientre de una mujer embarazada se encontraban dos bebés. Uno pregunta al otro:

– ¿Tú crees en la vida después del parto?

– Claro que sí. Algo debe existir después del parto. Tal vez estemos aquí porque necesitamos prepararnos para lo que seremos más tarde.

– ¡Tonterías! No hay vida después del parto. ¿Cómo sería esa vida?

– No lo sé pero seguramente… habrá más luz que aquí. Tal vez caminemos con nuestros propios pies y nos alimentemos por la boca.

– ¡Eso es absurdo! Caminar es imposible. ¿Y comer por la boca? ¡Eso es ridículo! El cordón umbilical es por donde nos alimentamos. Yo te digo una cosa: la vida después del parto está excluida. El cordón umbilical es demasiado corto.

– Pues yo creo que debe haber algo. Y tal vez sea distinto a lo que estamos acostumbrados a tener aquí.

– Pero nadie ha vuelto nunca del más allá, después del parto. El parto es el final de la vida. Y a fin de cuentas, la vida no es más que una angustiosa existencia en la oscuridad que no lleva a nada.

– Bueno, yo no sé exactamente cómo será después del parto, pero seguro que veremos a mamá y ella nos cuidará.

– ¿Mamá? ¿Tú crees en mamá? ¿Y dónde crees tú que está ella ahora?

– ¿Dónde? ¡En todo nuestro alrededor! En ella y a través de ella es como vivimos. Sin ella todo este mundo no existiría.

– ¡Pues yo no me lo creo! Nunca he visto a mamá, por lo tanto, es lógico que no exista.

– Bueno, pero a veces, cuando estamos en silencio, tú puedes oírla cantando o sentir cómo acaricia nuestro mundo. ¿Sabes?… Yo pienso que hay una vida real que nos espera y que ahora solamente estamos preparándonos para ella…’

English translation from GoogleTranslate and Spanishdict.com, which I have attempted to smooth out:

In the belly of a pregnant woman were two babies. One asks the other, “Do you believe in life after birth?”

“Of course. Something must exist after delivery. Maybe, we’re here because we need to prepare for what will be later.”

“Nonsense! There is no life after birth. What would that life be?”

“I do not know but surely … there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk on our own feet and nourish ourselves through our mouths.”

“This is absurd! Walking is impossible. And eating by mouth? That is ridiculous! The umbilical cord is where we eat. I tell you one thing: life after delivery is excluded. The umbilical cord is too short.”

“Well, I think there must be something. And maybe it’s different from what we are used to here.”

“But no one has ever returned from beyond postpartum. Delivery is the end of life. And, after all, life is but a harrowing existence in the darkness that leads nowhere.”

“Well, I do not know exactly how it will be after delivery, but I’m sure we’ll see our mom, and she will take care of us.”

“Mom? Do you believe in mom? And, where do you think she is now?”

“Where? All around us! We are in her and through her is how we live. Without her, the whole world would not exist.”

“Well, I do not think so! I’ve never seen mommy, therefore, it is logical that she does not exist.”

“Well, but sometimes when we are silent, you can hear her singing or feel her caressing our world. Do you know? … I think there is a real life that awaits us and only now we are preparing for it … “

In Apologetics, Parables, Spanish

Correcting a Wrong Handling of the Accounts of David's Music Ministry to Saul

January 16, 2013

Scripture provides three accounts of David’s music ministry to Saul (1 Sam. 16:14-23; 18:10-11; 19:8-10). Because the results of his ministry to Saul in the first account were different from the results in the other two, some have wrongly concluded that David’s music was unreliable and even have dismissed the value of the first account for addressing the issue of the morality of music without words.

A close examination of key differences between the first account and the latter accounts, however, provides the right explanation of the differing outcome in the latter accounts and underscores the value of the first account.

David’s Music Ministry Delivers Saul from Demonic Affliction (1 Sam. 16:14-23)

God judged Saul by sending an evil spirit to afflict him (1 Sam. 16:14). To relieve him of his affliction, Saul’s servants sought a skillful harpist to minister to him (1 Sam. 16:15-16). In some unexplained way, they had confidence that such a ministry of music would deliver Saul from his affliction.

Saul’s servants found David and brought him to Saul (1 Sam. 16:17-22). Whenever the evil spirit troubled Saul, David’s playing made Saul better and caused the demon to depart (1 Sam. 16:23).

The passage does not say anything about David’s singing any words to Saul as he played his harp. In fact, the passage stresses David’s playing through three explicit references about the playing of the harp (1 Sam. 16:16, 18, 23).

It was David’s instrumental harp music, therefore, that caused the evil spirit that tormented Saul to depart from him. Had his music been amoral, it could not have had this effect for good.

Because the music did drive out the evil spirit, it was a force for good. We thus learn that David’s instrumental music was not amoral.

Saul Tries to Kill David Twice in spite of David’s Music Ministry to Him (18:10-11)

Whereas David’s music ministry had previously delivered Saul on repeated occasions for an unspecified amount of time (1 Sam. 16:23), the next account (1 Sam. 18:10-11) records that Saul tried to kill David twice (18:11) in spite of his ministering musically again to Saul (18:11). What caused there to be such a dramatic difference on this occasion compared to the previous ones?

In between these two accounts, we read of David’s valiant defeat of Goliath (17:1-54). Following several verses that speak then of Saul’s inquiry about whose son David was (17:55-58), we read of the covenant that Jonathan and David made (18:1-4).

The next five verses provide key information that explains the differing outcome of David’s music ministry to Saul on this later occasion:

1Sa 18:5 And David went out whithersoever Saul sent him, and behaved himself wisely: and Saul set him over the men of war, and he was accepted in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul’s servants.

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.

⁷ And the women answered one another as they played, and said, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.

⁸ And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom?

⁹ And Saul eyed David from that day and forward.

These verses reveal that Saul became very upset when the women lauded David more highly than they did Saul (18:8). He then became jealous of him and suspicious of him from then on that he would seek to take the kingdom from Saul (18:9).

Right after reading about this key change in Saul’s attitude toward David, we encounter the first of two accounts that record that David’s music ministry to Saul did not benefit him as it had done before:

1Sa 18:10 ¶ And it came to pass on the morrow, that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house: and David played with his hand, as at other times: and there was a javelin in Saul’s hand.

¹¹ And Saul cast the javelin; for he said, I will smite David even to the wall with it. And David avoided out of his presence twice.

This passage specifies that this account took place on the very next day after Saul’s becoming intensely upset at David and becoming suspicious of him (18:10a). This time when the evil spirit came on Saul, he raved madly in his house. The text also specifies that Saul had a javelin in his hand on this occasion.

Prior to this point, we never read of Saul sitting in his house with a javelin in his hand. Nor do we read of him being afflicted by the spirit to the point of his raving madly. Both these differences point to the same reality—a vital change in Saul’s disposition toward David.

The natural explanation for Saul’s having a javelin in his hand now is that he apparently was so suspicious of David’s potentially trying to take the kingdom from him that he wanted to have a weapon to protect himself should David try anything to harm him. Because of the dramatic change in Saul, David’s music ministry that was the same to him “as at other times” (18:10) did not deliver Saul now from his spiritual affliction.

Saul’s intense jealousy and mistrust of David prevented him from benefiting from David’s music ministry as he had done before. He now degenerated to letting the wickedness of his heart come out in two attempts to kill David.

David’s music thus was not unreliable or ineffective on this occasion. Rather, Saul, as the listener, forfeited on this occasion the value of David’s ministry to him because of his hardness of heart toward David.

Saul Again Tries to Kill David in spite of His Music Ministry to Him (19:9-10)

Saul’s two attempts to kill David show that Saul was now not just opposing David—more importantly, he was also actively fighting against God, who had chosen David to become king in place of Saul. Saul had thereby now set himself in opposition to the Lord and His anointed one (cf. Ps. 2).

Because Saul was now opposing both God and David, he continued to degenerate spiritually and be hardened in his sinfulness (1 Sam. 18:17, 21, 25). He became more and more afraid of David and became his enemy continually (1 Sam. 18:29).

In spite of further events (1 Sam. 19:1-5) that led Saul even to swear by the Lord that David would not be killed (1 Sam. 19:6), we read of another time when Saul tried to kill David despite David’s music ministry to him while he was being afflicted by the evil spirit:

1Sa 19:9 And the evil spirit from the LORD was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand: and David played with his hand.

¹⁰ And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin; but he slipped away out of Saul’s presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall: and David fled, and escaped that night.

This final account shows that Saul’s hardness of heart toward David and opposition to God again caused him to forfeit the benefit of David’s music ministry to him.

David’s Instrumental Music Was Not Amoral and It Was Not Unreliable

A careful analysis of the flow of these various events in the lives of David and Saul shows that David’s earlier music ministry profited Saul by delivering him from spiritual affliction caused by an evil spirit. Because Saul was delivered by David’s instrumental music, we understand that it was not amoral.

Moreover, the latter accounts do not show that David’s music was unreliable or lacked the spiritual ability to deliver Saul consistently. Rather, the greatly heightened wickedness of Saul’s heart on those occasions prevented him from receiving the benefit of David’s music ministry to him.

For the same reason, the latter accounts also do not negate the importance of the first account for showing that David’s instrumental music was not amoral. David’s instrumental music ministry to Saul thus was not amoral and it was not unreliable.

In CCM, Exposition, Music

Natural Revelation, Music Related to God’s Providence, and the Debate about the Morality of Music without Words

January 12, 2013

Whether music without words is moral or not is a question that is widely debated today among believers. This post treats biblical teaching about natural revelation and music related to God’s providence to answer this question.

Natural Revelation

Psalm 19:1-6 provides clear teaching about natural revelation:

Psa 19:1 <To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.> The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

² Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.

³ There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.

⁴ Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,

⁵ Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.

⁶ His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

David teaches that God is continuously providing worldwide revelation of His glory and handiwork.

Paul corroborates his statements and further teaches that all are without excuse because they are suppressing God’s infallible communication of moral truth through His creation:

Rom 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

¹⁹ Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

²⁰ For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.

Scripture thus makes clear that God is continuously infallibly communicating moral truth to every person through natural revelation that involves no words. Wordless communication of moral truth, therefore, is a pervasive worldwide reality that every human being experiences on a nonstop basis.

Music Related to God’s Providence

Building on the foundation of God’s communication of moral truth through wordless natural revelation, related teaching about God’s providence provides additional relevant information. Psalm 104 highlights God’s creating and sustaining His Creation. In that context, the Psalmist provides an important statement about music related to His providence:

Psa 104:10 He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills.

¹¹ They give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst.

¹² By them shall the fowls of the heaven have their habitation, which sing among the branches.

¹³ He watereth the hills from his chambers: the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy works.

The Psalmist makes known that God provides water to every animal to satisfy its thirst. In that context, he speaks of birds that sing among the branches of trees located by the springs that God sends.[1]

Statements that God satisfies His creation (Ps. 104:11, 13) on both sides of the statement about the singing of the birds show that it is not an incidental “filler” statement. Rather, the clear implication is that the birds sing in grateful response to God’s satisfying them by providing water and habitation (cf. Ps. 104:16-18 and the command for the flying fowl to praise the Lord [Ps. 148:7, 10]).[2]

Furthermore, no humans taught the birds to sing—we thus rightly infer that they continue to do what God created them from the beginning to do. What’s more, He created them (Gen. 1:20) before He created man (Gen. 1:26-27). Because God said that His creation of the birds was good (Gen. 1:21), we rightly deduce that their singing at that time was good, as was also everything else taking place in God’s universe at that time.

Moreover, after He had created man (Gen. 1:26-29), God pronounced that everything that He had made was “very good” (Gen. 1:31). We infer correctly, therefore, that the singing of birds that took place after man was created—but before he fell—was also very good.

Both before man was created and after he was created but before he fell, birds thus sang wordless moral music to the praise of their Creator! Furthermore, even after he fell, Scripture provides revelation about birds (Ps. 104:12) that points to their communicating a wordless moral message through music.

In addition, the clear teaching treated earlier about God’s present-day worldwide communication of wordless moral truth through natural revelation provides a supportive universal backdrop for interpreting the present-day singing of birds as still communicating a moral message without words.

The Debate about the Morality of Music without Words

God is continuously providing infallible moral truth wordlessly to every human being through the heavens and the firmament that He created (Ps. 19:1-4). He is also providing moral truth wordlessly through the singing of the birds that He created (Gen. 1:20) to praise Him (cf. Ps. 148:7, 10) for His providential care for them (Ps. 104:12).

Scriptural teaching about natural revelation and music related to God’s providence thus establishes that the default Scriptural position is that music without words is moral.[3] Christians who hold the position that music without words is amoral thus have the burden of proof to demonstrate the validity of their view from Scripture.

[1] Because the Hebrew here does not use a specific word for singing (cf. “Heb ‘among the thick foliage they give a sound’” [NET Bible translation note on Psalm 104:12]), some hold that this verse does not establish that birds sing music. The context, however, makes clear that singing is in view. Furthermore, Zephaniah 2:14 explicitly uses a Hebrew verb to speak of the singing of birds. See also my post Do Birds Sing Music or Merely Make Sounds for additional explanation of why the position that birds do not sing music is not tenable. Moreover, numerous videos available on the Internet abundantly attest to the fact that birds sing songs with multiple pitches, rhythm, rests, etc.

[2] Many commentators concur with this interpretation: “The birds, also, in their nests among the branches are able to pour forth their melodious notes as the result of the God-directed valley-springs. Singing among the branches should inspire us to sing where we dwell—even if it be like Paul and Silas in a prison cell. . . . Said Izaak Walton, great lover of birds, especially the nightingale, ‘Lord, what music hast thou provided for the saints in heaven, when thou affordest bad men such music on earth?’” (Herbert Lockyer, Sr., Psalms: A Devotional Commentary, 409).

“Among them the fowls of the air dwell. That is, among the trees which spring up by the fountains and water-courses. The whole picture is full of animation and beauty. . . . Which sing among the branches. Marg. as in Heb., give a voice. Their voice is heard—their sweet music—in the foliage of the trees which grow on the margin of the streams and by the fountains” (Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament: Explanatory and Practical, 9:85).

“’Everything lives whithersoever water cometh,’ as Easterners know. Therefore round the drinking-places in the vales thirsty creatures gather, birds flit and sing; up among the cedars are peaceful nests, and inaccessible cliffs have their sure-footed inhabitants. All depend on water, and water is God’s gift. The psalmist’s view of Nature is characteristic in the direct ascription of all the processes to God” (Alexander MacLaren, The Psalms, 3:116).

“How refreshing are these words! What happy memories they arouse of plashing waterfalls and entangled boughs, where the merry din of the falling and rushing water forms a solid background of music, and the sweet tuneful notes of the birds are the brighter and more flashing lights in harmony. Pretty birdies, sing on! What better can ye do, and who can do it better? When we too drink of the river of God, and eat of the fruit of the tree of life, it well becomes us to ‘sing among the branches.’ Where ye dwell ye sing; and shall not we rejoice in the Lord, who has been our dwelling-place in all generations. As ye fly from bough to bough, ye warble forth your notes, and so will we as we flit through time into eternity. It is not meet that birds of Paradise should be outdone by birds of the earth” (Charles Spurgeon, Treasury of David, 2:305).

“The music of the birds was the first song of thanksgiving which was offered from the earth, before man was formed” (John Wesley; cited in Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings on 104:12 in Treasury of David, 2:319).

“They sing, according to their capacity, to the honour of their Creator and benefactor, and their singing may shame our silence” (Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, 893).

[3] See also my post David’s Instrumental Music Was Not Amoral for further Scriptural teaching that establishes this point.

In CCM, Exposition, Music, Theology

A Parable about Sincere Belief

January 10, 2013

There once was an old rich man who lived alone and had the same caretaker for many years. One day, he discovered that the caretaker had been stealing from him for several years. He confronted him and told him that he had two hours to gather all his belongings from the rich man’s estate and then leave.

The wicked caretaker became very angry and plotted how he could secretly kill the rich man. He came up with the idea that he would poison him.

Because the rich man suffered from migraines, he often took pain medication for his headaches. Before leaving, the caretaker opened the bottle of pain medicine in the rich man’s medicine cabinet and filled it with highly poisonous tablets that were exactly the same shape and size as the pain medicine.

Late that night, the rich man awoke with a crushing headache. Without putting his glasses on, he went to the medicine cabinet to get his pain medicine. Because it was late at night, he did not even turn on the light in the bathroom.

Grabbing three tablets of what he sincerely believed was a painkiller that would quickly relieve him of his agonizing pain, the man swallowed the tablets with half a glass of water. Within minutes, he was dead.

His sincere belief was not good enough to keep him from dying from taking a deadly poison. In a much more important way, merely sincere religious belief is not enough—what one believes must be true.

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

In Parables

How Chemistry Illumines the Debate about the Morality of Music without Words

January 7, 2013

God’s universe is composed of many different elements, many of which occur naturally in various elemental forms as well as in combinations with many other elements to form compounds, mixtures, etc. A comparison of differences among various chemical substances provides a valuable analogy that pertains to the debate about the morality of music without words.

Oxygen in its diatomic molecular form (O₂) is necessary for human life. Molecules that contain three oxygen atoms, however, form a powerfully toxic substance, ozone. The same element thus forms two different molecules that have radically differing effects on humans.

Carbon and oxygen combine to form two different compounds, carbon monoxide (CO), which is poisonous, and carbon dioxide (CO₂), a natural waste product of human respiration that is far less toxic than carbon monoxide. Similarly, hydrogen and oxygen form two compounds: water (H₂0), which is essential for life; and hydrogen peroxide (H₂0₂), which is highly corrosive at high concentrations. These examples show how the same two elements can combine in different proportions to form different substances with vastly different properties.

The same holds true for differing combinations of more than two elements. Carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen combine to form various compounds that vary greatly in their toxicity. Methyl alcohol (CH₃OH) is poisonous, but ethyl alcohol (C₂H₅OH) is only directly toxic when people consume large quantities of it over a short period.

Unlike both methyl alcohol and ethyl alcohol, glucose (C₆H₁₂0₆), however, is a vital substance that the body itself produces to maintain life. These examples show that major differences exist in the properties of chemical substances that have the same three elements but differ in the ratios that they have those elements.

Similarly, even though individual elements of music such as single notes have no intrinsic morality, we would be right to expect that differing combinations of those elements would have differing effects on people. To argue that combining various musical elements (without words) in a way that communicates a negative moral message to humans is impossible would not be in keeping with the reality that we find in the chemical makeup of God’s universe.

To hold the view, therefore, that music without words is inherently amoral, there should be some clear basis for expecting that combining musical elements would be somehow radically different (in the specific sense talked about in this article) from combining chemical elements. I am not aware of any such justification.

Based on the analogy between chemistry and music (as well as for many other valid reasons, both biblical and non-biblical), I believe that the right default position to take in the debate about the morality of music is that music without words is not inherently amoral.

If Music without Words Is Inherently Amoral, Then . . .

Do Birds Sing Music or Merely Make Sounds?

Would the Psalmists Approve of CCM?

David’s Instrumental Music Was Not Amoral

Toward Solving the Church’s Music Problems

A Parable about Music