Curiously, we are being accused of this very thing in these days. There is a great contention today about the style of worship, how Christian people should worship. Should we worship with bands and instruments and rhythm and loud, many decibels, modern songs, modern style of praise? Or should we worship in the historic, reverent manner, with a distinctive style of song and praise, with thoughtfulness and reverence? What is right? Should we cover the platform with instruments and put on a performance for God, or should we worship him with words from our hearts, music simply being a means of assisting us, helping us to sing together, to keep together? Those of us who hold that worship is to be reverent, that it is not to imitate worldly music and worldly entertainment; we are accused of this very thing. ‘You’re like the Pharisees,’ they say to us. ‘You have got a tradition and you’re binding everybody with your tradition and it is pharisaical hypocrisy. You just want to do it according to a bygone culture. You want to bind other people with your ancient antiquated tastes.’ But it’s entirely the other way round, because the way in which we worship, the historic way of worship, is derived from Scripture. The principles, the distinctiveness of Christian worship – it’s all derived from Scripture, whereas those who uphold the modern trend, seldom use Scripture to defend their position, and when they attempt to do so, the way they go about using the Scripture is quite unacceptable. Most of the time however, Scripture is not consulted. It’s a matter of opinion: ‘Our opinion is this, our opinion is that, we are following so-and-so; you can’t possibly say he’s wrong, and this is what we like.’ The boot is actually on the other foot. They are more in the position of the scribes and Pharisees, who have set aside the Scripture as a rule for worship and have adopted instead human ideas. One such idea is this: ‘Culture is neutral, morally neutral, so if culture changes, we can adopt it, we can do what we please.’ Well, wherever do you find in the Bible that culture is morally neutral? The Bible says the opposite. It says there is a great world system, which is under the sway and the rule of Satan. The culture of this world is often demonic, it is written in the vaults of hell, it is antagonistic to Christian thinking and the standards of the word of God. But, ‘no,’ they say, ‘culture is neutral, so whatever cultural form comes about, even if it is invented in the entertainment business by people who are emphasising rebellion against God and sexual liberty, that is still apparently a culture which is morally neutral. This is what people want, this is what the young want, this is what the worldling wants, and so the church should copy it. Those who resist these trends are Pharisees, sticking to a bygone culture.
In Old Testament times there were 8, possibly 9 instruments known to Hebrew culture and only 4 of them were allowed in the temple and two of those instruments were not allowed for accompanying worship. Everything was so restrained. We are not under the Old Testament now, of course, but why were these restraints imposed? Because God was ensuring that music would not usurp worship, would not take it over, would not over-engage our hearts and our minds, because the words of worship are everything – love to God expressed in intelligent words. In the New Testament you don’t find any orchestras. You don’t find any instruments at all in the New Testament. The use of an instrument to accompany psalms and hymns is only implied, because the word translated (or transliterated) ‘hymn’ implies an accompanied song. So we may assume that the simple instrumentation of the Old Testament may have continued into the New but there is no justification for what people are doing today in breaking with historic worship. Old Testament instrumentation was severely limited. Certainly, no borrowing from the cults was allowed. Their ceremonies, their forms, their manner were never to come among the people of God. Old Testament worship, Christian New Testament worship was intended to be distinctive, altogether different from anything you would find in the world. Indeed, we are condemned, if we befriend the world, if we become attached to the world, if we adopt worldly things in life, let alone in worship. In addition we are to told never to be under the power of anything. This is an important principle and this condemns most modern worship forms. The apostle Paul makes this absolutely clear: ‘I will not be brought under the power of any (1 Corinthians 6:12) – not alcohol, not drugs, not rhythm thumping beat. It is sensational, it is bodily, it is fleshly. Massive volumes of sound, let alone the culture, the style of the pop industry. That is being brought into worship, when your mind should be crystal clear, for the mind is the palace of faith. Contemporary Christian worship wants to simplify all the words of worship too, and sing endless, repetitive, simple choruses. Everything is a dumbing down, because you have yielded yourself under the power of what the world does for pleasure, for sensual pleasure and for impact on the body. We lead with the mind. We love him, we appreciate the doctrines, we direct our thoughts to him. Worship is words, whether sung, whether said, whether thought, and we are permitted music simply used to keep us together, and to suggest, if you like, the mood of the words and to wing those words heavenward.
They say, ‘Look at Psalm 150. There you have got every instrument under the sun in the praise and the worship of God, so that justifies anything we do. If it is true, that Psalm 150 allows every instrument for worship, then the Bible contradicts itself, because the very composer of many of the psalms – David – was inspired by God with rules for worship, which forbade any more than 4 types of instruments in the temple. Psalm 150 is obviously about the civic festivities of the Jews, the thanksgiving days for battle victories and things of that kind, when little girls shaking their tambourines would walk in front of open-air, civic processions. This was not worship; this was the wider scene and most of the Puritans would insist that Psalm 150, was talking not about instruments in worship, but about the spirit of worship. So it is a very figurative psalm and it names instruments of triumph, instruments of solemnity, instruments associated with sincerity, and it uses them as figures for the wide range of emotions that are represented in sincere worship.