Bible Text: Psalm 96:1-2 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. Psalm 96:1-2

So you feel like giving up on church? That’s what a lot of you tell me. I’m thinking of the retired businessman who sat in my office and described the music in his church. He wasn’t critical, yet he spoke almost wistfully of some of the old hymns which they used to sing. “We went to both services–they are just the same!”

Not everybody, of course, is unhappy. Some folks are excited about the changes which have taken place. “Church was never like this before!” they say. “Our worship team is as good as anything the world has to offer.” Right! Or is it? Music is often at the heart of the disagreement, something which at one time separated parents from their kids but now goes deeper into the church family.

While I applaud the desire to reach a new generation using music they can relate to, I’d like to ask a serious question.

Whatever happened to “How Great Thou Art,” or John Rippon’s “How Firm a Foundation” along with “Amazing Grace” and “The Old Rugged Cross”? Have the great messages of hymns by John and Charles Wesley along with Newton, Watts, and others ceased to speak to our hearts? With almost every church music director writing his own compositions, better have the words in the bulletin if you expect a visitor to follow the worship.

There’s a place for new songs and new music, yet if we totally ignore the great hymns and song of the faith which have been meaningful to previous generations, we cut ourselves off from the continuity of the family of God over the centuries. “If you were arrested and put in prison without a Bible or your playlist, what songs would you sing?” I sometimes ask youth today. The question is often greeted with silent reflection. “Uh, I’m not sure,” they mumble. I also admit that when anything new is introduced, some people don’t like it. “We’ve always done it this way,” people say. Or, “We’ve never done it here before, and if I have anything to do with it, we’re not going to do it now!”–just as Jesus would say, no doubt.

Question: How did they handle music in the early church? Does God prefer songs printed in hymnbooks written at least a hundred years ago to what was written last year?

What does God have to do with it? Plenty! Isn’t music part of the worship experience, which allows us to dust away the cobwebs of daily living as we reflect upon Him and voice His praises? Must it always be the same thing without any change?

In the New Testament church, they sang the Psalms set to music. The ninety-sixth Psalm begins, “Sing to the Lord a new song…” and those in the early church eventually wrote new songs about the death and resurrection of Christ, songs which were at first strange to the ears of those who heard them.

But I have always suspected that those who pondered the words and the message saw Jesus in a new light or sensed the majesty and glory of the Almighty through what was sung.

Whether it is good or not so good, church music has changed. While all change is not bad, there is something to be said for bridging the generations, blending the new with the traditional so that all of God’s family may sing His praises.

Resource reading: Psalm 149