The Deliberate Church by Mark Dever

Author:Mark Dever
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Crossway
Published: 2009-01-29T16:00:00+00:00

12: MUSIC

Introduction

Now why would we have a whole chapter titled “Music”? Isn’t that a little whimsical? Why not be more sanctified and call it “Worship”? After all, it’s common today to speak of music, singing, and worship as interchangeable terms. First we worship, then we listen to the sermon.

We want to challenge this assumption. Music in the context of the corporate gathering is only a subset of corporate worship. Listening to the preached Word of God is one of the most important ways we worship God together; in fact, it is the only way we can learn how to worship Him acceptably.1 Praying the Word, reading it publicly, and seeing it in the ordinances are also important aspects of worship. Yet more broadly, worship is a total life orientation of engaging with God on the terms that He proposes and in the way that He provides.2 Our reasonable service of New Testament worship is to present our whole selves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God (Rom. 12:1-2; cf. also 1 Cor. 10:31; Col. 3:17). So music is a subset of our corporate worship, and corporate worship is a subset of our total-life worship.

This reflection reminds us that our audience in corporate worship is not people.3 Corporate worship is not about pleasing people, whether ourselves, the congregation, or unbelieving seekers. Worship in the corporate gathering is about renewing our covenant with God by meeting with Him and relating to Him in the ways that He has prescribed.4 We do this specifically by hearing and heeding His Word, confessing our own sinfulness and our dependence on Him, thanking Him for His goodness to us, bringing our requests before Him, confessing His truth, and lifting our voices and instruments to Him in response to and in accord with the way that He has revealed Himself in His Word.5

Against that backdrop, here are some practical suggestions that might help us glorify God and edify one another in corporate musical worship.

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