Rock and Roll

“I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.” (Psalm 40:1-3)

I like almost any kind of music. We joke at church about my ineptitude in music, but that is just because I can’t carry a tune in a bucket; in fact, I’m not even sure I could carry the bucket even if it was empty. The last musical instrument I tried to play was in grade school. It was a required class. We had to learn to play the “flutophone” – how many of you remember that thing? It was a cheap plastic flute-like gizmo that you blew into and tried to make various musical notes by covering the holes with your fingers. I never could get the hang of that stupid thing, and I really never wanted to, so I never practiced. When it came time for the big class “recital” in front of our parents, I just stood there with the flutophone in the proper position and wiggled my fingers the best I could to try to fake it. I didn’t blow into the thing because I knew I would hit all the wrong notes. The teacher spotted me and could see that my hand movements had absolutely nothing to do with the actual music we were playing. I flunked that part of the course, but hey, at least I didn’t have to actually play a musical instrument.

But my total lack of any musical skill does not extend to the ear. I can enjoy listening to great music even when I can’t participate in it – at least not publicly. Alone in my car with all the windows rolled up tight flying down the freeway at 70 mph is another story. The best part of music is how it affects the heart of man. They call music the “universal language” because of how it moves us and speaks to our core spirit, whether the words are in our native tongue or not. Music is transcendent. It is about so much more than just harmony, melody, and rhythm. There is a spiritual component to music that comes from the original creation. Lucifer was the first music director in the Bible, and history culminates in a “new song” in the hearts of the redeemed as they worship the Lamb at the throne of God (Revelation 5:9).

We humans argue all the time about music styles, especially between generations. My parents thought our music was weird, and I think the same about some of today’s stuff. Music in the church has become one of the biggest battlegrounds of today’s Christianity. Drums and up-tempo contemporary music is the benchmark for whether your church is “legalistic” or “modernistic”, and both camps criticize each other for it. Several places in the Bible, God speaks of us singing a “new song”. That is never a reference to a style of music, but a response of the heart to God’s love and truth. David said in Psalm 40 above that God put a new song in his heart because he had set his feet upon the rock. Throughout the Bible, the rock is Jesus (not Peter). When our lives are anchored in the Lord Jesus Christ, it produces something on the inside. Knowing that Jesus redeemed me from a horrible pit makes my heart soar and burst forth into praise for his grace.

But there is another aspect of the verse I want to point out. The words of the Bible mean things. They are chosen specifically to reveal God’s truth to mankind. It says that the new song in our mouth has a testimony to others. “Many shall see it…” Wait a minute. I thought we heard music. What is this, the first music video in history? No, it is a reference to the transformed life that occurs when we give our lives to Jesus Christ and walk in his grace. Others should be able to see the difference. Paul said we are to reflect the life of Jesus, so that it “might be made manifest in our mortal flesh”. (II Corinthians 4:10-11) One time, some people came up to Philip and said, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” (John 12:21). That is a great request. Lost people don’t need to see us, they need to see Jesus in us. When his grace transforms our hearts, the new song is seen, and our purpose in life is fulfilled to draw others to the Saviour.