Principle Five of Music And The Worshiping Church by Harold Best

This week on worship.vintage21.com, we’re looking at five principles of music making in a worshiping church, from Harold Best’s Music Through The Eyes Of Faith.

Principle Five: When all Scripture references to music making are combined, we learn that we are to make music in every conceivable condition: joy, triumph, imprisonment, solitude, grief, peace, war, sickness, merriment, abundance, and deprivation.

A common theme on worship.vintage21.com is that of the pendulum. I use it as a representation of our tendency to take definitive stands, often without the full experience required to do so. I believe there are several reasons behind this, the main one being pride (as usual). We have finite minds, but also desire control, which means we have to simplify the world around us into certain terms that can be identified as right and wrong. We then have perceived control and enlightenment, and gain the value of our beliefs and experiences by identifying ourselves with this camp or that camp. This is perhaps the main reason people get so passionate about politics, sports, music and religion.

Harold Best is wise, and I think we’d be foolish to pass quickly over this principle. As someone who has lived life and sought to worship God, there certainly were times in Best’s life where his faith in God and understanding of what it means to worship was challenged, stretched, and either strengthened or blown apart and rebuilt. This is the case with all of us as we go through life, and even I look back to a mere six years serving as worship pastor of Vintage21 Church and identify times when my faith and methodology were challenged, in several instances regarding definitive stands I had taken. Certainties exist within God alone and what he has deemed as such, and we often take liberties and draw more lines in the sand. Many conversations regarding liturgy and methodology often result in definitive statements on “the right way”, with little to no scriptural backing. With this principle Best takes a step back, and calls us to look to the whole of Scripture. In other words, let us consider all that God has said on the subject, and act accordingly.

In God’s beautiful way of orchestrating things, Pastor Will Plitt just sent out an email with this post from the Desiring God blog. Best’s principle and Dr. Piper’s writing remind me that we are not called to dichotomize or rank by our perceived values, but instead to look to God for His will. Otherwise, and this is too often the case, we spend our time swinging back and forth like a pendulum, arguing about whether it’s A or B, when the reality could be that both sides are true. Here’s what I mean:
Is God sovereign or do our prayers matter? Both.
Is God just or merciful? Both.
Is Jesus God or man? Both.
Are we called to help the poor or preach the gospel? Both.

Our math doesn’t allow for God to be God; our dimensions are too small to contain all that God can be and do. Instead of wasting our lives taking definitive stands on open-handed issues, or trying to figure out God, let us follow what He has made known. When we embrace our finite nature, relinquishing control and trusting God, He is exalted. And we are freed to live out His will.