[See also a more recent article containing Dr. Bacon's response to some questions about this article, Interpretation of Psalm 150.]
The question sometimes comes up of the propriety of singing without the use of musical accompaniment. Psalms 149 and 150 are pointed to as justification for this concern. But let's stop and think about that for a moment. We not only sing about musical instruments; we also sing about such things as the lampstand, shewbread, and binding the sacrifice to the horns of the altar (Psalm 118). However, we do not actually do any of those things because they were weak and beggarly elements of the ceremonial law. They are some of the ordinances that were nailed to Christ's cross, and because they were, those forms no longer apply to us. As much as I appreciate musical instruments, instruments are no long a part of the public worship of God. This fact does not make the use of instruments 'evil.' Far from it. Instruments can be employed, just as a rock can be employed, for good or evil. Musical instruments are indifferent in that respect. However, because musical instruments were brought into the temple worship particularly at the behest of David, as a prophet, they have passed away with all the aspects of the Levitical worship.
Do you know why David instituted the use of musical instruments and choirs in the temple? The various courses of Levites had various things to carry from the Tabernacle when they were in the wilderness. Whenever the Tabernacle was moved, which it was for forty years, and a few times afterwards, various courses of Levites had different things to carry. David designed to move the worship of God out of a tent and into a permanent dwelling. The Levites were seemingly out of work. But not according to God, who said some of the Levites would play musical instruments. They would play cymbals, viols, coronets, and all manner of musical instruments. The instruments were associated with the sacrifices, moreso than with singing (Carefully read 2 Chronicles chapter 29 for confirmation of that). So when the Levites sang Psalm 150, they sang about associating these instruments with the sacrifices. In a treatise against musical instruments in God's worship, G. I. Williamson makes this comparison: You have in the Old Testament a grand show. There was a grand show going on at the sacrifices, and there was a sound track for the show. Now, when the show goes away, what goes away with it? The sound track.
So it is not that we think musical instruments are evil, or that we think creation per se is evil. We enjoy art. But when that art is a violation of the second or seventh commandment, we eschew it. A picture can be good or it can be evil depending upon the use to which it is put. And the same thing is true of musical instruments. RB
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