Hello, this is Brother Denny.
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Would you open your Bibles to 1 Chronicles,
chapter 12, and verse 32 for a little
scripture tucked away there in Chronicles that is
often overlooked.
1 Chronicles, chapter 12, verse 32.
This was when Israel was trying to decide
what to do with David, whether he was
going to be their king.
Judah had already accepted him as king, but
Israel had not.
Well, I think previously in this chapter they
had, but it's sort of explaining after the
fact sort of what happened.
But it says in verse 32, And the
children of Issachar, which were men that had
understanding of the times, to know what Israel
ought to do.
You know, we need people like that.
We need people to know the times.
And exactly what we'll wish a hundred years
from now, or somebody will wish a hundred
years from now, we did at this moment.
That's a rare gift, but God would that
we would all be prophets.
We're talking about prophets.
We're talking about seers.
We're talking about people who just can see
what the issues are and can do the
right thing at the right time.
And here were these men that were able
to do that.
We need such men today when so-called
Christians do not know a number of things.
That the gospel and entertainment are incompatible.
There are many people who call themselves Christians
that don't seem to understand that those two
are the antithesis of each other.
In fact, I'll put something else here on
the board.
What does this word mean?
Just say it.
To think.
To meditate.
What does that word mean?
Not to think and not to meditate.
Ah, typical, means not typical.
Ah, moral, means not moral.
One way or the other.
Ah, muse, means not to muse.
We used to sing, I stand amazed in
the presence.
The modern church might as well say we
stand amused in the presence.
And there's no such thing.
You don't dwell in God's presence that way.
We have people today, like I said, that
don't know that the gospel and entertainment are
incompatible.
They do not know that worship is not
synonymous with excitement.
They think if there's excitement, there must be
some worship taking place.
They don't realize that those two are not
synonymous.
I've already told you what worship is.
Worship often is very quiet.
And then sometimes it's exuberant.
But excitement does not equate with worship.
You don't have worship just because you have
excitement.
We need children of Issachar because there are
some so-called Christians that do not understand
that novelty is not synonymous with spiritual spontaneity.
Just because you're doing something different doesn't say
that that was some great spiritual spontaneous outburst
of some sort.
And so we need people who have an
understanding of the times and what Israel ought
to do.
Wouldn't it be sad to find ourselves in
20 years somewhere with this subject as important
as I told you it was in the
last session to find ourselves somewhere where we
don't want to be.
In fact, I'm just going to say it
up front.
If we're going to go down the road
of contemporary music I'll tell you what we're
going to have.
Down the road.
We're going to have worship teams standing up
here and we're going to have instrumental music,
especially percussion.
Because that contemporary music, the rhythms are so
wrenched and unnatural that you can't give people
a hymn book and all sing together without
some rhythmic help and without a worship team
to keep everybody together.
And I heard of a very plain church
that just recently adopted a hymnal that's going
to take them to that place eventually.
And it grieves me.
Music is a very powerful thing as we
hopefully told you in the last session.
Even the heathen knew this.
Socrates said, Let us write the words to
the music of our nation and we care
not who writes its laws.
In fact, David said one time something similar.
He said, Your statutes have been my songs
in the house of my pilgrimage.
Music has something to do with people's behavior.
And Socrates said, Let's write the words to
the songs and then you can make whatever
laws you want to make.
It will be the words and the songs
that people are singing here in Greece that
will determine what happens to this nation.
I'll tell you, I grew up with this
kind of music.
And I'm going to surrender it with a
hard fight.
Now listen to this text.
My God, I thank Thee who has made...
It's not in this hymnal, or I'd have
you sing it.
My God, I thank Thee who has made
the earth so bright, so full of splendor
and of joy, beauty and light.
So many glorious things are here, noble and
right.
I thank Thee, too, that Thou hast made
joy to abound.
So many gentle thoughts and deeds circling us
round, that in the darkest spot of earth,
some love is found.
I thank Thee...
Now listen to this.
I thank Thee more that all our joy
is touched with pain, that shadows fall on
brightest hours, that thorns remain.
So that earth's bliss may be our guide
and not our chain.
Did you get that?
This woman died when she was in her
thirties.
I'm just going by the dates on the
song.
I have a sneaking suspicion this woman was
sick all her life.
And this is her testimony.
I thank You that all our joy is
touched with pain, that shadows fall on our
brightest hours, that thorns remain so that earth's
bliss will be our guide and not our
chain.
I challenge you to find a contemporary song
that says something like that.
I thank Thee, Lord, that Thou hast kept
the best in store.
We have enough, yet not too much to
long for more, a yearning for a deeper
peace not known before.
I thank Thee, Lord, that here our souls,
though amply blessed, can never find, although they
seek a perfect rest, nor ever shall until
they lean on Jesus' breast.
Now that's a song.
And if you have people singing those kinds
of songs, you're going to have a certain
kind of people.
They're going to have people that know how
to face pain and know how to rejoice
in sorrow and know the value of shadows
and the things in life that people normally
don't choose.
So you see why Socrates said that.
Let us write the words to the songs
of our nation and then it won't matter
who writes the laws.
His student Plato said this, the introduction of
a new kind of music must be shunned
as imperiling the whole state because the styles
of music are never disturbed without affecting the
most important political institutions.
So he said, look, here in Greece, we
have a type of music that has served
us well.
You cannot change that without creating a major
change in our whole culture.
His student Aristotle said this, music directly represents
the passions or states of the soul.
Gentleness, anger, courage, temperance.
If one listens to the wrong kind of
music, he will become the wrong kind of
person and vice versa.
Now these are not Christians.
These are Greeks.
They say you cannot change a culture's music
without imperiling the state.
You cannot have music that will not make
people into certain kind of people.
Why is music so powerful?
Well, I've already basically explained this part of
it.
Music addresses the whole being.
It actually transcends even the conscious thought and
reaches the deepest part of our being, which
is our desires.
It stirs up in us desires.
You know, when the Hebrews talked about the
heart, they always considered the heart the seat
of desire.
And your desire is the deepest part of
your being.
What you desire will work its way from
the subconscious up into the conscious and will
control all of your life.
And music goes straight past everything else right
to that center of your being.
I believe it with all my heart.
That's why the proverb writer said, keep thy
heart, that seat of desire, the seat of
what drives you from underneath, from the subconscious
part of your being.
Keep your heart with all diligence for out
of it are the issues of life.
And music addresses that.
It addresses itself directly to the heart.
It probes the hidden areas of a man's
being and brings out the best and the
worst that is in him.
Schumann, the composer, said, music is the perfect
expression of the soul.
Whatever is inside a person will be evidenced
finally in his music.
And that's why when we look at heathen
cultures, we see that, and I'm not going
to mention these because I'm not trying to
specifically label anybody, but there's one part of
heathen culture that their music is floating melodies
that never have any resolution.
They just sort of float and there's no
resolution.
It just goes on and on and on.
If you've heard any of this New Age
music, that's sort of how it is.
Well, the reason for that is because that's
the way they think.
That says something to them.
It addresses the deepest part of their being
because their basic concept of life is that
it goes in circles.
If you study their philosophy, reincarnation or the
many other mechanisms, they talk about that life
just cycles and cycles and cycles and cycles
and cycles and maybe someday you can get
out of that, but basically life just goes
round and round and round.
I want to tell you something.
That's not at all becoming for Christians to
sing that kind of music because we actually
don't believe that history or life or anything
is that way.
We believe it's all going somewhere.
There in Ephesians, it says one of the
problems of the heathen is they were without
Christ.
They were without an anointed One.
In the darkest days of Hebrew history, they
could always say, the Messiah is coming.
History is going somewhere.
Things are going to culminate.
There's going to be a better day.
And we're used to that here in Western
civilization because this whole civilization has been strongly
influenced by a Christian concept that history is
going somewhere and that our lives are going
somewhere.
Now, things are changing.
People are starting to go in circles in
our society and so is their music.
That's the point I'm trying to make.
And we need to understand that.
When my children play music, the first thing
I listen to is, is it going somewhere?
Or is it just something that just goes
on and on and it doesn't have any
resolution, it doesn't have any build-up, it
doesn't have any climax, it just doesn't go
anywhere.
It's just going round and round and round
and round and round.
Another heathen culture has pulsating, chanting rhythms that
show the restless emotions of the heathen heart.
And contemporary music, for the most part, with
very few exceptions, lacks a sense of direction,
is a lot of atonal, and rhythms that
introduce misdirection into the song.
Now, I told you that the new birth
should give us a new song.
The Christian should have a distinctive kind of
song.
It should not be borrowed from that mentality
out there.
Now, there was a time people were going
to say, well, the Anabaptists wrote their words
to the folk songs of the day and
even Handel with the Messiah.
Probably a fair proportion of those choruses were
melodies that he heard on the streets of
London.
Well, we're going to talk a little bit
about music.
There was a time when society, Western civilization,
had been influenced sufficiently by Christianity that the
music was like this, even if it was
folk music.
This was the kind of music it was.
And so, even though it was not religious
music always, it was good music.
The music itself was good.
Now, I want you to turn to 1
Samuel 16.
Verse 23.
A brother here said the effect that music
had in heathen cultures.
Well, here is the effect it had on
Saul.
This little verse, this little passage of Scripture,
tells us what David's music did for Saul.
And we know that Saul was possessed, or
troubled, by an evil spirit.
So, verse 22 says, Saul sent to Jesse,
saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand before
me, for he hath found favor in my
sight.
And it came to pass, when the evil
spirit from God was upon Saul, that David
took a harp and played with his hand,
so Saul was refreshed.
The word here literally means, he physically breathed
easier.
So, music affects us physically.
According to this verse, and according to what
has been discovered.
It's been discovered that rock or disco music
affects 9 out of 10 people in weakening
their muscle tone.
It actually, they can measure muscle tone, and
they can actually tell when rock music is
played, there's a difference in the tone of
the muscle, and the response.
Because rock music is the exact opposite of
the heartbeat.
The heartbeat is a long, a short, and
a pause.
Rock music is short, short, long, pause.
And it sets up a conflict in the
normal rhythms of the body, in a negative
kind of way.
It says that he was well.
That literally means mentally relieved.
And people know it affects you mentally.
We're talking now about the music.
We're not talking about the words.
We're just talking about the music.
Did you know that department stores, and when
I lived in Virginia, there was a little
building there, it said Comsonics on the outside.
C-O-M-S-O-N-I-C
-S.
You know what they did for a living?
That whole outfit.
It was a building twice the size of
this church.
Those people were experts in creating the music
you needed to sell whatever it is you
were selling.
They did the music for department stores.
They did the music for grocery stores.
They did the music for boat sales.
They did whatever you were selling, you went
there and you engaged their services to provide
you with the music that would make people
disposed to buy what you were selling.
It affects us mentally.
I'm trying to show you that what these
philosophers said had some, that wasn't just something
they dreamed off the top of their heads.
These things actually happened.
And I want, in this session, I told
you what my purpose was in the last
session.
My purpose in this session is for us
to get real serious about what kind of
music we're going to listen to.
And then it says, the evil spirit departed
from him.
So we have a physical response, we have
a mental response, and we have a spiritual
response.
It's very clear here that the demons are
uncomfortable around certain kinds of music.
And that's the kind I want.
Vice versa.
The demons apparently are very comfortable around other
environments.
Hallie says, Congregational singing next to Bible teaching
is the best feature of a religious service
and one of the most effective ways to
preach the Gospel.
I've already told you that music is a
veritable doorway to the spiritual world.
No wonder man after God's own heart is
given to song because he knows that somehow
it has something to do with that spiritual
world.
We're not going to look up all these
verses.
I'm just going to give these.
The presence of God always accompanies praise.
I've already told you that.
The Word of God promotes praise.
The Spirit of God empowers praise.
And music is very, very powerful.
The first thing that happens when a person
becomes a new creature is we find it
in the Psalms, we find it in the
New Testament.
He has a new song.
And we have already looked at those.
All right.
Let's talk about the dynamics of good music.
I just was trying to convince you that
there is something to this.
Good music has a varied and dominant melody.
Do you know that for years the church
sang no harmony or used any instruments?
They sang only the melody.
And that's where the definition of music needs
to rest.
It has a dominant and varied melody.
And if it has harmony, it should have
variety of chord changes and modulations, as much
of that as possible.
It doesn't have to have all that.
But that's good music.
In fact, it obeys the basic principle of
all communication.
If you want to be a good public
speaker, if you want to be a good
writer, if you want to be a good
symphony writer or hymn writer or whatever, you
obey these two rules.
One of them is repetition.
You need to do it often enough that
it makes its impression.
But if that's all you do, people will
get bored.
And they'll soon not benefit from the repetition.
And so preachers know that if they want
people to continue to hear what they're saying
over and over and over again, they have
to say it over and over again in
different ways.
And so we have variety.
Writers do the same thing.
Musicians do the same thing.
If you listen to a great composition of
music, it'll have a theme.
And so you'll hear that theme introduced.
And then you'll hear it varied.
And then you'll hear it varied again.
And then it'll seem like the theme sort
of disappeared.
If you're listening carefully, it hasn't.
But after a bit, then it comes back
and it all finally builds up and resolves
in the end.
But you have repetition with variety.
And music is no exception.
Architecture is the same way.
Anything that anybody ever does as a means
of expression has repetition and variety.
And so a good melody has repetition and
variety.
It makes it memorable.
You sing it in the bathtub.
It's a song that just impresses itself on
you.
It's a melody that you can't get away
from.
Bad music, monotonous melody, constantly repeated chords with
almost no variety, just fragments of melody repeated
over and over again, no definite melodic direction
or resolution.
Now, we're going to illustrate from the hymnal.
Would you turn to 232?
We're not going to illustrate the bad because
I don't think there's any bad music in
this hymnal.
We might point out some hymns that are
better than others.
I want you to sing this song to
the beginning of the third score.
And I want you to sing to the
middle of the third score and stop.
Okay?
And I want you to listen carefully.
This is a good hymn.
O soul, love divine, all love's excelling, joy
of heaven to earth come down.
Fix in us thy humble dwelling, all thy
faithful mercies crown.
Listen carefully.
You can stop.
What just happened there?
What changed?
We do this all the time and nobody
thinks about it, and I want to call
it to your attention.
What changed?
Let's sing that second line again and we're
going to go into the third line and
we're going to stop.
I'm going to ask you what you sense.
O soul, fix in us thy humble dwelling,
all thy faithful mercies crown.
Okay.
What happened?
Nobody recognized that little third piece, that last
piece we sang as a minor?
It's a minor.
The song shifted into minor.
And, you know, we had repetition.
First two lines were very similar.
Not exactly.
I just want to show you how this
thing is built.
Love divine, all love's excelling, that's exactly the
same as the second line.
But then the rest of the second line
is different.
So there's your variety.
We have just enough repetition for it to
do what repetition is supposed to do and
then we have variety.
Then the song shifts totally into a minor
key.
And, by the way, that never is sung
right, so I'm going to take the time
to teach it.
Jesus, thou art all compassion.
You always sing a so, and it's a
C.
Alright?
Now let's all sing the melody and see
if we can get that and then we're
going to sing it very slowly and I
want you to hear the beautiful harmony on
that note we always sing wrong.
Alright?
I'm going to sing it for you and
then you sing it with me.
Jesus, thou art all compassion.
Sing it.
Jesus, thou art all compassion.
No, you still sang a so.
Jesus, thou art all compassion.
It's a half step above the so.
Let's do it again.
Jesus, thou art all compassion.
Now we're going to sing it very slowly
and we're going to stop on that note
and I want you to hear that chord.
Ready?
Jesus, thou art all compassion.
Excellent, but the problem is I didn't hear
any alto, tenor, or bass almost.
Let's hear the parts.
It's a fabulous chord.
We won't go into discussions as to what
kind of chord it is, but the musician
knew what he was doing.
Let's hear some good harmony.
Tenors, everybody sing tenor if they can and
alto likewise.
Ready?
The la, tenors, la, basses, do, so, mi,
baltos.
Jesus, thou art all compassion.
Stop.
Now when we sing that, it's always dissonant
at that spot.
Now I've remedied one of my pet peeves.
But you see, isn't that fabulous?
Here we have repetition and then we have
this beautiful little minor section and then if
we'd have kept singing it goes back into
a major.
Let's do it again.
Do, Jesus.
We're starting right there.
Do, so, mi, do, la, la.
Ready?
Jesus.
Now I don't want to make fun of
any songs, but it doesn't compare with Heaven
Came Down and Glory Filled My Soul.
Now we can sing that one once in
a while, but I wouldn't want to sing
that one every Sunday.
This one I could sing about every other
Sunday.
Alright.
Now, so the dynamics of a good song
have a good melody and that's just a
good melody and really that's the genius of
the song.
The melody is the genius of the song.
The geniuses write the melodies.
You can go to school and mathematically learn
to write harmony, but nobody can tell you
how to write a melody that is unique.
That's the art right there.
Alright?
Good music has varied levels of intensity.
The sound is always under control.
Bad music, the sound is loud and unrestrained.
It's just one long, loud noise.
You can hear it coming down the road,
even if the windows are shut on the
car.
Good music has varied and accurate rhythms.
Bad music has unvaried repetition of a rhythmic
pattern with unnatural accents that dominate the song.
We'll illustrate that a little bit later.
And that's why my children will tell you
that even if a song has a little
monotonous tick, somebody's just, some dumb little piece
of metal in the background just ticking away
in the song.
I hate that song.
And I say, turn it off.
That kind of a monotonous rhythm should never
dominate the song.
That's a bad song.
Good music conforms to the created order.
Repetition with variety is a very strongly held
and recognized widely concept of the created order.
So, let's talk about each of these in
turn.
A well-conceived and dominant melody.
The melody is the personality by which a
song is identified.
And I'll put this little diagram on the
board that somebody referred to.
You've all seen it.
But just simply to have it there for
us to see.
The melody should be the strong part of
the song.
The harmony, if there is any, should serve
the melody.
And the rhythm should serve both.
Now, of course, you see what the world
has done.
They've turned this totally upside down.
There's almost no melody.
It may have a fair amount of harmony,
but this dominates.
This appeals to the body.
We all know that.
You can make an argument that this appeals
to the spirit.
And you can make an argument that this
appeals to the soul, to the emotions in
that center part of that circle that we
had.
I want you to look at some good
songs.
We're just going to look at examples.
This is going to be an enjoyable time
of singing good songs.
Turn to number five.
Now, I'm not saying that all songs have
to always conform to this, but this is
the ultimate.
This is what we're aiming toward.
This is what we want our people to
learn to really appreciate because this kind of
music, you will find, somehow attracts the most
worthy text.
Don't ask me why.
But when you have the kind of music
we're going to be talking about, for some
reason, the very best kind of text, the
one I just read to you, that had
this kind of music to it.
Don't ask me why, but the lighter music
somehow attracts that kind of text.
It's just, someone else can get up and
explain it.
Denny, maybe after I'm done, you can explain
why.
But that's just the way it is.
And a lot of this lighter music doesn't
really say an awful lot.
I sit in church and sing these great
hymns of the church of people who went
through pain and trial and struggle and martyrdom
and sit there and am blessed to the
bottom of my being in every aspect of
my personality by what they said.
And I go away thinking all week about
some phrase of a song that was just
so well said.
But it's usually to this better kind of
music.
Now I want you to notice what this
song does.
Look how this thing's put together.
Come thou almighty king, so me do.
Alright?
Help us thy name to sing.
See what we have?
So me do.
But it's different.
Repetition with variety.
And then it doesn't go back up again.
It goes the whole way down to so.
Then we have an interesting little repeated pattern.
Father all glorious or all victorious.
Then we have an inversion.
Do me so.
It goes the opposite direction.
And then it keeps on going.
And the highest point of the song is
right there at the end.
That's the climax of the song.
Remember I said that our concept of life
has us going somewhere.
This thing builds up and the highest note
in the song is there at the end.
Come and reign over us.
But the songwriter's not done.
He has to put a climax in the
tenor too.
So we get a double whammy at the
end.
Isn't that something?
No wonder.
This song is in almost every book.
I mean you could sing this song every
Sunday for the next 100 years.
And people won't get tired of it because
it obeys the law of the universe.
Let's sing it.
Do me so.
Now listen to what it's doing.
Listen for the repetition.
Listen for the variety.
And listen to that splendiferous climax with the
soprano and then the tenor.
Do me so.
Come Thou almighty King.
Help us by name to sing.
Help us to praise.
Father of glorious, O'er all victorious, Come
and reign o'er us all the days.
It's unbeatable.
Number 18.
And I'm just going to be talking through
this whole thing.
Don't let us do anything that takes those
away from us.
There's nothing can replace that that I know
of that's worthy of replacing it.
O come let us worship.
John Everhold did an amazing thing on this
song.
I don't know how much he realized what
he was doing.
But this song is tied together in an
amazing way.
O come.
Two does.
Alright.
The second phrase.
Two does.
Come kneel.
The third phrase.
Two does.
These are the highest notes in the song
except there's a climax at the end.
And then it climaxes in hearing his word.
Then two does.
And when you sing that, the whole song
is tied together with those double does at
the beginning of every phrase.
Yeah, that's basically what I wanted to say.
Oh, and then he has sort of a
double climax at the end too.
It's sort of an unusual climax.
And that's that repetition of that so at
the end.
Somehow that just at the end of that
song just sort of solidifies everything that has
said at the end of the verses.
Let's sing this.
Just one verse of this one.
Do, mi, so, do.
Notice these double does and how they tie
the song together.
And notice his unusual emphasis at the end.
It's sort of an unusual kind of climax.
It doesn't go up.
It just repeats.
Do.
Oh, come.
Shall be.
Lord.
Come him in reverence and fear.
With and in fear.
And yes, you have that climax there in
the tenor.
Now, another very unusual song is number 96.
We usually think of the climax at the
end of the song.
But this one has it at the beginning.
The highest point in this song is the
second syllable.
But notice what's going on here.
Look at the words.
When all thy mercies, oh my God, my
rising soul surveys.
And then the rest of the song is
sort of like a reverie.
Transported with the view I'm lost in wonder,
love and praise.
And it comes down, down, down, down, down
and ends in sort of a reverie.
Ten thousand through every, through all eternity.
You see why that high note was put
there?
The songwriter knew what he was doing.
Let's sing just one verse of it.
Tell me so when all thy soul
surveys transported with the view I'm
lost in wonder, love and praise.
Did you sense that sense of reverie at
the end?
Transported with the view I'm lost in wonder,
love and praise.
And every verse is sort of that way.
I think the music must have been written
for these words because it just fits perfectly.
Let's turn to 138.
Alright, again, you will notice that it begins
on low do.
Lift your glad voices.
And the high point in the song is
right at the end.
It ends on a high do.
And there's a re before that.
The only repetition in this song is in
the second line.
Vain were the tares that gathered around him.
But notice, it's the same pattern but it's
different.
We're singing different notes.
It's re, re, fa, mi, so, fa.
And the other one is mi, so, fa,
la, so.
But it's, you know, you have that little
bit of repetition but there's variety.
You're not singing the same notes.
And then, it has a very strong climactic
ending.
Let's sing this one.
And just notice how it keeps building and
building and building.
It's going, this song's going somewhere.
Do, lift your glad voices in triumph for
life for Jesus hath risen Listen
for the repetition.
Vain were the tares that gathered around him
and sure the dominion of day You're
going to have to pardon my comments but
they'll be singing that long after they quit
singing When the Ransom Get Home.
When the Ransom Get Home is fine.
I'm not putting it down.
But you're talking about an altogether different quality
of song and a different quality of text.
When the Ransom Get Home basically says one
thing.
And it's good.
It's a wonderful thing.
I can't wait till I get home.
But this song says a whole lot more.
And the music supports a whole lot more.
Okay?
Let's turn to 141.
And you can sing When the Ransom Get
Home but please don't take these songs away
from us.
We want these songs for our children.
Rise, Glorious, Conquer, Rise.
This is interesting.
You know what ties this song together?
Da, da, da, da, da, da.
It's that low note, upper note, low note,
dotted quarter, eighth note.
You have that Da, da, da, da, da,
da, da.
It goes up and down, up and down,
up and down, up and down.
See that repetition?
And the notes are never the same.
Then on the third score it starts at
a high Do and it starts coming down.
Then it's up, down, and then it goes
up and then up and down again.
Down, up, I'm sorry.
Yeah, it's up and down, up, so la
so, so me fa, and then up and
down, and then it builds to its climax.
So it has those little, it has those
little jiggers in there.
And space throughout the song is a dotted
quarter and an eighth, so you have that
rhythmic tie that's repeated.
And then, of course, it builds to a
splendiferous climax, too.
It's a double one.
See, look at the double one.
We have the tenor and the soprano.
This is almost a Mennonite marching song.
All right, let's sing it.
Do, so, me, do, rise, Gloria, conquer, rise,
into the native skies.
And where it manifold, the clouds are there.
Twenty-three.
My purpose here, and I'm not making any
secrets, my purpose here is for you to
go home and say we don't ever want
these songs to be taken away from us.
We're not going to allow any kind of
music to rob us of this stuff.
This is quality worship.
Yes.
And you'll sing them for the next 100.
After those other songs, you said, well, now
we've sung those enough.
Let's get a book with some new ones
in.
And you know what?
The new book will have this one in.
Mine won't have some of those other ones.
But I don't think you'll miss them too
badly.
But you would miss that one.
How many think you'd miss that one?
It's in there.
Alright.
Twenty-three.
Great God indulge my humble claim.
Alright, so here we have Great God indulge
my humble claim.
Thou art my hope, my joy, my rest.
Okay, so far no repetition.
Now we have repetition.
The glories that compose thy name.
And that's the same as the first line
up until the end of the second score.
But then it just keeps going on up.
It just keeps going on up.
And again, you have the double climactic ending.
These are the songs that people like.
The ones that have that soprano and then
the tenor comes in for the double punch.
Alright, let's sing this one.
Thou so great God indulge my humble
claim.
Thou art my hope, my joy, my rest.
Repetition.
Glories of thy name stand
always blessed.
Now there's something I always listen for in
this song.
I listen for it and it's almost never
sung.
Altos, would you do me a favor?
At the end of this last score, there's
a special little thing there.
And the altos almost never sing it.
Notice that above make that is a ray.
That is a dissonant note that is absolutely
beautiful because you're waiting for it to resolve.
And it's really, really pretty.
So let's have some good strong altos and
be sure you sing a ray there.
Okay?
Did somebody say something?
Okay, let's sing it.
Let's sing the first verse again.
And all the people who can sing altos,
you sing it so we can hear it.
The soul great God endows my heart boldly.
Stronger altos.
My joy, my rest.
The glory come for thy name.
I heard just a hint of it.
That's really the, to me, that's the prettiest
chord in that song.
Turn to 815.
Now we're going to look at a gospel
song that sort of does the same thing.
It's not in the same category as the
ones we've sung.
But I don't want you to throw out
all gospel songs.
They have a place.
They address in a folk kind of way
what people experience.
It's actually the only unique contribution that America
has made to hymnody is gospel music.
And some of it isn't too bad.
I want you to notice.
Cling to the Bible though all else be
taken.
Lose not its promises, precious and sure.
And now we have a little bit of
repetition.
Souls that are sleeping, its echoes, awaken.
Drink from the fountain.
Yeah, okay, that's a repetition.
Cling to the Bible, cling to the Bible.
And notice it builds.
This is unusual for a gospel song to
have such a strong climactic ending.
But I want you to listen now when
we sing this to see if it sounds
different to you than the songs we've been
singing.
And then I want you to tell me
what's different about it.
Go.
Cling to the Bible though all else be
taken.
Lose not its promises.
Souls that are sleeping, its echoes, awaken.
Drink from the fountain, so peaceful, so pure.
Cling to the Bible, cling to the Bible,
cling to the Bible, our Lamb and God.
Now that's not a bad song, but what
did you notice?
What was different?
Look, it's snappy, but it's also a little
bit monotonous.
Just a little bit.
And believe you me, at the end of
four verses, we're ready to turn to something
else.
We're only talking about qualitative differences.
We're not throwing songs out and saying these
are bad, you shouldn't sing these.
We're just simply saying be aware that we
have songs that are excellent and like you
said, you'd sing them over and over and
over again.
We have other songs that after many, many
years of usage, they let's get another hymnal.
We're ready for something else.
Sing it once a year maybe or just
every now and then.
All right.
So, a good song has a melody that
has a real personality and it has, it
has these features built into it.
Repetition with variety.
It does a very good job of that.
It also has a rich and varied harmony.
The harmony supports, but it never overshadows the
melody.
The melody still dominates.
I want you to, I want you to
turn to one that the melody is what's
in my mind.
Would you turn to 188?
Now, I want you to notice when we
sing this how the melody is just, it's
a very, very definite personality of a melody,
but it has the most unbelievable harmony.
I mean, you'll hear it vary from major
to minor to major to minor throughout the
whole song.
Just listen to the rich variety, but the
harmony never dominates the melody.
The melody is what is always in your
mind.
Do, Mi, So, Do Do, Mi, So, Do
Shepherd Sing it.
Here's the minor.
Isn't that gorgeous?
Cry Came to
sing Heather our children Bring to shepherd Cry
You notice how that melody is so dominant,
it's unique.
And then you have this rich harmony, but
it's subservient.
It serves the melody and helps to actually
emphasize the melody.
And then the beat is where it's supposed
to be too.
There's no pulsing rhythm.
It's there, but it's not, it's not announcing
itself loudly.
We could sing some others, but I see
we're running out of time.
And then there should be a subtle rhythm.
There should be a subtle rhythm.
You know, a healthy body.
I'm assuming you're all healthy.
How many of you can feel your heartbeat
sitting here?
Well, you better go home and go to
bed.
If you can feel your heartbeat, you're sick.
And if you can feel the throbbing rhythm
of a song, it's sick.
Alright, that's the main thing I want to
say to you today.
The rhythm should not dominate the song.
It's a sick song if it does.
It's not intended to.
A healthy body, the pulse is usually unnoticed
except during excitement.
And so, when we sing a song that's
really exciting, then we have some sense that
there's rhythm.
Playing to the Bible, Denny said that.
We felt rhythm because there was excitement there.
But there was a reason for it.
We were singing an exciting song.
A dead body has no pulse, so music
has to have some sort of rhythm.
A sick body has a pulse that's not
regular.
Have I said enough?
The music should tell the same story that
the words tell.
Here is a song that when it came
on the scene, shocked the Christian world.
Since Jesus came into my heart.
The whole song is dominated by that syncopated
rhythm.
And when that song first appeared, Christians were
scandalized that anybody would do that with a
sacred song.
And you don't even think anything of it.
You probably wonder what the big fuss was
about because we're used to it.
That's a sick rhythm.
And it does not go, since Jesus came
into my heart, I'm not feeling since Jesus
came into my heart.
Since Jesus came into my heart.
I mean, if that's how you feel about
your experience with Jesus, I pity you.
In closing, turn to Revelation chapter 5.
Revelation chapter 5.
Here we have the new song, by the
way.
We've been talking about it all morning.
And we're going to actually look at it.
We're going to see when God writes a
song, now we don't have the melody and
we don't have the music, but we have
the words that give us some hint as
to what kind of song and how it
was constructed.
It follows what we call the sonata form,
which is a classical form.
A sonata form has, I'll just write them
here on the board.
It has, the first thing you have is
an exposition.
It has the introduction of the theme.
The theme is presented.
The second thing the sonata form does is
it has what we call the development of
that theme, where the theme is developed into
a new form.
We have the variety here.
It's expanded.
And then we have what is known, these
are big words, recapitulation, where the song ends
with an emphasis, a very special emphasis on
the theme that was introduced.
So the exposition is the introduction of the
theme.
The development is the expansion of the theme
and the recapitulation is the final emphasis on
that theme.
Now I want you to notice what we
have here.
We have it perfectly.
And it doesn't surprise me because the God
that wrote this song is the God that
created the world.
It's the God that created the repetition and
the variety and all the things we've been
talking about this morning.
So you would expect if God wrote a
song that it would be written with those,
you would see that in the song.
Does that make sense?
Alright.
What is the theme of this song?
The theme really begins in verse 8.
The theme is the Lamb.
The theme is Christ.
And then we have the theme presented.
Christ is worthy.
Why?
He was slain.
He has redeemed us.
He is worthy because he has redeemed us.
That's the theme.
Now we get down to verse 12.
Well, in that theme, by the way, you
have the four living creatures which I take
to be nature.
And you have the 24 elders which I
take to be the church.
In verse 8.
In verse 11, they're joined by the angels.
In verse 13, they're joined by every living
creature in heaven and earth.
Now you want to talk about stereo or
whatever you want to call it.
I mean, until this thing is done, you
know, it starts out with nature.
The church joins.
The angels join.
And then all of creation joins to introduce
this tremendous theme that Jesus Christ is worthy
because he has redeemed us.
Now, we have the development in verse 12.
It expands on that theme.
It tells you it is an expression of
his worthiness.
He's worthy to receive power and riches and
wisdom and strength and honor and glory and
blessing.
That's exactly what a piece of classical music
does.
It expands on the theme.
What a beautiful expansion of this wonderful theme
that Jesus Christ is worthy because he's redeemed
us and he's worthy to receive this and
this and this and this and this and
this and this.
And then in verse 13, we have the
recapitulation of this theme and every creature which
is in heaven and on earth and under
the earth and such as are in the
sea and all that are in them heard
I saying and here's this theme spelled out
finally in an emphasis at the end blessing
and honor and glory and power beyond to
him that sits upon the throne and unto
the land.
That's where we started.
Forever and ever and the four beasts we
started out with them said amen and the
four and twenty elders of the church says
amen and they all fall down and worship
him who liveth forever and ever.
Now, that's the new song.
And it is it's not let's just have
a little talk with Jesus let us tell
him this is far more than that brother
and sister.
Let me read it and this will be
the conclusion.
Redemption, regeneration and rule we have here.
You can just outline this thing in many
different ways and when he had taken the
book the four beasts and the four and
twenty elders fell down before the Lamb having
every one of them harps and golden vials
full of odors which are the prayers of
the saints and they sung a new song
saying Thou art worthy to take the book
and to open the seals thereof for Thou
was slain and has redeemed us to God
by Thy blood out of every kindred and
tongue and people and nation that has made
us unto our God kings and priests and
we shall reign on the earth.
And I beheld and heard the voice of
many angels round about the throne and the
beasts and the elders and the number of
them was ten thousand times ten thousand and
thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to
receive power and riches and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and blessing and every
creature which is in heaven and on earth
and under the earth and such as were
in the sea and all that were in
them heard I saying Blessing and honor and
glory and power be unto him that sitteth
upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever
and ever and the four beasts said Amen
and the four and twenty elders fell down
and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever
I think that fits some of those wonderful
songs we sang same build up same repetition
same concept of musical development let's bow our
heads for a word of prayer and then
I'll entertain your questions Father what more can
we say you have showed us your new
song and it fits with all of the
rest of the created order that worships you
with the highest quality of praise and Father
I pray help us never to surrender to
a throbbing beat to a shallow text to
anything Lord that would rob us of these
wonderful hymns that are coming out of the
hearts of people who were martyred who suffered
and who knew what Christianity was so bless
this congregation may its music as a result
of this day be a more prominent form
of worship throughout the coming week in Jesus
name we pray Amen I did want to
say this let's look again at those little
two line songs I'd like to have a
whole session to talk about those but we
won't do that music was originally written originally
when they first metered it at first it
was chanted but when they first metered it
way back in the very first part of
the church it was metered into lines of
8 syllables 6 syllables 8 syllables and 6
syllables those of you who know music know
that that's common meter it's the most dominant
meter that was used to write songs now
these songs don't have choruses they're those little
two line songs in the hymnal and if
you don't learn to sing those little two
line songs and appreciate them you're going to
miss all that's best in English hymnody and
also the early church hymns because they were
all written in this meter Isaac Watson some
of them expanded it they did a short
meter which was 6 syllables in the first
line 6 syllables in the second line 8
in the third and 6 in the fourth
and then we have long meter which is
8-8-8 and there's scads of these
songs in here and they're all the best
songs in English hymnody now we sing this
song come we that law of the Lord
now some of those songs have been taken
that's written in common meter I think have
been taken and somebody did something with them
and made them a little more interesting and
added a chorus that song was originally sung
come we that law of the Lord and
let our joys be known join in a
song with sweet accord in us around the
throne it was just it was just a
two line song and I'm finding that in
many of our churches we're not getting the
benefit out of those beautiful little two line
songs that were written by the best writers
Isaac Watson wrote only in those meters if
you don't sing those meters you will never
sing much of Isaac Watson so I really
want to encourage the congregation to look again
at those shorter songs they are the original
good English songs okay now what are your
questions it was too much to get done
in that amount of time but we tried
yes brother Denny well
the difference is it's sort of a folk
it's more of a folk song and it's
not constructed as precisely as those other songs
we sang it's more like cling to the
Bible it has a little bit more of
a monotonous rhythm it's not quite as carefully
crafted it's more of a popular type of
song that appeals a little bit more with
it's rhythm and with it's harmony than what
the very best songs do and they have
their place there are times when there are
gospel songs that are just the right song
for me at that time and I'm not
putting them down but all I'm saying is
let's not sing them to the neglect of
the other ones okay somebody else have a
question yes could it be that some would
fall into the category of hymns and some
into the category of songs some, I mean
both spiritual Isaac Watts encountering the insistence of
the Reformation churches that they sing only to
songs entitled his first song book Songs and
Hymns and Spiritual Songs yes some of them
fall into the category of spiritual songs the
hymns are pure praise come thou almighty king
the spiritual songs are songs of experience blessed
assurance Jesus is mine oh what a foretaste
now we're not praising God except indirectly that's
more a song telling you my experience that's
a spiritual song yes brother John I really
appreciate all that you've shared today I agree
with George there's so much to take home
I'm blessed with a tape recording I was
really impressed with what you were saying about
the early philosophers how they said there's a
principle behind this that if we allow them
to write the songs and who can make
the laws something that you quoted it was
an interesting historical note that I wanted to
bring up that around the time of Constantine
there was a big group of heresy called
the Arians who didn't believe in the divinity
of Christ and the Arians it spread it's
interesting enough by song they had certain songs
that were sung that spoke of this heresy
and that spread through the entire world as
a matter of fact when they were brought
before Constantine in some of the trials there
they actually instead of just talking doctrine they
started singing their songs in front of the
council and so it's interesting maybe we see
a little of this here today some of
what you're saying actually that was that was
a great stimulus to the orthodox Christians the
only way they could counter it was to
go through the streets singing like the Arians
did and that's another whole subject there's a
character that gave us the melody up until
that point it was chanting and right about
that time we got a melody but that's
another whole subject okay any other questions yes
brother I
don't think it's going to hurt anybody in
the sense of demoralizing it just might not
lift anybody's spirits very high I don't know
he wants to know what about the groups
that sing a very slow music I don't
think it's something I'm going to worry about
and it does bless them it's unique they
grew up with it and it speaks to
them in a very special way and I
don't think there's anything bad about it okay
my greatest concern is the beat that monotonous
beat even if it's just a little tick
that's just there in the background it just
to me that just militates against everything that
is good and true and beautiful in terms
of music okay well thank you very much
this afternoon what I'm going to do is
just tell him stories that we're going to
sing thank you brother John I think
our singing is going to take on a
new meaning after this won't it I've been
blessed encouraged we are not done yet
as brother John shared we're going to sing
something this afternoon look more into some of
these hymns but you know music is really
important as we have been hearing this morning
and it's inspiring to me as we've just
looked at it again and fresh and as
a congregation and I trust it will overflow
we'll take it home with us into our
family family worship time and it will just
add a rich depth and meaning to our
our family worship and our congregational worship of
our Lord Jesus together as I thought of
music and a comment that John made about
writing the music and how it affects the
nation and the kingdoms of the nation I
thought of our own nation and I was
very young at that time but we all
know the effect and the impact when rock
music was introduced in United States and that
group of hippies the Beatles stepped foot on
United States and the impact that that had
and so the effects of music that are
in this nation that are being listened to
certainly are having its effect in the erosion
of all that is right and true and
godly and you know it's just a wearing
down and having its its cancerous effect upon
the society in which we live and then
of course it creeps into what's called Christian
music you know and it effects that and
it effects that and so I really appreciate
the clear teaching and the clear emphasis that
we have here this morning on the right
principles and right music so may the lord
continue to inspire our hearts and give us
that clear sound and that we may walk
in that and that that may be our
our song for the many future generations as
god allows