p. 106 | SINGING GOD'S PRAISE by G. V. Kilgore

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 3, 1879

SINGING GOD'S PRAISE.

By G. V. Kilgore

It is often said that singing is an essential part of worship, and so it is. God commanded it in olden times: “This was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.” Ps. 81:1–4. But a blessing may be turned into a curse. Sometimes God's people have paid more attention to secondary matters in religion than they have to the weightier matters. Such was the case with the Pharisees. Matt. 23:23.

While it is essential to have good singing, it is not good to make more of that part of the worship than of the prayers and preaching; and when we do sing we should, like Paul, sing with the spirit and with the understanding. 1 Cor. 14:15. When hymns of praise are sung by those whose hearts are full of the love of God, there is an inspiration in the music that lifts the hearts of the people, and makes them joyful in the house of the Lord. Sweet songs of praise to God remind us of the beautiful strains of music that redeemed ones will make before the throne of God, when they “touch the heavenly strings, and vie with Gabriel while he sings, in notes almost divine.”

We are then made to love the music of Heaven, and we long to be there. Oh, the rapturous songs of joyful praise to the Lamb of God! Shall we yet join in singing them! Shall we stand on the sea of glass with harps of gold in our hands, and sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb? When those beautiful mansions ring with the glad voices of the saved ones, shall we hear it? and shall we be numbered in the choir? Yes; we shall if we live for it. But if we are ever to join in those glad anthems, we must learn to love God in this life, and learn to worship according to his word. We must speak, and sing, and pray to the glory and honor of Him who created us. We must do all things for the sake of Him who died for us. And what a privilege this is! What a glorious calling, to work for the highest ruler in the universe! Should we not worship him in sincerity and in truth? What a pleasant thing it would be if all professors of religion were real possessors, and would worship God together in union and harmony! The prospects of the world's conversion would then be more flattering than they are now. But sad it is that now, instead of the humble confessions of sin and the earnest prayers that ought to be heard, the person with a light heart and the most musical voice has a prominent place in the churches. Beautiful songs are sung; but where are the hearts that are sorry for sin? Where are the tears that are shed in the worshiping assemblies of to-day? There are some, but they are few.

The prophet Isaiah has described our day quite accurately. In the twenty-fourth chapter he speaks of the great day of God, when the earth is to be made empty,—when it shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and be dissolved. He warns the people who live near that day in these words: “Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.” Verse 17. In the verse just before this he describes the songs of our day, and the manner of singing them. Hear him: “From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! [Leanness to me, margin, from the Hebrew] the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously.”

What is the trouble with these songs which ascribe glory to the righteous? Isaiah says they are leanness to him. Is it wrong to sing glory to the righteous? No; but this is the trouble: They are not sung with the spirit and with the understanding. There is too much of light and chaffy air, and not enough of the love of God, in those who sing them. They sing just for the sound, and not for the glory of God. And then the songs of this time ascribe glories to the righteous that are false. They sing,— “Many loved ones have I in yon heavenly throng; They are safe now in glory, and this is their song,” etc.; and “All the blessed ones who've gone to the land of life and song. We with shoutings shall rejoin by-and-by,” etc.

The Bible says: “The dead praise not the Lord” (Ps. 115:17); “the dead know not anything” (Eccl. 9:5); “for in death there is no remembrance of Thee” (Ps. 6:5); and it says that in the place where the dead go, “There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom.” Eccl. 9:10. Yet men have made songs which declare that the dead do praise the Lord; that they know more than all the living; and that they have knowledge and wisdom in the world of light above. How can men so contradict the plain word of God? How could they ever get people to believe and sing these songs that are so contrary to the Bible? Isaiah has told the way they have done it exactly. He says they have dealt very treacherously in this. That is it. Treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously in teaching the people. They have not preached the word, but have divined out of their own hearts. And they have made songs to suit their own stories. Therefore Isaiah says their songs were “leanness” to him. And how lean they are!

To sing God's praises acceptably we must sing the truth, and sing with the right spirit and true motive. The psalmist says, “I will praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my God; unto thee will I sing.” Ps. 71:22. It is just as bad to sing a lie as to tell one, and if we sing songs which ascribe glory to the righteous between death and the resurrection, we sing what God denies in his word. Can God be praised with such singing? No; God wants his people to “worship him in spirit and in truth,” and not to speak or sing falsehoods in his name.

G. V. KILGORE.