IN our picture this week we have a little boy and girl amusing themselves with a large violin. I hardly think the little one needs to be so close to hear the sound that will come from these deep-toned wires, but she is bending and turning her ear as if she wants to get all the sound she can.
There is a good deal given in Scripture about music and it will no doubt do us good to consider a few portions.
In Eccl. 2:1-11 King Solomon tells us of many things he tried for the sake of mirth, and in the eighth verse he mentions as some of the things, musical instruments, and that of all sorts. This portion of Scripture is not saying that musical instruments are wrong things but the use that is made of them, and then at the close of the eleventh verse, he sums up all the different things he has spoken of as “Vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.”
Then again in the twelfth chapter he says, “REMEMBER NOW THY CREATOR IN THE DAYS OF THY YOUTH, WHILE THE EVIL DAYS COME NOT, NOR THE YEARS DRAW NIGH, WHEN THOU SHALT SAY, I HAVE NO PLEASURE IN THEM.” Eccl. 12:11Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; (Ecclesiastes 12:1). So at the close of verse four, he is still viewing the end and he says, “All the daughters of music shall be brought low.”
It is good, dear children, to view everything in the light of God’s word and when we do, we get God’s view of the end of all things; so the importance of remembering NOW thy Creator in the days of thy youth.
Another portion we find in Amos 6, he says “Woe to them that are at ease in Zion.” It is evident that some among God’s earthly people were taking it easy and enjoying all the good things and living in luxury, leaving God out; so in the fifth verse he says, “That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of music.” It is no small matter if believers in the Lord Jesus go on in this way, seeking to make themselves happy without God, and forgetting too that judgment is coming on this world; if they do, God will deal with them in time.
But now let us turn to where musical instruments were used properly and suited for the character of the time. In Neh. 12 we get the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem. It was a great time of joy and thanksgiving to God, so in the thirty-sixth verse we get a number of names mentioned who had “the musical instruments of David the man of God.”
When we come to the New Testament we do, not get any mention of musical instruments being used for the worship of God but we read in Eph. 5:1919Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; (Ephesians 5:19) “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord.” If we know the Lord Jesus as our Saviour, and thus know how He suffered in our place, we will surely want to be singing praises to Him and that from our hearts.
Sing of His dying love;
Sing of His rising power;
Sing how He intercedes above
For those whose sins He bore.
ML 03/04/1906