The Shadow and Substance of Musical Worship

Sometimes it’s assumed that many churches who bear the identifying name “church of Christ” have chosen to worship God through acapella singing because of preference. It doesn’t help that some who associate with these churches but are less mature or less grounded in their faith have occasionally explained the practice this way. There are many though who identify as the church of Christ, because they aim simply to be part of the church that belongs to Jesus Christ and not part of yet another church whose beliefs and practices are dictated by preference. They would explain it very differently. For them, acapella worship is not a matter of preference; it is a matter of conviction.

Convictions are not always reached by the same route. Many have reached a conviction concerning acapella singing by applying the principle of silence. When you go to a restaurant and order something, you don’t have to specify the many things that you do not want on the menu apart from your order. When God orders, “Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing” (Ephesians 5:18-19), and “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace” (Colossians 3:16), Bible students almost universally recognize that God desires musical worship. However, like good waiters and waitresses at a restaurant, those determined “to wait on the Lord” (Isaiah 40:31) recognize His specificity regarding a musical instrument – “making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:19; cf. Colossians 3:16) – and His desire for a “sacrifice of praise […] that is, the fruit of our lips” (Hebrews 13:15). They don’t wait for God to list all the things that He does not want; they seek to act in accordance with His stated wishes.

Some have reached (or deepened) their convictions concerning acapella though by also reflecting on the practice of the earliest Christians. Acapella singing was for many centuries the exclusive practice of the church. In fact, the very term “acapella” means “in the style of / the manner of the chapel / church.” In his excellent paper, “Beyond the Argument from Silence: A Covenantal View of A Cappella Worship” (which he has made accessible online at https://www.theoutlet.us/), Ashby Camp surveys a host of historians and scholars who report this. One quote that stood out to me comes from James McKinnon, a musicologist with no affiliation with the churches of Christ; he writes, “The antagonism which the Fathers of the early Church displayed toward instruments has two outstanding characteristics: vehemence and uniformity.”

It is of course possible for even good convictions to be reached in a way that isn’t good. In an attempt to build a case against using mechanical instruments in New Testament worship, some have argued that God never intended for them to be a part of Old Testament worship. Some seem to believe that when David identifies himself as the one who made musical instruments “for giving praise (1 Chronicles 23:5), that he was taking credit for the whole idea. I have even heard Amos’ woe towards the lazy elite in Israel, described among other things as those “Who sing idly to the sound of stringed instruments, And invent for yourselves musical instruments like David” (Amos 6:5), as a condemnation of instrumental praise. Other passages though demonstrate that what David put into effect concerning instruments actually “was the commandment of the Lord by His prophets” (2 Chronicles 29:25), and that all of David’s plans came from the Lord (1 Chronicles 28:19). God Himself brought inspiration to several Psalms which mention instrumental praise, one of which we will reflect upon later.

Before we do so, I’d like to suggest this: one line of reasoning that isn’t often considered in the acapella discussion is how the elements of the Old Law prefigure and point towards “something better” in the New (Hebrews 11:40). The Hebrews author described the Law of Moses as “having a shadow of the good things to come” and contrasted this with “the very image of the things” (Hebrews 10:1). No one confuses the shadow and the substance; further, no one aware of the substance seeks the shadow. We do not find completion and perfection in the Law of Moses, but in the Law of Christ. So, what implications does this have for musical praise?

Let’s consider Psalm 150. The Psalmist clearly has an intense desire to praise God; the phrase, “Praise the LORD!” forms an inclusio, encapsulating the idea of the Psalm (Psalm 150:1, 6). The psalmist desires to praise God because of who He is (a God of “excellent greatness”) and because of what He does (“His mighty acts”) (Psalm 150:2). But how can such a great and glorious God be praised?

As the Psalmist writes these words, God is worshipped in a tent (or perhaps the temple if David is not the author). While the Psalmist believes that God should be praised “in His mighty firmament,” i.e., in accord with the expanse of His power, He knows that praise is offered “in His sanctuary” (Psalm 150:1). The sanctuary is in the tabernacle/temple; it is not within the Psalmist. Likewise, when the Psalmist envisions praise, he envisions it in external terms; he encourages praise via a variety of instruments which are ultimately external to the worshiper.

As we turn to the New Testament though, we find Paul specifying and highlighting only one instrument: “with your heart” (Ephesians 5:19). Paul even employs the Greek verb which shares an etymology with the word transliterated as “psalm,” a word which means to pluck or twang, as on a stringed instrument. Again though, the verb is transitive and the instrument is specified: the heart. New Testament worshippers do not need to travel to the tabernacle or temple; they are “the temple of the living God” (2 Corinthians 6:16). They do not need to grab mechanical instruments to praise God; God encourages them to reach into their hearts and pluck its strings as praise.  

I do not often agree with John Calvin, but I find his comments on this issue powerful as we reflect on this “shadow vs. substance” line of reasoning. He writes, commenting on Psalm 33:On another occasion, commenting on 1 Samuel 18, he writes:It’s incredible to me how many people revere this man but never stop to consider these words.

Acapella singing is not merely a preference. It’s something God specifically requested, something that the early church universally rendered to Him in worship for centuries, and something that represents the substance of an Old Testament shadow.

-Patrick Swayne  
patrick@tftw.org