Music and Worship

 Music and Worship

January 16, 2026

Psalm 100:1-5 (NKJV) 1 A Psalm of Thanksgiving. 

Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands! 2 Serve the LORD with gladness; Come before His presence with singing. 3 Know that the LORD, He [is] God; [It is] He [who] has made us, and not we ourselves; [We are ]His people and the sheep of His pasture. 4 Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, [And] into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, [and] bless His name. 5 For the LORD [is] good; His mercy [is] everlasting, And His truth [endures] to all generations.

We’ve been talking about music all week, but what is the ultimate purpose for music? 

We read in Job that there was music at the creation of the worlds, so we know that God created music for a good purpose, But we also read in Isaiah that when Lucifer fell he took his music and instruments with him.

Isaiah 14:11-12

11 ‘Your pomp and the music of your harps

Have been brought down to Sheol;

Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you

And worms are your covering.’

12 “How you have fallen from heaven,

O star of the morning, son of the dawn!

You have been cut down to the earth,

You who have weakened the nations!

So since that day, music has served duel purposes. Back in the day, Larry Norman sang a song called “Why does the Devil have all the Good Music”, and that’s still a good question. Certainly, the musicians that make the most money and have the largest fan base are singing for the devil, or are at least performing for simple worldly entertainment. But what is the real purpose of music? If the angels sang at creation to worship the God of creation, certainly music was made to worship the Lord. 

Jesus quoted the prophet Malakai  to say that He had come to restore all things.

Matthew 17:11

11And He answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things; (Mal 4:5-6)

Acts 15:16

16 ‘AFTER THESE THINGS I will return,

AND I WILL REBUILD THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID WHICH HAS FALLEN,

AND I WILL REBUILD ITS RUINS,

AND I WILL RESTORE IT, (Amos 9:11)u

Then Peter quoted Amos to say that that was the day when the tabernacle of David was to be restored. The tabernacle of David is used in scripture to describe true worship, so the meaning of these passages is that Jesus came to restore true worship. Music plays an integral part in this, and our job in preaching the kingdom of God is to restore music to its rightful place in worship.

Matthew 6:10

10 ‘Your kingdom come.

Your will be done,

On earth as it is in heaven.

We pray for the kingdom to come and His will to be done on the earth, and in part, we preach this through music. When we listen to the Holy Spirit, and we play with the greatest skill, and sing with a voice of high praise, we can open the gates of heaven and lead the people to join in the praise and worship that is continually sounding in heaven. If you are in the congregation, and not on the worship team in the front, it is still your job to enter into worship with praise and thanksgiving. When we restore the tabernacle of David on the earth, we enter into that heavenly choir that we see in Revelation, singing worthy is the Lamb.

Revelation 5:11-14

Angels Exalt the Lamb

11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice,

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”

13 And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying,

“To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”

14 And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped.

Melody

 Melody

January 15, 2026

Ephesians 5:19 (NKJV) 

speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,

Psalms 98:5-6

5 Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre,

With the lyre and the sound of melody.

6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn

Shout joyfully before the King, the LORD.

We’ve talked about pitch and harmony, tempo and rhythm, but those together don’t make very interesting music. What you need to bring it all together and give the song a recognizable character is a chord progression and melody. The chord progression gives the song a mood, and the melody weaves around in the chord progression to tell a story.You can tell a happy story with a tune using major chords and fourth and fifth chords or tell a more somber or sad story with notes from minor chords and more exotic jazz chords such as minor 9ths and 11ths. How these chords are constructed gifts into more music theory, but for now, just remember the perfect 5th and 4th intervals that Pythagoras discovered. These are the basis for the happy 1-4-1-4-1-5-4-1 chord progression. 

But I digress. Our point here is not really to teach music theory, but to encourage you to sing melodies to express your praise to the Lord. You can use melodies to encourage one another and to comfort one another during hard times. Remember how David was able to play music for King Saul to calm his troubled soul. Music has the ability to influence our emotions and express what is in our hearts. So sing praises to the Lord and let the sound of melody be in your heart. Sing joyfully to the Lord.

Time and Music

 Time and Music

January 14, 2026

Acts 1:14a (NKJV) These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, …

Philippians 2:2

2make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

Ecclesiastes 3:1

1There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—

Another mathematical aspect of music is time; tempo and rhythm. This is not as complicated as frequency and pitch, but is just as important. Each musical composition is written with a specific tempo and time signature in mind. To play it as the composer intended, you need to follow the clock, and play precisely 60 beats per minute, 72 bpm, 100 bpm, etc. There is also a time signature. The most common is 4/4 which is four quarter notes per measure. Now when more than one person is playing, one has to be in charge of the tempo. In an orchestra that is the conductor and in a small band it is the drummer and/or the bass player. (Of course, I think the bass player is most important, laying down both the tempo and chords progression for he band. 🤠🎸). But without this coordination, each one doing what they think is right leads to chaos. To be music, pleasing to the ear, they must be together, in one accord with one purpose. This is another way that music reflects the heart of God as He desires that all of His people dwell in unity and have the same mind and the same purpose.

Once the tempo has been established, there can be a rhythm added to the basic beat. For many years, I played with worship bands that had many black players. They used to kid me that I was the old white guy with no rhythm. They tried very hard to teach me those funky rhythms, and I tried my best. But in the end, I was indeed that old white guy with no rhythm! 🤠🎸. Anyway, I did learn to keep a basic beat and could play some syncopation on occasion. The rhythm gives a specific character to a piece on top of the basic 1,2,3,4 of the tempo. What do you think of when you hear this rhythm ?

Daaaaaa dum

Daaaaaa dum

Daaa dum Daaa dum

Da dum Da dum Da dum…

If you hummed that correctly, you should be thinking “We need a bigger boat! Jaws is coming for us!”

Bottom line is that mathematics, consistent counting, making rhythms together and being of one mind and playing together is all part of music. And music reflects the heart of God who brings order and unity to His people. So be of one accord, play in sync with one another and worship the Father by being of one mind and one purpose. That true in both music and in the Christian life.

Mathematics and Music

 Mathematics and Music

January 13, 2026

2 Samuel 6:5

5Meanwhile, David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the LORD with all kinds of instruments made of fir wood, and with lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets and cymbals.

In second Samuel, we see that King David utilized all kinds of musical instruments to worship the Lord. There are stringed instruments, winds instruments, both brass and woodwinds, and percussion instruments. But what enables all these types of  instruments to play together harmoniously? As we said briefly yesterday, It is because of the underlying mathematics that determines which notes and frequencies sound pleasing together. Let us go back to Pythagoras as see how he laid a mathematical foundation for music.

One story goes that it was as he was passing a blacksmiths shop that he noticed that two hammers ringing off of the anvil sounded good together. On closer inspection, he determined that one hammer weighted exactly twice what the other did, and the resulting sounds were the same note, but an octave apart. This established the first perfect interval, which is the octave, whose frequencies have a ratio of 2:1. You can demonstrate the same thing on a guitar by first plucking a string and then touching it at the halfway point (the twelfth fret). The tone will switch to the next higher octave. This is the first overtone. 

The next simplest ratio is the perfect fifth, which has a ratio of 3:2 and then the perfect third with a ratio of 5:4. Together these form the major chord which is the simplest and most harmonious chord. (In the key of C this is C, E, G and C2). This mathematical pattern repeats with increasing complexity, and all instruments are designed to produce these same notes so they create harmonious sounds when played together. In modern music, the standard musical scale has been divided into 12 equal half tones with A2=440 Hz. Without this mathematical precision, the instruments would just produce noise like the shofar, which is not tuned but just produces a shout or blast when blown.

There is much more to music theory, but this gives you a taste of the mathematical beauty and simplicity underlying musical harmony. Such beauty reflect the heart of God who created the universe to obey beautiful mathematical laws. This order illustrated His nature which calls order out of chaos (Let there be…). And without his guiding influence, which he delegated to us when He ordered Adam and Eve to take dominion over the earth, nature obeys the law of entropy* which results in a return to chaos. Therefore, there is something about making music and worshiping the Father that pleases the heart of God as it creates harmony and order. So let there be music and use it to worship God.

* The second law of thermodynamics introduces entropy, stating that the total entropy of an isolated system cannot decrease over time, implying that heat cannot spontaneously flow from a colder to a hotter body. Entropy is a fundamental physical quantity that quantifies the degree of disorder, randomness, or energy dispersal in a system. (grokipedia.com)

Donald Duck in Mathamagicland cartoon explains mathematical music to Donald:

https://youtu.be/hl6JDv4ZG7U?si=pNmmHoIc4O8Tnhrx

God, The Universe and Music

 God, The Universe and Music

January 12

    

Job 38:4,7

4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell Me, if you have understanding,

…

7 When the morning stars sang together

And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Psalms 98:4-9

4 Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth;

Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises.

5 Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre,

With the lyre and the sound of melody.

6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn

Shout joyfully before the King, the LORD.

7 Let the sea roar and all it contains,

The world and those who dwell in it.

8 Let the rivers clap their hands,

Let the mountains sing together for joy.

9 Before the LORD, for He is coming to judge the earth;

He will judge the world with righteousness

And the peoples with equity.

According to Job, there was singing and shouting at the creation of the world. Presumably, the morning stars and sons of God were angels who sang together and shouted for joy as the Lord spoke the worlds into existence; the “Let there be…”s of Genesis 1. If that is the case, then music is older than the earth and there is something about music that brings joy to the heart of God.

In Psalm 98 it seems that all the earth sings for joy. The trees clap their hands and the mountains sing together. This joyful music lasts until judgement day and beyond (Ps 98:9). Perhaps music will even outlast the earth, going from the beginning of creation into all eternity. So what is so special about music?

It is said that Pythagoras was the first to recognize the mathematical foundation of the universe. He postulated music from the spheres (Latin: musica mundana) and invented the musical scales based on mathematical intervals. If music is mathematical and mathematics represents order, then music represents the divine order of a created world. Music is fundamental to the heart of God. He created the universe to have order, that can be described by mathematics and physics, and the joy of this order is expressed in music.

That’s enough for one day, but think about order and mathematics and let a song of joy rise from your heart.