What's Wrong With Instrumental Music in Worship?

Instrumental music is very common in today's worship. Hundreds of "churches" have converted their traditional worship to contemporary, including rock bands and whatnot. But does God approve of this? Does He want His people praising Him with instrumental accompaniment? He doesn't, so let's find out why.

Let's take a look at Colossians 3:16 says:

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing on another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."
God specified that He wants us to sing to Him with grace in our hearts. He says nothing about instruments—He just says sing. Keep this in mind.

Examples

The hot dog. Say we’re at a community picnic, and I tell you to go and get me a hot dog. I say I want ketchup and mustard on it. You go over to the table and get me a hot dog with ketchup, mustard, and relish. Did I ask for relish? Am I going to be satisfied with a relished hot dog? No! You don't know if I like relish or not, and since I specified what I wanted, you must assume I don't want it. Is God going to be satisfied with the music many add to their praise—music He didn't ask for?

The pharmacy. Say you go to a pharmacy to get your prescription filled. When you come back to pick it up, they give you your medicine, plus another medicine. You didn't need this other medicine. The prescription didn't have it written on it; the instructions weren't obeyed. Your pharmacist got it wrong by giving you something you didn't ask for. God asked for singing. Will He be satisfied when we go beyond that?

The grocery store. Your parents give you five dollars to go to the store to get bread and eggs. You return with bread, eggs, and a magazine. Are your parents going to be approving of your spending their money to go beyond their requested list of groceries? Will God (our Parent) be satisfied when we use our talents to go beyond His orders?

Noah's ark. God told Noah in Genesis 6:14 to make an ark out of gopher wood. What is he had used gopher wood and some oak wood? Would he be following God's instructions? No. God tells us to "construct" our songs out of heart, so if we build our songs from heart and instruments, we're erring.

The bucket. I tell you to put sand in a bucket. You put the sand in the bucket, but you also put some around it. It wasn't an accident, you didn't spill it, but you thought it would be better if the sand was outside the bucket, too. Ephesians 5:19 says,

"speaking to one another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,"
God specified not only that we sing, but that we put the melody in our hearts. Am I going to be happy when I see you've put sand in and around the bucket? No, I ordered that it be put in the bucket, excluding anywhere else. When the melody is in our hearts, it can't be anywhere else. God instructed us to put the melody in our hearts, which means the melody is not in some musical instrument.

Which brings up another point: In the last example, you thought the sand would be better outside the bucket, too. But who are you to make that judgement? Likewise, some of us think that the melody sounds good in our hearts and musical instruments, but who are we to decide that? God gave the instructions, so He's the One to make that decision, not us. And come to find out, God did make that decision—He specified that the melody be in our hearts, which leaves no decisions up to us.

Singing in the Past

Let's look at historical examples of singing in the Lord's church. We'll begin with the word acappella. The a part is Italian for in the manner of. Cappella is Italian for chapel. What does that tell us? When the two words were put together a long time ago, that’s how they sang—without instrumental music.

Some famous religious leaders had some things to say about instrumental music in worship. I don't include these quotes because they were respectable Christians, for none of the following were members of Christ's church. These men were not divinely inspired, so their words are not biblical truth. I include them because denominational readers may recognize the names and get a reaction from that person's thoughts. Here's what they said:

  • John Calvin, one of the founders of the Presbyterian church
    "Musical instruments in celebrating the praises of God would be no more suitable than the burning of incense, the lighting up of lamps, the restoration of the other shadows of the law. The Papists, therefore, have foolishly borrowed this, as well as many other things from the Jews." (John Calvin's Commentary, Psalm 33)
  • Adam Clarke, Methodist commentator:
    "Music as a science, I esteem and admire: but instruments of music in the house of God I abominate and abhor. This is the abuse of music; and here I register my protest against all such corruptions in the worship of the Author of Christianity." (Clarke's Commentary, Vol. IV, pg. 686)
  • John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church:
    "I have no objection to instruments of music, in our chapels, provided they are neither heard nor seen." (Clarke's Commentary, Vol. IV, pg. 686)
  • Conybeare and Hawson, church of England scholars:
    "Make melody with the music of your hearts, to the Lord . . . let your songs be, not the drinking of heathen feasts, but psalms and hymns; and their accompaniment, not the music of the lyre, but the melody of the heart." (Life and Epistles of St. Paul, Vol. II, pg. 408)
  • Martin Luther, Catholic reformer, "called the organ an ensign of Baal." (McClintock and Strong's Encyclopedia, Music, Vol. VI, pg. 762)
There is no historical precedent for instrumental music. It was not done until the last few hundred years. It was not practiced by the first-century church or even by these non-Christians listed above.

The Bottom Line

Let's look again at Colossians 3:16. What's going on in that verse? There are essentially three parts to it, so let's analyze them separately. The first is

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom"
What does that mean? It means we need to have Christ's words in us—it means we need to learn. So how do we do this? How do we learn the words of Christ? The second part of the verse tells us:
"teaching and admonishing on another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs"
There's one way to learn Christ's words: by edifying one another through song. The third part of the verse tells us another way:
"singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord"
The second way is to sing to God with grace in our hearts. So the two ways mentioned that let the word of Christ dwell in us richly are by singing to one another and singing to God—two completely separate things.

Many, when confronted with the truth about the sinfulness of instrumental music in worship, point to the word "psalms" as a whole in the theory. They say psalms are songs with string accompaniment. And I agree. Strong's Greek Dictionary says,

from 5567; a set piece of music, i.e. a sacred ode (accompanied with the voice, harp or other instrument; a "psalm"); collectively, the book of the Psalms:--psalm.
So, yes, a psalm is a song with voice and strings. But the verse says that we sing psalms to one another. There are all sorts of things we can sing to one another: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. But what can we sing to God? It just says to sing to God, so no psalms are allowed—psalms are only to be used with one another. The bottom line is when we're singing to one another, our songs can have musical accompaniment, but when we're singing to God, it must be pure, free from instruments.

And that makes sense. Singing is a sacrifice. We give up time and effort in order to praise God with our hearts. In the Old Testament, under the Old Law, the sacrifices had to be pure. They couldn't offer up the sick, the blind, or the maimed sheep. They had to be spotless. Musical instruments can be compared to spots. Our singing is to be pure, spotless before our Lord.

Excuses

They used instruments in the Old Testament. You are correct. The people in the Old Testament used (and encouraged the use of—see Psalm 150:2–5) instruments of music. But we are not under the Old Law—we are under the New Law, in which there is no mention of instruments. In regards to worship, we have no more right to use instrumental music than to offer sacrifices of bulls, burn incense, or follow dietary laws. We have no reason to follow the Old Law, because we have a new and better law under Christ.

Harps are mentioned in Revelation as being present in Heaven. This also is true. But we don't know that these harps aren't symbolic for the prayers of the saints or something. And if they are literal, it makes no difference. What people do in Heaven is of no concern to us at the present time, because we're not there. One could also use this faulty logic to say, "Well, all they do in Heaven is praise God, so I don't need a job and I don't need to care for my family." You see, we have to deal with Earth first, and then we can move on to Heaven. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. And regardless of what they do in Heaven, we still have a mandate on Earth to sing with the melody in our hearts.

Instruments aid singing. That may be, but that doesn't excuse the fact that we're told not to use them. We're told to sing with the melody in our hearts, not in instruments. And besides, and I would beg to differ with this excuse. From what I've seen, instruments only drown out the congregation, and some feel they don't need to sing because there is enough music produced. Additionally, it does not matter how well someone sings. I could be the absolute worst singer in the world and still praise God in song with my heart. That's what He's looking for—the heart.

You use a pitch pipe. Indeed, sometimes song leaders use some sort of pitch pipe or tuning fork to get the key of the song. But they're only used for that—they're not used in the singing. They are used solely to put the song at a comfortable key so that everyone has a chance to sing.

You have instruments at home. It doesn't matter where you are, praising God in song with musical instruments is wrong. If you are not using your home instruments to praise God, then it's okay. The Bible doesn't outlaw instruments altogether.

You use songbooks—aren't those adding to worship? On the contrary, they add nothing to worship. They simply show us the words to sing, and we put the heart in those words and voice them. Nothing is added, so no command is broken. Also, we must take into consideration that the book of Psalms is a sort of a songbook, so the idea is in fact biblical.

The Bible doesn't say not to use instruments. If you are looking for a verse in the Bible that says, "Thou shalt not use musical instruments in worship," then you're not going to find it. What we do find, however, is the command to sing, which excludes using instruments. Likewise, the command to put the melody in our hearts excludes putting the melody in instruments.

Conclusion

Here is a complete list of the verses in the New Testament that talk about singing. You'll notice not one of them mentions instrumental music.

  • Matthew 26:30
  • Acts 16:25
  • Romans 15:9
  • 1 Corinthians 14:15
  • Ephesians 5:19
  • Colossians 3:16
  • Hebrews 2:12
  • James 5:13

So let's review. We shouldn't sing to God with musical accompaniment because

  • God specified to sing.
  • God said to put the melody in our hearts.
  • Our sacrifice of song should be pure.
  • It is not taught, condoned, or even authorized by the Bible.
I do hope this convinces you that God does not approve of instruments in worship. So next time you are at worship, consider this: Should you really be praising God with instruments? As with anything, go with what the Bible says over my words. Note, however, that what the Bible says is to sing with the melody in your heart. Nowhere else.





Home