Interview:

There are several reasons why music is spiritually significant:

1). It’s a very simple way to worship outwardly. I think music can be a checkpoint for our soul. Worship is obviously a lifestyle, but many times when we are just going through life we forget that or put it aside intentionally. Whether it’s yelling at the guy who cut you off, talking behind someone’s back, being prideful, or just creating an atmosphere of cynicism with your friends, it’s easy to put a worship lifestyle to the side. When we sing lyrics of confession, or words that say “I have joy in my life” or “I will follow You whole-heartedly” we are confronted with a cross-roads. We can sing those lyrics with conviction because that is the way we are living at that time. We can sing them and pretend that we mean it and put on our spiritual face with our closed eyes and hands raised, or we deal with the sin and hypocrisy in our lives right there, so that we can sing with conviction and know that our praise will be heard. It makes us face where we’re truly at regardless of how we decide to respond.

2). It’s a very easy way to worship God. There are many times where we don’t know how to spend time with God. What does timewith God mean? For many of us it can be reading a chapter out of the Bible and praying. Many times I do this, but I come away feeling like I’ve fulfilled a check list of “do good” rather than really experiencing God. When I have quiet time it can be extremely painful, because my mind goes everywhere except trying to be peaceful and focusing on God and what He is trying to say to me. I need to still do it, but it’s much easier for me to sing to Him and feel like I’m connecting and humbling myself before Him. Just as many people don’t know how to talk romantically with their spouses or lovingly with their children, many people don’t know how to voice what they feel to God. The lyrics in song give them a way to say how they feel. It gives them a way to say things to God they may have not have even realized they wanted to say, but after hearing the song they are shown new feelings that they can express to God through those lyrics.

3). I think the Holy Spirit moves through song in a way He doesn’t through preaching. I believe the most effective way to share the gospel or teach a believer is through preaching or teaching the spoken Word. However, there are times when a song can say something that words can’t. I think people’s hearts are more open to words many times when it’s put into a song. It soothes as it stings. It ministers as it addresses the wound. “Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, help me stand, because I’m tired, I’m weak, I am worn” written by Thomas Dorsy is as real as it gets. In that song he is dealing with the recent loss of his wife and newborn baby. The song deals with the devastation, it’s very raw and real, and yet he’s crying out to God as his only hope to get him through the situation. I think music can bring people back to God and open them up to hearing about Him when the Holy Spirit is working in it.

4). It’s fun and it brings joy. God created us to have joy. Even with all of life’s tragedies and realities I believe God created this life to be fun. So much of the time we believers don’t know how to have fun and relax. We spend so much time worried about what people will think of us that we don’t know how to loosen up. We picture Jesus as just a serious person because all we usually hear in the Gospels are about his preaching and healing. He created the Chimpanzee. I had one in Africa. If God didn’t have a sense of humor he wouldn’t have known how to make an animal like that. He wouldn’t have given us a sense of humor either. If twelve guys followed him around for three years He had to be funny. He had to have such a charisma that five thousand people would listen to him for days. He must have been funny too to keep their attention. If a minister doesn’t have a sense of humor, I usually get bored pretty quick. When a preacher makes a joke, it makes them relatable. It draws you in. It allows you to laugh at your own circumstances. It’s an escape. Music is an escape also. It brings people together. It might be a two-minute aspirin or a two-hour release depending on how long the concert is. As certain songs deal with where people are at in a serious way, there are other songs that take people away from what they are going through. We sing several African songs, and usually I’ll bring the pastor up to sing with us and make him do a little dance. I can get away with it because I grew up in Africa. It’s hilarious, especially when it’s a real conservative Baptist church. To see him get up there and try to sing in Kituba and than move at the same time is an ice-breaker! Many times after that happens you’ll see people in the audience relax the rest of the night. They’ve been given permission to enjoy themselves. We can be too serious. In our desire to worship God and obey him we put the joy and fun aside because it’s looked at as childish. I think music give us permission to act like a kid again.

5). It was used in real and spiritual battles. When the Israelites went to war the musicians were sent out before them. When Joshua went to Jericho the first people to make a noise were the priests who blew trumpets on the seventh day. The noise they made was with the ram’s horn, and only after they had blown the trumpet the seventh time around Jericho and the people screamed did God tear down the wall. Worship is a way to praise God and get the focus off yourself. When Paul and Silas were chained up they worshiped and sang and God freed them. When we praise God whether in word or song it literally takes the heaviness away because we are praising Him regardless of the situation, and He in return bears our burdens because we are casting them on Him.

“Music can bring people back to God and open them up to hearing about Him.”
– Todd Smith, vocalist in Selah