If you walk in the modern-day denominational church you will get caught off guard and think that you just walked into a concert hall. The use of musical instruments in “church” services is nothing new. People use them because it is “cool” or “it makes the music sound better” or just the plain “I like it better with the music.” It is important to understand that worship is not for us humans but to praise our Heavenly Father who is in Heaven. Ephesians 5:19 says “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” It doesn’t say anything about plucking a guitar or beating a drum. In Genesis 6:14 God told Noah to make an ark of gopherwood. God did not have to tell him not to use oak, pine, or spruce, by saying “do it with this” there is an omittance of everything else that was not said. This can be carried to Ephesians 5:19 when God said singing and making melody in your heart that omits all other forms of worship, musical instruments included.
Some may say that David used a harp in 1 Samuel 16:23 to make the evil spirit go away. Although it did ease Saul, for music can be very therapeutic, we are not told that it did not ease God. One can argue that if it wasn’t said, one cannot assume whatever is not said. Let’s say your boss tells you to do something on Monday morning but he fails to tell you when he wants it done. You assume that it’s not that important so you put it off until Thursday afternoon before you leave. You will probably get written up or even fired. Another reason can be that living in the New Testament is different than living in the Old Testament. In the New Testament it expresses the inward expression of spiritual love and devotion to God verses in the Old Testament with all their outward expressions like sacrifices, the tabernacle, etc. In Matthew 22:37 Jesus says that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. When we fail to do what God tells us, or what he does not tell us. We are in danger of defilement, like in Matthew 15:19. When we fail to follow the Lord, we need to also remember what happened to Nadab and Abihu when they tried to serve the Lord how they wanted to. What they thought was a right way to worship ended up getting them fired, that’s the anger of the Lord in full effect when we don’t worship Him properly.
By Weston Moses