We began this series of exhortations by noting that worship is a particular kind of occasion, and so it requires a particular kind of music. Related to this was the point that not all our music has to be church music, but that all of it should be fundamentally consistent with what we sing here.
We come now to the next point, which is that the questions of what kind of music is appropriate for worship, and what constitutes a legitimate determination of consistency between that worship and what you listen to or play throughout the course of the week, is a challenging and demanding question. And this means that personal taste plays a much smaller role in this than many of us would like to believe. In short, the phrase “but I like it” is not, as many believe, the end of all discussion, but rather the beginning of the discussion.
Of course we should like the music we sing, but we should like it for reasons, and, if I may push it so far, we should like it for good reasons.
But in a culture dominated by individualism, personal taste can never be questioned. It is the final refuge in which everyone may, if they wish, hole up. It is the final refuge in which they may disappear under the headphones.
But those good reasons include the teaching and requirements of Scripture, the creational mandate found in the ways that the triune God gave law to the sound waves that strike the ear, the fitness of the music to the occasion apart from the lyrics, and of course the suitability of the lyrics to the music. This represents just a small handful of the many considerations that have to be brought to bear. This is another way of saying that this is an area in which musical expertise is to be valued.
At the same time, we should all remember Mark Twain’s joke about the music of Wagner being better than it sounded. In the last several centuries, more than one expert has composed some gosh-awful things. So one of the things that the Reformation recovered was the active and intelligent participation of the congregation in worship. When congregations are trained and informed, as they ought to be, this is in part so that the congregation has the right to an opinion.