Summer Playlist: Part 1
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
We are starting a new series called Summer Playlist. Summers are filled with, hopefully I think for many of us, playlists for summer road trips, backyard barbecues, maybe just quiet evenings. There are certain albums and bands that maybe you're like, "Summertime, we gotta play this music." I know for me, certain things bring me back to certain summers, like Beach Boys, for me is always a road trip up to Montana to visit my grandparents. We played a lot of Beach Boys. Reliant Kay and Michael Bublé, if you know Reliant K or Michael Bublé, that is driving in Washington State. We had a summer there and that was on the CD player in the van nonstop or in my headphones because my family didn't want to listen to Reliant Kay. It's totally okay. And then for me, just one, Shania Twain. Anyone Shania Twain? That's a summer in the Philippines when we were kids just stuck in traffic. It was on the radio nonstop. So yeah, I wasn't going to say it.
But the Bible has its own playlist of songs and poetry that speak to a full range of human emotion and experiences. And so this series is going to explore some of these songs, showing how they resonate with us today. This series is going to invite all of us to reflect on how songs within Scripture can become part of our personal playlist, our personal spiritual playlist, encouraging us to draw closer to God through worship and through reflection. So it's a perfect summer, we thought, to do that, to whatever road trip or whatever vacation you have planned. And I'm also going to encourage a time of getting to know our spiritual song list. I'm really looking forward to having Pastor Chris back to a real musician to get into this series about music because I am not a musician. But I'll do my best this morning to intro some of these insights regarding the relationship between Scripture and music. And I briefly want to cover music and songs in Scripture, music and songs in the church, and then music and songs in our personal transformation.
So first, music and songs in the church. Where do we see music in the Bible? Well, I think an obvious one would be Psalms. And we usually, we've talked over many years about how Psalms are often songs. And they're meant to be sung. But really, there is music all over the Bible, Old Testament to New Testament. We see that music is important to God throughout Scripture, that music is created by God, and that it's even instructed by God to be a part of music. There's a couple passages in the Old Testament of God instructing the people to make instruments. Numbers 10 is one where he's telling the people, "Here, here's some trumpets. Make these trumpets. Give it to these people. These people are going to be trumpet players." And there's a whole other instruments and other people who are designated to, "Music is your job. Music is something that I have given you skills for." Music in Scripture is paired with moments full of emotion, highs and lows of the human life, different situations that bring out different songs. We may think, again, of the book of Psalms or maybe the song of Solomon because it's got the word "song" in it. So maybe we assume there's some songs there. But really, again, there are songs all over Scripture, songs of deliverance, songs of lament, songs of rejoicing, songs of unity.
And so we're going to explore in this series a vast array of different songs throughout this summer. What about music and songs in the church? Where do we see these songs today? Well, we see renditions of songs in our worship sets today. Christian artists throughout time have done everything from complete modern interpretations, just saying, "Hey, I read this, and this is my own words of what this Scripture says," to literally verbatim, word-for-word Scripture, songs that we sing. And they've just put a melody to it, and we sing those songs. So there's anything in between. It can be like, "Hey, this song that I wrote hints to a passage in the Bible, but it doesn't quote it." And then, again, there are songs—I can't think of anything off the top of my head—but there are songs that we're literally singing words of Scripture, and it's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful reality to have so many songs and different styles of songs that turn our gaze to God. Now, why do we still use these songs and make songs from Scripture in church today? A couple reasons.
First is that it amplifies our understanding, our appreciation, and comprehension of who God is and what He does. Our understanding, our appreciation, and comprehension of who God is and what He does. Some people connect more deeply, intellectually, emotionally to music, rather than just reading words off a page. Some of us really connect. We read Scripture, and they're like, "I just studied that. That was really good. I soaked up so much." Some others of us are reading it, and we're like, "That was good. I feel like there's more there. I didn't get everything." But if we listen to a song that gets into the truths of that passage, that may speak to us in different ways. It also helps us communicate and express our faith and the unity that we have in the gospel. Sometimes it helps share. There are people, there are creatives. Maybe some of you in this room are a creative type, where through art, through painting and drawing, or through writing music, you're a musical creative, that you can't just express your words just by saying it. You have to create something to help express what you know, what you believe, what you're passionate about. And so worship is a form of that, is helping express the truths that we know. And then it can also, it makes truths more memorable, easier to recall, because of the way that it imprints on our minds and hearts in a helpful and different way than just being told to memorize something. I don't know if you go back to school, or maybe those who are just fresh out of school, you in history class or something, you're memorizing dates. You're like, "This war happened on this person, and this, this, and this date." And it's just up there, it's just information. But when you wrap that into a song, you can recall that easier so much later. You know, everyone here knows maybe your ABCs. And if you could, do you just say your ABCs or do you sing your ABCs? I think we all sing the ABCs. There are things that are easier to recall and to know and to have by heart when we sing them. Music is proven to engage both sides of the brain, where reading mainly engages the left side of our brain. And so even just that, our whole entire head, our brain is being engaged and used when music is a part of learning or memorizing or hearing something.
People throughout time have recognized this. It's why Luther, Martin Luther, himself, he had written 40 or so hymns, and he was intent on linking his teaching and music together as an integrated whole in order to convey the gospel essentials through a variety of coexisting and cooperating channels. Bob Coughlin, who is a worship leader in the Midwest, he's written many books, he says, "Vibrant singing enables us to combine truth about God seamlessly with passion for God, doctrine and devotion, mind and heart." And even further, while we do sing on our own, we can also listen to worship music, obviously individually, but mostly we sing as Christians at church in a corporate setting together. And Sandra Maria Van Opsal writes, "To worship is to know, to feel, to experience the resurrected Christ in the midst of gathered community. It is breaking into the glory of God or better yet, being invaded by the glory of God together as a church." Really, moments of worship through corporate singing are a glimpse of heaven. It's what we're going to be doing in heaven. You have those passages that tell us that we're going to be singing these choruses of hallelujah to God for eternity. Now, it's not all we're going to be doing. I don't want us to get the idea and the boring of like, I just sing for eternity, but we're going to love it. I mean, some of you are like, "Please no. Your voice will be made perfect in heaven. Everyone's going to want to sing." We'll get into another what heaven is like later, but singing is a huge part of it. It's clarifying God. For moments here on earth where we sing together as a church, it's a glimpse of what heaven is going to be like. I have moments in my life of corporate worship experiences that I truly felt like this is a glimpse of heaven. I remember 2016, I was at a pastors' conference in Louisville with 10,000 other pastors. We sung "All Glory Be to Christ," one of my favorite songs. All the instruments cut out. You could just hear 10,000 voices praising God. I truly, I got emotional at that time. I was like, "This is heaven." This is a glimpse of heaven where everyone is praising God. I remember in high school going to summer camp and being at Hume Lake near Yosemite out in the woods by a bonfire, looking up to the stars. At that height and that elevation, you can see all the stars and all the galaxies. We were singing "God of Wonders." Just how true that was, singing those words, seeing the wonders that God created. And I'll never forget that. All to say that it isn't just a feeling, but these truths and the faith that grow in moments of worship, memories are made and are buried deep in our heart. And we don't even think about it, but sometimes we'll sing that song and you're brought right back to that moment. And that truth that you were singing about, all of a sudden it comes afresh on your mind and your heart. And you're reminded of who God is and what He does. I hope and pray that many of you have similar experiences of worship and songs that bring you back to a moment or a truth about God. Which brings me to music and transformation.
What can happen when we engage with scripture musically and through worship? Well, the Spirit can use it to continue transforming us to be more and more like Christ. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, "And we all who with unveiled faces can contemplate the Lord's glory are being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." When we sing these truths together individually, we are focusing on God. And that is always a good thing to be focusing on God. Bob Coffin again, he writes this. He says, "Worship through music and song, worshiping God should make us humble. Worshiping God should make us secure. Worshiping God should make us grateful." I think we have these slides. Do we have these slides? There we go. Worshiping God should make us holy. Worshiping God should make us loving. And worshiping God should make us mission-minded. And he ends by saying, "Genuine worship changes lives." Working with parts of Scripture as we are meant to is to engage with the world of music. And portions of Scripture are meant to be sung. This is part of God's design for His Word and for us, is that we are singing some of these truths. And as we sing, we can be drawn even closer to Him. I hope that that serves as a helpful background for our series of music and how important it is to our faith and our lives, a reminder of why we sing. It's part of why we're excited for this series, is to highlight something that we do every Sunday together. We sing, we worship together, but we're going to take a moment just to focus on why that's so important and highlight some of the truths that come from that experience. I want to begin our summer playlist series with a certain song in the Bible that is more of an upbeat praise song. And that is from Psalm 136. This is a corporate praise song meant for a group setting. The psalmist rehearses Israel's sacred history, focusing on the events of Exodus and entry into the Promised Land. And in the Jewish tradition, this is often referred to as the Great Halal, which is the great psalm of praise. If you are familiar with any modern worship songs, Chris Tomlin's "Forever" is based on this psalm.
So let's go ahead and read. We're going to read bit by bit, and then we'll cover some things along the way. So Psalm 136 verse 1 says, "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever." Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords. His love endures forever. We'll stop right there for a second. We are being called to praise God for His goodness and His power over all that exists. He's reminding us and telling us that God is sovereign. Everything is under His control, and He has power over everything. He is the God of gods, the Lord of lords. And then we see this repetition, this verse, "His love endures forever." Maybe now you can hear that Chris Tomlin song going off in your head. The word here for love is the Hebrew word "hesed." We've talked about hesed before if you've been around Spring Valley. It's one of our favorite Hebrew words because the Hebrew word is a steadfast love, a faithful love. It's not just the love that is poured out, but it also speaks to the person who is loving and how loyal they are, how steadfast they are. So God is steadfast in His love. He is loyal. There is nothing that can keep God from loving those whom He loves. This phrase is meant to wash over us as we read this psalm. And when you listen to the song, it's a truth that is meant to sink into the depths of your being. That you know this, that you're going to be able to say this automatically for the rest of your life. His love endures forever. His hesed love, His steadfast, faithful love endures forever. It's to serve as a reminder, a comfort. Maybe we need this comfort. We need to know this. We're reminded of this and an encouragement. Let's continue in our psalm. It says in verse 4, "To him alone who does great wonders, his love endures forever. Who by his understanding made the heavens, his love endures forever. Who spread out the earth upon the waters, his love endures forever. Who made the great lights, his love endures forever. The sun to govern the day, his love endures forever. The moon and stars to govern the night, his love endures forever." Right now, the psalmist, the writer, is inviting us to see God as creator, creating all the cosmos. And when we think of creation, we often think of authority, we think of intelligence, the power, the creativity. That is good, that's a good thing to think of. And He is the one that we owe everything, our existence, and all that we see, we owe it all to Him. But maybe lost in the thought of creation and God taking the time to create the world that we live in, in us, is that He did so with love. I love that this section ends every part with His love endures forever. Again, we think of creation, and maybe we think of it like in an apologetic mindset of saying we have to prove that creation happened. And I'm all for that, but we cannot forget the love that God created with. And so this song, this part is highlighting the Genesis creation story, the maker of the heavens, the earth, the stars, the moon, the sun, all of it. All that we see, all that we breathe in, the world around us, it all comes from Him. And it's sustained by Him with His love.
Let's continue, verse 10, it says, "To Him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, His love endures forever, and brought Israel out from among them, His love endures forever. With a mighty hand and outstretched arm, His love endures forever. To Him who divided the Red Sea asunder, His love endures forever, and brought Israel through the midst of it, His love endures forever. But swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea, His love endures forever. To Him who led His people through the wilderness, His love endures forever." So now we're invited in the story of Israel, in the story of history, we're invited to see God, God's relationship with Israel, and how He guided and delivered them from slavery in Egypt and through the wilderness. He is their rescuer, their savior. And for us today, we're reading this and we know that this is foreshadowing to further salvation that God is going to bring to all of humanity. But this is a pivotal moment in Israel's history. They were facing extinction. Pharaoh was moving toward genocide. He had the order of killing all the infant boys. And so this is a moment in Israel's history that is absolutely dire. They know that if God doesn't intervene now, it's over. And so this is, again, the Old Testament is full of moments harkening back to God doing what He did for Israel in Egypt. And they're crying out and they're crying out, "And God answered, delivering them from Pharaoh, performing miracles along the way like parting the Red Sea, bringing all of Israel through the Red Sea, and then destroying Pharaoh's army by having that sea crash in on them." Moments that only God could have done. No one else. There's no credit to Moses. This is God at work. This is God being the rescuer and savior. And so the psalmist is looking back upon Israel's history and saying, "This, this is the God we worship." And through all that, He was loving us. His love endures forever.
We come to verse 17, it says, "To Him who struck down great kings, His love endures forever, and killed mighty kings, His love endures forever. Sihon, king of the Amorites, His love endures forever. And O, king of Bashan, His love endures forever. And gave their land as an inheritance, His love endures forever. An inheritance to His servant Israel, His love endures forever." This is the part of Israel's story where they come into the Promised Land now. The Promised Land that was promised hundreds of years before to Abraham saying, "I'm going to give you a land for your people. This is the land." And we see God as Victor. No battle won without Him. The land is being given to Israel. They came out of the wilderness, wandering for 40 years into the Promised Land. And that land wasn't empty. It was full of other people and other kingdoms that were there. And at first, some of them were scared, like, "I don't think we can do this." And God says, "I've got you. I've promised this to you. I love you. Now follow Me." And He gives them the land. Battle after battle, they go in and it says, "God gave them the victory. And God gave them the land." And through all of that, He is loving Israel. He's loving His people. And the psalmist ends the passage with this, "He remembered us in our lowest state. His love endures forever. And freed us from our enemies. His love endures forever. He gives food to every creature. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever." This last section is a series of brief statements that echo various themes through the sections of Psalms. And it emphasizes that God is the God of heaven, of eternity, and that God sees us and provides for us every need that we have. He sustains us. Not just us, but all of creation. He is sustaining the world around us. No animal, He gives food to every creature. He made the world the way it is and for it to work the way that it works. He is our provider, our sustainer, and God is our friend. Even in our worst times, God is there with us. I love that verse 23, "He remembered us in our low estates.”
I think of Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd." When we are feeling at our lowest, at our worst, when we are feeling like we have no worth, like the world has abandoned us, we feel isolated. God is with us. And in the midst of those times, His love is enduring and endures for us. So this is a beautiful Psalm, Psalm 136. Again, meant to be sung by the people of Israel together as a chorus. So at this time, I'm going to ask you guys, no I'm just kidding, we're not going to sing. Did you guys think I was going to? We're not going to sing. I can't lead. It's not happening. But hopefully understanding how music and truth can come together to form powerful memories and store truths in us in such secure ways, I hope that this Psalm hits different than it did before. Or that it's reminding you of certain things that you needed to hear today. I want to ask some questions of us right now. First is, do you need to see God as Creator? In a time where the world can seem so chaotic, so undone, so backwards, where life in the very world we live in seemed to be doomed. That's all we hear, right? This world is doomed. We're uncertain if there's going to be enough in the world. We just talked about having a scarcity mindset. The world around us lives in a scarcity mindset. Is there going to be enough oil? Is global warming going to be our undoing? Is every natural disaster a sign that the world is going to end very, very soon? But in the midst of all that and all the worry and the chaos that comes with those things, do we remember that God is the Creator, sustaining His creation? He's holding this world together. Do we believe that He is? Do we take comfort and rest in the truth that He is holding this world together? So do we need to be reminded that He is the Creator? Are we too focused on the creation rather than the one who created it? I think sometimes we get in this mindset that God created it and backed away. God's still there. God's right there holding this world together. So do you need to see God as Creator this week? Do you need to see God as your rescuer? Is our hope in the only one who can truly rescue us? Or is our hope in someone or something else? Is it in ourselves, in our own ability to save ourselves, to make a living, in our plans and schemes that we have to live the life that we think is best? Are we too busy trying to save ourselves to see that God is truly our rescuer? Maybe it's in someone or something else, a world leader or a party or a country. Are we putting our hope in someone or something thinking that they have all the answers to all the questions, that they have it all figured out? Or do we see that God is the one with truly all the answers who knows to all the questions that we can think of and all the ones we can't? God knows He is our rescuer and He is in the process, in the midst of rescuing us constantly, daily. Do we see that God is the one who saves, who guides us through the desert and the seasons of wilderness in our lives, who can work miracles where need be? Do we hope and trust and see as God is our rescuer? Or do we see God as our victor? In whatever battles we face, and there are a lot of things that we are facing daily, a lot of battles that each of you, I know, are battling. It can be an inner battle, battles with sin, lust, pride, apathy, gluttony, greed. It could be a mental health battle, battles of self-worth, self-image, isolation. It might be the battles of everyday life, having to be enough, having to have enough to be a good parent, a spouse, a friend, an employee, a student. Do you see God as your victor, as the one who is going to provide what you need to get through each day, to help you overcome whatever battle you are facing? He is the one who will deliver you from that anxiety, that stress, or that chaos.
So I love how this song, Psalm 136, reminds us that God is the creator, our rescuer, our victor, all because His love for us endures. I have a couple suggestions for us this week. First is, I would love to encourage you to listen to some worship music this week. Radio, Spotify, I want you to engage with worship and scripture in the way that God intended us to. For some of you, you're like, "This is easy. I do this all the time." Great. Done. For others, maybe this is more uncomfortable. Maybe you don't listen to music or you don't listen to worship music. Maybe you don't consider yourself a singer, so you're like, "I'll listen to it, but I'm not going to sing it." But try it on a drive, in the privacy of your car, while you're preparing dinner, whatever it is. Play some music. Sing some worship music. And I want to push you even farther. Sing it out loud, not just in your head or in your heart. Sing some worship music, some truths from scripture, because they're going to embed in your heart and mind in a different way than you just reading your Bible. Sing God's truth this week. And you'll see, maybe not immediately, maybe not this week, but at some point in your life, you are going to be grateful for having done this. And that song is going to come to you in the perfect time. I think we often pray, "God, can you speak to me? God, can you? I want to hear from you." I think oftentimes it comes through music. It comes through a song that we're listening to, or in a moment, our hearts are drawn to a song. And that is God speaking to us saying, "This is the truth I need you to know right now." So sing some truths, listen to some worship music.
Second suggestion, there's only two. You have to do both. I'm just kidding. You should. I encourage you. The second one is even more. I'm pushing you even farther. I would love for you to write your own song. Ah, you guys are like, "No, not happening." I want you guys to write your own personal rendition of Psalm 136. Now, I don't mean writing like chords and a melody. You don't have to perform it. If you do, please, I would love to hear your rendition. If you're a musical and you, this is like, I can't wait for this. Love to hear that. But what I'm encouraging you to do is to read Psalm 136. And what are the stages of your life? Write them out. Take time. Pull out your iPhone, your notes app, get old fashioned pen and paper. What are the things that you have experienced, that you have endured, that you have enjoyed in life that you're going to praise God for? Maybe it's something like, "God, I give thanks to you because you helped me get through COVID. Your love endured forever. You provided enough for me to get through a recession. God, your love endures forever. You healed me when I was sick and I was in the hospital. Your love endures forever. God, you were by my side when I lost a loved one. Your love endured forever." Maybe it's more on the praise side. "I give thanks to the Lord who has blessed me with family and friends. Your love endures forever. God, you were there on my happiest occasions, the wedding, the birth of my child, the graduation, when I got that new job. Your love endured forever." But what would you write? What would your song of praise be? And again, we think of praise, we think of happy times, but that's not always what a praise song is. It's praising God for being on the other side of that and saying, "God, you were with me through everything, the good and the bad." So again, I know this is different, but I would encourage you, take some time this week. Maybe it's just five minutes and you're just going to say, write down a list of things. But what would your Psalm 136 look like? What would it mean for you to have this list in your mind, in your heart, to be able to see and reflect on God has been a part of my life? I didn't realize until I took the time to reflect back on my life and see all the things that God has been with me through, how He's loved me through everything. All right, are we going to do it? Are you guys going to join me? We're going to listen to some worship music and we're going to write our own Psalm 136. All right. There's no homework. It'd be so cool if we all did, right? Okay.
I want to end our time with reading Psalm 136 again as an encouragement to us, as a reminder of what God has done for His people and to inspire us as we go about our week. So you guys can listen one more time. I'm going to read all the way through. Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods. His love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords as love endures forever to Him who alone does great wonders. His love endures forever, who by His understanding made the heavens, His love endures forever, who spread out the earth upon the waters. His love endures forever, who made the great lights. His love endures forever. The sun to govern the day, His love endures forever. The moon and the stars to govern the night, His love endures forever to Him who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, His love endures forever and brought Israel out from amongst them, His love endures forever. With a mighty hand and outstretched arm, His love endures forever to Him who divided the Red Sea asunder, His love endures forever and brought Israel through the midst of it, His love endures forever, but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Red Sea, His love endures forever to Him who led His people through the wilderness, His love endures forever to Him who struck down great kings, His love endures forever and killed mighty kings, His love endures forever. Sihon, king of the Amorites, His love endures forever and O king of Bashan, His love endures forever and gave their land as an inheritance, His love endures forever. An inheritance to His servant Israel, His love endures forever. He remembered us in our lowest state, His love endures forever and freed us from our enemies, His love endures forever. He gives food to every creature, His love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of heaven, and would you guys say it with me this time, His love endures forever. I want to end with this quote. Bob Coughlin again says, "Worship matters. It matters to God because He is the one ultimately worthy of all of our song and praise. It matters to us because worshiping God is the reason for which we were created.”
Let's pray. God, thank you for your gift of music. I can't imagine how boring life would be without music. To encourage us, to uplift us, to rejoice, to be able to lament with certain songs. God, music is such an integral part of our life and it's a part of our spiritual life. So God, I pray that through this series that you would heighten our understanding, that you would take us to deeper depths of singing and music and appreciation for it integrated with our faith. And I pray that as we sing the truth through worship songs, God, I pray those truths would embed so deeply in our hearts and minds that we would know them truly, that we'd be able to stand on them firm. It's our foundation. So that when those tough times come, these songs come to our minds to remind us of your goodness and how your love endures forever. Be with us this week. And I pray that music would be an encouragement to us this week. And I pray that everyone would take time, whether they write it down or not, to think of how you have been present in their lives, how you have provided for them, sustained them, have you have rescued them multiple times. God, I pray that at the end of this week, at the end of our time, that we would have all the more reason to give you praise and to sing your praises. We look forward to being with you in heaven one day, singing with the millions of voices that are going to be praising you. We pray this in your name. Amen.