God’s glorious creation was and still is for man, as presumptuous as that may sound to one who is accustomed to the quantitative view of man so prevalent today. God’s cosmos was placed at the disposal of man on the day God’s creation was complete and perfect. This relation of man to the world, yes, to the whole universe, would have resulted in a development of the powers and a use of the orders of God reaching a perfection that man, now fallen man, cannot even begin to estimate. The glorious God, being the gracious God, still left eyes for man to see the world and ears to hear the praise of God in nature, still left man his senses and his reason, still left the cosmos as man’s domain, but with one great difference and distinction in men, a tremendous alternative: to see it as the area of man’s redemption in the Seed of the woman or forever to see it as a testimony to man’s fall and damnation. So, as Werner Elert points out, Matthias Claudius and Goethe see the same moon and have similar sentiments for its magic presence, but while one feels it lead his thoughts to God, the other thinks of death and hopeless longing. Because Goethe and every man with him is essentially an egoist, he makes the whole cosmos an egocentric one, disturbing thereby every relation to the orders of God’s creation. The man of God, the regenerated man in Christ, knows of the cosmos as God’s cosmos, God’s universe, and knows that God loved the world and sent His Son into the world to restore to man lost sonship and a lost heritage. And as man is renewed by the Spirit, he sees with enlightened eyes and receives with new gratitude the immeasurably rich treasures of God’s gifts and orders. So tremendous is the treasure offered to our senses and powers that even the believer is overwhelmed by the wealth and number of opportunities to serve God and his fellowmen in this creation. The true theology, which is the true praise of God, is the measure and means of making of this creation of God a testimony to God. The talents given to man demand as orders and gifts of God the dedicated application of reason and all senses to the task at hand. The talent of music, too, has its value in the praise of God, whether it be directly in public worship or in everyday life and living in this world. It will be a constant problem for man to learn that in the talent of music, as in all creatures, there is nothing that in any way could or should be foreign to the true theology. Everything can join in the doxology of the heavens that declare the glory of God.

It was one of the blessings of the Reformation that the appreciation of the beauties of the world and the enjoyment of its manifold treasures was no longer considered the sign and character of men walking the broad road to destruction. After the Reformer saw the heaven of grace opened to him in the sola gratia of Scripture, he had his eyes opened to the beauties of things great and small in this world. Thus he could sing his simple song with a heart free and great as the world. In the ups and downs of the history of the church, there were periods in which God’s creation was not considered worthy of use in the service of God. Man sought to flee the world for fear the lusts of the flesh would trap him. The admonition “Love not the world” was applied to the cosmos as a whole, and yet it was meant only for that side of the cosmos which turned down the loving Gospel of the Redeemer. This cosmos of man goes hand in hand with lusts of the flesh and the pride of life, but the cosmos as the place where God has established His kingdom among men cannot serve any other purpose but to sing praises to God. God, who created the rhythm of night and day; God, who established mathematics in the hexaemeron of Genesis and in the octaves of man’s weeks; God, who established the song of the stars as the song of the sons of God—He is not and cannot be dishonored by any other creature of this world except by man. Music and song are gifts and talents that lend themselves naturally and beautifully to the praise of God, but it is in this area, too, that the believer must learn and experience over and over the application of giving glory to God.

Music is a creation and order of God that Satan can and does pervert. Indeed, even in the very act of applying this gift in sacrifice to God, we may turn its beauty into evil. Calvin was not entirely wrong when he said that music might be the tool of the devil. All the good orders of God can be misused, all the gifts of God can become a curse to the man who uses them wrongly. But God’s intention is that we live our life on this earth within God’s orders, and that means also that we live by and with God’s gifts to men. Luther, therefore, was more right than Calvin was wrong when he considered music a means to glorify God and to drive Satan away. It all depends on whether we live in the kingdom of grace or are still under the Law and under condemnation. To him who is under the Law, everything is a testimony of death. The most beautiful things cause all men a pain as of a Heimweh for the world that once was perfect, but this “homesickness” in the Christian has its promise in the Gospel of Christ, who makes all things new, whereas in the heart of the man who does not know Christ this Heimweh and Weltschmerz must be sublimated by “world-lust” (Weltlust) or resignation. A poet can sing of the last rose of summer with no answer to the question of hope, a Christian can see in the lilies of the field the glory that is not matched by Solomon in all his glory.

The church has turned to music in its work of glorifying God and has thereby claimed for God another of His gifts of creation. This ought not to be taken from her. Believers of all times have applied this art to the praise of God and have used the rules and methods of the arts as tools in the service of the Creator. There is, however, the same danger in such an activity of man as in other works of man—they tend to glorify the worship or the worshiper rather than Him who is to be worshiped. The greater the effort of man, the more beautiful the result of this effort, the higher the appreciation of the beauty in the eyes of other men, the closer the moment when man is ready to hear in his own work the oldest music of hell, the theme of temptation: eritis sicut dei! Before man knows it, he is playing and singing to his own glory, to his own little god, to his ego. That is basically the danger to be calculated and guarded against, the ever present temptation to elevate oneself with the work of one’s hands. The gods, or “godlets,” as Isaiah calls them, are a testimony to man’s self-esteem. So easily can worship of the true God be given a character of a symphony of self. So easily can the offering of music before the throne of God become a presentation of a gift extolling the human giver. For such reasons the character of church music at times has been held to an ascetic type of chant, as if man were afraid, and rightly so, that his ego might tempt him to exalt himself. But we do not do justice to God’s creation unless we use all the stops of creation’s manuals in His service, daily guarding against our own weakness and judging ourselves constantly by the Word of God.

The theology of Scripture gives both the motive and criterion of all worship. The “spirit and truth” of worship must fill our musical presentations. Only if it is done in spirit and truth, does it become true worship, otherwise it is only embellishment, frosting, frills, gilding. The purpose of music for worship is not to please man or to make worship more palatable to “visitors” at the service. Music, yes, the complete liturgy, is the expression of faith, the evidence of the Spirit’s miracle in the heart of man. Our worship in song must radiate the glory of Christ in this dark world. The light we let shine can be seen by the world, but it must so shine that our Father in heaven is glorified, and not the choir in the balcony or the professional soloist. At the same time we can watch and pray that we fall not into the temptation of trying to spotlight God and His Word. Even though this seems like the best of intentions, it is only doing the impossible of adding human brilliance to the light of the glory in the face of Jesus Christ. “We beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” is not only John’s description of the transfiguration on the mount but John’s testimony to that light which shown in the heart of the believers that were with Him. Whoever has seen His glory in faith knows of no addition to it, and a true saint of God’s grace would consider it blasphemy to try to add an extra ray of his own making. The Light of Life shines in and through all that we call living in Christ, and above all it should radiate in our worship. Where the people of God gather as such, where they join “angels and archangels and all the company of heaven” in their adoration, there must be only one aim and one principle, to give whatever we have in the spirit of soli Deo gloria!

In whatever difficulties and problems men may be involved, in whatever dilemma one might find himself when he is moved to speak for or against style, type, mode, character, etc., of worship music, the important criterion must always be: God be praised! So let us open our gifts, terrestrial and perishable as they may be—let us open them and present the best, the gold, the frankincense, and the myrrh, as homage to the One who gave Himself wholly for us and our salvation.

From The Musical Heritage of the Church, Volume VII (St. Louis, Mo.: Concordia Publishing House, 1970). Copyright Concordia Publishing House. Printed by permission. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Concordia Publishing House.