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[Editorial Note: I have become increasingly more frustrated with the current status of the Church, especially as it pertains to the utilization of differing genres in the corporate worship service. My personal understanding of the matter leaves little room in my mind that we ought to be singing the word of God and not some man made "love tune" that is better suited for a camp-fire sing-a-long. Certainly these are my personal opinions and should not be construed as an attack or response to any particular church. The matter can be debated and I welcome it. Feel free to do so by utilizing the link at the bottom of this article. This series contains 14 articles that will be taken in order until completion. If interested in reading ahead you may do so at: http://members.aol.com/RSISBELL/psalms1.html -- W. Hill]

Chapter III: What Is The Qualification For Writing Worship Song?

Worship Song and Prophecy

It is commonly assumed, and sometimes expressly stated, that inspiration is not a necessary qualification for writing worship song. Churches often pay little regard to the identity of the song writer, and much less is it asked whether the writer possessed the gift of prophecy. On the other hand, it is widely understood that the reading of the Word of God in worship employs a text which originated as inspired prophecy. Inspiration and canonicity of the text is indispensable to qualify it for use in that ordinance; the institution of that worship action is specific as to the text. If, when the Bible speaks of the source of worship song, it portrays the text as one produced by divine inspiration, then inspiration is a biblical norm for this ordinance as well. What does the Bible say about the source and quality of the text for worship song?

The objection that inspiration is not a necessary qualification for writing worship song has been stated by Leonard J. Coppes. Coppes is unwilling to grant that the song offered in ancient Israel's worship was invariably inspired, though this was the period when Israel was the recipient of special revelation. Coppes suggests that David did not make such distinctions respecting the materials for worship. "It is unimaginable to this writer that he was concerned about whether or not his songs were inspired before he sang them to God. Indeed, as song writers of all ages he was probably concerned about beauty and clear expression of his thoughts. And as a godly person he was concerned to praise God in a way pleasing to Him, i.e., with theological accuracy. Songs used in worship met the users' standards of beauty and truth and may or may not have been inspired."(95) In endeavoring to advance specifications other than inspiration, Coppes gives a definition of song which presupposes that inspiration is not pertinent. Distinguishing the song's form from its subject matter, Coppes asserts that the criterion for the song's form is aesthetic beauty, and the only test for its content is harmony with the biblical message.(96)

This objection fails to take into account the extensive biblical data depicting the text of worship song as given through inspired prophecy. We may begin with David's affirmation that the Spirit of God speaks by him, and note the reference he makes to his psalms in this connection:(97) "Now these are the last words of David: The oracle of David, the son of Jesse, the oracle of the man who was raised on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel: The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me, his word is upon my tongue. The God of Israel has spoken, the Rock of Israel has said to me: When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God ." (II Sam 23:1-3, RSV.) This poetic oracle shows a number of thematic links with the Davidic psalm which immediately precedes it, in II Samuel 22.(98) The meaning of the Hebrew noun ne'um is well captured when the RSV twice renders it in II Sam. 23:1 as "oracle." The noun is found 360 times in the Old Testament. "This root is used exclusively of divine speaking. Our noun occurs only as a formula declaring the divine origin and authority of the message so described. The noun ought to be rendered something like 'a revelatory utterance of Jehovah'."(99) The word is customarily appropriated for claims by the prophets that their words are given to them by God (Jer. 23:31, Ezek. 13:7). Accordingly, the New Testament calls David a prophet when it cites his songs (Acts 2:29-31; cf. Matt. 22:43-44, Mark 12:36, Acts 1:16-17, 4:24-25).

A constant feature of Israelite prophecy is that the Lord's messenger was conscious of speaking under inspiration, as is evident with David. "The psychological conviction which they themselves had that God had actually spoken to them" is something which Edward J. Young says "characterized the entire history of the prophetic movement."(100) "There is a wondrous ease with which they speak forth in the assurance that Jehovah has first spoken to them. They came before the nation, not as religious leaders who have a word to speak in their own name, but rather as those who are compelled to give utterance to a word which has come to them from Jehovah."(101)

David acted as a prophet not only in writing worship song, but also in conveying God's appointments for the music of the sanctuary. David instructed certain families of the Levites to undertake the service of song in the house of the Lord (I Chron. 6:31-32; 15:14-22, 27; 16:4-7, 37-42; 23:25-28, 30; 25:1-7). Thereafter, kings such as Hezekiah and Josiah restored the worship to the pattern which the Lord had ordained through David, and this purity of worship included the use of the song texts written by the prophets: "And he set the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet: for so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets .Moreover Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David, and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped." (II Chron. 29:25, 30; cf. 5:11-14; 7:6; 8:14; 23:18; 35:2-5, 15; Ezra 3:10-11; Neh. 12:24-29, 36, 40-47.) In these passages, David is numbered among the prophets, or the equivalent designation "man of God" is accorded him. These appointments for worship song in the temple are but one element in the comprehensive directions which God gave through David for the subsequent worship of Israel (I Chron. 28:11-13, 19).(102)

Moreover, it was not David alone who wrote as a prophet in the production of worship song. The appointed temple singers are themselves regularly designated as seers. Asaph was a seer (II Chron. 29:30; cf. Matt. 13:35), and the Psalm titles attribute to him or his family Psalms 50 and 73-83. Jeduthun, who is named in the titles to Psalms 39, 62 and 77, was another seer (II Chron. 35:15), as was Heman (I Chron. 25:5).(103) Three Hebrew words, as well as the expression "man of God," are used in the Old Testament to designate prophets and seers. The word used of the musicians, hozeh , "preserves awareness that God sometimes made revelation to the prophets by visions."(104) That the seer should be identified with the prophet, nabi' , is indicated in II Kings 17:13, Amos 7:12, and Isa. 29:10, and hozeh is used as a title for individual prophets in II Sam. 24:11, I Chron. 21:9, II Chron. 9:29 and 29:25. The verb form is used in seventeen passages to describe the activity of the prophets (I Chron. 17:15, II Chron. 32:32, Lam. 2:9, Hab. 1:1, etc.).(105)

Using a different term, ro'eh , "of near identical meaning,"(106) the Scriptures tell us that Samuel was a seer, and that this term was an early name for the prophets of Israel (I Sam. 9:9, 19; cf. I Chron. 26:28; II Chron. 16:7-10). This word is used of Samuel when he is mentioned together with David as those who ordained the ministries in which the Levites are to engage (I Chron. 9:22). Elsewhere, in II Chron. 29:25, we are told that the musical service in the temple was divinely instituted, through David, Gad the king's hozeh , and Nathan the nabi' . The words hozeh and ro'eh are used synonymously in Isa. 30:10, and all three words for the prophet or seer are found in I Chron. 29:29. Edward J. Young comments: "The word nabhi stresses the active work of the prophet, in speaking forth the message from God. The principal word used to designate the prophets was nabi' . Two other words are also used, namely ro'eh and hozeh , which are practical synonyms. Both stress the method of receiving revelation, namely, seeing. At the same time, the function of those who are designated by these terms is that of declaring the word of God. The three words, therefore, are used to designate the same individual, namely the prophet."(107) Alfred Jepsen reviews the biblical evidence that a vision is "an event in which words are received," citing such texts as I Sam. 3:1; II Sam. 7:4, 17; Ps. 89:19; Isa. 2:1 and Obad. 1 (and cf. Nah. 1:1, where a vision issues in a written book).(108)

The activity of these singers, who produced worship song and sang it in the temple, is expressly ascribed to prophecy (I Chron. 25:1-7): "Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals the sons of Asaph under the hands of Asaph, which prophesied according to the order of the king. Of Jeduthun: the sons of Jeduthun under the hands of their father Jeduthun, who prophesied with a harp, to give thanks and to praise the Lord. Of Heman: All these were the sons of Heman the king's seer in the words of God, to lift up the horn. All these were under the hands of their father for song in the house of the Lord, with cymbals, psalteries, and harps. So the number of them, with their brethren that were instructed in the songs of the Lord, even all that were cunning, was two hundred fourscore and eight." David Petersen is one of many scholars who have drawn attention to the Chronicler's "depiction of the Levitical singers as prophets. The singers of David's time were labeled in the same fashion as were the court prophets Gad and Nathan. Furthermore, Levitical singers throughout Israelite history were often described as having performed classical prophetic functions. Even the essential work of the singers, the cultic song, was, according to the Chronicler, prophetic performance."(109) Simon De Vries calls Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun "revelational instruments coordinate in authority with the prophets."(110) More recently, Roger Beckwith comments that the Chronicler "seems to imply that they not only performed inspired psalms but composed them. The prophetic language is repeated and varied, and there seems to be no reason why it should not be given its full weight."(111)

B. B. Warfield reminds us of what was involved when a man prophesied: "That which gives to prophecy as a mode of revelation its place in the category of visions, strictly so called, and dreams, is that it shares with them the distinguishing characteristic which determines the class. In them all alike the movements of the mind are determined by something extraneous to the subject's will, or rather, since we are speaking of supernaturally given dreams and visions, extraneous to the totality of the subject's own psychoses. A power not himself takes possession of his consciousness and determines it according to its will. That power, in the case of the prophets, was fully recognized and energetically asserted to be Jehovah Himself or, to be more specific, the Spirit of Jehovah (I Sam. 10:6, 10; Neh. 9:30; Zech. 7:12; Joel 2:28-29). The prophets were therefore 'men of the Spirit' (Hos. 9:7). What constituted them prophets was that the Spirit was put upon them (Isa. 42:1) or poured out on them (Joel 2:28-29), and they were consequently filled with the Spirit (Mic. 3:8), or, in another but equivalent locution, that 'the hand' of the Lord, or 'the power of the hand' of the Lord, was upon them (II Kings 3:15; Ezek. 1:3; 3:14, 22; 33:22; 37:1; 40:1), that is to say, they were under the divine control. This control is represented as complete and compelling, so that, under it, the prophet becomes not the 'mover,' but the 'moved' in the formation of his message. The apostle Peter very purely reflects the prophetic consciousness in his well-known declaration: 'No prophecy of scripture comes of private interpretation; for the prophecy was never brought by the will of man; but it was as borne by the Holy Spirit that men spoke from God' (II Pet. 1:20-21). To be 'borne' is not the same as to be led, much less to be guided or directed: he that is 'borne' contributes nothing to the movement induced, but is the object to be moved."(112)

It is therefore not surprising to find that the Levitical temple singers were not confined to prophesying by music, for Jahaziel, one of the sons of Asaph, delivered an oracle by the Spirit, in answer to the prayer of King Jehoshaphat (II Chron. 20:14-19), just as other prophets gave answers to the same king in I Kings 22 and II Kings 3. There is a remarkable sequel to this prophecy by a temple singer. Upon hearing Jahaziel's words, the Levites stood up to praise the Lord, and the king encouraged Judah to believe God and his prophets. The oracle was actually fulfilled when the king appointed singers unto the Lord, going out before the army, and saying, "Praise the Lord, for his mercy endureth for ever," whereupon the Lord set ambushments against the enemy, who destroyed one another (20:20-28). Thus in the Chronicler's account of Josiah's reform of the temple worship, narrative material is taken from II Kings, but "the priests and the Levites" is used at II Chron. 34:30 as a substitute for "the priests and the prophets" in II Kings 23:2.(113) In a major study of the biblical canon, Anglican evangelical Roger Beckwith comments that whatever authority was accorded to the prophetic order, more than to those "rulers, courtiers, Temple officials and wise men" who wrote Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Ezra, and Nehemiah, yet "as the divine inspiration of psalmists and wise men came to be recognized (II Sam. 23:1-3; I Chron. 25:1, 5; II Chron. 29:30; Ecc. 12:11-12), the distinction would have ceased to have very much significance."(114)

Notes
(95) Leonard J. Coppes, "Exclusive Psalmody and Progressive Revelation," pp. 7-8.
(96) Ibid., p. 1.
(97) On the reference to David as "sweet psalmist," see Raymond J. Tournay, "Les 'Dernières Paroles de David' II Samuel, xxiii, 1-7," Revue Biblique 88 (1981): 485-86; cf. P. A. H. De Boer, "Texte et Traduction des Paroles Attribuées a David en 2 Samuel xxiii 1-7," in Volume du Congres: Strasbourg 1956, Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, vol. 4 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1957), p. 49.
(98) Tournay, "Les 'Dernières Paroles de David,' " pp. 502-503.
(99) Leonard J. Coppes, " na'am ," in Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, ed. R. Laird Harris et al. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980), 2:541-42. Cf. Tournay, "Les 'Dernières Paroles de David,' " pp. 481-92; De Boer, "Texte et Traduction des Paroles," pp. 48-49; David N. Freedman, "Pottery, Poetry, and Prophecy: An Essay on Biblical Poetry," Pottery, Poetry, and Prophecy (Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 1980), pp. 17-18.
(100) Edward J. Young, My Servants the Prophets (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1952), pp. 161-162.
(101) Ibid., p. 161. Cf. Benjamin B. Warfield, "The Biblical Idea of Revelation," in Revelation and Inspiration (New York: Oxford University Press, 1927), pp. 19-20.
(102) Simon J. De Vries, "Moses and David as Cult Founders in Chronicles," Journal of Biblical Literature 107 (1988): 620-35, esp. 626 and 635.
(103) The antiquity of the Psalm titles is discussed in Robert D. Wilson, "The Headings of the Psalms," Princeton Theological Review 24 (1926): 1-37, 353-95, and Roger Beckwith, "The Early History of the Psalter," Tyndale Bulletin 46(1995): 10-17. On the equivalence of the names Ethan and Jeduthun in I Chron. 6:44, 15:17-19, 16:41-42, 25:1-6, II Chron. 5:12, 29:14 and 35:15, see John W. Wright, "The Origin and Function of First Chronicles 23-27" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Notre Dame, 1989), pp. 164-65.
(104) Robert D. Culver, " haza ", in Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, ed. R. Laird Harris et al. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980), 1:275.
(105) Alfred Jepsen, " chazah ," in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, ed. G. Johannes Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1974-), 4:282.
(106) Culver, " haza ," 1:275.
(107) Young, My Servants the Prophets, pp. 65-66. Cf. Warfield, "The Biblical Idea of Revelation," pp. 30-31.
(108) Jepsen, " chazah ," p. 283; cf. Warfield, "Biblical Idea of Revelation," pp. 20-21.
(109) David L. Petersen, Late Israelite Prophecy (Missoula, Montana: Scholars Press, 1977), pp. 98-99.
(110) De Vries, "Moses and David as Cult Founders," p. 630.
(111) Beckwith, "Early History of the Psalter," p. 4.
(112) Warfield, "Biblical Idea of Revelation," pp. 22-23. Cf. pp. 15-28 for a discussion of modes of revelation.
(113) The reference to priests and Levites reappears in II Chron. 35:18, with verse 15 providing the context of prophetic activity in song.
(114) Roger Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1985), p. 67.