Worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ through Music and Song

King and Stager write: “Music, song, and dance were an integral part of daily life in antiquity, just as today. They were closely associated with Israelite religion, society, and culture, particularly Temple worship, warfare, festivals of every kind, and the life of the court.”[1] More specifically, music and song served to prepare prophets to prophesy, to praise God for His greatness, mercy, and goodness, to signal the New Year, to sound alarms, to call assemblies, to accompany the sacrificial service, to celebrate deliverance from one’s enemies, to rejoice while worshipping in the temple, to accompany temple dedications, and more. Ultimately, the most significant purpose of inspired music is to encourage individuals to worship God and to give glory to Him.

God often inspired music. According to a Dead Sea Scrolls passage, David “wrote psalms: three thousand six hundred; and songs to be sung before the altar over the perpetual offering every day. . . . And all the songs which he composed were four hundred and forty-six. . . . He composed them all through the spirit of prophecy which had been given to him from before the Most High.”

Similar to our own day, inappropriate music also existed in antiquity and was associated with revelers (Isa. 5:12; Amos 6:5), idol makers, and false worship (Dan. 3:5).

Musical instruments consisted of three categories—stringed instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. Hebrew technical terms that denote musical instruments generally do not equate with modern instruments, and the English terms in the chart remain tentative. According to the scriptural record and archaeologists’ discoveries, ancient musical instruments were made of silver, gold, bronze, iron, pottery, or bone.

The chart’s listing of music, song, and musical instruments is not comprehensive. Other passages, such as the Psalms, reveal additional elements of music in the biblical world.