"This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say rejoice." To the believer, these are familiar texts from scripture - familiar from the standpoint that we have heard them many times, but may not have an idea who wrote them or where they are in scripture (Ps. 118:24, Phil. 4:4, respectively - I had to look them up) - but to the believing singer, who has been part of leading in worship, these have a melody attached to them.
As I am reading through scripture this year, the psalm I read today contains the verse that, when I noticed it some years ago, became the reason why its scriptural to say that singers aren't musicians. "WHAT?! Wait a minute! Ever since I've been singing, we singers have been told that we aren't "real" musicians because we can't count, can't read and, consistently need to be the ones fronted, as opposed to be in the background. While some of that may be true, for all musicians, vocalists and instrumentalists, how can you say scripture speaks to the fact that singers aren't musicians?!"
Some background: I am trumpet player, first, then a singer, then a keyboardist. Trained in the first two, totally untrained in the last. I almost stopped pursuing singing because of the idea from many instrumentalists - singers aren't musicians. But, while being an instrumentalist and agreeing that many of the singers I worked with didn't practice much, couldn't read very well, and, yes, were "front" people, ie. primadon(na)s, I wanted to set a higher standard for singers, and at least for some small part, nurture the idea that singers can be musicians. But, much to my surprise and dismay, when I had saw that scripture differentiated between singers and musicians, I had to correct my experience with the light of truth. Read Psalm 68:25, "the singers in front, the musicians last,..." There it is. The very words that made me roll my eyes whenever I heard a band or orchestra director or worship leader say them in a rehearsal, or laugh at myself when I had spoken them myself in working on a production with, yes, singers and musicians. I would find myself apologizing to the singers, correcting myself by saying, "Vocalists here, instrumentalists here"; but all this time it was scriptural to distinguish singers from musicians.
Well, if you haven't figured out by now, my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek. I think we all know that you don't build a theological stand on one verse, but I do believe scripture is inerrant and speaks to us in our everyday life. So what does my loving Father want me to understand or know or see about Him in this psalm? The whole point is not what I think is important, but what God says is. I chuckle every year I read this verse because it is just what this singer/musician needs to hear - it's not about you! Read the whole psalm, all 36 verses. It's a psalm proclaiming God's omnipotence, omnipresence and total awesomeness!! And in seven little words in verse 25, God speaks to my heart about how I need to respond to Him - with humility and adoration. And I do that best by remembering Who He is, what He's done and Who it's all about! "Blessed be God!"
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