What Makes Music Sacred?

Association with the Occasion

Music is made sacred by its association to other, related factors, each of which is indispensible:

1. By association with the occasion (or purpose)
2. By association with a sacred text
3. By association with that which is set apart, or separate from the worldly or profane
4. By association with what is truly art
5. By association with a particular tradition

By association with the occasion

It ought not to be understood as a "community;" for true community will flow naturally and honestly only out of first giving God His due, which is the priority. A self-directed perspective is too limiting of God as well as of ourselves; it would direct the rites to ourselves, not to God, Who alone gives them meaning and significance.

Our music, then, must reflect God as He reveals Himself (His transcendence, His omnipotence, His immanence); not as we deem Him to be through our puny, created minds and vision.

"Peace Is Flowing Like A River,"¹ a song which claims to be based on Psalm 107, is an example of a self-directed, community-oriented song. It is symptomatic of many of these songs, so often of pentecostal inspiration, that almost nothing is said in regard to God while the real reference is to the congregation.² Also symptomatic is the juvenile character of the melody; second graders are unchallenged by it, which fact complements the monotonous repetition of the text. The text, by the way, is utter nonsense.

Another song which offers an example of self (community) - not God -direction, is the immensely popular "All That We Have."³

So minimal is its reference to God that He is only obliquely referred to in the third person. The actual subjects of the folksy reflections are "some," "others," "sometimes," etc.

Copyright © 1990 Nicholas + Maria Publishers
1131 Guilford Street, Huntingdon IN 46750.
Reprinted with permission.