Godly Music

God designed music for His glory, to praise and glorify Him. Because of sin, mankind tends to use music for his own purposes: to promote himself and to live for the world. The world uses music to fill the void of rejecting God, to dull the pain of sin, to rebel against authority, and to gratify the flesh. These purposes characterize the world’s system of ungodly music. And we must beware! We must “mark and avoid” (Rom. 16:17).

There is godly music, and there is worldly music. To add to the deception and temptation, much worldly music passes itself off as godly. Godly music is music like God, music characterized by His holy nature and righteous works. Worldly music is music like the world, music characterized by its sinful nature and evil works.

For music to please the Lord, it must have qualities that mirror His attributes. The Bible says that we are to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Music (both the words and the music itself) must be separate from qualities of fleshliness and worldliness for God to be pleased. It must reflect qualities that portray the nature of God for it to be acceptable to Him.