Music in Worship History Throughout history, the liturgy of music developed a major role as a part of the Creative Arts component within Worship. Even though worship is not merely a musical practice it is a lifestyle, there is an importance in which God uses music as a form of liturgy. In order to understand this, we will go into depth of worship history and specifically target an important practice that at times was diminished but would be used to point the church back God. This will be done by tracing down the timeline of the musical role in worship history.
According to Worship Through the Ages by Vernon M. Whaley, in the Old Testament music was most significantly used to praise God. The role of music was practiced in order to inspire prophets, enthrone kings, celebrate the harvest, and to help in officiating weddings and funerals (Whaley 39-40). An example of this in the Old Testament is in 2 Kings 3;14-16, when the Lord gave power to Elisha the prophet to proclaim God’s judgement while a harp was being played (Whaley 39-40). Aside from Elisha, there many other who practiced music in worship in the Old Testament even before him. In Exodus
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It was transitioning into the Renaissance, an era with pronounced humanism that undermined the beliefs of Christianity (Whaley 113-114). These “humanist’ believed that man could hold their own destiny, and that God and the supernatural did not exist (Whaley 113-114). This caused the worldview of many Europeans to change, thus the corruption within the church (Whaley 113-114). The idea of individualism grew along with the study of logic, reason, mathematics, humanities, and the arts (Whaley 114-115). Still, there were many reformers that were progressively rising up against these corruptions. There were many people and movements that focused on obedience to Christ rather than mere political power (Whaley