I was not disappointed.

Psalm 150 was one of several scriptures used describing praising God, but this one I want to focus on because of its use of musical instruments, something that is sometimes controversial in the Church. But here it is with its entire chapter - all six verses of it!

Psalm 150

Let All Things Praise the LORD

1 Praise the LORD!

Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty firmament!

2 Praise Him for His mighty acts;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness!

3 Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet;
Praise Him with the lute and harp!
4 Praise Him with the timbrel and dance;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes!
5 Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with clashing cymbals!

6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

Praise the LORD!

Praise him with the trumpet, the lute, the harp, timbrel and dance, stringed intruments and flutes, loud cymbals, clashing cymbals! Wow, all instruments to God's glory!

When I was young and went to grandma and grandpa's church (we weren't church goers in my home with dad an agnostic), I remember distinctively the talk of guitars and drums as being sinful. These days, that has been replaced with hip hoppers, rappers and praise dancers as being sinful by some.

But as I've glanced through some videos of today's Christian rappers and hip hoppers they are using instruments in the praise of God. These days the instruments can even include the fascinating use of computers in music. Take a look from this scene in the "Fighting Temptations," a movie that although wasn't high on my list of good movies, but this scene caught my attention when it came to the mixture of old time gospel and modern synthesized hip hop music. Very interesting!

"To Da River" T-Bone, Lil Zane, Eddie Levert, Montel Jordan in Fighting Temptations

Two thoughts with this video. 1) "As long as they're praising God it's alright with me" one of the character's joyfully says and the last character saying 2) "they better be baptized and in bible study classes!"

I kind of hated the fact that the last lady in the video is viewed as the "evil one" especially with the way she's telling them what they need to do. But she's the one that's actually on to something here.

Today's Christian music is great in the way that people are choosing to worship God - with music that appeals to them! Hip hoppers are going to gravitate towards hip hop music, R&Bers to the same type, Contemporary Christian, Jazz, Rap, Pop, Rock, Heavy Metal, Country and Traditional the same way. I don't see anything wrong at all with any music as long as what the lady alluded to in that video - they are truly saved and in the word of God!

God created music for his glory and all musical instruments He is okay with! It is important how we worship him, as our words must be pleasing to God, our clothing non-offensive as well as dance. I don't know if anyone noticed the young man dancing in the video grabbing his crotch like Michael Jackson while praising God...we can forgive him for that but you get the picture. Dancing must be pleasing to God as well!

I criticized a very talented musical/preacher named Tonex in my post below for exhibiting ungodliness while promoting his music. But he and anyone calling themselves a Christian must make sure that their lifestyle is in synch with God while in their praise of Him! There a many, many musicians that are truly making their music while being great examples of godliness! Those musicians we must praise and continue supporting them by buying their music.

I belong to a church where the instruments have all been used to God's glory. Sometimes it's Rock, Hip Hop and R&B, and if the pastor is flooded with complaints, its probably that all of us want to hear our particular type of music, being a multicultural, multi-ethnic church. But it's great to hear music appealing to all types of listeners!

I'll close this post with a video by Crystal Lewis, someone I never really knew about until she performed at our church. She is the same singer (which I didn't know) who sang on the award winning song with Kirk Franklin, Lean on Me. I'm still pretty unknowledgable when it comes to Christian music, but I love R&B, Jazz and even some hip hop. Please feel free to recommend to me some good listening music. In addition to Crystal Lewis, I have Sunny Hawkins (daugher-in-law to Tremaine Hawkins of the famous Hawkins family singers), The Washington Projects (courtesy of my 20 year old daughter), Dean Mills (whose Jazz video I have shown in my video list), Kirk Franklin, Lanee (friend of Tonex), Lacrae (courtesy of my teen son), just to name a few. I'm not too into country, but I like the Nashville Star singer, Coffey Anderson's Christian rendition of Rihanna's umbrella song that is also in my video list.

ADDENDUM 8/26: Check out "Joyful Noise" on my video link.  Great Rap/Rock video by Flame, Lecrae and John Reilly. I love this song! (No, there's no profanity as some folks think an "F" bomb was dropped.  It was the word "fought" when he says "fought death.")

Now, back to my music. Please feel free to share yours!

Crystal Lewis - People Get Ready . . . Jesus is Comin'

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