Introduction

Did you ever stop to consider what music really is? Why do we sing? What good does singing do us? You don’t see anyone just walking around shouting at the top of their lungs, and yet many people will expend similar energy singing and there is a great chance that he or she will start singing or humming to themselves shortly thereafter. Singing is the soul’s unconscious expression of gratitude to its Maker. The reason I say unconscious is because often an individual isn’t fully aware of why he is singing, and yet his/her soul is audibly praising its Lord and Maker.

Singing is a person’s deepest expression of passion or love for something, whether the song is religious in nature or their favorite song. Why is that? Also, why is it that we almost always sing when we are happy? Rarely does a person break into song upon hearing bad news; however, share some good news with a friend and you might. This is why when we feel good and things are going according to our wishes, we get that urge to sing. It is our soul, our very being, just bursting with gratitude to our Lord, even though we might not consciously think of it as praising God.

So in those moments of spontaneous song, what is the song that escapes our lips? What is the first song to come to our minds? What are the lyrics that cross our tongues?

Because singing is praising someone or something, we need to arduously guard ourselves against the wrong kind of music. In Romans chapter 1, Paul writes about “changing the truth of God into a lie and worshiping and serving the creature more than the Creator.” I realize this verse could be taken many different ways, but I think it’s very powerful in relation to music. What are most secular songs about? Women, sex, alcohol, drugs, and money come to my mind; and these can all be lumped into one category—created things.

As a wretched sinner that has experienced a lot of this music, I want to briefly give you an overview of several different genres of music to help you realize the danger and power of darkness that lies under the surface and behind the scenes of these songs. I have split it up into several groups with subheadings for each group that define the category (which is not necessarily one genre).

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English

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Leallen Zimmerman

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Pilgrim Mennonite Conference

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