That certainly sounds like David. David pictures himself as a young boy out on the hillside tending his sheep. And what does he do? He is the artist. He takes a piece of wood and shapes it to make a harp; “my hands formed a musical instrument.” As we shall see, the Bible says that David as a craftsman later made the instruments that were used in the temple of worship.

But David was also a musician. His “fingers tuned a psaltery.” Like a man tuning his violin, David prepared his instrument for playing. The writing of poetry, the making of a beautiful instrument, the tuning of it so that its music can be filled with beauty — David did all these things as a spiritual exercise to the praise of God.

There is something exciting here. Art can be offered up before God. David says, “and who shall tell my Lord?” That is, “Who shall tell my Lord that I made a beautiful instrument, who will tell Him that I tuned the psaltery, who will tell Him that I have written this poetry? Who will tell Him about my song?” Then David responds, “The Lord Himself, He Himself hears.” Nobody had to go and tell God. God knew. So the man who really loves God could write his poetry, compose his music, construct his musical instruments, fashion his statues, paint his pictures, even if no man ever saw them. He knows God looks upon them.

So you might say to David, “David, why do you sing? just to amuse yourself? Only the little white-faced sheep will hear.” And David will reply, “Not at all. I’m singing and the God of Heaven and earth hears my song; that’s what makes it so worthwhile.” Art can, of course, be put into the temple. But it doesn’t have to be put into the temple in order to be to the praise of God.

One of the most striking secular poems in the Bible is the Song of Solomon. Many Christians in the past have felt that this poem represents the love of Christ for his Church. The poem can in fact be interpreted in this way. But we must never reduce it solely to the picture of this relationship. It depicts the relationship between Christ and the Church because every proper relationship between a man and a woman is an illustration of the relationship between Christ and the Church. The fact is that God made the love of a man for a woman to be representational of the love of God for His people, of the Bridegroom for the bride, of Christ for His Church. But in the Song of Solomon God takes a poem that expresses in great antiphonal strength the love of a man for a woman and a woman for a man, and places it in the Word of God. This kind of poetry, just like the psalms, can also represent something wonderful. How beautiful a praise to God this poem is! In one way, its placement in the Bible is parallel to the sort of secular art that we noticed on Solomon’s throne, but it is more significant because this poem is put into the Scripture as Scripture itself.

How often do Christians think of sexual matters as something second-rate. Never, never, never should we do so, according to the Word of God. The whole man is made to love God; each aspect of man’s nature is to be given its proper place. That includes the sexual relationship, that tremendous relationship of one man to one woman. At the very beginning God brought Eve to man. A love poem can thus be beautiful. So if you are a young man or a young woman and you love a girl or you love a boy, you may indeed write beautiful love poetry. Don’t be afraid. And older lovers can love and write love songs as well! This too can be a praise to God.

Before passing on to other art forms, I would like to simply reemphasize that even though it uses a different poetic form than English does, Hebrew poetry demands strict literary discipline. In fact, Hebrew poetry is probably much harder to write than Anglo-Saxon poetry. And just as an artist, a craftsman, was required to work with precision as he cast the bronze statues or carved the bas-relief on the walls of the temple, so the Hebrew poet had to be careful with the technical aspects of his poetry and strive for technical excellence. And in the striving for excellence comes a way to praise God too.

Music
Music is another art form which the Bible does not ignore. One of the most fantastic pieces of musical art must have been the song the Hebrews sang after they were rescued from Pharaoh’s army. Exodus 15 gives us that song. Think of this great host of Israelites — hundreds of thousands of people — gathered on the far side of the Red Sea and singing an antiphonal song — a work of art. “And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to Jehovah, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea” (Ex. 15:20, 21). Here we have the men singing the stanza (given in Ex. 15:1-19) and the women led by Miriam singing the chorus. Think of the joy of deliverance from oppression, and think of what a scene this music-making must have been.

But there was also music in the temple. We are told in 1 Chronicles 23:5 that “four thousand praised Jehovah with the instruments which I made, said David, with which to praise.” Four thousand! A song rang out from 4,000 at once. And the chronicler adds, “And David divided them into courses [divisions] according to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari” (23:6). In other words, David divided the singers into parts, making what we would call a chorus. And art breaks forth with all its beauty, all its strength, all its communication, and all its glory.

From the time of Hezekiah comes a scene I love to picture. Hezekiah had had the temple cleansed and the worship reformed according to the law of God which had been set aside for so long. And then, while the sacrifices were being offered, Hezekiah “set the Levites in the house of Jehovah with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps [notice the various instruments], according to the commandment of David, and of Gad, the king’s seer, and Nathan, the prophet; for so was the commandment of Jehovah by his prophets. And the Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets” (2 Chron. 29:25, 26). Then Hezekiah commanded that the offerings be burnt upon the altar: “And when the burnt offering began, the song of Jehovah began also, and the trumpets, together with the instruments of David, king of Israel. And all the assembly worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished” (29:27, 28). A tremendous use of music and art, again all at the commandment of God through his prophets.

I suppose my favorite piece of music is Handel’s Dettingen Te Deum. I have a record of this music (Fontana 875-015-CY), in which all the instruments meant to be involved are used, and I want to tell you it is marvelous. I’ve played the grooves off of it. Every time I read this section in 2 Chronicles, I think of the Dettingen Te Deum and of the fact that what was going on in the time of Hezekiah must have been ten times greater. Trumpets, cymbals, psalteries, harps, all the various instruments of David — music upon music, art upon art — all pouring forth, all pointing up the possibility of creativity in praise of God, all carried to a high order of art at God’s command. And when you begin to understand this sort of thing, suddenly you can begin to breathe, and all the terrible pressure that has been put on us by making art something less than spiritual suddenly begins to disappear. And with this truth comes beauty and with this beauty a freedom before God.

We should note that with regard to the temple, all of the art worked together to form a unity. The whole temple was a single work of architecture, a unified unit with free-standing columns, statuary, bas-relief, poetry and music, great huge stones, beautiful timbers brought from afar. It’s all there. A completely unified work of art to the praise of God. Surely this has something to say to us about architecture, and we ought to be asking the Lord how we can produce this kind of praise to God today.

Drama and the Dance
Two more art forms are mentioned in the Scripture. The first is drama. In Ezekiel we read, “Thou also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it a city, even Jerusalem; and lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast up a mound against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about. Moreover, take thou unto thee an iron pan [or, flat plate], and set it for a wall of iron between thee and the city; and set thy face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel” (Ezek. 4:1-3). What was this? It was a simple drama. The “tile” had the skyline of Jerusalem drawn upon it as a simple backdrop, so that the people could not miss what Ezekiel was portraying. Jerusalem was to be besieged, and the warning was taught to the people by the command of God, in a drama.