- Something Beyond Song

THERE IS A NOTION WIDELY HELD among Christians that song is the highest possible expression of the joy of the Lord in the soul of a man. That idea is so near to being true that it may seem spiritually rude to challenge it. We have no wish to pick theological lint or pluck the wings off religious flies for the thrill such a sadistic act might afford. There are probably hundreds of wrong notions in all our heads, notions that, while they are wrong, are still too insignificant to deserve attention. They are like the minor physical blemishes we all have, harmless if not beautiful, and altogether too trivial to rate mention by serious-minded people.
The idea, however, that song is the supreme expression of any and all possible spiritual experience is not small; it is large and meaningful and needs to be brought to the test of the Scriptures and Christian testimony. Both the Bible and the testimony of a thousand saints show that there is experience beyond song. There are delights, which the heart may enjoy in the awesome Presence of God, that cannot find expression in language--they belong to the unutterable element in Christian experience. Not many enjoy them because not many know they can. The whole concept of ineffable worship has been lost to this generation of Christians. Our level of life is so low that no one expects to know the deep things of the soul until the Lord returns. So we are content to wait, and while we wait we are inclined to cheer our hearts sometimes by breaking into song.
Now, far be it from us to discourage the art of singing. Creation itself took its rise in a burst of song, Christ rose from the dead and sang among His brethren, and we are promised that they who dwell in dust will rise and sing at the resurrection. The Bible is a musical book and, next to Scriptures themselves, the best book to own is a good hymnbook. But there is still something beyond song.
The Bible and Christian biography emphasize silence, but today we use silence in exactly nothing. The average service in gospel circles these days is kept alive by noise. By making a religious din we assure our faltering hearts that everything is well. Conversely, we suspect silence and regard it as proof that the meeting is “dead.” Even the most devout seem to think they must storm heaven with loud outcries and mighty bellowing or their prayers are of no avail.
Now, not all silence is spiritual. Some Christians are silent because they have nothing to say; others are silent because what they have to say cannot be uttered by mortal tongues. We will not speak of the first at the moment, but will confine our remarks to the latter.
Where the Holy Spirit is permitted to exercise His full sway in a redeemed heart, the progression is likely to be as follows: First, voluble praise, in speech or prayer or witness. Then, when the crescendo rises beyond the ability of studied speech to express, comes song. When song breaks down under the weight of glory, then comes silence where the soul, held in deep fascination, feels itself blessed with an unutterable beatitude.
At the risk of being written off as an extremist or a borderline fanatic, we offer it as our mature opinion that more spiritual progress can be made in one short moment of speechless silence in the awesome Presence of God than in years of mere study. While our mental powers are in command, there is always the veil of nature between us and the face of God. It is only when our vaunted wisdom has been met and defeated in a breathless encounter with Omniscience that we are permitted to really know When prostrate and wordless, the soul receives divine knowledge like the flash of light on sensitive film. The exposure may be brief, but the results are permanent.