I was a seven when the nineteen sixties arrived and seventeen when they passed.  The music of that period had a profound impact on my life up to that point.  Not long after I became a Christian at the age of nineteen, I broke and threw away all the music records that I had collected and listened to up to that point in my life.

Most of the popular music of the sixties was depressing.  It was full of questions, infidelity, despair, and without any real answers to life.  It was about free love and rebellion.  Those who wrote and performed it admitted that their music was about sex and drugs and they lived it to the hilt.  Even the country music writers and performers lived it.  If you don’t believe me, watch Ken Burn’s documentary on country music’s culture, its stars and performers.  They sang about how they lived and they lived what they sang about and the end of it was tragic.

Some people, usually Christians, say that music is amoral, meaning that it does not influence behaviour one way or the other.  Personally, I have never heard an unbeliever say that.  Unbelievers know what the world’s music is about.

Even casual observation shows that music affects behaviour.  Those who indulge in sinful practices do not listen to hymns and spiritual songs while doing so.  Pagans who sacrificed children and worshipped demons did not sing hymns or psalms as they practiced these things.  On the other hand shopping centers and grocery stores often play music that relaxes and slows down the customer so that they will spend more time and money in the store.  There is sensual music and music that is violent.  Music does influence and reinforce bad behavior.

One of the characteristics of a Spirit filled Christian in Ephesians 5:19 has to do with music.  It says that a Spirit filled believer speaks to himself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in his heart to the Lord.  That description sets out a certain quality of music that is manifested in the believer by the Holy Spirit.

Is that the type of song that is in your heart?

…he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise to our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. Psalm 40:3

…let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…