Many, many are the times that someone has brought me, or played for me, or (worse yet) played a song for an audience, saying beforehand, “God gave me this song,” and the song STINKS (as in, a horrible piece of work).  Most Christians I know have had this distressing experience.  Why do I think this is a “distressing” experience?  Glad you asked!  Let me explain.

Understand, please that I’m not saying that God can’t or doesn’t give people songs (He can and does, on occasion); but, generally, the songs that follow this solemn pronouncement are cliched, poorly written, terrible songs—and God doesn’t write bad songs.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe God in a very real sense gives all songs, since all talents, abilities, and correct perceptions are gifts from Him, because God made everything (Col 1:16-17; Jhn 1:1-3, 10).  There is a really no such thing as a “boot-strap” ethic (e.g. “I pulled myself up by my own boot-straps”) about anything, including songwriting, performance, or any of the Arts, because even the desire, the strength, the very hands necessary to pull yourself up are only gifts from God:  As Scripture says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, Who does not change like shifting shadows.” (Jas 1:17 NAS)

I also believe that God gives people songs more directly; He has done it for me and for other people I know, and we can say along with Elihu in Job 35:10, “He giveth me songs in the night.”  Even here, though, generally this happens for those of us who have spent years developing a musical and lyrical “vocabulary” to act as a backdrop for this supernatural action of God as He utilizes abilities and preparation.

I even believe that God, very occasionally, gives a great song to a rankly unprepared neophyte writer.  The reason He doesn’t do this too frequently is that He mercifully wants us to “work out our own salvation” (Phil 2:12) to grow and mature as His children (Eph 4:13-14).

What I object to is using the statement “God gave me this” as a flip (or even solemn) cover-up for laziness or self-deception by the writer/performer, as laziness or self-deception that hurts not only the Body of Christ (and through the Body, the world whose hopes are tied to the Church), but also hurts the artist by keeping him from developing his God-given talent, to the edification of the Church (we saw last week how musicians/writers are needed by the Church).  That this leads to later hurt can clearly be seen in the Parable of the Talents (Matt 25:14-30) and in similar passages such as Lk 12:48.

The truth of the matter is that most utterers of the “magic phrase” are never held accountable by their audience (in this case, their brothers and sisters in Christ) for how little effort and time they’ve put into a song that is intended to represent their Lord, the All-Perfect Creator Who is the very Source of all beauty and creativity. Attributing poorly done work to the Lord all too often keeps the artist from having to face his own laziness or self-delusion, since few people would dare to critique something that has supposedly come from God’s Own Hand.  We all must learn to discern what has truly come from God and what has not.  What God gives reflects His Own Excellence.

The bottom line is that many artists who do this are afflicted by a quest for, and a belief in, a quick-fix for their underdeveloped ability.  This is simply indicative of our shallow and impatient culture as a whole, e.g., “I want patience, and I want it now!!”  Very few people wait and work hard for a long-term goal (such as becoming a talented, developed artist).

The Biblical truth is that there is no quick-fix.  Even though we are regenerated quickly, it still takes our whole lives to have the outworking of that regeneration make us sanctified and holy, as we’ll see next week.