Skills
This verse really spoke to me this morning. “…Sing praises with a skillful psalm.” (Psalm 47:7) And I was reminded of the duty that we have as Christian musicians, worship leaders, etc. to sing skillful psalms to the Lord–to give Him our best–not give Him our leftovers–but give Him the firstfruits of our talents, of our songs, of our worship. It should be our duty, our joy, our desire and the expectation of the body of Christ to sing with skillful songs. Certainly and primarily they must come from the overflow of our hearts and be Spirit-driven, Scripture-saturated, and Gospel-centered; but they must also be done skillfully. They must be crafted in such a way as to reflect and express quality, passion, beauty, and excellence, all of which flow from God Himself.
The obvious question becomes: “What is the standard for something being ‘skillful?'” I love what Paul Baloche and Mia Fieldes said during the Integrity Conference last week that applies to this. They said that there is nothing wrong with anyone being a learner or a novice or a beginner when it comes to leading worship. The problem comes when you’re not moving forward. The problem comes if you’re staying there. If you’re not moving on. If you’re not giving yourself to study, training and practice, seeking to become better. And really, that applies to anything we do in life. If we ever get to the point where we think we have arrived in song-writing or preaching or teaching or Biblical understanding or whatever the case may be … then we have a problem. But let’s make it our goal to bring glory to God in whatever we set our hands to do and to do so with the skill that God has given us while being careful to foster and grow that skill as good stewards.