Character of a Songwriter

Over a month ago some guys in our worship team met up for a song writing night. Being part of the vision of our church and part of the worship teams vision, we want to see songs birthed within our church both to be used by the church but also to reach out beyond a Sunday morning into our local community.

One of the things we looked at was the Biblical character of a creative person. More specifically we looked at Bezaleel and Oholiab from Exodus 35:30-35.These two men are reasonably unknown when it comes to Biblical superstars. But they created something that was intrinsic to the life of the Israelites and their worship of Yahweh. They crafted the ark of the covenant and the tent of meeting among other things as instructed by God. This enabled the Israelites to meet with God and worship Him. Similarly I believe our goal in being creative is to craft God inspired creations to point people toward God to worship him


Four aspects we can learn from Exodus 35:30-35;


Chosen - It mentions in verse 30 that God chose Bezaleel and Oholiab for this work. Being in Christ, we have been chosen for good works. That means we've got a job to do and He's given us everything we need to do it. We know we're chosen and are reasonably secure in our gifting. We know God is using us and will use use in what he given us. In being chosen we have a responsibility to use what he's given us

Filled - The best way to feed our creativity is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. It's so true what we fill our minds with will come out in what we create. To be constantly saturated with the word of God and on our knees bowed in pray our hearts will fall in line with the heart of God. That spirit deposited within us will inspire our thoughts and action

Skilled - I've heard it said that song writing is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. God didn't choose someone from his people to craft his earthly habitation that had sat in tent all day drinking fermented grape juice, watching camel racing while playing on his Old testament version of PlayStation. No He chose someone who realised his God given talent and had invested years of hard work, and possibly finances into it. Who was focused on his calling, sacrificing other distractions.

Humility - Bezaleel and Oholiab were not of the X-factor generation. Asked a question by Simon Cowell where they want to be in 5 years and the majority of people will say sell millions of albums and be famous around the world. It seems that both Bezaleel and Oholiab are only mentioned a few other times in the Old Testament. Every time the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament is mentioned we don't see it proceeded by the words 'created by Bezaleel and Oholiab'. There was a real sense of God initiating creation, man playing his part and then giving it back to God. Our X-factor mentality wants to hold on to it to, to use it for our own glory. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying don't always put your name to a song but to be careful of motives. I think for example in a local church setting it can be helpful as people are close to the song writer and know his heart and how that comes through in the song. Also local congregations can take ownership of the song and it can express their heart of where they're at. As songwriters and musicians we need to wary of creeping pride and self promotion. It's all around us and we can so easily get infected.