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Pope John Paul II called upon Christian communities to examine their consciences and make sure their liturgies reflect beauty and dignity, especially regarding music.

“The Christian community must examine its conscience so that the beauty of music and song will return more and more to the liturgy,” the Holy Father said. “We have to purify worship of sloppy style, careless forms of expression and of tacky music and texts that are not in keeping with the grandeur of the act that we are celebrating.”

The Pope made his remarks during his general audience on Feb. 26 with 10,000 pilgrims from around the world, in which he offered his reflections on Psalm 150.

John Paul noted that Psalm 150 is a festive hymn of praise in which every living being is invited to join in a song of praise and gratitude to the Lord for giving him life. He characterized Psalm 150 as an “amazingly simple and transparent” text that is a sort of channel of communication between heaven and earth.

“During prayer we carry out a kind of ascent toward God's light and, at the same time, we experience God descending to us and adapting himself to our limitations in order to hear us and speak to us, to meet us and save us,” he noted.

The Holy Father concluded by quoting St. Augustine, who thought the musical instruments cited in the psalm symbolize God's holy people.

“The best music is the music that arises from our hearts,” the Pope said. “It is this very harmony that God is waiting to hear in our liturgies.”

This is the second time that Psalm 150 appears in morning prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours. It is a festive hymn — an alleluia that is sung to the rhythm of music. This is a fitting finale to the entire Book of Psalms, the book of Israel's praise, song and liturgy.

Its text is amazingly simple and transparent. We need only to let ourselves be drawn by its insistent call to praise the Lord: “Praise God … give praise … give praise!” At its beginning two fundamental aspects of God's mystery are presented.

There is no doubt that he is transcendent, mysterious and beyond our comprehension. His royal dwelling place is his “sanctuary” in heaven and the “mighty dome of heaven,” which is like a fortress that is inaccessible to man. Yet, he is very near to us. He is present in the “sanctuary” of Zion and is at work in history through his “mighty deeds,” which reveal and make tangible to us “his great majesty” (see verses 1–2).

Uniting God and Man

Therefore, a sort of channel of communication has been established between heaven and earth, where the work of the Lord and the song of praise of the faithful meet. The liturgy unites the two sanctuaries — the Temple on earth and the infinity of heaven, God and man, time and eternity.

During prayer we carry out a kind of ascent toward God's light and, at the same time, we experience God descending to us and adapting himself to our limitations in order to hear us and speak to us, to meet us and save us. Immediately the psalmist offers us some aids for this meeting in prayer — the use of musical instruments from the orchestra of the Temple of Jerusalem, such as the horn, harp, lyre, tambourine, flute and cymbals. Even taking part in the procession was part of the ritual that was used in Jerusalem (see Psalm 118:27). This exact same call is echoed in Psalm 47:8: “Sing hymns of praise [skillfully].”

Thus, it is necessary to constantly discover and live out the beauty of prayer and of the liturgy.

We need to pray to God not only in theologically precise wording but also in a beautiful and dignified manner.

Examination of Conscience

In this regard, the Christian community must examine its conscience so that the beauty of music and song will return more and more to the liturgy. We have to purify worship of sloppy style, of careless forms of expression, and of tacky music and texts that are not in keeping with the grandeur of the act that we are celebrating.

In this regard, the Letter to the Ephesians contains the significant call to avoid excesses and vulgarity and to leave room for purity in liturgical hymns: “And do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another [in] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks always and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father” (Ephesians 5:18–20).

A Universal Prayer

The psalmist ends by inviting “everything that has breath” (see Psalm 150:6) — an expression that in Hebrew literally means “every murmur” or “every breath” and denotes “every living man” (see Deuteronomy 20:16; Joshua 10:40; 11:11, 14) — to join in this praise. The praise of God, therefore, involves first of all the human creature, with his voice and his heart. The psalmist then associates with him all living beings — all creatures in which there is a breath of life (see Genesis 7:22 — to join with him in raising a hymn of gratitude to their Creator for the gift of life.

St. Francis followed up on this universal invitation with his rather charming “Canticle to Brother Sun,” in which he invites us to praise and bless the Lord through all his creatures, which are a reflection of his beauty and goodness (see Fonti Francescane, 263).

All the faithful should take part in this song in a special way, as the Letter to the Colossians suggests: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another, singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God” (3:16).

The Music of the Heart

In this respect, St. Augustine, in his Commentaries on the Psalms, feels that the musical instruments symbolize the saints who are praising God: “You, saints, are the horn, the psalms, the lyre, the tambourines, the choir, the strings, the organ and the cymbals of joy that emit beautiful sounds, which play harmoniously. You are all these things. When you hear this psalm, do not think about things with little value, about those things that are fleeting or about the instruments on stage.” In reality, “every spirit that praises the Lord” is a voice of song to God (Esposizioni sui Salmi, IV, Rome, 1977, p. 934–935).

Thus, the best music is the music that arises from our hearts. It is this very harmony that God is waiting to hear in our liturgies.