How to be Profound, or “Nothing New Under the Sun.”

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 @ 4:39 pm | Songwriting, Bible Study, Worship leading, Lessons

I’ve often heard the phrase “nothing new under the sun” (from Ecc. 1:9) interpreted to mean that all truth has been discovered. In other words, when you hear a new idea or thought or see a creative piece of artwork, it is simply regurgitating the same old ideas that have been around for thousands of years. According to this line of interpretation, everything has been said or tried before, and so Christians should be skeptical of anything “new” or “modern,” because inevitably it leads back to the same old truths or falsehoods.

This interpretation, however, is not what Solomon is trying to communicate. The Hebrew phrase “under the sun” is an idiom (a phrase that means something other than its literal interpretation - think “a horse of a different color.”) that means “outside of God.” When we keep this in mind, a whole realm of possibilty emerges. If nothing is new outside of God, it stands to reason that the converse of this fact is also true. In God, “all things become new!” This tells me that I can get to and explore brand new truth if I’ll allow God’s Spirit to marshal my life, my mind, and my creativity. He has all kinds of new things to reveal to me, and if I’ll be honest and reasonable in Him, I’ll get to learn and create totally new things.

This concept is very, very relevant in the realm of Christian art. Here at milestoneworship, we spend a lot of time talking about music, but the principle is not simply limited to song. We Christian artists are always looking to say the old truths in a new way; perhaps we should be looking beyond that. Perhaps we should be studying Scripture and praying that God would reveal Himself to us in brand new ways, so that we might communicate these truths to others in our art.

If you are like me, you are probably very concerned that your art is profound and original. Nobody wants their music to sound or speak like any other song out there, but creating new art is incredibly difficult. I think that the idea of “newness” is especially relevant here. If we want to create truly original art, we must dive into God, because if we try to do it in our own strength, or “under the sun” if you’ll permit the analogy, we’ll be sorely disappointed in how un-original and un-creative we become.