Many Christians today assume God must be pleased with choirs in church public worship. After all, they say, 'look at all the Christian churches which have them.' Furthermore, they say, 'choirs are even mentioned in the Bible, so they must be OK.' But this issue deserves a more thorough look at what the Bible teaches.
As with all questions of worship, we must start with the guiding principle of all God-pleasing worship: the so-called 'regulative principle of worship'. This principle is taught in the Second Commandment (Exodus 20:4-5), and says that the principles and elements of our worship to God should be what God has commanded alone, without addition or subtraction. God has commanded this principle of worship throughout scripture, and has warned against human invention of worship elements (Matthew 15:1-9, Colossians 2:22-23). We know what God has commanded for worship from the explicit and implicit evidence in the Bible alone.
In terms of interpreting God's commands for public worship in the Old Testament, we must distinguish between Temple worship and synagogue worship. In the Old Testament God instituted these two systems of worship: the Temple worship (Hebrews 7:5,11) and the synagogue worship (Leviticus 23:7, Acts 15:21). The Temple worship consisted of sacrifices, the Levitical priesthood, Levites playing musical instruments, and Levitical choirs. For example, we read in II Chronicles 29:25-28 about God's command concerning Levitical choirs and the playing of musical instruments in the Temple service:
"Then he [King Hezekiah] stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, with stringed instruments, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, of Gad, the king’s seer, and of Nathan the prophet; for thus was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets. The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. Then Hezekiah commanded them to offer the burnt offering on the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord also began, with the trumpets and with the instruments of David king of Israel. So all the congregation worshiped, the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded; all this continued until the burnt offering was finished."
God's mandate for synagogue worship, however, was quite different. First of all, it was "open to the public". All of the Jewish community were to assemble and participate in all of its worship, not just the Levitical priests. In addition, its God-ordained worship elements were quite different. They consisted of scripture reading, preaching, prayer, etc., which we find for example in Nehemiah 9. There were no choirs or musical instruments commanded in the synagogue worship. But the very fact that God did mandate choirs and musical instruments in the Temple worship is evidence that they should not be regarded as mere 'circumstances of worship' but these features should be regarded as substantive elements of worship.
The Temple worship with its Levitical priesthood has expired in the New Testament (Hebrews 9),but synagogue worship was transformed into New Testament church worship (Acts 17:10-12), with some modifications like the change in day of worship. Like in the synagogues, choirs and musical instruments were not mandated for the New Testament church worship, but congregational Psalm-singing has been (Colossians 3:16,Matthew 26:30). Rev. Brian Schwertley has rightly concluded: "Roman Catholics are simply being consistent when they incorporate all the abrogated ‘shadows’ into their system of worship. Girardeau writes: 'Those who have most urgently insisted upon it [musical instruments in public worship] have acted with logical consistency in importing priests into the New Testament church; and as priests suppose sacrifices, lo, the sacrifice of the Mass! Instrumental music may not seem to stand upon the same foot with that monstrous corruption, but the principle which underlies both is the same; and that whether we are content with a single instrument, the cornet, the bass-viol, the organ, or go on by a natural development to the orchestral art, the cathedral pomps, and all the spectacular magnificence of Rome. We are Christians, and we are untrue to Christ and to he Spirit of grace when we resort to the abrogated.'"
Choirs are not to be in God's public church worship, for he has not
commanded them there. We dare not engage in will-worship, choosing
for ourselves how God would be worshipped.
"And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men."- Mark 7:7