By David ReayMonday 11 Jan 2016LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 0 minutes
Transcript:
Read Psalm 150
1-6 Hallelujah!
Praise God in his holy house of worship,
praise him under the open skies;
Praise him for his acts of power,
praise him for his magnificent greatness;
Praise with a blast on the trumpet,
praise by strumming soft strings;
Praise him with castanets and dance,
praise him with banjo and flute;
Praise him with cymbals and a big bass drum,
praise him with fiddles and mandolin.
Let every living, breathing creature praise God!
Hallelujah! (THE MESSAGE)
One of the greatest gifts God gives us in this life is music. It seems from very early days that music was part of humankind’s self-expression. Christians therefore must believe that music derives from God, a God who expresses himself and is the source of all true beauty and delight. We worship a musical God.
And it is not as if he is merely an advocate for one type of music. As our Psalm indicates, our response to God can be expressed in all sorts of musical ways. And we can suggest that such responses are not to be confined to church services or to ‘Christian’ music (whatever that might mean).
True, some music with its accompanying lyrics can be expressive of hate and anger. But this is a twisting of an otherwise good gift. And even our songs of lostness and longing can be expressions of our estrangement from God and therefore have value in themselves.
Somehow, it seems God has planted music in our deepest beings. We may be composers of music, players of music, listeners to music. And the music speaks to our heart and at its best allows us to open our hearts to God in longing or in gratitude.
And we dare not assume that this gift of music somehow disappears in the age to come. If it is true that our earthly pleasures are foretastes of heaven, then we can look forward to richer and deeper music that never ends.
Blessings
David Reay