“Music can change the world.” This was the thought of Beethoven, considered the greatest composer.
Spanning the ages, music has been part of cultures and influenced people. When it is heard, how it is used, and what it conveys can make music an instrument of change.
God is the creator of music. He is both the source and the receiver.
We hear his work in the melodies of creatures, the percussion of rainstorms, and the lyrical phrases of humans. Music was even present when God formed the world. In Job 38:4a,7 we read that God asked Job, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations… while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy” (NIV)? The Bible’s first mention of a musician is found in Genesis 4:21, in which Jubal is described as “the father of all those who play stringed instruments and pipe” (NIV).
Music can glorify God, tend to a needy heart, and flow from a changed soul.
After Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, Moses and his sister, Miriam, led God’s people in song with a celebratory recounting of God’s victory and hope in his eternal reign (Exodus 15).
When King David and the Israelites were moving the ark of God, “which is called by the name of the LORD of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim,” they celebrated “before the LORD, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals” (2 Samuel 6:2b,5 ESV).
David was a skilled harpist and song writer. Seventy-five of his songs are in the book of Psalms. In them he shares his life events, seeks God’s forgiveness, implores God to judge his enemies, and foreshadows the coming Messiah. There are 150 poetic songs and prayers in Psalms, authored by several men. Even Moses composed one – Psalm 90, the oldest in the book, written in the early 1400s B.C.
From everything that has breath, God deserves praise for his greatness and power!
Psalm 150 prescribes this be done with singing, instruments, and dancing. With groups of trained musicians to “raise sounds of joy,” the temple was a place to worship God with music (1 Chronicles 15:16).
As Christ followers, we are encouraged by Paul: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:16 ESV).
This gives us a glimpse into Heaven, where God is eternally praised and Jesus, the Lamb of God, is praised with a new song (Revelation 5:9). John shares his insight with us in Revelation 5:11-12: “I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing’” (ESV).
Let’s join them in giving God the praise he is due, with a song in our hearts and praise on our lips.
How might our music change the world?
Put a song in your heart when you use a Heart Training book and meditate on God’s greatness!