Sing and Make Music to the Lord – August 25, 2021

Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord.
Ephesians 5:18,19

Sing and Make Music to the Lord

If you Google “quotes about music,” you will find hundreds of profound statements about music and its ability to move people and communicate in ways that words alone can’t. A well-written song engages our emotions and puts into words what’s in our hearts and on our minds. Joy and sorrow, anger and anticipation, fear and hope are sometimes most clearly expressed in the words of a song.

In fact, that is why music is such an important part of the life of many Christians. Those who hope in the Lord use music to express the deep sorrow we feel for the ways we’ve disobeyed and dishonored our God. We sing about the fears in our hearts and the foes that surround us. We confess our trust in our powerful and loving God and our confidence in his deliverance from physical and spiritual foes in hymns and songs. And, by reflecting on who God is and what he has done, we are moved to praise him with joyful songs.

Music is part of the shared experience of Christians. Whether in psalms and hymns directly from the Bible or in songs that summarize the message that God gave us in the Bible, Christians speak or sing the truths of Scripture to one another when we gather for worship. We sing those truths because we know that through them, the Holy Spirit fills us with faith to trust God’s promises and strength to live for him.

And in the truths we sing, we are reminded that we are not alone. With our fellow Christians, we share guilt and forgiveness, sorrow and joy, hope and peace. Our songs express the faith we share in a loving God whose marvelous mercy and might that no song can ever fully capture.

You may not sing well. You may not play an instrument. But, when you hear and ponder God’s forgiving love and care in Jesus your Savior, may your heart always be tuned to praise God not only in song but in all that you do.

Prayer:
Lord, thank you for the gift of music. May my heart always be tuned to praise you. Amen.