"The Lord your God is with you, a Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take delight in you; in His love He will no longer rebuke you but rejoice over you with singing." Zephaniah 3: 17
The best picture of all times, the widely acclaimed, "The Sound of Music" opens with a spectacular view of the Austrian hillsides. And on top of one of these hills, the lead actress Julie Andrews burst into song,
'The hills are alive with the sound of music
With songs they have sung for a thousand years
The hills fill my heart with the sound of music
My heart wants to sing every song it hears.'
Does God sing you may ask? According to the prophet Zephaniah, the evidence that God is with us is in God singing. God's singing is an expression of His love for us. Music in the heavens shows that God rejoices over His creation.
The music is everywhere. This music sung by the whole of nature can be heard by the contemplative soul who seeks God's presence, hears God's harmony, finds God's love and sings in time with the joyful noises,
'My heart wants to beat like the wings of the birds
that rise from the lakes to the trees.
My heart wants to sigh like a chime
that flies from a church on the breeze.'
'To laugh like a brook when it trips and falls
over stones on its way
To sing through the night like a lark
who is learning to pray.'
The Christian church, especially the Methodist Church in the tradition of John and Charles Wesley, echoes God's music by making music ourselves and singing during our worship. On 24 November 2024 Bishop Emeritus Robert Solomon spoke of this great tradition of making melody unto the Lord at the Music Sunday of Charis Methodist Church in his sermon entitled 'Songs of the Faithful.' (Ref 1).
The Bishop reminded us that since the days of the early church, singing is in the hearts of all Christians. This was written by St Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians.
'Don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life. Instead be filled with the Holy Spirit singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.' Ephesians 5: 18-20 (NLT)
The Bishop drew several lessons from this passage.
- We sing with our hearts full of the Spirit, Spirit-filled singing. Spirit led and spirit enabled music can lead us into experiencing the inspirational moment of worship.
- We sing to the Triune God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our songs and lyrics can express theology and doctrine during worship just as the Word of Christ dwell in us richly (Colossians 3:16)
- We sing from the depths of our heart. Worship is whole hearted involvement, the expression of real not theoretical Christian experience. This has to come from the heart, from the very centre of our being.
- We sing comprehensively using the whole repertoire of church music lexicon and not only from a small segment of praise songs. This expresses what is in the depths of our hearts and the wideness of our Christian experiences.
Our inner beings, our very souls tuned to the singing of our God, the music of the universe, the sound of music!
'I'll go to the hills when my heart is lonely
I know I will hear what I've heard before
My heart will be blessed with the sound of music
And I'll sing once more.'
A recording of the Music Sunday is available on You-Tube should you wish to listen.
Lionel
Ref 1: Bishop Emeritus (Dr) Robert Solomon, Sermon: Songs of the Faithful, 24 Nov 2024
