"Singing the Songs of God: The Power of Music and Praise" - Meditation, May 21, 2017
Community UMC, Quincy
May 21, 2017
“Singing the Songs of God: The Power of Music and Praise”
Pastor Andrew Davis
Psalm 96; Psalm 150
Now I may be a little biased being a
musician, but music has always played an important role in my life and faith journey. I have found over the years that music has
the power to relax, calm, or even heal, particularly in memory care and in the
hospital or nursing home. Music helps us
express ourselves in ways we may not ordinarily be able to do, as there is a
special power in the songs and hymns that can bring us closer to God. Like many of you, I too am deeply moved by
the poetry and words of music, just as I am by the melodies that are
written. In a class I took at Wesley a
few summers ago, “Exploring the Hymnal” with Dr. Eileen Guenther, Eileen made
it a point that congregational songs and hymns are a means of “portable
theology.”[1]
After
thinking about and reflecting further on congregational songs and hymns as
“portable theology,” I find a new meaning in the words of the songs that we
sing together and the stories that the hymns tell us. The songs we sing in worship can tell us a
lot, or a little, depending on the depth of the theology expressed in their
words and how we can relate to God through the music we sing. Songs and hymns of our faith can also teach
us what it means to follow Jesus, and even teach us about doctrine of the
church, which Charles Wesley did in many of his hymns. Music can also help us spread the Gospel and
has been a source of bringing people to Christ.
When asking people what brought them into the church, many times they
will respond with the music. Eileen
always tells us in several of her classes and in Wesley’s chapel choir that
“music says for us what we are unable to say.” No wonder music in worship can
be so powerful!!
So
what kind of power does music have? I
think that the closing lines of Psalm 150 say it best, “let everything that has
breath praise the Lord” (NRSV). Or in Psalm
96, the Psalmist says to “sing a new song unto the Lord.” I also look to the
stories of King David in his youth, playing his harp and dancing before the
Lord, demonstrating the power music has on the body and there are a great many
songs that will make you want to dance!!
Even in Paul’s letter to the Colossians 3: 16-17, Paul writes of the
need for singing songs to God, in which music is a means of bringing people
together. Let’s consider Eugene
Peterson’s translation of Colossians 3: 15-18 in The Message:
15-17 Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with
each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate
thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house.
Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using
good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in
your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus,
thanking God the Father every step of the way.
“Sing,
sing your hearts out to God” (Col. 3: 16, MSG)!! Music is highly important in our life in
Christ as a way to bring us together by bringing us together whenever we enter the
sacred! And I know that many of you have
expressed at one time or another how important music is in your own faith
journey whenever we “sing our hearts out to God,” especially since we have a
church that likes to sing and a large, talented choir. Everything that we are singing, or in the
case of the bell choir, ringing, this morning tells a story of God’s work in
the world, through God’s relationship with humankind, or through the ministry
of Jesus the son, or God’s work through the Holy Spirit.
When
I think of the power of praising God through the words of Psalms 150 and 96, I
think of a joyful atmosphere of people gathered together singing to God and
giving God their full energy and attention through the words of the songs and
engaging with the music. Both our Psalms
this morning show us that there are many ways to praise God. We can praise God joyfully, shout, dance, and
make noise with whatever we have, as timbrels are close to some of the hand
percussion instruments we use today. In
fact, Psalm 150 does not just call us to sing, but fully praise God even with
loud noise and crashing cymbals, as we need time for loud and joyful praise.
At
the same time, we also need quiet, contemplation, and even lament which music
can also help us express. When it comes
to praising God through music, Hymnwriter Brian Wren writes that “when we
wholeheartedly praise another, our attention is turned outward, not
inward. Even more so, when our music
glorifies God, ‘adoration leaves no room for pride.’”[2] By letting our
breaths praise God in song, we are leaving our own senses behind when we allow
the Holy Spirit to move us in the power of song, whether it is joyful or
contemplative.
Music
and song has the power to make us smile, empower us, re-charge us, or move us
to tears. Just like the music we may
hear on the radio, at a concert, or in a symphony hall, music in worship has
the power to transform and shape us, particularly if it is memorable and easily
gets stuck in our heads. I know for me,
I am particularly moved by the great hymn, “I Love to Tell the Story” about how
Jesus shared his love for all, or the words of “It is Well with My Soul”
whenever I find my soul conflicted and weary.
Or I feel a great sense of hope in the resurrection when I hear Stuart
Getty and Keith Townsend’s “In Christ Alone,” Charles Wesley’s “Christ the Lord
is Risen Today,” or Natalie Sleeth’s “Hymn of Promise.” At the same time, music
can feel like it is transporting us to Heaven, as music in worship and
congregational song can be a deeply spiritual experience and even put us in a
trance.
Music
can also be prayerful, as a saying attributed to St. Augustine says that “music
is praying twice.” Or if you have ever experienced worship in the spirit of
Taize, most of the songs we sing in this worship experience are prayers. In his book, Music and Theology, Dr.
Don Saliers’ writes that “music confers upon human language addressed to God
the appropriate silence and mystery required by prayer. Music is the language of the soul made
audible especially as music is the performance mode of prayer and ritual engagement
of the community.”[3]
Singing the soul’s language through hymns and
congregational song helps to convey thoughts that we may not ordinarily say
aloud, just as we just sang, “when words alone cannot express, bring music.”[4]
Dr. Saliers further writes that “it is no accident that when poets or great
theologians wish to speak of the deepest realities, they move toward poetry and
music – heightened speech – as an attempt to ‘sound’ spiritual matters,” which
is a further example of how hymns and congregational song are portable
theology.[5]
When
we take the time to fully understand and appreciate the power of the poetry
found in the words of hymns and congregational song, music in worship becomes a
deep spiritual experience that enhances the way that we hear the scripture and
sermon, in which the entire service becomes the message. But when we carry the music with us through
the week, life itself becomes worship and prayer. As we go into this new week with a song in
our hearts, let us continue singing God’s song and bring that song into our
daily lives and into the world around us.
In the name of the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, let the church say Amen!!
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