Music figures prominently in my life. I wonder why that is? I’m probably too introspective for my own good a lot of the time. I need to figure things out, maybe that’s part of being a details person. Knowing the details enriches the big picture so much more. It’s the difference between 3 megapixels and 12. Some people are content with the 3, I seem to have to enlarge and crop the big picture at times, and zoom in on the small stuff and define it. Often, I end up with less understanding than I started out with. Sometimes, my understanding grows…. It helps me to know how I fit into the picture, and maybe even where. Maybe that's more extrospection. Maybe it's both. Dissecting music is one of those things today.
It is common knowledge that there different languages of love. People show love in different ways, and likewise, people feel love in different ways. How fortunate you are when your spouse or your kids speak your language!!! In that vein, I think music must be the language of my heart and my soul.
One of my favourite Bible verses is Zephaniah 3:17. “The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” I recently reread the whole chapter, which is about Jerusalem. Zephaniah is a prophet; he is talking about the future of Jerusalem. About what she looks like when she rebels against God, how God continues to live within her, and how He will judge….but also what will happen when she turns back to Him, and how He will then bless her when she looks to Him for her strength and deliverance.
I am amazed that God chooses to reside inside of us. Of all the places He could dwell He chooses the fickle human heart. It changes a person, knowing that He rejoices in what He sees there, and equally how He grieves when we disappoint Him with what we do and say; how quickly things fall out of harmony when our way is contrary to His Way. I hate that feeling. I’d much rather sing a part than a solo.
Recently, a friend of mine was struggling with something and I sent a card with this verse on it. Sometimes the part of the verse that strikes me is that “God is with us, He is mighty to save”….at times I need the reminder that God has the strength to defeat the giants in my life, strong enough to carry me through the struggles, that He is WITH me. Other times I’m struck by the “He will quiet you with His love” part…when I am particularly anxious about something, it soothes the worried mind, and I really “feel the love”. I LOVE that "He will take great delight in [me]!!! This last week I was struck by the last line “…He will rejoice over you with singing”. Does that mean after the struggles are all said and done?
What a neat thing to think about! When God sings over me, I get to sing along! I don’t know if that’s theologically correct, but if music is the language of my soul then it makes sense. It gives a word picture, or at least a sound to God’s love for me. His love for me, the invitation to be in relationship with him, to be a part of the Score that lends rightness to my life. My desire to honour Him and seek His will for my life, and then doing it to the best of my ability….can be a beautiful sound. The sound of a soul singing the song that was created and written for it by her Creator. That makes it okay to sing, even in a valley. I finally figured out that the song does not depend on me or how I'm feeling....The song goes ON! It's all about God! Some days I can sing at the top of my lungs, and some days I climb into His lap and He has to do all the singing. (I’m sure that even David, with all his lyrical abilities, had those kinds of days when he ran out of words. Although he sure knows how to write a good lament.) His song is my strength when I am weak. I hear it and am revived. I want to sing along again to this melody that infuses my life. It is water for my thirsty soul.
I think that we all hear music. I think we all make music. Always part of a grand scheme and score. No one else’s symphony will sound exactly like mine, but as brothers and sisters in Christ, we all have the same Composer.
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