Music Ministry

Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel!
Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!
The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing. (Zephaniah 3.14, 17)

What an amazing bit of news – God, singing to and about us! God, overflowing with joy and love, and breaking into song. Our music is a response to the music of our Maker, to the music which the universe sings to its Creator. “Where were you,” God asks Job, “ when I laid the foundation of the earth . . . when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?” This is the chorus we are joining when we raise our voices to God in song, or when we pick up our instruments, as we are encouraged to do in Psalm 150:

Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe [organ]!
Praise him with clanging cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that breathes praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

Small wonder that since antiquity music was considered the audible expression of the divine order of the universe, the very being of God brought to sound. Small wonder that Martin Luther proclaimed music to be God’s greatest gift to humanity, next to theology. Why? Because to make music is to proclaim God. (Luther continues: “A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs.”) To prepare our hearts and voices to lead in song, we rehearse choirs and instrumentalists, honing our skills and practicing our craft. Our worship music is not about virtuosic display or personal preferences; it is about honouring God, the One who is the author of all music and harmony, with the best we can offer. Soli Deo Gloria.