The Power of Worship Through Music
We are born ready to make music a part of our lives, to fill our soundtrack with memories and give our memories a soundtrack.
Music carries us from cradle to grave, telling our stories, forming around the memories we make and the information we learn.
Yet our current ability to connect and sit with music, to create moments that are built with song, has been replaced with automated playlists and a near complete disconnect with any music that pre-dates whatever we consider to be the “best era.” Where once we learned to sit and feel the experience that music moves within us, we now add it as another condiment to our already numbed lives.
The Source of All Song
What would happen if we returned to the music that originates from the throne of God, compelling all things to sing with worship and wonder, to rise in honest beauty back to the source of all music?
Music was something our very Lord experienced regularly in His daily life; it’s no wonder the Scriptures tell us to make music. In both sorrow and joy, music is a roadmap to knowing God and being fully human.
Over and over again in Scripture, we’re told to sing, make melody, praise God with instruments and our voices, and encourage one another with songs. Music fills Scripture, and it ought to fill the Christian life—and it can, if we’ll slow down enough to let it. Music gives us words and a melody for what we feel.
Music That Carries Us
In some cultures, music is the means by which story is passed on from generation to generation. Some West African traditions include oral storytellers, griots, who pass on the history of their people through song only. It makes me wonder how much of history that we know and remember is because someone learned to sing.
Music provides a way for us to fully embody our emotions when words alone are insufficient. The language of music helps us tell the truth right back to ourselves. In grief, in joy, in rest, in anger, music is a companion of communication, a Sherpa to our journey, carrying songs full of memories. Our lifetimes are held in melodies.
When we hear music and absorb the story it tells, we give ourselves the chance to see behind the veil, beyond the cold, emotionless world we touch day in and day out. The Lord invites us to sing to Him and one another. He gives us the ability to both enjoy music and make it. He sings over us (Zeph. 3:17), and so we get to dabble in creation through melody, through music, through the clapping of our hands, strumming, picking, plucking—all of the ways we can make music, He tells us to make it.
Give Back the Song to the Lord
We need music to lift our feet, to carry our memories, to give language to our tears, to cradle us from lullabies to graveside hymns. We need music to carry us back to the song giver Himself.
Music carries us from the beginning all the way to the end. It’s one of the first things we learn, and, in our final years, we may find ourselves humming again. So wherever you find yourself today in this world of noise, listen to the music. It may just be the thing you’ll remember for the rest of your life.
Reflection: How can you connect to yourself and to the Lord through the holy power of music? Make a playlist of your favorite hymns or worship songs today and plan to listen to it throughout the week this week.
If you liked this blog, check out The Quiet Resistance by Andrea G Burke. We love how she brings to light the power of slowing down and connecting with God and yourself in this ever-moving world.
Andrea Burke is a podcaster, Bible teacher, and women’s ministry leader. The author of A Bit of Earth, Andrea is married to Jedediah. They are raising their two kids, dogs, a few stray cats, six ducks, and a lot of chickens in an old farmhouse near Rochester, New York. Connect with her online at AndreaGBurke.com and @AndreaGBurke on Instagram.
