My wife has a pacemaker which controls the beat of her heart. Her doctor suspected an irregular beat and sent her to a specialist to have her heart properly checked. A monitor was ordered and it had hardly started operating when the doctor checking it phoned in a panic for her to come straight to the hospital as her heart was stopping for seconds at a time alarmingly frequently. The first possible operating room available, they installed the pacemaker. It controls the rhythm, that is all. The heart does the work.
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” Colossians 3:16-17. The word of Christ does the work.
MUSIC WAS A STRANGER IN MY CHILDHOOD HOME
One of my grandmothers had a radio and a canary. I remember the canary singing there, but we had nothing that sang unless you count the chicken chatter to be singing. We had no radio in our home. Music was a stranger. Even my godly mother, who was not well much of the time, sang only on Sunday mornings when we were in worship services. I suppose my inability to carry a tune may be partly because of that fact. I did, and still do, love the hymns I heard then. They speak from the heart as our scripture says they should, express “with grace in your hearts to the Lord.“ I rejoice that it says “in your hearts to the Lord.” That, I can do. Arising from the heart is a far different matter than from the lips. Tunefully expressing from the lips, unless it also comes from the heart, is useless.
TEACH AND ADMONISH WITH SONG
One can sooth, admonish, and teach musically, and this starts with a lullaby sung to the infant in the cradle and lasts until the last farewell hymn on behalf of the deceased. A lullaby comforts a fretful child, as a hymn comforts a bereaved adult. Hymns prepare us for prayer, urge us to live a godly life, stir us up to action, or teach us God’s will and word. Not all music does this. Some only arouses the emotions lasting about as long as a fragile soap bubble floating in the breeze.
DO ALL THINGS IN THE NAME OF JESIS CHRIST
The important thing is that all is to be done in the name of Jesus Christ, and to his glory. I have attended worship services where the dominate instrument was a set of drums in the hands of a frenetic drummer who seemed determined to, and did, give many a throbbing headache as soon as possible. I played a drum in a school band, myself but have yet to hear one that can carry the tune in worship. Having lived in Africa many years I have heard drums used otherwise. In fact an African language version of the Bible seldom lasts very long as it is probably far more often used as a drum, to convey the beat more than for reading. African hymns sound more like a chant than a hymn.
ESPECIALLY LET US GIVE THANKS TO GOD
What ever we do, let us do it in the name of Jesus Christ to give glory to him.
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