God is a Song

 

A friend can recite entire SONGS and Bible passages from memory. Another friend says she memorized Scripture by making songs out of the verses. I’m not good at rote learning or turning words into music. For me, rote becomes reciting words without understanding and music is a foreign language rather than an easy talent. However, repetition is changing some of that.

Every morning I sing praises to God for at least ten minutes from printed lyrics. I can now sing many of them without looking at the paper. Sometimes I wake with a song in mind or think of words during ordinary activities. Several OT passages say God not only puts songs in my heart, but He is my song.

Exodus 15:1–2. “Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, ‘I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.’ ”

All through the OT God’s people praised Him and celebrated His goodness with music. Dozens of verses testify how His people responded to the victories He gave them with a song. God even told Moses to write a song as Deuteronomy 31:19–22 says.

“Now therefore write this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the people of Israel. For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise me and break my covenant. And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring). For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give.” So Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the people of Israel.

Songs of victory are in Judges and 1 and 2 Samuel, notably when David returned from battles. These included joy and musical instruments. David was inspired to write many of the psalms as were others. Solomon authored 3,000 proverbs and 1,005 songs (see 1 Kings 4:32).

David “put men in charge of the service of song in the house of the Lord after the ark rested there. They ministered with song before the tabernacle of the tent of meeting until Solomon built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they performed their service according to their order.”

Obviously praise directed to the Lord finds its source in Him and has a purpose. Psalm 40:3 says,

“He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.”

Those songs from Him are prayers as Psalm 42:8 says: “By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.”

I wondered about the value of music and found scientific proofs of what music does, from the obvious lifting of our moods to the startling — it makes us eat less. Some music has a negative effect. For instance, loud rock will kill plants (no joke) and a beat more rapid that a normal heart rate is agitating.

I’ve also noticed that it isn’t so much the words or the tune but the hearts of the performers. Those who do ‘great music’ for the sake of their reputation as a musician do not bless the human soul in the same way as the person who sings to glorify God or even to bless those in the audience. Not everyone will notice these differences. So the question is: At what point does the art detract from building the body of Christ to affirming the arrogance of the individual artist? Three ways can evaluate whether a song is from God or not . . . .

One, as our Song, God gives music that establishes or re-establishes interpersonal relationships called koinonia or Christian fellowship. God’s songs bring Christians together as we focus on Jesus and not ourselves.

Two, His music builds a godly self-view, affirming we are made in the image of God, that sin separated us from Him, and that Jesus Christ and God’s grace brought us back — made new to reflect who He is by the way we think, talk and live.

Three, God’s music has a way of using rhythm to energize and bring order. He is a “God of order, not confusion” thus as our Song, He calms chaos and clears confusion.

Both Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 point to music coming from the heart. It is not necessarily talent and beauty but a God-focused sincerity filling with praise and thanksgiving, even if the words say other things. Like prayer, a song in my heart is one more way to GAZE INTO HIS GLORY!

 

God’s answers build my faith; His silence builds my patience!

 

At times I’ve felt as if God is too SLOW. I’m praying for something good or wanting God to deal with difficult people and it seems forever before He answers. However He says in 2 Peter 3:8–9 that I should “not overlook this one fact, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

In the OT, “the Lord is slow to anger” is repeated at least ten times in those exact words and illustrated throughout. As a sinner saved by grace, I ought to be thoroughly glad that God is not quick to become angry! That would mean His judgment would be quick to strike.

This expression ‘slow to anger’ is an idiom that literally means ‘long of nose’ which is a bit of a puzzle. Nevertheless, in its context it is about being patient or able to endure trying circumstances with an even temper. In the NT, God says why we should desire His steadfast patience:

James 1:2–4. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Slow to make demands from God is Christian maturity! Back in the OT, this slowness is described as evidence of “great understanding” with an ability to calm others and bring peace where there is contention. It is also a description of someone with “good sense” who can “rule his spirit” and “overlook an offense.”

In the NT, this word is usually translated as patience or long-suffering. We tend to think this word is about resignation because it describes a kind of desperate endurance. However, it is more positive. It expresses an unswerving willingness to wait for what we want from God rather than trying to force things to happen. This kind of slowness is not passive resignation or leniency, more about trusting God’s timing and being able to wait.

This idea of slowness is also illustrated in Jesus’ parable of the unforgiving servant and in His teaching of forgiveness when someone sins against me. The parable connects a right attitude toward forgiving others to be the same as His toward me; slow to anger and full of grace, realizing His forgiveness covers a debt I could never repay. Being slow to anger and having patient endurance is listed as a fruit of the Spirit  It is God’s gift to me and I’m to offer it to everyone:

1 Thessalonians 5:14–15. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.

In a negative sense, the NT uses slow to describe those who are foolishly “slow to believe the prophets.” Instead, James 1:19 calls us to be “quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” which is much like God who listens to us, takes His time to reply, but is also slow to become angry with us. Good thing!

Human patience or forbearance in this sense of being slow to anger is not a character trait but a way of life. It is a primary expression of love, for “love is patient and kind” (see 1 Corinthians 13:4). It means to be still, stand one’s ground, calmly survive, remain steadfast, persevere in trust and wait.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Because God says patient endurance makes me ‘complete’ and because His slowness is due to His desire that no one will perish but repent, I can personally apply this. I need to be patient with His slowness, not just for the sake of others but because He could be considering MY need for repentance. He may be waiting for me to change so I am more like Him — before He will answer my prayers. This is a huge reason to not complain that God is slow for maybe it is me who is slow — slow to hear Him and slow to obey Him — and He is using what I am waiting for to show me my need to grow up in my faith.