footsteps

Music has a great impact in a person’s daily life; it can evoke memories of times gone past and stirs hope for times to come, has the power to draw out emotions and inspire us to create. Music reaches out to fill places in our life that would otherwise be void of meaning. To quote Plato, “music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.”

Music truly plays an important role in our daily lives but how does music have a different effect in a Christian’s daily life? In a Christian’s life, music serves as a source of praise (Psalm 135:3 Praise the Lord; for the Lord is good: Sing praises unto his name; for it is pleasant) and comfort. The words to the hymn God Will Take Care of You by Civilla D. Martin based from Hebrews 13:5 “…I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” Verse three of the hymn says:

 No matter what may be the test, God will take care of you;
Lean, weary one, upon His breast, God will take care of you,
God will take care of you, through every day, o’er all the way;
He will take care of you, God will take care of you.

In a Christian’s daily life we are instructed to praise God through song. (Psalm 95:1) In Psalms, the admonition to praise God doesn’t say “if you have a good voice then praise the Lord through song”, but rather that the call to praise is an open call with the focus on praising God for who he is, not a performer and what they do. I know that at times I have been in my room and hear my mom humming a hymn in the kitchen and I start thinking of the words and through the words have a worship opportunity. In no way is my mom a professional singer but praise to our great God is not a performance but rather a show of our love to him with music being a tool that allows us to express this. Danish author Hans Christian Andersen wrote, “When words fail, music speaks”

Music has the power to comfort when words alone cannot console. The best hymns ever written are the ones that are based from scripture in God’s word. Lina Sandell wrote the hymn “Day by Day and With Each Passing Moment” based off of Deuteronomy 33:25. The second verse in this hymn is as follows:

Every day the Lord Himself is near
me with a special mercy for each hour;
all my cares He fain would bear,
and cheer me, He whose name is Counselor and Power.
The protection of His child and treasure
is a charge that on Himself He laid;
“As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure,”
This is the pledge to me He made.

On January 13th of this year my best friend passed away. People came to me and tried to comfort me with sweet words, hugs, and all the love you can imagine, this got me through the visitation. The following day I stepped up to speak at the funeral and was overcome with tears, as my heart seemed to melt from within me. I took a step back and said a quick prayer for strength to get me through the day and was able to shakily finish my remarks. As I sat down and we were getting ready to sing a hymn my thoughts went to those of comfort as I read the first phrase of the hymn above, “Every day the Lord himself is near me with a special mercy for each hour”.

Our heavenly father knows all we need before we ask and is worthy of all our praise as well as he gives us great comfort in times of need. Music is a wonderful way to both express our praises to God and wonderful gift to be able to take refuge in. Psalm 100:1-2 “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.”