For as long as I can remember, I have been in churches with heartfelt singing. No matter where I found myself from the small rural church of Buck Creek, to my home town of Dysart, I heard the singing of farmers, bankers, teachers, parents, uncles and aunts. I heard the voices of all singing with glory of God.
Music in God’s voice has been with us for centuries. In 1538 for a preface of a collection of songs Martin Luther wrote:
“I most heartily desire that music, that divine and precious gift, be praised and extolled before all people....Experience proves that, next to the Word of God, only music deserves being extolled as the mistress and governess of the feelings of the human heart....A greater praise than this we cannot imagine.”
Luther not only understood the role that music could play in our devotional lives, he depended on music to see him through the years as well. In 1530 he wrote in a letter to a friend, “ My heart overflows with fondness for music, which has refreshed me so often and freed me from great burdens”.
Luther saw music as a divine gift from God, a gift that we must use.
“This precious gift [music] has been bestowed on men alone to remind them that they are created to praise and magnify the Lord. But when natural music is sharpened and polished by art, then one begins to see with amazement the great and perfect wisdom of God in his wonderful work of music, where one voice takes a simple part and around it sing three, four, or five other voices, leaping, springing round about, marvelously gracing the simple part, like a folk dance in heaven with friendly bows, embracing, and hearty swinging of partners. He who does not find this an inexpressible miracle of the Lord is truly a clod.”
Luther’s image of a folk dance in heaven is warm and inviting. Let us sing and dance praising God.