Music, Music, Music

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Ephesians 5:19 says, “Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;”

     I  probably have already mentioned that I like to sing.  My voice is getting a little rougher as age seems to take its toll on most of my members including my “voice box.”  That, however, doesn’t stop me from sending forth a tune as I go about my business no matter where I am at.  When I go to the VA, I wear my “School of Music” hat and when someone makes a comment about my singing, I just point to the hat.  Occasionally, my daughter, who is pushing my wheelchair, will comment, “Dad!  You are getting a little loud.”  I must be the only one that sings there, as a comment was made about someone hearing music, and it was me on the floor above the podiatry office and the nurse said, “Oh, that’s Mr. Freeland.”  Music is good.

     The above passage is one of my favorites, naturally, because it speaks about singing and list the three categories that appear in most hymn books.  We have put many of the Psalms to music, especially the 23rd Psalm   The hymn, “Under His Wings” mus have been inspired by Psalm 91.  The next area or category is “hymns.”  To me, these are the hymns that speak directly to God in worship such as “How Great  Thou Art” and “Holy, Holy, Holy.”  They are usually the first group of hymns in your hymnal and usually are around fifty to a hundred different hymns.  The rest of the hymns are really “spiritual songs.” which will have  a personal pronoun in them  :``It is Well With MY soul” is one where Spafford tells about his relationship with God even after losing most of his family in the sinking of the ship they were on.  “I heard an  old, old story,”  from “Victory in Jesus.”  “Rock of Ages, cleft for me” is another example.  You will find that  most of the hymns are really “spiritual songs” just as the verse indicates.  Fanny Crosby wrote over  3,000 hymns, or at least the words that was then set to music, such as “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is MINE.”    There is a lot of theology in the old hymns and it is good to listen to them as you go about your job or to have the music on in your home.   As you learn some of the history of the spiritual songs, you see how God was working in the songwriter's life and how He is still working in our own lives.  God used David to sooth King Saul by playing the lyre.  Jehoshaphat used the choir in the advancing army of Israel.  Singers were used in the worship in the Temple.  In Revelation we will hear a new song as it says in Revelation 5:9-9  “And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.  And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; “  Praise God for Heavenly music.