These are the men David put in charge of the music in the house of the LORD after the ark came to rest there. – 1 Chronicles 6:31

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 26, 2016): 1 Chronicles 6

Plato said that “Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.” Maybe that is why music seems so universal – we understand its morality.  We don’t need to understand the language to understand music. Music carries its own emotions. Without ever uttering even a word we experience happiness and sadness, expectation and fear, and a range of other emotions just at the sound of music. The movies we watch would be incomplete without the music that supports it. Life would lose some of its color if the song were absent. Music is there, sometimes even when we don’t realize it is present.

So, maybe the church fights over music is totally understandable. After all, it speaks its morality and emotion to all of us, but the message might be slightly different. My aunt posted on Facebook a couple of weeks ago about being invited to a concert by singer Larry Ford. I read the post, smiled at my desk, and then had the almost uncontrollable urge to hear Larry sing “The Holy City.” But I know that not everyone would understand that – or enjoy that. My own tastes tend more toward Chris Tomlin or Kristian Stanfill, but there are times when a good Larry Ford song is exactly what I need to hear. And it is hard for me to imagine, although I know you are out there, that someone could hear “The Holy City” and not somehow experience the presence of God. It is especially the words of that last chorus that moves me –

            Jerusalem, Jerusalem

            Sing for the night is o’er

            Hosanna in the highest.

            Hosanna forevermore.

It is probably not much of a surprise that one of the first things that David does when he brought the tabernacle into Jerusalem was to set up musicians to minister there. After all, David knew firsthand the power that music had over people. David was a musician, but more than that, he was the musician that had been hired to soothe King Saul’s tortured soul.

And with this act, the church’s long history or tortured relationship with music began. Music still has the ability to move us – if we will let it. It also has the power to anger us, which is probably the unfortunate reality that has caused some churches to outlaw music in their midst. But, at least for me, there is something special in allowing the music of your soul to escape as you give praise to your king in song that doesn’t really feel right done any other way.

A number of years ago someone phoned my office to tell me that of there was going to be contemporary music in heaven, she didn’t want to go. I hope she has found her peace with music because I am pretty sure that music will be there. Chris Tomlin and his band, Larry Ford and the Gaither’s, Fanny Crosby and Isaac Watts, a few Gregorian choirs and lively Hebrew music led by a shepherd boy named David and his friends – all praising the king. There will be others, and it will be great – after all, we will be singing because the night is over.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Chronicles 7