Devotions
01 Jan 1999

Music Expresses the Presence of God - God Created music...and He loves it!

During meal and community times, our retreat leaders played some quiet meditative music for us. As I listened one afternoon, my mind recalled how the Lord once spoke to me and how I responded in prayer................

"During meal and community times, our retreat leaders played some quiet meditative music for us. As I listened one afternoon, my mind recalled how the Lord once spoke to me and how I responded in prayer................

One evening, I felt dry and couldn't sit to write until my children and I watched a show about the life of Johann Strauss Senior and Junior. There was a part in a cathedral when a professor of music explained to Shani J.S. Junior the purpose of good music.

He said that God was invisible; but musicians like Beethoven and Bach saw God everyday and so could not help expressing the reality of God through their musical compositions. Each piece of musical composition had a title. Each told a story of God's love as themes emerged in the minds of the composer. As I sat there watching and listening, I felt my writer's block gradually melting away. Words flowed again, inspiration was back...and I could write freely once more........

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‘Almighty Creator, You have so wonderfully made us to be creative as well so that Your mind could be conveyed to others as we express Your creativity to one another..........

The artist draws to express Your creative powers, the sculptor carves and moulds in imitation of the intricate movements of Your fingers, and the musician composes and plays to convey his perception of Your freedom, sorrows and joys!

Father, help us to express our praises and prayers to You through our giftedness, thus displaying some of the glories of the living God! O Lord, let the music in nature.....music from birds, winds, rain, thunder, animals and peoples of all races and nations.....declare Your utter beauty, magnificence, power, authority and presence in our midst! May music move us to put Your love in action in our society! Music...what a glorious creation, what a mighty redemption! Thank You for this gentle reminder of Your presence with us each day.’"

"It is good to praise the Lord and make music to Your name, O Most High,
to proclaim Your love in the morning and Your faithfulness at night,
to the music of the ten-stringed lyre and the melody of the harp.

For You make me glad by Your deeds, O Lord;
I sing for joy at the works of Your hands.
How great are Your works, O Lord, how profound Your thoughts!"

Psalm 92:1-5

"...be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
Sing and make music in Your heart to the Lord...."

Ephesians 5:18-19

Reflection:

  •  Have you ever been encouraged through a song or hymn before?
  • Do you sing to God when you cannot pray with mere words, even if the song is a "secular" one?
  • Why not try listening to peaceful music at the start of your time alone with God?