What is it about music that moves us? Why is it that a song has the power to call forth our emotions, to elicit such joy and sorrow, such pleasure? After all, we are just talking about sound waves here. Why the magic? The unbeliever makes a weak stab at this question, but the mystery remains. So we go all the way back to the book of Job, one of the most ancient of the Old Testament writings. Here is God’s question for Job:
NIV Job 38:4-7 Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?
There it is – the morning stars sang together before time began. God gave the song. Mystery solved. And even better, the song that Christ puts in our hearts, the song of the redeemed, goes on and on. It defies even death, this never ending song. Isaiah picks it up here:
NIV Is. 26:19 But your dead will live, Lord;
their bodies will rise—
let those who dwell in the dust
wake up and shout for joy—
your dew is like the dew of the morning;
the earth will give birth to her dead.
Yes, dust shall sing. We were made from the dust of the ground. We are always in the process of dying, even from birth. And then comes the Good News, the Song. God himself became flesh, made like us in every way, yet without sin. Obedient all the way to the Cross, that we who are dust might be born again into the Kingdom of God. Nothingness filled with eternity; death that teems with life; dust that will rise in resurrection power to sing eternally in His Presence.
We can start singing right now. Has God given you a song? He’d love to hear it today, no matter how you are feeling. Think of this – the sea roars with His pleasure. All of His trees clap their hands in worship. The mountains ring with His praises. They were created for Him and have no choice. But we are the only voice in His Creation that chooses to sing to Him. When He hears His children singing praises, He stops and listens with great joy!