Sunday, December 13, 2009

God's singing and music

When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives. (Matthew 26:30, Mark 14:26)
If we view God through Jesus, if Jesus can do nothing apart from the Father as he says, then here we see an occasion on which God was singing.

After considering God's joyfulness recently, this week's lectionary reading from the prophets seemed well-timed:
The LORD your God is with you,
  he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
  he will quiet you with his love,
  he will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)
Here we see that not only does God take delight and rejoice; he also sings. I wonder if someone trying to defend God's honor will rush to say this is a figure of speech or some such. But if we say that God "spoke" and speak of his "word" in a meaningful sense, then by the same path we can just as meaningfully consider his song.

Depending on how you view the Bible, you may even consider it telling that the word of God contains a couple of books of poetry. At least one book (Psalms) contains poems that were meant to be sung. If these songs of the Bible are God-breathed in any sense, then God may be more conscious of music than we have allowed ourselves to seriously consider.

Our human leaning toward music and song may be another way in which we are in the image of God.

2 comments:

Martin LaBar said...

And there is singing in heaven in Revelation 5:9. Plus the angels may have sung to the shepherds.

Weekend Fisher said...

Thank you. :)

Take care & God bless
Anne / WF