Musical Magic

Paul wrote, "Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God" (Col 3:16). It's an interesting verse on the face of it. It begins with "the word of Christ" and having it "richly dwell within you." A very good start. And then it instructs us to teach and admonish with wisdom using ... music. Interesting.

It's interesting that the Old Testament prophets wrote a lot of what we have today in poetry form. The Psalms, as we know, were a "song book" for the Hebrews, but we don't realize that the prophets sang or chanted their messages. Habakkuk 3 is a prayer that ends with "For the choir director, on my stringed instruments" (Hab 3:19) because it was intended to be sung. Isaiah begins chapter 5 with "Let me sing now for my well-beloved ..." (Isa 5:1). In 1 Samuel 10, Samuel anoints Saul as king and tells him he will meet "a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and a lyre before them, and they will be prophesying" (1 Sam 10:5). Elisha was going to prophesy to the king of Israel and asked for a musician (2 Kings 3:15). It's all over in the Old Testament. You see, they weren't a people of the book as much as an oral tradition, so they chanted and sang ... because chanting and singing helps remember. And it's interesting because music itself has a capacity to produce emotions and memories that aren't simply reasoned or conscious. Music makes us feel without requiring knowing why. Music, for instance, calmed the tormented king (1 Sam 16:23). Music impacts multiple parts of the brain ... the auditory cortex, the motor cortex, the emotional centers, the memory networks. Emotions imbed memories deeper than mere memorization. (Alzheimer's patients have been found to be able to sing hymns even after forgetting most everything else.) Music, it seems is an almost magical thing.

We often incorporate Scripture into our songs and almost inadvertently end up memorizing texts. I'd guess that you probably know more songs that are straight from Scripture than you realize are straight from Scripture. Paul says to do this ... wisely. From the word of Christ, have it dwell richly in you and do it with music. We often note and appreciate music for the emotions it evokes, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, but do we get the power of music that can embed God's Word in our hearts and alter our thinking? Do we intentionally admonish and teach with music? We're probably much better at "singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God" than teaching and admonishing one another with song. I wish more churches would consciously do that. You know ... because it's commanded.