Music Matters

I have loved music since I was a very young kid. I think it’s in my blood. My grandmother was Essie Hayes Hicks from Boone, North Carolina. Her family was very musical. She played guitar and her musical style was Appalachian. I loved watching her play as a kid. When I was about 12 my parents provided me a guitar. I took lessons from a friend of a friend. I remember learning to play “On Top of Old Smokey” as my first song. One of the hardest parts of playing the guitar is pushing through the pain of getting callouses on the tips of my fingers. I’ve been playing guitar ever since. My grandmother played the guitar right up close to her death. I remember going to the nursing home to visit her and we’d wheel her out in her wheelchair and she would play for her fellow residents. She was one of my musical hero’s for sure.

King David loved music for sure. He grew up playing in the field while shepherding the sheep charged to his care. As the King of Israel, you can tell he still loved music. He’s a prolific writer of many of the Psalms. I believe that most all of them were put in music form. It shouldn’t be a surprise that David had three men who ministered to him personally and they were musical. There are several of the Psalms attributed to Asaph, one of the three. The three men also had kids who loved music. David put them to work serving in the Tabernacle and then the Temple that would be built by Solomon. Check this out…

6 All these men were under the supervision of their father for the music of the temple of the Lord, with cymbals, lyres and harps, for the ministry at the house of God.

Asaph, Jeduthun and Heman were under the supervision of the king. 7 Along with their relatives—all of them trained and skilled in music for the Lord—they numbered 288. (1 Chronicles 25:6-7 NIV)

I believe that I can say things about my faith through music that I might not have said any other way. Music is a medium of communication that connects to my brain differently than any other way. I can hear a song one time and be so moved that I can recall it’s message for years to come. My tastes in music had evolved many times over the years and I feel like I’m very eclectic when it comes to music. I grew up listening to Appalachian music from family, but church music was a huge part of my childhood. I believe that any style of music can communicate great truth and a great memorable message. Music can be somewhat of a universal language.

I believe that the Lord loves music. I think music helps my heart sing to the Lord. I believe that I have stored some great biblical truths in my heart because of a song put to music. I was just thinking yesterday about how the music of Rich Mullins really moved me at a specific time in my life. He wrote and recorded “Awesome God”, “Hold Me Jesus”, “Elijah”, “Sometimes By Step” and many more. I was reminded this morning of the chorus in “If I Stand”. Check this out…

So if I stand let me stand on the promise

That you will pull me through

And if I can’t, let me fall on the grace

That first brought me to You

And if I sing let me sing for the joy

That has born in me these songs

And if I weep let it be as a man

Who is longing for his home (Rich Mullins)

I enjoy music here on earth so much, I can hardly wait to see what the music of heaven will be like!

Pressing On!

Dwayne