Sing, Sing, Sing!

Sing, Sing, Sing!

And make music with the heavens!

We will Sing, Sing, Sing!

Grateful that You hear us!

We will shout your praise,

Lift high the name of Jesus!

When one sings, one prays twice- so said the great St. Augustine. Ever since I can remember, singing has made me happier than anything else. I'm addicted to it. I don't know what it is about it, but the random vocalisation of (occasionally) harmonious notes makes me ecstatic. I can't keep from grinning. I love to sing. Choir and vocal lessons have both finally resumed after the summer holidays, and I'm relieved beyond all expression. Not that the absence of organised melody has kept me from singing opera in the shower, musicals whilst doing chores and impromptu compositions entwining the French national anthem with a Christmas carol. Ahem.

There's something about music- not just singing, but pure, soaring, unadulterated melody- that lifts the human soul to its highest elation. I truly believe that music (good, beautiful music) opens our eyes to the riches of heaven, mends the holes in our hearts, nurtures in our very souls all goodness and truth and creativity and love and wholeness. Music is universal. It is the language of our souls and of our spirits. There's something indescribably powerful about the effect music has on us. In itself it kindles in our hearts  hope and peace and harmony. We're watching The Shawshank Redemption as our film study in English this year, and there's this scene where Andy plays an opera record over the loudspeaker at the prison. For that moment, however fleeting, the whole institution, inmates and guards alike, stood still, at peace with themselves and glimpsing the hope of freedom, as they listened to that which they had been deprived of for so long. Music is hope. It is the perfect expression of all God's goodness, and it reveals to us the hope of freedom, the hope of eternal life at peace.

I think it was Beethoven who said something like "Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy" and I think there's an incredible truth in that. For centuries, millennia even, scholars and theologians have sought to explain God, to bring our ignorant human minds closer to the knowledge of our creator. But we've always focused on the tangible, the explicable, and, yes, even the inexplicable. But words alone could never express fully the love, compassion, hope and wholeness that only God can bring. 

No matter what form it takes, music does something profoundly mysterious in the human heart. It reaches out and touches us in the very depths of our soul. I can never explain what I mean, because it is inexplicable. And that's the beauty of it. When you hear a song that gives you goosebumps down your spine, fills your eyes with tears and spreads a grin across your face, you are encountering God in all His glory. Some worship songs are so heart-achingly beautiful that I can't help but feel I'm glimpsing heaven. After all, in heaven, we'll sing forever...

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of Hosts.

Lord Jesus, you've blessed us with the voice to forever sing Your praises. Help all those whose voices have been extinguished by the injustices and corruption in our world; that we may be their advocates, that freedom and justice will reign, and that all may be free and willing to lift their hands and their voices to glorify You in song.

Amen.