The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
(Fifty one years ago last night, I attended a concert that ten years later led to my learning the guitar and later the piano, and which which made possible an important aspect of our lives and ministry. For Dan)
“Music: Mystery and Majesty”
As a child, I paid little attention to music other than enjoying listening to it. I had no interest in actually singing or playing, believing that sports served as a far more worthwhile endeavor for a young man. During my senior year in high school, however, I bought a harmonica. With the instrument came instructions for how to play "On Top Of Old Smoky." I spent several days learning how the play the song, and upon doing so, discovered a surprising thing: after learning to play Old Smoky, I found I could play any song within the range of the harmonica's notes.
At the time, I thought this to be a magical thing, and that the song must be some sort of foundational piece of music that somehow served as the universal hub for all melody. "Wow," I thought, "If you learn Old Smoky, you can play anything!"
Many years would pass before I discovered that actually I possess what some call an ear for music. I started playing the guitar in my late 20s, the piano in my early 30s, and found that both instruments were like the harmonica. After a brief time of learning, I found myself able to play many songs and pieces of music with little or no practice or instruction.
I do not understand this. I am grateful for it, of course. As our ministry developed through the years, it is a great advantage to be able to play, sing and lead music in our services before preaching. This is especially wonderful because Frances is an amazing harmony singer, as many of you know. Singing with her is sublime, and often I want to simply stop and listen to her (but you do need a melody, I suppose!). It is a great blessing in every sense, and while it is not surprising that the Lord would have given a gift that complements the ministry to which He has called us, I nevertheless remain amazed and bewildered by it (which leads to the point of these thoughts).
Music serves as one of the greatest evidences in creation that God exists, and that He dynamically involves Himself in human affairs. Indeed, humanity could not have created music. Its beauty, complexity, artistry, technicality, and vastness of scope makes it impossible to have merely issued forth from the brain of man. Music is much like God Himself. The more you know of it and experience it, the more you realize that the journey has just begun. Bach and Mozart felt this way, as does every musician whose exploration of the art and the craft reveals that the further one journeys into its depths of music, the more one realizes the journey has just begun. This beautifully reflects the believer illuminated by some glimpse of the glorious and infinite God. Indeed, the more we know of Him, the more we realize how little we know. “His greatness is unsearchable” (Psalm 145:3).
I once heard a popular musician say that his favorite thing about writing a song was that it brought something into being that had not existed before. I do not think this is true of genuinely beautiful music. I think it exists in the heart and mind of the Lord before it exists in the heart and mind of man. In a sense, the composer or songwriter "hears" the music first, and then uses his gift and ability to translate his discovery to others. Much mystery exists in such experience, of course, but the Bible clearly proclaims a musical God who declares in His Word that He will one day to His people "rejoice over thee with singing" (Zephaniah 3:17). Let this be the song we most look forward to hearing, the joyous expression of the Lord Jesus Christ who made, melody, harmony, rhythm, and the majesty and mystery that is music.
"The Lord is my strength and song."
(Psalm 118:14)
Weekly Memory Verse
But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee, how much less this house that I have builded?
(I Kings 8:27)
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