More to Music Than What Meets the Ears

Walking through the halls of Children's Hospital the other day, I heard the beautiful voice of a young woman singing to a patient as she strummed on her guitar. I was not able to make out the words of her song, but the melody of pure voice and guitar sounded so beautiful.

Often, music therapy students volunteer at Children's Hospital and sing to the patients or play instruments for them. It is amazing how music has the power to heal. I was reminded of how David played for Saul. (1 Samuel 16:23) Saul was tormented by a spirit, but David's harp playing brought him comfort.


Music refreshes the soul and brings peace.

However, music is more powerful than we think...

Music was originally intended to worship God. (Heb 1:6)
It is also meant to be encouraging to the church body and can be used to uplift the spirit. (Is 61:3)

Unfortunately, the enemy perverts music. We know there is more out there than just worship music. There is rock, soul, R&B, hip-hop, jazz, dubstep, you name it. Not all of these varieties give glory to God. In fact, from the ones I mentioned, NONE give glory to God. The original purpose of music was twisted by Lucifer himself. Long before the Earth was formed, Satan was the angel of music. (Ezekiel 28:12-25 Satan is referred to as the Prince/King of Tyrus) As the angel of music, Lucifer's job was to lead the angels in worship. He was heaven's worship leader. Imagine such an honor. Not to mention, he was one of the most decadent angels in heaven, until one day when he decided he wanted to be God. Satan was stripped of his title and cast into hell, along with his minions. (Luke 10:18)

This is the part where music went wrong...

Satan was no longer heaven's worship leader, nor did he care to be since he thought he should be God. In revenge, the devil took music and distorted it. Satan's music talks about sin and does not glorify God. Songs about greed, lust, passion, murder, anger, hate, and revenge do not comply with God's word. Not only do such songs have a bad message, but that message gets imprinted into the forefront of the mind. If the listener thinks he/she can listen to such music and not be affected, he/she is dead wrong.

Listening to crummy music affects your mood more than you think. Try listening to a happy song. It is hard to be angry without a reason if you are listening to happy, bouncy music. Try listening to a sad song. Even if you have no reason to be sad, this music sure can affect your mood and make you feel almost depressed! Music has a powerful influence on our attitude and behavior.

The Bible says what you store in your heart is what is going to come out (Luke 6:45). If you store music that does not glorify God, as well as other icky things, you are not going to bring forth good fruits. If you store God's word in your heart and pure, godly music, and other godly things, you will produce good fruits and abstain from sin (Psalm 119:11).

Let us only allow our ears to hear things that are pure and good (Philippians 4:8). This is pleasing to God. Do not even give ungodly music a chance. I do not think it is ironic that ungodly music can so easily get stuck in your head. Once you give in to that type of music, it is so hard to steer clear from it.

God help us to clean out our iPods and clean out our hearts. Helps us to glorify you in our hearts and in our song.