Do you ever find yourself humming a tune you haven’t heard in years? Ever wonder why you can remember the lyrics of your favourite songs but not what you ate for breakfast? Why do some dementia patients, who played instruments in their youth, still play their instrument perfectly but can’t remember family members’ names? This is the power of music.

All you have to do is reflect on the impact music has in your own life to recognize there is power in music. It can resurrect buried memories. It provides a release for difficult emotions. It calms, inspires, and energizes. There’s a reason the making of music is commanded in so many places throughout Scripture (over 1000 times!). Here are just a few of those references:

“Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.” (Psalm 33:3)

“Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre, praise him with the timbrel and dancing, praise him with the strings and pipe, praise him with the clash of cymbals…” (Psalm 150:3-5)

So why does God want music to be such a pivotal part of the Christian life?

  • Worship and Thanksgiving: Music helps us praise and thank God for what he has done. When God brought the Israelites across the Red Sea, sparing them from the Egyptians, the first response of the Israelites was to sing a song of praise to God.
  • Community Building: Shared musical experiences are a fantastic way to build connection with other people. Think of the bond between people who attend the same concert, who perform music together, or who like the same genres. This bond is why churches include so much congregational singing – to build community among believers.
  • Emotional Expression: There are times in our lives when words fail. God has provided us, not only with words, but songs, to help us express our emotions. The book of Psalms contains 150 songs encompassing every human emotion: anger, fear, trust, joy, comfort, sadness, thankfulness, etc.
  • Spiritual Warfare & Theological Teaching: Music is a spiritual weapon. For example, Paul and Silas prayed and sang hymns to God in prison (Acts 16:25) and the other prisoners listened. Both prayer and music helped Paul and Silas combat the spiritual darkness of their prison cell. It can be assumed the other prisoners heard the gospel by listening to those songs. 300 years ago, when most church members were illiterate and couldn’t read the Bible, composers used music to teach congregations what Scripture says. Consider Handel’s Messiah. All the words are directly quoted from Scripture. It was written to present the entire gospel to the listener (and performers).

The line “Be careful little ears what you hear” comes from a classic children’s song. But it rings true when thinking of musical power. We absorb so much music, whether we’re aware of it or not. As Christians, we must be discerning consumers and creators of music. Do we use music to worship the Lord? Do we use music to express difficult emotions in a God-honouring way? Do we pray with music? Do we teach and remind ourselves of gospel truths with music? Scripture encourages us to do these things.

So, the next time you have a song stuck in your head, remember this: music has power. How will you use that power?

Follow CVS on Spotify if you need some worship music inspiration!