According to various studies music has a powerful influence
over the heart rate, speed of recovery, mood, and memory. Daniel Levitin,
author of “This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession” and
director of Levitin Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition, and Expertise
at McGill University in Montreal says that “a particular piece of music has the
ability to evoke a similar emotion in listeners, although they may be separated
by time and space.”
Chinese philosopher Confucius reportedly said of music,
“Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without”.
However, music not only produces emotion but can be very
stimulating for the body and soul as well, creating repercussions in the real
physical world.
Napoleon Bonaparte said of music, “Give me control over he
who shapes the music of a nation, and I care not who makes the Laws.”
As we contemplate all this, we can ask ourselves, “If music
is so impacting, and has such power over our minds, bodies, and souls shouldn’t
we be paying attention to WHAT we are listening to?”
As a Christian, I am compelled to answer, “Yes, it certainly
matters. And it matters who is writing the music and what message is being
told.”
In a famed song, “I write the songs” Bruce Johnson (the
musician who penned the song) sang these words:
I’ve been alive forever, And I wrote the very first song
I put the words and the melodies together, I am music and I
write the songs
I write the songs that make the whole world sing
I write the songs of love and special things
I write the songs that make the young girls cry
I write the songs, I write the songs
Many of us have heard stories of musicians who have “sold
their souls to the devil”.
Read the next few lines of this song. If you read closely
you will soon realize that the true writer may not have been Bruce Johnson at
all.
My home lies deep within you
And I’ve go my own place In your soul
Now, when I look out through your eyes
I’m young again, even though I’m old
I write the songs that make the whole world sing
I write the songs of love and special things
I write the songs that make the young girls cry
I write the songs, I write the songs
Who else can be originator of this song, the true author of
these words?
I’ll let you guess yourself.
Songs have been woven into our souls, our lives, our
culture, and our world.
In Babylon, Daniel was told to bow before the huge idol in
the plain of Dura to the sound of the musicians. In Canaan, hedonistic
worshipers used music to elevate themselves to the point of moral abandon. And
in Revelation 18, those who are partaking in Babylon’s destruction are sensuous
musicians who helped her to lull humanity into a state of complacency.
And today, music glorifies violence, degrades women, leads
to wrong unions, arouses hormones prematurely, confuses lust with love,
promotes unbiblical theological themes, …. and the list goes on.
However, there is a sacred music that has been preserved
through time. It was sung by Miriam who
led the praise team after the miraculous delivery from Pharaoh’s army, by King
David when he penned scores of psalms to glorify his Maker, Paul and Silas when
they were in a murky Roman prison, and finally will be sung in the New Jerusalem
when the redeemed saints are finally brought home.
In the epistles we are told to minister to one another in
“psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs”.
God created this kind of music for us to receive his blessings and
return our thanks. It is supposed to be a perfect gift that enlivens our senses
and directs us to the Creator.
Sadly, most fall for the first kind of music and the enemy
of our soul’s deceptive and destructive influence. From the music itself, which
pumps up the heartbeat, stirs up the emotions, and influences our body in ways
we yet do not understand to the lyrics which condone and encourage an immoral
life, violent behavior, and twisted ideas of love they are swept away and find
themselves one-day broken and ruined.
So the question of our heart should be, “Who is writing my
songs?”
Good question. Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “Whether
therefore you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do it all to the glory of God”
Let God write YOUR SONGS!
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