Music is the language of the heart. The true expression of a people. We pass it down year after year, note by note, generation to generation. It is one way that generations connect from one to the next.
Music also joins one culture to another. When we lived in Romania, there was a Christian there, Benone, who liked listening to religious music especially non-instrumental. For a few years, whenever we came back to the states, I would find some acapella music on cassette or CD and take it back to him. I think I gave him maybe half a dozen or more.
My wife and I live about 70 miles from Detroit. Detroit is the home of “Motown.” The designation came from the nickname of Detroit, home of General Motors, Ford, and what used to be Chrysler. Detroit’s nickname is “Motor City.” The guy who was instrumental in getting the black singers onto the national stage who was from Detroit altered “Motor City” to “Motown” and helped these artists create the “Motown sound.” Rachel and I have been to the Motown Museum twice and they are right now going through a major renovation and expansion. It should be very interesting once they get it built. The current museum has a video for the visitors to watch and the man on the video talks about the influence that music had on the culture in the 50s and 60s. Specifically, he said that when the artist began singing, the blacks were on one side of the auditorium while the white people were on the other side. But as the singers continued their show, the people would mix and mingle and the crowd would forget that races even existed.
That is what the Gospel and Christian singing is supposed to do: join everyone together in praise to our heavenly Father through our common Savior, Jesus Christ. When Paul writes in Romans that the gospel is God’s power to salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek, in Romans 15, Paul quotes from the OT to prove his point (15:6):
In verse 9, he quotes Psalm 18:49: “Therefore I will give thanks to You among the nations, O Lord, and I will sing praises to Your name.”
In verse 10, he quotes Deuteronomy 32:43: “Rejoice, O nations, with His people.”
In verse 11, he quotes Psalm 117:1 “Praise the Lord, all nations; Laud Him, all peoples!”
Finally, in verse 12, he quotes Isaiah 11:10: “Then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, Who will stand as a signal for the peoples; and His resting place will be glorious.” Isaiah is talking about the coming of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. There are two things that unite each of these quotations from the OT as Paul applies their teachings to Christians and specifically unity in the church of Christ: Each verse contains the word “nations” or “peoples,” or as Paul translates it in the book of Romans: Gentiles. There is one other word or idea that connects these quotations: praise. Praise, praise, praise.
Praise God more!
Paul Holland
