During those times in a Christian's life when he's passing through a desert, times of grief, frustration, the dry seasons of faith, theological propositions, while indispensable, only take us so far. They feel flat. External. At times like this I think Christians benefit from listening to music. To favorite hymns and carols. Depends on your taste in music. Christian song can water a parched soul in a way that theological propositions cannot. We need both. The Bible says a lot about sacred song. There's a reason for that.
I totally agree. That's why I have a Blog where I link to mostly Christian music. Though, obviously different people have different musical tastes.
ReplyDeleteLuther of course is famous for having the same sentiment. Here's an interesting link to some Luther quotes on music: HERE
The medium has elements of hearing the word and praying. It invokes worship. Gets our thoughts outside ourselves, directing them heavenward. I think the other aspect is, it helps get our thoughts off us. In that respect, a walk in the fresh air can do much good but then again, it's best not to left alone with our own thoughts about our own struggles, hence the need to occupy our thoughts, which such music can satisfy. Even a movie, book or non spirtual music can be useful to some degree.
ReplyDelete~ I have always found the following passage from 2 Kings 3 to be quite interesting and quite intriguing:
ReplyDelete12 ... So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.
13 Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother.”
But the king of Israel said to him, “No, for the Lord has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.”
14 And Elisha said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not look at you, nor see you. 15 But now bring me a musician.”
~~~> Then it happened, when the musician played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him.
16 And he said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Make this valley full of ditches.’ 17 For thus says the Lord: ‘You shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, so that you, your cattle, and your animals may drink.’ ...
20 Now it happened in the morning, when the grain offering was offered, that suddenly water came by way of Edom, and the land was filled with water.
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~ Now while all sorts of theological stuff can be said about this - one this is for sure... Somethings in our life just simply will not go down if we are not worshiping God.
In Him
~ Raj