Some of you don’t like to sing or make music. You’re quiet during our morning assembly song and in music class you do the minimum required. That may be because you’re grumpy and don’t feel like participating. Or it may be because you don’t think you have a good voice, or a talent for music, that you sing off key and it doesn’t sound very good. So why bother…?
Well, the truth is, most people aren’t great musicians. I can’t really carry a tune (which is why Mrs. Spaulding starts the morning song and I lower the microphone to spare you). But music—not just listening to it, but also creating it—is for everyone who is human, because everyone was made in the image of the author of music. As Johann Sebastian Bach said: “I play the notes as they are written, but it is God who makes the music.”
Psalm 100 should be an encouragement to all of us who lack the musical talents of Mrs. Traini, those who cannot play the piano like EJ, or sing like Cecilia, or strum the banjo like Mr. Burghauser. Psalm 100 says:
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
Did you catch that? It says, “make a joyful noise…” And it also says “all the earth.” Making music is not reserved for the virtuoso. It may sound like just noise to you, but to God, your joyful song is a masterpiece.
Have a wonderful day.
