I love music. The arrangement of sounds to create harmony, melody, or rhythm to express words can impact us all differently. On Sunday, with hands raised, we can praise our Lord, who speaks into our lives daily. We can feel joy and gratitude in our hearts as we sing, knowing what He is currently doing and promises we will one day see. Some songs bring tears of joy as your brain connects back to experiences that changed your life. Songs that can pump us up to conquer anything in front of us.
Music is a part of all human societies and is a communication tool that can culturally connect us all. In Deuteronomy 32, Moses turns his message into a song for the congregation of Israel. Songs can make things easier to remember. ( I want to sing the United States song as this was the only way I remembered.) This song gives us a brief history of Israel. It reminds us of their mistakes, warns us about repeating the same mistakes, and offers hope that can only come from trusting God. It sounds like something we can still use today. Imagine or go ahead and sing these first few verses.
“Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak,
and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
2 May my teaching drop as the rain,
my speech distill as the dew,
like gentle rain upon the tender grass,
and like showers upon the herb.
3 For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God! 4 “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.
We can experience so many emotions when we sing or listen to a song. Behind this song is a truth about the greatness of our Lord—the hope that we remember as we move closer to Easter. As Moses finished this song, he proclaimed these words.
46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. 47 For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”