We have been exposed to so many great musicians and singers in our lifetime and heard the best of the best, that when someone strikes us as subpar, we will poke fun at them. We do not mean to be hateful or hurt anyone, we just feel like our opinion and expertise on the subject needs to be heard. This of course can apply to any given subject and calling in life. However, as we are making fun of them, we should keep in mind, the ones that we are making jabs about are the ones making millions of dollars and not us. Not only that, but some of those dollars have probably come from us directly or indirectly. If we have not bought any of their albums, we have at least heard them on the radio, or we would not even be able to make a joke at their expense. Artists who rely on lip syncing will pay the price of ridicule if they are ever asked to sing something live. My daughters and I saw a clip of Mariah Carey singing her famous ‘Santa Baby’ live, and let us just say, it was very comical and sad in a weird kind of way.
The country music genre for instance gets ridiculed for the lyrics the songwriters produce. It is said that you cannot have a good old fashioned, down home, country song without mentioning a drunk, a truck, a dog, or someone leaving, cheating, or dying. It needs to leave you in tears, crying in your soup. An artist that has been made fun of over the years because of her lyrics, though not country, is Taylor Swift. Every boyfriend she has ever had in her thirty four years has probably made it into a song, starting with the stages of the relationship, and ending with the tragic breakup. But her catchy pop tunes (though I could not name one of her songs for you), and girlish way of ‘keeping it real’ has paid off for her. She is having the last laugh, because she currently, in 2024, is said to have a net worth of 1.10 billion dollars, having sold over 310 million records. That is impressive, even if you do not like her or her songs. She has literally become a household name, known by all.
Even the songwriters, singers, and musicians we admire and personally enjoy could be considered comical to others. But we can probably agree that those who become famous can often be identified even with our eyes closed because of their unique sound. We hear their voices and know immediately who they are. Often the style of their writing, on paper without even hearing their voice, can be spotted a mile away as well. Some write poetically with each line rhyming, others write ballads and are story tellers like Bob Dylan, and others make millions just by repeating a couple of words to a snappy tune. Though I do not consider myself to be a country music buff, one of my favorite singers because of her unique voice, is Dolly Parton. In addition to that, she has a variety of songs with many of them being uplifting, though she holds true to the country music’s reputation as well. There are other times when you hear a tune and can literally see the artist’s face in your mind’s eye, yet you could not mention the name if your life depended on it. This is what music does, whether good or bad, it sticks with us.
Looking back on our lives we can all probably remember a time when music played a part in our upbringing and childhood. There may have been nights on the porch with extended family members holding guitars, banjos, and spoons as the rhythm section, with everyone singing at the top of their lungs under the night sky, whether they could carry a tune in a bucket or not. Others may recall times around a piano with cousins or friends with those who could sing the best, taking the lead and solos, and the rest joining in on the chorus. Others just may have had a mother or grandmother who sang to them at bedtime, or while cooking a delicious meal for the family in the kitchen over a hot stove. These types of scenarios all become precious memories, and date back farther than we know.
Music dates to the beginning of creation and the heavenly host. Ezekiel 28:13 describes Lucifer, “Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.”. However, when Lucifer became exalted within himself and was expelled from heaven with a third of the angels, his choir members, the music in heaven ceased. Isaiah 14:10-15 states, “All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.” This was not the end of God’s love for music, He made another plan. He created humankind in his own image to worship and praise Him. We do not see any reference to angels singing in the Bible, however, we see over 354 references regarding music and singing by men and women in scripture, without even scratching the surface of praise and worship as separate subjects. God loves it when we use our voices in praise to Him.
I have loved music and singing from an early age. In our family we had those times around the piano, my dad also played the guitar, and we sang in church as a part of the ministry team since I was knee high to a grasshopper. If we were privileged enough to take a vacation or any type of road trip, it was filled with singing in the car, replete with four part harmony. What a great heritage! We have continued this legacy with our four daughters. When I was a teenager and beginning my college career as they call it now-a-days, I started out pursuing a degree in Music. However, within the music department, I was in the room with so many greats of our church organization, past, present, and future, that I was not even on the radar of the instructors. I learned from the classes about the structuring of songs and of course music theory for playing a musical instrument, and I participated in the choir, because it was mandatory, but I thoroughly enjoyed it all. Though I switched my major to Missions the following year, I have made use of all the invaluable knowledge I gained from the music department in our ministry over the last four decades.
One thing they had us do in one of our music classes was to write songs in the style of a songwriter, singer, and musician that we admired, or sometimes it would be a person of their choice. This exercise taught us how to recognize unique styles of writing and the genres they would fall under, and how we could indeed write a song just by learning how already accomplished artists did it. I remember Nancy Grandquist, Dallas Holmes, Andre´ Crouch, and even our Dean of Music, Lanny Wolfe, were a few that were used. When doing this, their songs would be analyzed, picked apart, and then emulated, using our own words and variations of music. Throughout that class, the thread that could be seen throughout this process was that songs are used to memorialize the songwriter’s history whether good or bad, victories, successes, and failures. What they liked or disliked, what they had learned and gleaned from a particular place or occasion in their lives. They are sharing what is in their hearts with the world. That was essentially the purpose of the class. The lesson that was trying to be conveyed is that we can all write a song because we all have a story to tell.
Singing and songwriting is a way to encapsulate and store memories. We all know that when we hear a song or piece of music it can often transport us back to the place or time where we first heard it or it first had an impact on us, just as sights, sounds and smells can do. However, unlike just the written word, which may never be read, a song will live on in people’s memories and hearts. We could be transported back to our childhood where an old sister in the Lord who could not carry a tune, sang at the top of her lungs, but you were moved because of her pure spirit. Or we could journey back to the one time in our lives we were privileged to go to a play or an opera that was so elegant and beautiful that it holds a special place in our memory forever.
Judges 5 gives us this account, then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day, saying,
Praise ye the Lord for the avenging of Israel when the people willingly offered themselves. Hear, O ye kings; give ear, O ye princes; I, even I, will sing unto the Lord; I will sing praise to the Lord God of Israel. Lord, when you went out of Seir, when thou marched out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water. The mountains melted from before the Lord, even that Sinai from before the Lord God of Israel.
In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travelers walked through byways. The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel. They chose new gods; then was war in the gates: was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel? My heart is toward the governors of Israel, that offered themselves willingly among the people. Bless ye the Lord.
They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord, even the righteous acts toward the inhabitants of his villages in Israel: then shall the people of the Lord go down to the gates. Awake, awake, Deborah: awake, awake, utter a song: arise, Barak, and lead thy captivity captive, thou son of Abinoam.
Then he made him that remained have dominion over the nobles among the people: the Lord made me have dominion over the mighty. Out of Ephraim was there a root of them against Amalek; after thee, Benjamin, among thy people; out of Machir came down governors, and out of Zebulun they that handle the pen of the writer. And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; even Issachar, and Barak: he was sent on foot into the valley.
For the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart. Why abodest thou among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleatings of the flocks? For the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued the sea shore, and abode in his breaches. Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field. The kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money. They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera. The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength.
Then were the horse hoofs broken by the means of the prancing, the prancing of their mighty ones. Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty. Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent. He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish. She put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen’s hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples. At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down: at her feet he bowed, he fell where he bowed, there he fell down dead.
The mother of Sisera looked out at a window, and cried through the lattice, Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why tarry the wheels of his chariots? Her wise ladies answered her, yea, she replied to herself, have they not sped? have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two; to Sisera a prey of divers colors, a prey of divers colors of needlework, of divers colors of needlework on both sides, meet for the necks of them that take the spoil? So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord: but let them that love him be as the sun when he goes forth in his might. And the land rested forty years.
This is a song written by Deborah the only female judge in scripture and a prophetess who was instrumental in giving instructions and leading with Barak, the military commander, ten thousand men into war against Sisera, who had oppressed the children of Israel for twenty years. Deborah had prophesied that Barak would not receive credit for the victory against their enemies, because he was afraid, but that God would sell the enemy into the hands of a woman. Barak’s lack of faith along with his fear is memorialize in this song as well as the faith, courage, and honor of Deborah and Jael, who were instrumental in the enemy’s death in obedience to God. The good, the bad and the ugly are remembered.
We see this in scripture repeatedly where they were admonished to sing about what had happened, and the victories won. Psalm 145:7 states, “They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness and shall sing of thy righteousness.” We know that the children of Israel were in captivity in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years. Exodus chapter 14 tells us the story of their exit but once they are on the other side of the Red Sea, they begin to sing. Exodus 15:1-21 gives us the lyrics to their song,
I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him a habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name.
Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them: they sank into the bottom like a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.
And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sent forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as a heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them: they sank as lead in the mighty waters.
Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Thou stretched out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. The people shall hear and be afraid: sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. Then the dukes of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away.
Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.
The Lord shall reign for ever and ever. For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.
Songwriters in the scriptures were not just bringing praise to God through their words, but also memorializing the story and wonderful works of God for the generations to come. These songs allowed them to hear and believe in the One true God of Israel and bring awareness and fear to their enemies as well. Singing and worship confounds and defeats the enemy. In 2 Chronicles 20:15-21 we see this, “And he said, hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s…Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for his mercy endures forever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.”
We can have a song of praise in our hearts and mouths without it being on a piece of paper or a lined music sheet depicting little black and white boys jumping over a fence on it. We can tell of his goodness in song so that those who hear it will see His faithfulness to us and remember it and believe. It is shown statistically that children learn through music. This is seen in the ‘ABC’ song, ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ song, and the song that helps them memorize the presidents of the United States or the States themselves. My children are all grown adults and have been out of school for years but can still sing these songs. The tunes were catchy and stuck with them all these years. In 1868, over one hundred and fifty-six years ago Johannes Brahms wrote a bedtime song called “Brahm’s Lullaby – Cradle Song” in German, for a young mother named Bertha Faber and it is still being sung to children all over the world to this day. The songs in scriptures we are still rehearsing thousands of years later.
We all have a story that should be shared with the world. Our tests become lessons that help us grow, and our victories over trials become our testimonies of the goodness and faithfulness of God. Let your voice be heard for generations to come in your family. What has God done for you? Memorialize and chronicle your story in a song of joy and hope, even if you cannot carry a tune in a bucket. Sing at the top of your lungs of how awesome your God is. You don’t have to have a formal music education or a particular style, Jesus will know your voice because it is unique and distinct. You are one of His favorite singers. If you think that you cannot author your story, contemplate, and share Brandon Lake’s song “Gratitude.” It has a portion that says,
Come on my soul, don’t you get shy on me, lift up your song because you’ve got a lion inside of you. Get up and praise the Lord. So, I throw up my hands and I praise you again and again, because all I have is a Hallelujah. I know it’s not much but I’ve nothing else fit for a king, except for a heart singing, Hallelujah.
Try belting this out and make it your own, even if it is just in the shower or alone in your car. God deserves our praise! Give it a try today!