Soul Reminders

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”—Colossians 3:16

I am thankful that God created music and the power of song. Music is a powerful and majestic force that creates and cements identity by chronicling the various experiences of life through lyric and music. Think about the songs you grew up with for a moment. Why do you remember them so well? What memories are evoked through listening to them? Is it because they represent a significant period in your life that somehow documents the time in which you lived and the experience you’ve gone through?

Why are there national anthems? Is it because they somehow manage to unite the people of a nation under a banner of ideals? Don’t they evoke the memories of many men and women who died to give birth to those ideals?

Have you ever wondered why there are so many different types of songs and music? Think about what can quickly divide generations and music will inevitably be one of the items listed. Each generation codifies within song and music the expression unique to their life situation in any given era. And there is nothing wrong with it. It is melodic memorable expression representative of the human experience.

For the Christian, music is extremely powerful because music and song teach and remind us the timeless truths of God’s workings with humanity. Consider for a moment Moses’ song, written immediately after the nation of Israel had crossed the Red Sea in Exodus 15. He wrote about God’s working on behalf of man, and His deliverance of the nation out of Egypt. He wrote about God’s power (vv. 1-10), strength (v. 13), holiness (v. 11), love (v. 13), greatness (v. 7), and salvation (vv. 2, 13, 16). His song was so wonderful that his sister, Miriam, stood up and took a tambourine in her hand, leading all the women around with tambourines and dancing, as they sang, “Sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea"—Exodus 15:21. Moses’ song reminded the nation who God was and what He had done on their behalf, and by Miriam leading the women around in praise, the entire nation was able to learn the song and sing it to one another as well as teach it to subsequent generations.

God delights in the praise of His people and communicates His presence to His people through their praise to Him. And by singing songs of praise, as Paul desired that we do in our passage for today, we remind our souls of His workings and wonders done on our behalf. Whenever we get down, we each need a soul reminder that God cares for us and has not left us by ourselves. We need to be reminded that He is found in the midst of our praise and that there is no situation or circumstance that He cannot handle or give us the grace to bear up underneath.

Do you need a soul reminder today? Find a song of praise that is near and dear to your heart and sing it to the Lord. Let the lyrics minister to your heart by taking you beyond your circumstance to the throne room of God where you can see Him in all of His glory.

Open a songbook, hymnal, or go to YouTube to find a song of praise. And then sing it to the Lord your God, knowing that He will communicate His presence to you through it. And let the lyrics lift your soul above your circumstance as an eagle soaring over the mountains. Let your praise ascend to the throne of the Most High and then wait for His rain of grace to cascade over your heart like a summer rain on a hot day, bringing nourishment and life to your soul. Let God be God and let your heart ever be reminded that He is God and the greatest lover of your soul. Amen.