Perhaps it takes a purer faith to praise God for unrealised blessings than for those we enjoy now.
– A.W.Tozer
Tag: praise
For the Beauty
For the beauty of the earth,
For the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise.
– Folliot S. Pierpont
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The Conductor
Sing a new song to the Eternal;
sing in one voice to the Eternal, all the earth.
Sing to the Eternal of all the good things He’s done.
Psalm 96 (The Voice)
I think the ultimate instrument is the voice.
I love a lot of contemporary solo music as well as the classics. It touches my soul so often and songs play back in my head in the night. Music carries messages that comfort and challenge and lift my soul. Something marvelous happens in corporate worship when voices singing together are not drowned out by amplified instruments and a singer with a microphone.
People talk about singing a new song and a new sound arising. I wonder if the new sound is an old sound we have forgotten? The Bible speaks of God singing over us and of us responding to Him with song when we realize that He really does love us.
There is something in choral music that speaks of unity in the Spirit. How I long to hear the entire family of God joining their voices in praise to the Creator.
Sometimes, in the night, I do.
And the angels join in.
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Great
It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to the Most High.
It is good to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning,
your faithfulness in the evening,
accompanied by a ten-stringed instrument, a harp,
and the melody of a lyre.
You thrill me, Lord, with all you have done for me!
I sing for joy because of what you have done.
O Lord, what great works you do!
And how deep are your thoughts.
Only a simpleton would not know,
and only a fool would not understand this:
Though the wicked sprout like weeds
and evildoers flourish,
they will be destroyed forever.
But you, O Lord, will be exalted forever.
(Psalm 92: 1-8 NLT)
I suppose the guitar is the modern equivalent of the harp and lyre. Recently I found the music of the marvelous guitarist, Rodrigo Rodriguez (was he born to this?) Here he plays “How Great is Our God.” Enjoy.
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I Adore You
As I have been thinking about beauty and how beauty communicates truth this song by Bob Book has been going through my head. He granted me permission to combine it with a video of some of my photos and art. (Thank you, Mr. Book!)
Art, dance and music don’t have to be beautiful to communicate. Some of the most profound art is less than pleasant. Paintings and photos of suffering have often led to change. Ugly tells the story of things as they often are – out of order with God’s design, but there is something in us that craves beauty over destruction, decay and the perversion of justice. Christ came to restore the greater truth. He came to restore beauty. In all beauty there is some form of order, or “wholeness, harmony and radiance” as Barbara Nicolosi-Harrington says, which brings a sense of rest, joy, and satisfaction.
When I am wandering out in the countryside the beauty of nature communicates rest, joy and radiance to me. I see my Creator, The Eternal, who is the epitome of wholeness, harmony and radiance. It reflects His beauty and I can’t help but respond, “I adore you! How beautiful you are!”
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Under Construction
“God always keeps the revelation of Himself in Christ bound up with practical situations. You and I can never get revelation other than in connection with some necessity. We cannot get it simply as a matter of information. That is information, that is not revelation. We cannot get it by studying. When the Lord gave the manna in the wilderness (type of Christ as the bread from heaven) He stipulated very strongly that not one fragment more than the day’s need was to be gathered, and that if they went beyond the measure of immediate need, disease and death would break out and overtake them. The principle, the law, of the manna, is that God keeps revelation of Himself in Christ bound up with practical situations of necessity, and we are not going to have revelation as mere teaching, doctrine, interpretation, theory, or anything as a thing, which means that God is going to put you and me into situations where only the revelation of Christ can help us and save us.”
– T. Austin Sparks
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Enjoy
Just these two words He spoke
changed my life,
“Enjoy Me.”
What a burden I thought I was to carry –
a crucifix, as did He.
Love once said to me, “I know a song,
would you like to hear it?”
And laughter came from every brick in the street
and from every pore
in the sky.
After a night of prayer, He
changed my life when
He sang,
“Enjoy Me.”
Saint Teresa of Avila (Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada ) (1515 to 1582)
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Radiant
I will extol the Lord at all times;
his praise will always be on my lips.
I will glory in the Lord;
let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
Glorify the Lord with me;
let us exalt his name together.
I sought the Lord, and he answered me;
he delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant;
their faces are never covered with shame.
This poor man called, and the Lord heard him;
he saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him,
and he delivers them.
(Psalm 34:1-7 NIV)
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Gloria tua
Music that soothes both my spirit and my ears. Heaven and earth shall praise Your name. Gloria tua.
And bless you for writing this, Ola Gjeilo!
Charis: Subject to Change 