GOD’S WORD FOR JULY 28
GOD’S WORD FOR JULY 28 ~ ~ Psalm 98:5 ~ ~ “Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, With the lyre and the sound of melody.”
Genesis 4:21
“And his brother’s name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.
The Bible tells us in Genesis 4:21 (above) and other places, that the earliest generations of human beings were making music. By the time the eighth generation of man came along, Jubal, a member of that generation was able to make his living providing musical instruments, which means that they were used many generations before that. Most likely beginning with Adam. On the evolutionary side of things, however, musical ability would seem to provide no survival advantage. Yet, the human brain devotes considerable resources to the processing of music.
Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron, was the music leader of the Children of Israel when The Lord freed them from Egypt, and maybe before that, in Egypt. Exodus chapter 15 tells of her song, summed up in vs 20 & 21: “Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took the tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with [dancing. And Miriam answered them,
“Sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted;
The horse and his rider He has hurled into the sea.”
Our love of music is wired into our brain. Each of our sense organs is important to our enjoyment of music. And each of these organs is linked to its own part of the brain which is responsible for how we experience the music. Parts of the brain are reserved for memory which stores the music. Other parts of the brain are dedicated to trying to understand the entire piece of music, referencing back to parts of the music stored in the memory. Even more interesting is that one need not hear music to activate the various parts of the brain devoted to music. Positron-emission tomography reveals that a person only needs to imagine music for these portions of the brain to become active.
The ability to make or appreciate music offers us no apparent survival value, and therefore, according to evolutionary theory, should not have developed. Yet, our brains, and indeed, all our senses, are designed to make and appreciate music. The obvious message here is that evolution had nothing to do with the formation of human beings. Rather, we were created by God Who loves music, and wants us to praise Him with music.
But, just as we know that music was very important in early civilizations, we also know that it was not only used to praise the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jubal, in the verse above, was the son of Lamech, who was the great, great, great grandson of Cain, who committed the first murder and was sent away to wander the earth by God.
So, it is obvious that these musical instruments were not used to worship the God of the Universe, as all that branch went into idolatry and eventually built the tower of Babel.
Nor was the music used for praise in Exodus chapter 32, when Moses came down from the Mountain where He got the ten commandments, and the people were dancing and reveling in worship of the golden calf that his own brother Aaron made for them out of the jewelry from the Egyptians when the Lord led them to give expensive gifts to the Israelites to get rid of them.
Just like today, and all through the history of time, music has been important, and imbedded in our genetics to be used for the God of all, or for demonic idols. The extremes are abundantly evident, but not to all. Seduction and deception are strong, especially for the young. The line needs to be drawn, fast and hard in these times.
As for the Church of Jesus Christ, we’ll use His gift of music to praise Him!!!!
PSALM 150
Praise the Lord!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty expanse.
Praise Him for His mighty deeds;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
Praise Him with trumpet sound;
Praise Him with harp and lyre.
Praise Him with tambourine and dancing;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and flute.
Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with resounding cymbals.
Everything that has breath shall praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 150
Praise the Lord!
Praise God in His sanctuary;
Praise Him in His mighty expanse.
2 Praise Him for His mighty deeds;
Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
3 Praise Him with trumpet sound;
Praise Him with harp and lyre.
4 Praise Him with tambourine and dancing;
Praise Him with stringed instruments and flute.
5 Praise Him with loud cymbals;
Praise Him with resounding cymbals.
6 Everything that has breath shall praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord!
Live in the Light of Our Lord 