When was the last time you intentionally thanked God for your musical gifts? I hope your answer is better than mine—until I started thinking about this post, it had been way too long. We can too easily take our musical gifts, like much of our life, for granted. Rarely do we wake up in the morning and work our way through our body thanking God for our eyes or our ears or our elbows—until we’ve survived an injury or a surgery and truly appreciate the gift of sight, or hearing, or mobility. The same is true for our musical gifts.
The British hymn writer Fred Pratt Green was on to something when he wrote:
When in our music God is glorified,
and adoration leaves no room for pride,
it is as though the whole creation cried, “Alleluia!”
“When in our music…” There are most certainly times when God is glorified in our gifts of music, and then there are… other times. We can glorify (worship) God by first thanking Him for our giftedness. I don’t know any musicians who are absolutely content with what they are currently capable of. Good thing, because that restlessness is Spirit-given. It’s what spurs us on to hours of practice, trying new things, and pushing ahead. No matter your current skill level, regularly thank God for what you can do and even for that restlessness. These are gifts of God’s love. That thanks is a form of worship.
The most obvious way to thank God is in prayer—and prayer can take different forms. A spiritual director was hearing me confess my inability to sustain focused prayer. He patiently listened, and finally said, “But Paul, you pray while you play… I’ve watched you do it.” I discovered he wasn’t wrong! Where and when do you most often pray?
Another way we can thank God is by sincere humility. When someone compliments you, do you say, “Well, thanks, I thought I was pretty awesome myself” or do you say, “Thank you, and thanks be to God”? The way we receive the praise of others speaks volumes about the priority we give to praising God.
Whatever ways you find to remain conscious of the gifts God has given you, thankfulness changes your perspective. A thankful heart helps practice take on the joy of multiplying a gift. Thankfulness helps you hear compliments as part of worshiping God with others. Maybe most surprisingly, thankfulness to God for what He has given you helps the inevitable complaints not sting quite as much.
“And adoration leaves no room for pride…” The second phrase of this hymn names one of every musician’s greatest challenges. Maturing beyond pride, outgrowing that perfectly human impulse, takes practice and intentionality. Making that personal growth a priority is another way of worshiping God. When my heart is in the right place, I rarely sit down at an organ or piano without first thanking God for the talent he has given and then enjoying the music— relishing the ability to produce something beautiful as part of God’s creation—even if it’s 13 pages long and I’m still playing it at ¼ the final tempo! Adoration is worship.
But here’s the best part. For those of us who lead singing, whether choirs, worship teams, or congregations, we have an even more amazing opportunity to use our musical gifts to worship God. We get to live with the texts: reading them, praying them, sharing them with others, helping others see past the words to comprehend their meaning. For many causal worshipers, a song is a song is a song. They do or don’t like the beat, can or can’t sing the tune, know it or don’t. But show those same people that the song is really a prayer, or a lament, or an act of ecstatic praise, and the Holy Spirit will help the words come alive for them in a whole new way. Chances are our people won’t get there on their own. We set the example. Musicians and worship leaders are lead worshipers—and we must be undistracted because we are joining people in the most important action of anyone’s week: worship.
“It is as though the whole creation cries…” The next time you start to play the gathering music, line up for the processional hymn, or call people to worship, stop. Realize what you are doing. Not only are you launching the local liturgy (literally the work of the people), but you and your congregation are also going “on line” to join a cosmic reality—what one hymn writer once called the “music of the spheres.”
Scripture tells us the cosmos worships its Creator. Whenever you use your musical gifts to worship God—planning, practicing, leading a rehearsal, or live in the liturgy, you become part of that cosmic reality that is worship, and you worship God personally by embracing the unique role God has for you in enabling other people to draw closer to Him. Amazing!
And this is no small thing. When we use our gifts to worship God and bring others with us, worship demands we stay in the moment, stay focused, and aren’t too surprised when the Holy Spirit takes what we’re offering to a whole new level of beauty and corporate praise!
That’s when all we can say is “…Alleluia!,” literally “Thank you, Lord!”
So, to review:
When in your music God is glorified, adoration will leave no room for pride. Then you’ll use your musical gifts to become a significant part of how the whole creation cries “Alleluia!”
May it be so for each of us. Amen!
okay thank you again..