Your life as Music

Worship can take many forms, but music is central to modern worship. The Bible outlines three categories of music for worship: psalms (scripture set to music), hymns (expressions of praise), and spiritual songs (songs that testify to what God has done). The elements of music, such as melody, harmony, and rhythm, are the basic building blocks that create musical pieces. 

Melody is a sequence of musical notes that is perceived as a single entity; it is the "tune" of a song. Think of it as a musical sentence. The core of the piece is called the motif. Consider the first four notes of Beethoven's Fifth. Our lives are made up of a series of musical notes. Sometimes it sounds like we've played an accidental, and our songs are full of dissonance; other times, we achieve the consonance that our hearts and ears long for, like in a sung amen. What is the motif that God has inscribed on your melody? What idea does He keep repeating in your life? God uses these motives to craft the themes and variations that shape our lives.
Harmony is the combination of notes played or sung simultaneously to create chords and chord progressions. Along with the melody, harmony adds texture, which forms the layers of the piece, but harmony requires at least two voices. Who has God brought into your life that provides the layers of your composition?
Rhythm is the pattern of durations of notes and silences in music, which organizes the beat and meter. The part of a piece of music that you tap your foot to. The part of music that your heartbeat synchronizes with. Rhythm combines the elements of meter and tempo. This can be affected by the speed of the passage. How fast is your life being played?
Timbre is the quality of a sound that sets apart different types of sound production, such as voices and musical instruments. I am thankful that the Word says make a joyful sound, not a joyful note, because my voice will often crack. It includes dynamics, which are the variations in loudness and pitch, as well as the highness or lowness of a note. How loud is your testimony? Is the pitch accurate, sharp, or flat? Form is the overall structure or plan of a musical piece, like verse-chorus form. Most modern worship music is verse-chorus. The verses are different, but the chorus repeats. What lessons must God repeat in your life?
  • To add interest, the composer will modulate his/her composition. They can vary the tempo and/or the key. When God modulates your life, is it the same thing in a different key or is He changing the tempo and asking you to speed up or slow down?
  • Why is worship so important? There are three things God wants us to do all the time: pray, praise, and consider the Bible. We can do the first two using the third. Pray scripture, sing your prayers, sing scripture. 
  • Worship from the heart is a total commitment of one's being. To worship with your heart, center your thoughts through prayer or scripture before, focus on God's character and worth, and allow your affection—your joy, gratitude, awe and love—to be expressed through both your inner feelings and external actions like singing, kneeling, or bowing.
  • Do you love God? Let your life sing His melody, let Him know you love Him loud and proud.


The Musician’s Prayer
by Jennie Malonek

You’ve given me the words Lord, and the music,

a song of life, that’s new and unrehearsed.

You have given me the joy that makes my heart sing,

even though at times the tears and pain came first.


You’ve taken all my yesterdays of discord, 

a clash of symbols, meaningless and vain.

Transposing all the noise into a love song,

That floods my very soul with its refrain.


You’ve taken all the gifts, I once thought mine, Lord, 

and changed the composition of their worth, 

Reclaiming what was yours from the beginning

returning them transfigured by rebirth.


You’ve given me the theme of my existence,

and I will sing you glories all my days.

But now, Lord and forever be my music,

and make my life a symphony of praise.


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