The use of music is the most effective way for people to freely and openly be able to express their love for God and their truest feelings and deepest appreciation for Him.
There is no more pure form of prayer and adoration for God than to lift up ones voice, to cry out in pain or sorrow, or love and admiration and adoration for God than to be able to sing from your heart your very spirit to your Father in Heaven.
As a person who loves and worships his God, and a person who is a music lover, and a choir singer for 47 years, I have sung many lovely uplifting songs of inspiration that have moved me, touching my heart.
I do not know how to read a note of music, But, I have been especially gifted with an exceptionally trained ear, almost perfect pitch, the passion and love for music, and the special ability of them all, to be able to "Sing by ear" or if you will, to be able to hear a song once or twice, and then, to be able to sing it back, and my range can vary from Alto, to Tenor, to Baritone, to Bass, thus allowing me to sing and assist all the different parts that make up a choir excepting the Sopranos, and since they usually carry the main melody, I can sing their part but in a lower voice.
Music such as The Battle Hymn Of The Republic, or, O Holy Night, has the ability to reach inside a person and stir up emotions, some never even knew existed.
In just one composition, a vocalist can go through such a varied range of emotions, from sadness to anger, love to passion, to grief, to sorrow, to jubilation, and the singer must be able to express all of these emotions in an instant, with the change of the music’s tempo,or its loudness, or the way it rises and descends, in order to capture and hold the attention of those listening.
The Lord uses my music ministry, and the Holy Spirit’s words of God, the knowledge and love for music, and the Holy Spirit’s ability to reach and convict one’s soul, to stir up feelings and emotions sometimes so suppressed yet so powerful.
For the person or people singing and performing the music, it goes even deeper, for as singers we must learn how to not just open our mouths, to utter a series of notes and apply words to the notes, we must be able to feel the passion of the piece, the highs and lows of both notes and lyrics and be able to "Breathe life" if you will into each note and each syllable.
As God instructed David in the temple, "Make a joyful noise unto The Lord." How can a piece of music seem joyful if all you do is open your mouth, utter a sound and put a word to it?
Every piece of music has the ability of in a sense "Taking on life" it requires though the trained knowledge and abilities of the instrumentalist or vocalist to breathe life into it.
One such piece of music that touches my heart and brings out such emotions within me, to the point of tears and having to actually choke back my emotions is a song written by Oscar Hammerstein for a Broadway Musical called "Carosel".
I don’t know if the composer realized the spirituality of this piece of music, maybe for him it was just a song in the show, but for those of us that can actually "Feel" the music with our hearts and souls, it becomes a living piece of "Worship, Hope, and Praise."
The very first time I heard this particular song, tears began flowing down my cheeks.
Over the years, I have tried to sing this song, but when I reach a certain part of the song, tears well up, my emotions grow to the point that I still cannot finish the song, without choking back all my emotions and pushing to the end. The last two or three bars of music I simply cry them.
Some of you who are from older generations, my generation, may know and still remember this song, the younger generation probably won’t.
The song is "You’ll Never Walk Alone" The lyrics go like this:
When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high, and don’t be afraid of the dark.At the end of the storm, is a Golden sky, and the sweet silver song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind, walk on through the rain, though your fears be tossed and blown.
Walk on. Walk on, with hope in your heart, and you’ll never walk alone. You’ll never walk alone.
The human voice is by far thee most intricate of musical instruments that any musician can learn to use. Its range may vary from the highest register in music to the lowest, and it is capable of achieving an innumerable range of pitches and sounds, far more so than any other instrument, piano, violin, oboe, tuba, and on and on.
One final note:
This is thee most important step that any singer can take, before singing for God.
As a singer, a performer for The Lord My God, before I utter one note in any song, I ask God’s Holy Spirit to take complete control over my breathing, my concentration, and my vocal chords, so that, each and every note and lyric I sing, will rise to the ears of God, so as to bring a great big grin of pleasure, to His countenance from my singing.
Once the Holy Spirit takes control, it is His sounds, His feelings, rising through me to worship My God.
As a lover of God and a lover who appreciates the technical difficulty and the intricacies of both the music and the application of lyrics to notes and the expression of feeling from the music, it is often so difficult to combine everything together for the glory of God but, this is how we as musicians, must apply such a gift, if we are to use it to offer praise and glory to the one that gave us such a gift.