To Encourage You

Ephesians 5:18-19 “Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.”

I have a friend who is a Christian musician. He plays the organ every week in either one or two churches while his wife accompanies him on the piano.  He has both an organ and a piano in his home, and he and his wife play together all the time.  As such, his mind and heart are filled with many hymns.  Whenever we are fishing together, invariably my friend takes the opportunity to speak the words of his beloved hymns.  This past week as we fished together he reminded me of the awesome words “The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.” It’s from the hymn “To God be the Glory.” Another song we discussed was “The Love of God,” and my friend quoted the third verse, which is both his favorite and mine:

“Could we with ink the ocean fill,
  And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
  And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
  Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
  Though stretched from sky to sky.”

It is as we discuss such things that our minds are lifted high to thoughts of God and his majesty.  I’m reminded of the passage above from Ephesians 5 which tells believers that we are to speak to one another in “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” It’s a wonderful way to speak, for when we do such things, we are fulfilling another command to Christians, i.e., to “encourage one another and build one another up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11). 

Christian music is designed to lift our minds and our spirits in ways that perhaps nothing else can.  Gifted men and women took their thoughts about the majesty of our Savior and formed them into songs.  Songs are a means of facilitating memorization so that we can not only enjoy the music in a church service but also carry them with us deep down in our hearts.  It’s a wonderful way to put yet another command to action, i.e., Philippians 4:8 which tells us that “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”  Can you think of something better to think about than the psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs of the church? 

I am so thankful for my friend who has encouraged me time after time with the words of the hymns.  May God help me to be such a friend to others, encouraging them with the wonderful thoughts that fill the psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs that God has given us to lift our minds and hearts above the mundane to the glory of our magnificent Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.